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, 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.”
ENDS
Notes to editors
- Full time equivalent posts.
- The £1.5 million is from this financial year.
