Emma Sanderson, Managing Director of Momenta Connect, part of Outcomes First Group, a leading provider of world-class education, explores why rebuilding confidence in education starts with strong partnerships between schools, families and wider support services.
Confidence in education is rarely rebuilt in a classroom alone. It grows when schools, families and communities work together to create conditions in which children feel safe and able to thrive. Recent legislation and policy developments recognise this reality, pointing towards a more holistic, family-centred approach to improving outcomes for children and young people.
Schools have faced significant challenges in recent years. Attendance rates remain below pre-pandemic levels, while concerns about mental health, special educational needs and family hardship continue to affect many children’s engagement with learning. Policymakers now acknowledge that poor attendance and disengagement often reflect wider challenges, not issues resolved through sanctions alone.
The Department for Education’s guidance ‘Working Together to Improve School Attendance’ reflects this shift in thinking. It places partnership at the heart of attendance improvement, recognising that schools must work collaboratively with families to understand and address barriers to learning. The emphasis is increasingly on trust, early intervention and shared responsibility.
This same principle underpins the government’s SEND and Alternative Provision Improvement Plan ‘Right Support, Right Place, Right Time’. In response to concerns about system complexity, the reforms aim to improve early identification of need, strengthen inclusion in mainstream schools and ensure greater collaboration between education, health and care services. Its core objective is: restoring confidence among families that children will receive the support they need, when they need it.
The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act reinforces this direction of travel. By strengthening links between education, safeguarding, family support and wider children’s services, it recognises that educational success depends on a network of support beyond the school gates. Children are most likely to thrive when the adults around them work together effectively and consistently.
For schools, this means moving beyond traditional parental engagement activities and embracing a genuine whole-family approach. School leaders may ask: would families describe our school as easy to navigate? The answer often reveals where confidence is built or lost. Clear communication, accessible SEND processes and responsive pastoral support can make a significant difference to how families experience education.
Action need not involve wholesale change. Schools can strengthen transition arrangements, establish parent forums that influence decision-making, develop family learning opportunities and ensure early-help pathways are understood by staff and parents. Attendance conversations can focus on understanding barriers rather than monitoring absence alone, while SEND reviews can be designed as collaborative discussions that place family voice at the centre. The most effective schools enable parent engagement not only when concerns arise, but throughout the child’s education.
The benefits extend far beyond attendance. Research shows that children achieve better outcomes when families are actively involved in education. Confidence grows when communication is open, support is accessible and children see the important adults in their lives working together towards shared goals.
As schools continue to navigate a changing policy landscape, one message remains consistent across attendance reform, SEND improvement and wellbeing legislation: rebuilding confidence in education cannot be achieved by schools alone. It requires strong partnerships between families, educators and wider services. The schools that will make the greatest difference see families not as stakeholders to manage, but as partners in children’s success. Rebuilding confidence in education starts with rebuilding confidence in the relationships that underpin it.
