Waiho i te toipoto, kaua i te toiroa

Let us keep close together, not far apart

On 14 May, Minister David Seymour made the announcement of the $140 Million School Attendance Service investment for the new Attendance Service. The present Attendance Service agreements will finish December 2025.

There will be a tender process for the new Attendance Service that is due to start Term One 2026 and ACES Attendance Service will be tendering to deliver the new Attendance Service model starting in 2026.

From MoE Bulletin for Leaders (Issue 195 - 3 June 2025)

Attendance Services Reform Programme

The new attendance services reform programme will work with referred chronically absent and non-enrolled students to identify why they are not going to school, and to develop and implement plans to address those reasons, so the students improve their attendance.

Attendance service providers (either schools or third-party entities) will provide appropriate services to all schools and eligible students in their catchment area. The new services are designed to provide support to around 80,000 students per annum. The current attendance services manage around 41,000 cases per annum.

Contract values will be based on estimated referral volumes, with providers funded to meet all needs in their catchment area. Flexible and innovative approaches to service delivery will be encouraged as a way of managing unexpected variations in demand and achieving the best results for the students.

Ongoing monitoring and regular reviews will let us agree adjustments to contracts when needed.

A key feature of successful providers will be their ability to establish and maintain strong relationships with:

• students and their families;
• local communities;
• other social agencies within their catchment area.

What we Know:

- The present Attendance Service will cease at the end of this year (December 2025).
- Attendance Services, a School, NGOs, Iwi etc (and ACES) can bid for the new Contract.
- Tenders process opens mid-June 2025.
- New contracts will be awarded in October 2025.
- Start-up costs will be available for chosen Providers from October 2025.
- New service starts Term One 2026.
- The new service will be an Integrated Service (Unjustified Absentees and Non Enrolled).
- The new service role is to respond to chronic Unjustified Absentees and Non Enrolled referrals.
- The Agreement will be encouraging innovation and there will be funding available to reduce barriers to education.
- Agreements will have a strong focus on Outcomes.
- Proposed Auckland Area (Tāmaki Herenga Manawa) will include seven areas and they are:

1. Howick, Botany and Pakuranga
2. Selwyn, Glendowie and Tamaki
3. Mt Albert, Mt Roskill and Lynfield
4. Grammar, Western Springs
5. Onehunga, One Tree Hill
6. Waiheke (ACES sub-contracts Waiheke High School)
7. Aotea (Great Barrier Island)

Description of the links is on this site:

Attendance service reform – provisional service catchment review - Ministry of Education

• New Service will be expected to Case Manage referred cases.
• The Service is able to address unmet basic needs that are impacting on student’s attendance.
• Establishing and maintaining strong local relationships with schools, students, whānau / families and social agencies as well as Iwi.
• Provide target attendance advice and support local schools.
• Work closely with local interagency forums on outcomes to ensure students get the appropriate support to address needs.

(Bold and italics denote current ACES activity).

If there is a requirement to have in place 7x Local Governance Groups or One Governance Group. Presently, ACES has one Advisory Group in place that can represent the Governance Group.

Literature has identified ākonga can quickly adapt to the immediate changes with a major educational move from a primary to intermediate or into a secondary school. However, literature also identified there is a ‘danger period’ for ākonga which can lead to non-engagement and this is likely to happen in the second half of the school year and not in the first few weeks following ākonga transition.

Since 2014 (10 years) ACES Attendance Service delivered the Transition Project and the aim was:

“To ensure any Year 8 student “who was at risk” of not being enrolled in a Secondary School is identified and they are enrolled on Day One of Term One 2015, as this will strengthen the likelihood of their transition from Year 8 to Year 9 to be successful.”

For 10 years ACES Attendance Service delivered the project aligned to the aim as well as provided financial assistance to reduce barriers when needed e.g. uniforms, devices, hop-cards etc. as well as reduce the number of Non-Enrolled Students at the beginning of the school year.

Delivering the Transition Project identified the range of excellent practices taking place across Auckland Schools or, within a Kāhui Ako. However, the Project had not informed ACES “who were the ākonga that ended up in the danger period group?, for example:

- Are ākonga (who did not start on Day 1) likely to be the one who ended up in the “danger period”?

- Can ākonga (whose attendance average is either consistently irregular or moderate) end up being part of the “danger period” group?

- Has the COVID pandemic impacted on the transition process for ākonga between Years 8 to 9?

- Are whānau / families finding it “too hard” to plan or even consider the next transition due to stress within the household?

Timing was right to redefine the methodology, and in 2024 the Service worked on two projects with the aim to gather evidence that could support “understanding who are the ākonga in the danger group?” that included early intervention before ākonga become disengaged.

Thank you to all the schools that participated. The Service is fully aware that the beginning of each year is a very stressful and busy time and we appreciated the participation of all our schools to make the transition project a success.

The main stumbling blocks impacting on the final results were:

 Not withdrawing students correctly at the end of the year;

 Not entering the intended school;

 Not generating a NEN referral in a timely manner;

 Not updating ENROL in a timely manner for new enrolments.

Year 10 and Year 11 remain the highest group referred to the Attendance Service. Also, data can include the number of ākonga who are referred to the Service for the first time. The case (especially when referred for the first time) has complexities that cannot be resolved quickly and will take time and often options have now become limited to re-engage ākonga back into education.

The project followed a group of ākonga who had irregular or moderate attendance and not referred to the Attendance Service. The findings will take a couple of years to collect the evidences needed to have a clearer understanding of the “danger group” on how best the Attendance Service with Secondary Schools work together to intervene earlier.

Arrive/Attend = Learning = Success/Opportunity. We are all in this together.