Over the next two years, £8.8m will be provided to increase school engagement and attendance including £1.5m to provide greater capacity for Family Engagement Officers (FEOs) to support learners with attendance.
Increasing standards in schools remain a government priority and improving attendance is a key part of this. While school attendance has increased this year by 0.5% The funding announced today will help further boost attendance rates by supporting the recruitment of additional FEOs across Wales who are key to increasing engagement with learners and their families and making school a more positive environment.
FEOs are employed schools to help foster a trusting and positive relationship between their schools and families by bridging the gap between school and home life. Through offering support and guidance, they ensure that parents and carers feel listened to and are engaged with the school. They work to improve attendance by understanding the broader factors that may be preventing the child from wanting to attend school and working with families to tackle these.
They play an important role within community focused schools, helping to make families feel welcomed, listened to, and valued which has shown a positive impact on attendance. The Welsh Government has already invested £6.5m this year to support around 200 FEO posts* and this will be built upon in the next financial year.
Cabinet Secretary for Education, Lynne Neagle said:
Improving attendance is one of my top priorities. I am happy to see that attendance has improved, but more work needs to be done to tackle the underlying issues causing absenteeism. This is why I am so proud to announce additional funding to recruit and train more FEOs this financial year. I will build on this valuable support further with additional funding in the next financial year to ensure we can increase and retain these roles. Family Engagement Officers are vital in facilitating a relationship between families and schools and in doing so help tackle the root causes of absenteeism. Their work has already had high levels of success, and I look forwarding to seeing the continued improvement for our learners.