Inquiry into Attendance and Behaviour

The National Assembly for Wales’ Children and Young People Committee is undertaking a short inquiry into attendance and behaviour.

The overall aim of the inquiry is:

To review effectiveness of the Welsh Government’s policy and guidance to promote positive behaviour and attendance within education provision for pupils of compulsory school age.

To assist with its inquiry, the Committee would welcome your views on any or all of the following points:

· Strategies and support in place to address behaviour and attendance for example:

o Teacher training and development;

o Provision to pupils who are Educated Otherwise than in School (EOTAS) including in pupil referral units;

o Use of exclusion (including permanent / fixed term / illegal exclusions);

o Education Welfare Services;

o Other general issues such as parental engagement; behaviour support services; the link between food consumed during the school day and behaviour;

· Support to pupils with Additional Learning Needs in respect of behaviour and attendance; 

· Collaborative working arrangements:

o Joint working between relevant agencies including, for example, education, social services, health, youth offending teams, police; third sector organisations;

o Links to other relevant initiatives such as Families First, the School Effectiveness Framework; third sector initiatives.

You may also wish to submit any other evidence you feel is directly relevant to the above terms of reference.

Invitation to contribute to the inquiry

The Committee welcomes responses from both individuals and organisations. If you are responding on behalf of an organisation, please provide a brief description of the role of your organisation.

The Committee welcomes contributions in English or Welsh and will consider responses to the inquiry and hold oral evidence sessions during the spring term.

If you wish to submit evidence, please send an electronic copy of your submission to CYPCommittee@wales.gov.uk. 

Alternatively, you can write to:

Committee Clerk

Children and Young People Committee

National Assembly for Wales

Cardiff Bay, CF99 1NA.

Submissions should arrive by Friday 18 January 2013. It may not be possible to take into account responses received after this date.

Disclosure of Information

It is normal practice for the National Assembly to publish evidence provided to a Committee. Consequently your response may appear in a report or in supplementary evidence to a report. The National Assembly will not publish information which it considers to be personal data.

In the event of a request for information submitted under UK legislation, it may be necessary to disclose the information that you provide. This may include information which has previously been removed by the National Assembly for publication purposes.

If you are providing any information, other than personal data, which you feel is not suitable for public disclosure, it is up to you to stipulate which parts should not be published and to provide a reasoned argument to support this. The National Assembly will take this into account when publishing information or responding to requests for information.