School attendance officer

A school attendance officer monitors pupils’ attendance, chases unexplained absence, and works with families and the local authority when a child is missing too much school. The job is mostly data and phone work, with home visits and meetings when absence persists, and for a small number of families it ends in a legal process. It is a non-teaching support staff post, usually on the NJC pay spine, and you do not need a degree.

Daily monitoring

Every morning starts with the register. The attendance officer checks who is absent without a reason, makes first-day calls and texts to parents, and records the right absence code. If nobody can be reached and there is any concern for a child’s safety, the officer follows the school’s procedures, which may include a welfare visit or a referral to the designated safeguarding lead. A child missing from education can be a safeguarding risk, and the officer is often the first to notice.

The rest of the day goes on analysing patterns: pupils whose attendance is dropping, frequent Mondays and Fridays off, absence linked to particular lessons, and groups with lower attendance such as pupils with special educational needs or those eligible for free school meals. Reports go to senior leaders and governors.

Persistent absence and support

DfE guidance on working together to improve school attendance sets out a support-first approach. Schools are expected to identify pupils whose attendance is slipping, find out why, and put support in place before using formal measures. Pupils whose absence crosses the government’s threshold are classed as persistently absent, and those with far higher absence as severely absent. The current definitions are in the DfE guidance.

The attendance officer often leads attendance meetings with families, agrees action plans, and pulls in help from the pastoral team, the SENCO, school nurses, early help or mental health services. Many absences have causes the family cannot fix alone: anxiety, unmet special needs, bullying, caring responsibilities or poverty.

Home visits

When a family cannot be contacted or a pupil has been absent for some time, the officer may visit the home, usually with a colleague. The aim is to check the child is safe and re-establish contact. Visits follow the school’s lone working and safeguarding procedures, and you record what you see and hear. Some officers find this the most worthwhile part of the job and others find it the most stressful. Our guide to lone working covers what your employer should put in place.

The legal process

Parents have a legal duty to make sure their child of compulsory school age receives a suitable education. When support has not worked, formal steps can follow: parenting contracts, education supervision orders, penalty notices and, at the end, prosecution of the parent in the magistrates’ court. The local authority runs most of these steps, and penalty notices follow national rules. The current amounts and conditions are on the gov.uk school attendance page, so check there before telling parents what could happen.

The school’s attendance officer prepares the evidence: registers, letters, notes of meetings and records of support offered. Accuracy matters because the paperwork may be used in court, and some attendance officers attend court as witnesses.

Pay and grades

School attendance officers in maintained schools in England and Wales are usually paid on the NJC pay spine through the council’s grades, and many academies use the same spine. The 2026/27 award added 3.3% from 1 April 2026. As a guide, an attendance administrator post might sit somewhere around SCP 6 to SCP 12 (£26,847 to £29,542 full-time), and an attendance lead or officer with home visits and legal casework higher, around SCP 17 to SCP 22 (£32,046 to £34,811). Each employer grades its own posts, and the spine values are calculated from the 2025 figures plus 3.3%. See the full NJC pay spine.

School-based posts are often term-time only, sometimes with extra weeks, while local authority posts are usually all-year. A term-time salary is a percentage of the full-time figure, worked out under the NJC advisory method; see term-time-only pay. The take-home pay calculator gives the net figure after tax, National Insurance and the Local Government Pension Scheme.

Getting the job

No qualification is required. Schools look for experience in school administration, pastoral work, youth work or social care, confidence with spreadsheets and the school’s information system, and the ability to have firm but supportive conversations with parents. A driving licence is often essential because of home visits. You need an enhanced DBS check with a children’s barred list check, which costs £41.00 in England and Wales from 5 October 2026.

Many attendance officers start as a school office administrator handling first-day calls, or as a learning mentor, and move on to pastoral manager or local authority attendance roles. Vacancies are under school support jobs.