Attendance Improvement Service (AIS)

The Leicestershire Attendance Improvement Service in partnership with stakeholders and families aims to ensure that children and young people access educational opportunities to enhance their life chances. The Leicestershire AIS supports the education and welfare of children and young people. The service works to promote good attendance and achievement through a multi-agency approach.

There are several key areas of work of the Service;

The role and function of the Attendance Improvement Service can be divided into three main areas:

Working with schools, parents and carers and young people in order to foster positive relationships and assist children to overcome school related difficulties.

Instigating legal action, where appropriate, to address non-school attendance. Please see below for further information on the legal process. More information on the Legal duty placed on Local Authorities

Supporting schools in their management of attendance:

Supporting schools in all aspects of attendance management, data and policies

This is a non-statutory service providing support to school aged parents and parents to be.  To enable them to remain in school until such time as maternity/paternity commences.

Leicestershire County Council believes that all the people of Leicestershire should have life long access to high quality education and training.  We aim to ensure that all learners in Leicestershire have access to appropriate activities through early year’s settings, schools, out of school activities, childcare and youth work within the County.

Please contact the service for more information on School Age Family Support.

Schools are required to notify the Local Authority (Attendance Improvement Service) if a pupil attends irregularly or is absent continuously, without authorisation, for ten or more school days.  

The AIS service is primarily for schools to access, however the service does speak to parents if they are concerned about their childs attendance at school.

The Attendance Improvement Service can also be contacted for the following;

The majority of our referrals come from staff within schools, however if you are not school staff and you wish to make a referral or are concerned about a child’s educational provision please contact the service.

If you are a parent and you are worried about your child’s attendance at school, you will need to speak to the school as soon as possible.

Due to changing needs of the service, AIO’s may change their schools from time to time.  For up to date information, please contact the service and a staff member will be happy to provide a name and contact number.

All parents have a legal responsibility to send their child/children to school. If you remove your child from school, you must ensure that you make other arrangements for your child to attend their education.

If you remove your child from school, you must speak to your child's school immediately to discuss arrangements.

The consequences of your child not attending education may result in legal proceeding against you. Please see our Principles and criteria for legal action

Contact the school and ask for their complaints procedure. Firstly write to the Headteacher with your complaint and secondly to the Chair of Governors of that school. Please note that it is the Headteacher discretion to allow holidays in term time, they have the authority to refuse requests to take leave.

If after you have followed the school complaint procedure, you will need to write a letter to the AIS for us to address.

All schools have log-in access for EMBC; please speak to your school administration staff.

Please contact the service and we will send you a copy of our service level agreement and charges.

CME (Children Missing Education) referrals

Dept for Education (DfE) Behaviour and Attendance

Complaints About Schools & Education Providers - Advice For Parents

Leicester City Council Education Welfare Service

Attendance Improvement Service
Attendance Strategy Manager: Ms Shani Storrie
Attendance Operational Managers: Mr Martin French & Mrs Anita Patel-Lingam

Please use the E-Enquiry Form to send us any queries or feedback you may have for the service.