Our Strategy - School Home Support

Our 5-year strategy

In 2022 we launched our highly ambitious five year strategy to reach even more children and give them the best start in life.

Recent figures show that 1 in 5 children are persistently absent from school, meaning they are missing more than 10% of their education and severely affecting their future life chances. School-Home Support aims to get children back to school ready to learn, whatever it takes. Our vision is that every child is in school every day by 2050.

We will work to achieve three strategic goals: reach more children and families, support more schools to address persistent absence and, influence education policy and practice.

1. Reach more children and families

Our School-Home Support practitioners work with children and families, making a huge difference to their future life chances. We are determined to maintain the quality of our existing services and to expand into new areas, making a difference to more children and families who need our support.

By 2027 we will:

Increase delivery by 62% to reach 129,344 children and families.
Sustain our current practitioner model to directly support 25,016 people between 2022 and 2027.
Expand the practitioner model into 9 new areas, directly supporting a further 15,576 people.

Meet the families we support

2. Support more schools to address persistent absence

We are determined to reach more schools and to develop new ways of delivering our services.

By 2027 we will:

Build a new model of delivering our services, supporting schools to embed the School-Home Support model in their work. Scoping will take place in 2023, with the plan to pilot in 2024, fully rolling out the model from 2025.
Continue to provide expert input and casework support for school staff at all levels, scoping the market for this service and developing accordingly.
Review and develop our membership offer to share information about best practice in improving attendance.

Our services for schools

3. Influence policy and practice

Tackling school absence requires policy and practice change. We are determined to use our expertise and profile to bring about these changes throughout the education system.

By 2027 we will:

Raise our national profile as a delivery organisation and thought leader in the field of educational inequality and attendance to deliver the change our families need.
Advocate for change for the most vulnerable families by building relationships and influence across Westminster, Whitehall and regional government to support the development of Education policy, systems and practice enabling all children to be in school ready to learn.

Learn more about out policy work