What actually works to improve attendance?

Cornerstone evidence

What did the EEF review find?

The Education Endowment Foundation’s Attendance Interventions Rapid Evidence Assessment, published in March 2022, reviewed international evaluations of interventions designed to improve school attendance.

Studies reviewed

A broad evidence map rather than a single programme trial.

Broad intervention areas

Including parental engagement, mentoring, responsive approaches and incentives.

Most

Evidence was outside England

The review cautions against over-confident conclusions for English schools.

The most useful message: there is some evidence of promise for parental communication and engagement and for responsive interventions that address pupils’ specific barriers. The review also says the evidence on effectiveness is weak overall, so schools should test, monitor and adapt rather than assume a strategy will work everywhere.

Promising

Parental communication & engagement

Personalised, positive communication can help, particularly when it gives families useful information and supports action rather than simply repeating that attendance matters.

Promising

Responsive, needs-led support

Interventions are more convincing when they start with the pupil’s individual barriers and combine support accordingly — rather than applying the same response to every absence.

Be cautious

Single programmes or roles

There is not good evidence for a universal “best” programme, staffing structure or role. What staff actually do, how they build relationships, and how well support is implemented matter.

Evidence limited

Incentives, sanctions and isolated activities

Some approaches have been studied, but the evidence is not strong enough to assume that rewards, sanctions, mentoring or extracurricular activity will reliably improve attendance on their own.

Put the evidence into practice

A simple three-stage approach

Diagnose

Know the pupil, family and pattern. What is making attendance harder? Avoid treating the percentage as the problem itself.

Match

Choose support that addresses the identified barrier. Use universal provision plus targeted help where needed.

Review

Set a clear success measure, review quickly, and change the plan if it is not improving engagement or attendance.

Six evidence-informed themes

What should a strong attendance strategy contain?

Understand pupils & families

Use data and conversations to identify the actual barrier and its context.

Community & belonging

Build an inclusive environment where pupils feel safe, known and part of school life.

Communicate effectively

Be proactive, specific, positive and collaborative with parents and carers.

Universal provision

Examine the everyday school experience — teaching, relationships, routines, SEND and pastoral support.

Target support

Add individualised support for pupils whose barriers cannot be solved through universal provision alone.

Monitor impact

Track whether the approach is changing attendance and the underlying barrier, not just whether an action was completed.

Evidence update • 6 May 2026

What has newer research added?

2026 finding

No one-size-fits-all solution

Four new EEF/YEF studies reinforced the need for context-sensitive approaches. The findings did not identify a single programme model that schools can simply copy.

2026 finding

A role alone is not the intervention

An evaluation of Attendance and Family Liaison Officers found that employing such a role did not, on average, produce a meaningful improvement in persistent absence by itself. Relationships, culture, resourcing, staff practice and good data systems remain critical.

Current practical message: communicate proactively with families, build an inclusive culture, and individualise targeted support around the pupil’s needs. There are no quick fixes.

Leadership reflection

How evidence-informed is your current approach?

Tick the features you can confidently see in practice. This is a reflection prompt, not an audit score.

We identify the specific barriers behind absence rather than responding only to the attendance percentage. Our universal provision deliberately supports belonging, relationships, inclusion and engagement. Communication with families is personalised, positive and actionable. Targeted interventions are matched to individual needs rather than chosen from a standard menu. Each intervention has a named owner, review date and clear measure of success. We stop, adapt or replace interventions that are not changing the barrier or attendance.

0 of 6 evidence-informed features selected.

Evidence timeline

Key dates

16 March 2022

EEF rapid evidence review published

The review summarised 72 studies and highlighted promising evidence for parental communication/engagement and responsive interventions, alongside significant evidence limitations.

31 January 2024

EEF Supporting School Attendance resource published

EEF organised practical attendance leadership around six evidence-informed themes, including understanding needs, belonging, communication, universal provision, targeted support and monitoring.

2 October 2025

BITUP text-message evaluation published

Personalised messages about days missed produced a small positive attendance effect at very low cost, reinforcing the importance of how absence is communicated.

6 May 2026

Four new EEF/YEF evaluations published

The findings reinforced that there are no quick fixes and that relationships, culture and individualised support matter.

9 July 2026

DfE statutory attendance guidance updated

Current England statutory guidance continues to emphasise support for pupils and families who are persistently or severely absent, or at risk of becoming so.

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