Penalty notices or prosecutions

Please note that from September 2024, a dedicated referral platform will be used by Essex schools wishing to submit requests for penalty notices where 10 or more consecutive sessions of G code have been recorded, owing to a family holiday during term time. Requests for penalty notices should only be submitted where the reasons provided for the leave during term time are not considered “exceptional.”

Each school’s Senior Attendance Champion will need to have their own log in to access this platform. The Senior Attendance Champion should email attendancecompliance@essex.gov.uk inbox, with the subject heading “FPN Platform Login Request”. Once their login request has been actioned, the Senior Attendance Champion will be able to grant access to the referral platform to other colleagues within their school, so that they may submit requests for unauthorised leave penalty notices.

There is a video guide on how to use the portal below, along with a user guide:

• FPN Schools View-20240112_101622-Meeting Recording (wistia.com)
• FPN Portal Guidance (Schools – September 2024)

There may be rare occasions where you are not able to request a penalty notice for a pupil who has recently joined your school roll, due to the fact that their record is yet to have been updated on our central education database and therefore their details are not available via your portal account. Should this occur, please send an email to attendancecompliance@essex.gov.uk  with the subject heading “FPN – REQUEST - PUPIL RECORD TO BE UPDATED” with the following details, so that we may update the record:

• Pupil Forename 
• Pupil Surname 
• Pupil Date of Birth 
• Pupil Gender 
• UPN 
• Pupil Address 
• Pupil’s Start Date at School 
• Previous School (if known)

You will be notified, once the relevant record has been updated, so that you may log into your account to locate the pupil and make a request for a penalty notice in the usual way.

Referrers will need to ensure that they provide the information below when submitting requests for penalty notices following an unauthorised holiday during term time:

• The link to your published School Attendance Policy which has been made available to parents on your school’s website
• A copy of the term-time leave request submitted by Parent (where received) 
• A copy of the corresponding refusal letter sent by the school, which has been sent within 5 working days of the request being received, clearly outlining the following:
  o    the exceptional circumstances the school has considered
  o    the reasons for refusal
  o    the potential consequences for parent/s choosing to take an unauthorised holiday during term time, including the issuing of a penalty notice/s if a pupil is recorded as absent during this period. 
• Where no term-time leave request was submitted by parent, a retrospective refusal of leave letter from the school outlining the same as above, but including details of how the school has learned/reached the assumption that the child has taken an unauthorised leave of absence 
• Attendance certificate/s covering the academic year/s during which the unauthorised leave period has been recorded (G coded – minimum of 10 sessions) and where the pupil’s return mark (following their return to school after the unauthorised leave) has been recorded
• Any additional evidence in relation to the absence - i.e. additional correspondence/communication logs between parent and school, etc.