Does your primary school do this? Home visit on Day 3 of illness

It's the same with some medical issues. The preoperative assessment checklist in our Trust requires everyone to be asked about recreational drug use. The checks doctors do are both to protect the patient and to cover the Trust if something goes wrong. Blanket policies are designed to cover an organisation legally and are usually tick box questionnaires with responsibility put onto the patient to provide the necessary info. If the patient lies, they put themselves at risk.

Child protection is completely different. We need far greater investment in serious child protection resources - social workers, children's centres, safer foster care and children's homes.

I'm really sorry to hear that you had this experience. This it is precisely why it is important that any kind of Safeguarding check is applied to everyone who reaches the threshold without any prior assumptions.
Years ago, I had to take one of my young children to A&E in my own hospital with an injury that could potentially have been non accidental and I was really pleased that they went through the Safeguarding process and I got a follow up visit from the HV. Yes, it was embarrassing, both for me and the A&E staff but it was great to see they were doing their jobs properly. The Consultant could easily have said "Oh, I know Dr Doc really well and there's no way she would ever hurt her children, we'll just skip through these questions quickly" but he was as thorough as I think he would have been with anyone, which is exactly how it should be. I hadn't hurt my child but having a good salary and living in a desirable postcode does not mean that I couldn't have. Child abuse and neglect is not restricted to any particular group.
It's the same with some medical issues. The preoperative assessment checklist in our Trust requires everyone to be asked about recreational drug use. I do feel a bit of an idiot asking 85 year olds coming for a hip replacement if they take drugs but were I to ask only the people that I think look like they might be drug abusers there's no doubt I would miss important information. There's also some evidence that if particular lines of questioning are known to be universal more people do tell the truth because they don't feel like they're being singled out for judgement, just being asked a legitimate medical question. And actually I have had a few elderly patients tell me that they smoke cannabis for pain relief so my inbuilt assumption would have been wrong if I had been allowed to apply it! Consistency is key to the success of so many processes.
HCPs, teachers etc are human beings and we do all have prejudices to some degree, just like everyone else, but they mustn't influence our work. I don't know if a visit on an arbitrary day of absence is really an effective Safeguarding measure or not, it's not my field of expertise. But if an LEA is going to have that policy then it needs to be applied consistently and universally or it almost certainly won't achieve its aims.

No

My Ds was in college aged 16 - he walked out distressed… I complained they never informed me - apparently they didn’t have time to inform every parent every time a child walked out .

i do think there will be lots children at relatives homes as parents need to work .

i also agree with the poster the blanket policy is a lazy policy

Exactly

Ours never have. I wouldn't mind if they did though.

I've been visited by the Head and Deputy Head together. Unannounced I was working from home looking dishevelled and unwashed in my pjs.
Yes he was still poorly. No we are not at Disneyland.
Felt awful and judged, like they didn't believe what I had said about his illness.

He'd been off for 10 days within 3 months of the new term - covid and chicken pox. Perhaps if others had been more responsible and didn't send in their sick kids, I wouldn't have needed that welfare check!

I don’t think either of mine have ever had 3 consecutive days off. At DD secondary it’s 24 hours after last sickness. Her school rings by 9:15 if you haven’t reported the absence, assuming to check they haven’t gone awol!

I so agree 👍

The comment about the house being in a nice area sort of confirms what I suspect about these visits - they are targeted at people based on stereotypes. I probably received one because I am a single mum and live in what is euphemistically termed an affordable area. If I was married to a doctor and living in a big detached house they probably wouldn't have assumed the worst.

You said there was no safeguarding issue if a parent has said the child is ill. Unless all parents always tell the truth, that’s nonsense. That’s all I'm saying. I’m not saying this is the best way to deal with it, just that ‘the parents says the6 are ill’ isn’t a guarantee that they are ill.

Exactly. Important not to go down the route of there is a problem, we must do something, this is something.

No one thinks all parents tell the truth at all times.

Doesn't make this indiscriminate door knocking a useful approach. Resources and attention need to be focused on the cases where we know or believe harm is happening.

I don't think my dc school does this, although we did get a phone call once when youngest hadn't turned up. Dh had got stuck in traffic doing the college run so he was late taking little one in. We had a complicated school/college run involving 3 schools and 1 car. Now we do the school run and I drop youngest off and then wait 45ish min in the cold for dh to come and get me but at least he is not late.

We got told at ds4's transition meeting before he started school that he was in hospital far too much and that we needed to get it sorted asap because his level of attendance at preschool would not be acceptable at primary school. Because of course he had only had 20 operations because we thought it would be fun

I think this is a bit extreme, however, look what happened in the Sara Shariff cases.

My Grandsons high school did.. even though GPs letters were sent.
It was his head of year. Got invited in and saw Grandson so poorly.. but all he could do was comment on the house and how big it was and what a lovely area it was in.. then said.. being a single parent he always thought they lived in a council house on council estate..

I work in a primary school and yes, we also do this on day 3 of a child being absent (consecutive days).

My child's in Reception and his school do checks on the 3rd day. I don't mind it as I know its a welfare check. They just knock on the door, ask to see the child and leave. They don't come in or ask 100 questions

That's so odd he doesn't haven't to be in school legally atm so you could be on holiday and there's nothing they can do.

You think all parents tell the truth at all times? Ok.

There have been times when I've had an ill DC off school but they've actually been at Grandma's house being ill because Grandma is retired and happy to have them and we're both out at work, or times we've had poorly DSC here so they haven't been at their mum's which is their "registered" address with school. What would school do in that scenario - if they turn up and the child isn't there, do they phone so you can explain, or do they just assume wrongdoing?

There is no safeguarding issue if a parent has rung and said they have CP. An ordinary absence is not grounds for concern.

What is school checking? Whether the parent is lying about illness? So this is in fact attendance policing, nothing to do with safeguarding.

If the school thinks a parent has harmed a child, they should report. Knocking on the doors of every ill child is a total waste of time and money.

Sorry OP I had to laugh at your probably unintended pun. Spot checks! Seriously though,yes,I do recall when my DGD was at primary school (2011 - 2018) the school did actually send someone round if they were still absent due to illness after several days. I'm sure it's nothing to worry about,they just get so many parents keeping there kids off school to take them away on holiday,I suppose they just have to cover their own backs.

They get told to send them. It's stupid. File it in the recycling.