This essential session is aimed at policymakers, educational analysts, Local Authority teams, and school and trust leaders who are committed to addressing post-pandemic attendance challenges caused by changed parental attitudes, illness, and systemic weaknesses.  

The session will first contextualise the challenge, noting how absence rates, while slowly falling from pandemic peaks, remain concerningly high, particularly for vulnerable pupils. Attendees will then learn how the DfE Daily Attendance Data Project provides the richest, timeliest, and most granular data ever collected live from school systems.  

Key learning objectives include understanding the necessity of moving to a trusted, minimum-standard daily reporting service and recognising the profound capabilities of this data in enabling immediate action. The benefit of attending is gaining critical insight into how this reliable data suite is used for frequent local and national benchmarking, allowing for the rapid identification of key trends, sharing best practices, and driving targeted policy interventions to ensure improved attendance and better outcomes for all pupils.