Teachernet, Parenting contracts, parenting orders and penalty notices

Parental measures for behaviour and attendance

Parenting contracts, parenting orders and penalty notices provide a balanced package of support and sanctions to reinforce parental responsibility for school attendance and behaviour

Parenting contracts
Parenting contracts, for truancy and misbehaviour, are a supportive measure that enable formal agreements between parent and school or parent and LA. Each side sets out the steps they will take to secure an improvement in the child's attendance and behaviour. Some parents seek such help themselves, but others need a more directive approach.

Parenting orders
Parenting orders can be used in cases of truancy, exclusion and serious misbehaviour in schools. Parenting orders are already available for parents prosecuted and convicted of a school-attendance offence. New parenting orders for behaviour complement this by enabling LAs and schools to apply to the courts for civil parenting orders for parents whose child is excluded from school or for serious misbehaviour. These provisions complement parenting contracts and orders arranged by youth offending teams (YOTs) for bad behaviour in the wider community.

Education supervision orders (ESOs)
The LA may apply to the Family Proceedings Court for an ESO as a means of attempting to ensure a child's regular school attendance, whether or not the child is enrolled at a school. Before instituting proceedings for an offence of irregular attendance or failure to comply with a school attendance order, LAs must consider (section 447 of the Education Act 1996) whether it would be appropriate to apply for an ESO instead of, or as well as, prosecuting the child's parents.

Penalty notices
Penalty notices can be used in cases of truancy and the whereabouts of excluded pupils.

Failure to secure regular attendance of a registered pupil is already a criminal offence for parents. Provisions under the Education and Inspections Act 2006 place a duty on parents to ensure that their excluded child is not found present in a public place during school hours, without a reasonable excuse, during the first five days of any exclusion. If a child is found in such circumstances, the LA or school can issue a penalty notice to the parents.

Failure to pay a fixed penalty notice could lead to a prosecution. Penalty notices provide an alternative to prosecution and a much quicker and cheaper way of sanctioning parents who are not hard-core offenders. This should result in an overall increase in the number of sanctions applied, with consequent reductions in truancy.

Designated LA officers (typically education welfare officers), headteachers (and authorised deputy headteachers and assistant headteachers), police officers and community support officers can issue fixed penalty notices. All prosecutions must be brought by the LA. All schools, including academies, can ask an LA to begin a prosecution.

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