This article has been brought to you by Slough Borough Council's Attendance Service, for the attention of Slough Schools.
As you are all aware we are currently experiencing an unprecedented occurrence which has effected all of our services in some way or another. In terms of Enforcement action, we would like to update you with regards to the following:
Warning Letters Issued
Any Penalty Notice paperwork that was received by the Attendance Service from Mid February to Mid March 2020, will no longer remain valid due to the disruption caused by the effects of coronavirus on school attendance as it would prove difficult to enforce a warning period given the circumstances due to the partial closure of some schools and eventual closure of all schools on 20.03.2020.
Penalty Notice Fines
Due to staff shortages and disruption within schools, there has been a delay in the processing/issuing of fines received over the last 2 weeks, therefore any PN fines received from the beginning of March onwards, have currently been put on hold and will be processed in due course.
Prosecution
Any further legal action which was required to progress cases to prosecution in court due to non payment of fines, may also be delayed due to the impact of the pandemic on other services like solicitors/ courts etc, therefore we will continue to work towards finalising cases as far as we possibly can. There may be some cases which may fall “out of legal timing” which we will no longer be able to proceed to prosecution, however, we will inform individual schools once we are back to normality of the status of each case.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank you for working with us and your patience whilst we are all experiencing the current difficulties. We will be here to support and advise all schools as and when we all return to normal functioning.