About the education welfare service
Please send enquires to the following mailboxes
- General enquiries: ews@wakefield.gov.uk
- Children Missing Education enquiries: educationcme@wakefield.gov.uk
The Education Welfare Service works with Schools and Academies to provide support to children, young people and their families in connection with school attendance and accessing education.
Support to families can take a range of forms including proactive support, individual work, advice and guidance, and in extreme cases legal action.
The Education Welfare Service also has a responsibility for monitoring children missing from education, elective home education, child employment and entertainment licences.
The Education Welfare Service has a range of statutory and discretionary responsibilities. Not all services may be available in Academies as the same responsibilities do not always apply.
School attendance
Promoting school attendance is the main role of the Education Welfare Service. Education Welfare Officers (EWOs) work closely with schools and families in an attempt to improve school attendance and avoid legal measures.
The Education Welfare Service recognise that the causes of irregular school attendance can be varied and complex, whereby irregular school attendance is not usually a stand-alone issue. Where school attendance is of concern children and families are usually experiencing challenges either externally and / or within the family environment. EWO’s can, when appropriate, guide schools to support families, making sure that they have access to appropriate service that can have a positive impact on the child’s wellbeing and school attendance. The role of the Education Welfare Service is to:
- encourage parents to speak with the school and discuss any concerns that they may have
- offer support and advice on a variety of educational matters
- make parents aware of their legal responsibilities
- work with the Team Around the School (TAS), Early Help, SEND and Social Care to support children and families where appropriate
- meet with school attendance teams
- offer advice to parents and school staff via telephone and email advice line.
- identify, in conjunction with schools, cases of irregular school attendance which necessitate further action
- meet at least termly with each school within the Wakefield Local Authority
- signpost schools and families to relevant services
- agree joint action plans with schools for severely and persistently absent pupils (where there are barriers to attendance)
- EWO Mentor Support for severely absent pupils where they meet the specific criteria of the mentoring team, supporting Wakefield’s Attendance Strategy
- offer regular Legal Clinic sessions where schools can refer cases to be reviewed where legal action is being considered
- initiate court proceedings on behalf of the local authority where appropriate