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Wider Professionals • Police

Police Attendance Hub

A simple guide to how policing can support good school attendance through safeguarding, early identification, information sharing and effective multi-agency working.

How police can help Attendance warning signs
Practical role

How police can support better attendance

Police do not replace the school or local authority attendance role. Their contribution is strongest when attendance information helps identify risk, remove barriers or coordinate safeguarding support.

1

Recognise attendance as a safeguarding signal

Notice patterns such as sudden absence, repeated missing episodes or changes linked to incidents in the home or community.

2

Share relevant information

Where lawful and necessary, share information that helps schools and partners understand risk and provide the right support around the child.

3

Respond to missing children

Connect missing-from-home or care episodes with education information so patterns, locations and risks are understood across agencies.

4

Identify exploitation and extra-familial harm

Consider whether absence may be connected to county lines, criminal or sexual exploitation, serious violence, coercion or unsafe locations.

5

Use Operation Encompass

Domestic abuse incidents can affect a child’s readiness and ability to attend. Timely notification enables schools to provide immediate, informed support.

6

Contribute to the team around the child

Where appropriate, bring police intelligence and safeguarding knowledge into multi-agency plans, reviews and problem-solving around persistent or severe absence.

Look beneath the absence

When attendance may be telling us something

These are prompts for professional curiosity, not automatic conclusions.

Missing or unexplained absence

Repeated missing episodes, unknown whereabouts, unexplained days away or a child repeatedly leaving home, care or school.

Extra-familial harm

Concerns about gangs, county lines, exploitation, unsafe peers, locations, transport routes, weapons or serious youth violence.

Domestic abuse or family crisis

Police-attended incidents, instability, fear, disrupted sleep or caring responsibilities may affect attendance and engagement.

A rapid change in pattern

A previously regular attender becomes persistently absent, late, withdrawn or disengaged without an obvious school-based explanation.

Step 1NoticeIdentify the attendance pattern or safeguarding information that may matter.
Step 2ConnectAsk whether school, police, social care or other agencies each hold part of the picture.
Step 3ShareShare relevant information appropriately to support safeguarding and welfare.
Step 4Act togetherAgree a clear action, owner and review point rather than allowing the case to drift.

Keep the response proportionate

Most school absence is not a policing matter. The aim is to use police involvement where it adds safeguarding, intelligence, protection or community-safety value — not to criminalise children or families because attendance is difficult.

Quick partnership check

Five questions for a police–education conversation

What do we know?

What happens next?

This is a professional prompt only. Follow local safeguarding procedures, information-sharing arrangements and force/local authority protocols.