A UK-wide alliance to help every pupil attend well — with statutory tools, peer community, and professional development behind you.
NAfSA is a sector-led professional alliance and working platform — three statutory hubs for day-to-day casework, Benchmarking & reports where census data is available, and a permanent free peer community.
Support First, Compliance, and Benchmarking & reports for real meetings and interventions — plus nation-specific guidance and a professional community that stays with you after your trial.
No payment required · Try all tools · Then automatic free Community membership
See the platform in action
The National Alliance for School Attendance (NAfSA) is a sector-led professional alliance and working platform — three statutory hubs for day-to-day casework, Benchmarking & reports where census data is available, and a permanent free peer community for schools, trusts, local authorities, and everyone who supports pupils to attend well.
Join free and try Support First, Compliance Hub, and Benchmarking & reports for seven days — no card required. You then automatically become a Community member at no cost — forum, resources, CPD, and browsing published Ask an Expert answers. Upgrade to Professional membership when your organisation needs the statutory hubs long term — including asking new expert questions.
Individual from £10/month · Whole-school & LA licences · Invoice on request
Who NAfSA is for
Choose your door — school, trust, or local authority. Each path opens the same working platform and alliance: statutory hubs for casework, shared language, and a peer community for everyone who works with attendance.
School teams
Trusts & MATs
Local authorities
New to NAfSA? View membership & pricing
3 Hubs
Support · Compliance · Benchmarking
4 Nations
Guidance across the UK
Forum
Peer & expert community
CPD
Courses & certificates
Live
Resources · Events · Partner Directory
Rooted in sector experience
Founded by practitioners with decades of attendance practice across LA, trust, and school settings — with nation-specific guidance, transparent governance, and tools designed for the realities of frontline practice.
Founded by attendance practitioners with more than twenty years’ experience across LA, trust, and school settings — including national sector leadership through the Association for Education Welfare Management (AEWM). Full founding story on About.
England, Wales, Scotland, and NI frameworks in tools — aligned to official guidance such as Working Together to Improve School Attendance (England), not generic EdTech claims.
Clear about what NAfSA delivers today and what we are building next — no inflated claims, and no suggestion we replace your MIS.
Seven-day Professional trial with no card required — then permanent free Community membership with forum, resources, CPD, and browsing published expert answers.
Verified expert standards; reviewed partner directory listings; safeguarding boundaries on forum and Ask an Expert.
Sector-led governance
NAfSA is a founding-phase membership alliance. Statutory tools, expert answers, and roadmap priorities are shaped by verified specialists and the wider member community — with transparent governance and no external shareholders.
NAfSA is a social enterprise rooted in attendance practice across LA, trust, and school settings. Surplus is reinvested into better tools for the sector rather than external shareholders — see About for founding leadership and governance.
Meet the founding teamAsk an Expert connects you with verified attendance, legal, and pastoral specialists — not anonymous internet advice. Questions stay anonymised with clear safeguarding boundaries: never post identifiable pupil or family data.
How Ask an Expert worksA small founding group of colleagues who work with attendance is helping shape the roadmap through forum discussion and peer input. Community membership stays free — no inflated member counts, no paywall on professional connection.
Our founding communityNAfSA is in its founding phase. We publish what we deliver today and what we are building next — see About for ethos, funding, and founding team. About & governance.
Your first week
Stop reconstructing attendance evidence in spreadsheets every Friday — your trial week is a practical way to see whether NAfSA fits how your team already works. Your free Professional trial opens the full platform; most colleagues explore these starting points within seven days — Support First, Compliance, community, and governance tools included.
Days 1–2
Use Support First to surface emotionally based absence early and document proportionate next steps.
Day 3
Browse the attendance code register for your UK nation before your next case review.
Day 4
Get practitioner guidance on a real scenario — without identifying pupils or families.
Days 5–7
Run the attendance self-evaluation and generate a summary for your next leadership or governor meeting.
How access works
Everyone who works with attendance can join free. Try the three Professional hubs for seven days with no card, then keep permanent free Community membership — forum, resources, CPD, and browsing published expert answers. Upgrade to Professional only when your organisation needs Support First, Compliance, and Benchmarking & reports long term.
Create an account with your professional email. You land on the member dashboard with full access to Support First, Compliance, Benchmarking & reports, and community spaces for seven days — no card required.
When the trial ends you automatically move to free Community membership — no payment, no application and no lockout. Forum, resource library, CPD, member directory, browsing published expert answers, and standard-price events stay free for good.
Choose Individual, Whole School, trust-wide, or LA membership to keep Support First, Compliance, and Benchmarking & reports long term — plus ask new expert questions, member event pricing, and group licences. Paid plans activate after checkout or approved invoicing.
Platform tour
Three practitioner hubs for day-to-day statutory work, plus the professional community spaces where colleagues learn, share, and grow — all built with a child-centred, mission-driven ethos.
Part 1
A three-step journey through the member hubs
Step 1 · Early intervention
Help pastoral staff, tutors, and inclusion leads act early — with calm, practical tools before attendance becomes an enforcement conversation.
