School Attendance: Fixed Penalty Notice Code of conduct

5.When may a penalty notice for absence be appropriate?

  1. When a school becomes aware that the national threshold has been met, they must consider whether a penalty notice can and should be issued or not. The national threshold has been met when a pupil has been recorded as absent for 10 sessions (usually equivalent to 5 school days) within 10 school weeks1 , with one of, or a combination of the following codes:
    1. code G (the pupil is absent without leave for the purpose of a holiday),
    2. code N (the circumstances of the pupil’s absence have not yet been established),
    3. code O (none of the other rows of Table 3 in regulation 10(3) of the School Attendance (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2024 applies), and
    4. (d) code U (the pupil attended after the taking of the register ended but before the end of the session, where no other code applies).
  2. If repeated penalty notices are being issued and they are not working to change behaviour they are unlikely to be most appropriate tool. The national framework for penalty notices sets out that a maximum of 2 penalty notices per child, per parent can be issued within a rolling 3-year period. If the national threshold is met for a third time (or subsequent times) within 3 years, another tool should be used.
  3. Where the threshold is met for a third or subsequent time, within 3 years, then a decision will be made in the Local Authority School Attendance Panel as to what alternative action will be taken. This may include prosecution, an Education Supervision Order, an Attendance Contract, and/or support via an Early Help Assessment
  4. For the purpose of the escalation process, previous penalty notices include those not paid (including where prosecution was taken forward if the parent pleaded or was found guilty) but not those which were withdrawn.