Sara Griffiths MBE

Sara was awarded the MBE for services to education in June 2022 in relation to her work on school attendance. She is passionate about improving outcomes for children and young people by supporting their access to and engagement with education.

She is a national expert on school attendance, with over 35 years’ experience in attendance early help, and safeguarding in education. She is currently working closely with the DfE to support the delivery of improvements in local authorities and is also independently providing direct support to some schools and trusts, delivering training on attendance, and is the behaviour and attendance link governor for a local secondary school.

Within wider children’s services, she has held lead roles in Early Help, integrated children’s services, supporting families, performance management and quality assurance, single point of access and change management.

She also has active links with other national and international organisations which have the same aims and has collaborated on a submission on the Recording, Reporting, and Use of School Attendance Data in England which will contribute to an international comparison of the variations within and across a number of countries.