A scheme run by Barnardo's that places mentors in schools with low pupil attendance is set to be expanded with funding from the Department for Education.
The £15 million DfE investment announced today (Monday 8 January) is to be used over the next three years to help areas struggling with pupil attendance.
In addition to the mentor scheme, the funding will enable 18 new attendance hubs across six regions to be opened, bringing the total number to 32 hubs working with around 2,000 schools to tackle persistent absence.
The attendance mentor programme led by charity Barnardo's will also be expanded to see trained attendance mentors working in 10 additional areas from September 2024. Set up in 2022 as a three-year pilot, the scheme provides intensive one-to-one support to persistently absent pupils and their families.