Explore Support FirstKey tools in this hub
EBSA Risk Screener
Structured screening to surface emotionally based school avoidance early — with guidance on proportionate next steps.
Co-produced Attendance Support Plans
Digital ASP builder for school, family, and pupil voice — documenting what you will try together before escalation.
Family collaboration tools
Parent partnership prompts, letter generators, and dialogue guides that keep home–school conversations constructive when attendance is fragile.
Step 2 · Statutory duties
Work through legal frameworks with clear pathways, nation-specific rules, and documentation that supports audit-ready record-keeping.
Explore Compliance HubKey tools in this hub
DfE-aligned policy builders
School attendance policy templates and LA-facing compliance content aligned to Working Together and devolved-nation frameworks.
Attendance code matrices
Code registers and decision matrices across England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland.
Children Missing Education audits
CME reasonable-enquiries workflows, deletion-from-roll guidance, and checklists for thorough statutory follow-through.
Step 3 · Data & oversight
Turn frontline documentation into insight for heads, trust teams, and LA officers — without end-of-term reconstruction.
Explore Benchmarking & reportsKey tools in this hub
MAT heatmaps
Trust-wide and LA benchmarking where census data exists — cohort patterns visible early for improvement planning.
Attendance self-evaluation (Ofsted-aligned)
Interactive six-pillar self-evaluation with saved audits and honest rubric language aligned to inspection themes (England).
Governor Report Maker
One-click exports summarising support activity, compliance themes, and improvement priorities for governance conversations.
Part 2
The professional network that surrounds the toolkit
NAfSA is not only software — it is a UK-wide alliance for everyone who works with attendance. Members connect with peers, share practice safely, and build skills through curated learning.
Peer support from colleagues who understand attendance work — plus access to specialist practitioners through structured Q&A.
A searchable, member-driven collection of templates, policies, and statutory reference materials — uploaded and curated for everyday use.
Integrated CPD alongside your attendance practice — browse courses, attend live events, and track certificates in one place.
Membership also includes the member directory, events discounts, and the Professional Partner Directory. Census-linked analytics are England-first today; devolved-nation guidance is embedded across hub tools.
One child. One story.
NAfSA helps both sides work from aligned templates, escalation guidance, and professional spaces built on integrity — complementing your MIS and LA case-management systems, not replacing them.
School teams
LA teams
Templates, code registers, and support pathways that use consistent terminology — so schools and LAs reference the same frameworks when a case escalates.
Nation-specific pathways in Support First and Compliance — reducing misunderstandings when responsibility moves between school and LA.
Forum, Ask an Expert, events, and resources connect practitioners with empathy and rigour — never post identifiable pupil or family data.
Our social enterprise ethos
NAfSA exists to strengthen attendance practice across the UK — rooted in the education sector, reinvesting surplus into better tools, and accountable to the members we serve.
After covering secure hosting, server costs, and fair staff remuneration, 100% of NAfSA's surplus revenue is strictly reinvested into expanding the platform and building better tools for schools.
Designed from the realities of frontline attendance work. Our roadmap is driven by statutory updates and the direct, practical needs of schools and local authorities — not external shareholders.
Clear legal structure and reliable hosting for MATs and LAs — with a community-first ethos. Learn more about NAfSA.
Straightforward expectations
Pan-UK coverage
Each nation has distinct statutory frameworks. NAfSA embeds nation-specific guidance in hub tools and content — with census-linked benchmarking England-first today and devolved content expanding over time.
England
DfE / Working Together to Improve Attendance
Wales
Welsh Government Attendance Framework & EOTAS
Scotland
GIRFEC & Included, Engaged and Involved
Northern Ireland
Education Authority attendance protocols
Hyper-Local Regions Portal
In development — regional hub content is available now via the member dashboard.
Core hubs, forum, resource library, CPD, events, and the Professional Partner Directory are live for members today. The Hyper-Local Regions Portal is in active development — regional hub content is already available via the member dashboard.
Approved partners and service providers showcase listings to members. Suppliers and trainers can list after a free Community sign-up — browse vetted entries by promotion tier and geography.
Planned interactive map for nation, region, and LA-specific policy context — with regional hub content available today via the member dashboard.
Training providers & suppliers
Reach colleagues who work with attendance in schools, MATs, and local authorities — create a free Community account to submit a reviewed listing.
Advertise & listSecure by design
Encrypted connections (HTTPS) and access-controlled cloud infrastructure
Neon PostgreSQL — EU-West
UK-hosted core data · managed backups · point-in-time recovery
GDPR & ICO registered
ICO registration ZA217586
Self-evaluation & inspection prep
Support attendance self-evaluation and governance reporting — not a guarantee of outcomes
Core member data is hosted in the UK (Neon EU-West). Some sub-processors are US-headquartered — see our Privacy Policy.
Join a UK-wide community of people who work with attendance — compare licences for your school, trust, or LA, or start exploring the full platform today. NAfSA is in its founding phase — a small group of colleagues who work with attendance is helping shape the roadmap. Community membership stays free.
No payment required · Try all tools · Then automatic free Community membership
Individual from £10/month · Whole-school & LA licences · Invoice on request
© 2026 NAfSA — National Alliance for School Attendance