Regular Attendance

For some values, there is a threshold for ‘regular attendance’. Beyond the duration indicated for these values, we do not have any definite rules around consistency of attendance in application of the values. For example, if someone attends a football project for 6 weeks, misses a few weeks, then returns for a few more weeks.

What we would suggest here is an approach that takes into account the nature/consistency of attendance:

• If someone is genuinely a regular attendee, usually participating for several weeks at the time, but misses the odd week (meaning their attendance never amounts to 2 months' consecutive participation), then it should be reasonable to apply the value in most cases, because the individual is consistently attending and we would therefore generally expect them to achieve the uplift in wellbeing.
• If someone is a sporadic attendee only (even if their attendance would ultimately amount to 8-10 sessions over the course of the year), then we would discourage application of the value, because the uplift in wellbeing is achieved mainly through consistent attendance.
• If someone falls somewhere between these two categories (perhaps someone who attends for 2-3 weeks, misses sessions for the next several weeks, then returns, ad infinitum), we would suggest taking a conservative estimate with the application of the value for this group; or, to be very robust, apply the 'number with unknown results' for this group.

This is suggestion for a clear and simple approach. There may be other approaches more appropriate to your organisation, which can be included in later practice notes.

For others such as ‘member of a social group’ or ‘Tenants group’ there are no thresholds for ‘regular attendance’.