7. Procedure for Issuing Penalty Notices
Notice to Improve
7.1. A Notice to Improve is a final opportunity for a parent to engage in support and improve attendance before a penalty notice is issued. If the national threshold has been met and support is appropriate but offers of support have not been engaged with by the parent or have not worked, a notice to improve should usually be sent to give parents a final chance to engage in support. An authorised officer can choose not to use one in any case, including cases where support is appropriate, but they do not expect a notice to improve would have any impact on a parent’s behaviour (e.g. because the parent has already received one for a similar offence).
7.2. Manchester City Council will issue notice to improve letters following a request from school. The school will be notified of the decision and a copy of the letter will be sent to the referrer for monitoring.
7.3. The monitoring period for the Notice to Improve will be 6 weeks. The Local Authority may wish to use a flexible improvement period so that it can be varied for individual cases.
7.4. It is the expectation that there will be no periods of unauthorised absence within the improvement period. However, schools should consider what is reasonable and each case will be considered on an individual basis.
7.5. Schools are responsible for monitoring day to day attendance during the improvement notice period and if there is no improvement school will request that the family move onto the next stage of the statutory action escalation pathway.
How Authorised Officers will work together
7.6. Authorised officers in the school and Local Authority should work together to ensure that penalty notices and use of the statutory action escalation process are used when likely to be effective and change behaviour.
7.7. Where the school requests action using the statutory action escalation pathway, school will:
- Complete a Manchester City Council Statutory Action Request Spreadsheet per pupil. All columns must be completed for an assessment to be made. The request will be returned should the information be incomplete and returned within 10 school days.
- Include a copy of the attendance register (12 months) for the period of complaint.
- Include any correspondence with the family linked to improving attendance.
- Include a chronology of events relating to the period of complaint.
- Send all relevant documents to statutoryaction@manchester.gov.uk for consideration.
- The request must be sent within 10 school days of the last absence mark.
7.8. Where the Local Authority receives requests for action using the statutory action escalation pathway, the Local Authority will:
- Endeavour to consider all requests within 10 school days.
- Issue letters such as a Notice to Improve or a penalty notice to each parent/carer by first class post.
- Inform the school about the action taken in line with the Manchester statutory action escalation pathway.
- Check for previous action when pupils are known to have moved between local authority areas in the last three years. Manchester City Council can be contacted on crossborder@manchester.gov.uk to find out if penalty notices have been issued previously.
7.9. Penalty Notices will be issued to the parents of the children registered at Manchester Schools, irrespective of their actual home address. This also means that follow-up prosecutions where parents fail to pay the Notice or to improve their children’s attendance will extend to families residing outside the district. Penalty Notices will not be issued by Manchester City Council to parents whose children are not on roll in a Manchester school.
In the case of a non-Court Disposal
7.10. A penalty notice may be used in circumstances where it may be more appropriate to make use of a non-court disposal than to seek legal proceedings via the Magistrates’ Court in the following circumstances:
- Evidence of support has been supplied by the pupil’s school and/or the Local Authority.
- The Local Authority is satisfied that an offence has been committed under Section 444(1) Education Act 1996.
- There are no 'aggravating' factors which would suggest that a Fixed Penalty Notice is not appropriate, including the parent having previous school attendance related convictions.
- There is evidence that the child’s attendance has improved, but that unauthorised absence is still occurring “infrequently” (Less than 5 sessions in the last 5 weeks).
7.11 In such instances, the expectation is that a request for legal action, together with supporting evidence, would have been submitted to the Local Authority to establish that an offence has been committed.