Any School Attendance Policy experts about?

[fernfriend]

Hi everyone,
I am wondering if anyone can advise me please? This is a long one - I've tried to include lots of relevant information, so that you have a full picture of what I'm struggling with...

My DD is autistic, and lives with a number of co occuring conditions, including OCD and anxiety. When she is experiencing heightened anxiety, it effects her sleeping, eating and she engages in self injurious behaviours. This has an impact on her ability to attend school. Her GP has said they can't help, as they say my DD needs to be seen by a specialist, and she has just finished 6 months of sessions with CAMHS. The mental health professional working with my DD was not an autism specialist.

DD is in mainstream secondary school and her attendance dipped below 90% which puts her in the 'persistently absent' bracket. This has meant that we have received the automated letters from the school, which threaten fines, and poor long term outcomes as a result of her non attendance. I've asked the school to authorise the absences, since they are related to her autism (which is a lifelong condition), and her co-occuring mental health conditions. But the school says they cannot do so without medical evidence from either CAMHS or her GP. They do not accept any other means (so advice from my DD's previous therapist, who was an autism specialist, was not accepted). I managed to get a letter from her GP last year, but the school has said that the wording is not specific enough to authorise absences, and the letter is only valid for 6 months. Last year, it took 245 for my DD to be assessed at CAMHS, and a further 2 months for her therapy sessions to begin. The MH professional working with my DD said that school should be authorising absences.

I have read the non statutory by the DfE guidance on attendance, and it says:

‘Schools should advise parents to notify them on the first day the child is unable to attend due to illness. Schools must record absences as authorised where pupils cannot attend due to illness (both physical and mental health related).’

It goes on to say:

‘In the majority of cases a parent’s notification that their child is ill can be accepted without question or concern. Schools should not routinely request that parents provide medical evidence to support illness. Schools are advised not to request medical evidence unnecessarily as it places additional pressure on health professionals, their staff and their appointments system particularly if the illness is one that does not require treatment by a health professional. Only where the school has a genuine and reasonable doubt about the authenticity of the illness should medical evidence be requested to support the absence.’ (Working Together to Improve School Attendance, DfE, 2022)

I have met with the HT to discuss the Attendance Policy, as I believe that it unfairly discriminates against neurodivergent students, many of whom who live with co occuring mental health conditions. It is also near impossible to obtain 'medical evidence' to support our DD's absences. The HT has said that once absences dip below 90%, they need medical evidence to authorise the absences, as this is what the statutory guidance says. I can't find this statutory guidance, and he has not been able to provide me with it, and anyway, this is contrary to what the Children and Families Minister told me - I contacted her last year to highlight the huge challenge in accessing mental health services for young people in the UK, and I mentioned that we were being threatened with fines for out DD's poor attendance, to which she said that school should be authorising these absences in this instance.

I am so confused. And frustrated. I can't believe how difficult it is to find a professional that can provide me with the 'appropriately worded' evidence I need to get the school to authorise her absences. And I am getting conflicting advice as to whether I should need this evidence anyway! I feel like we're in a bit of a stalemate.

I should say that I have a positive relationship with DDs school and the HT. Our meeting was positive on many levels, just frustrating that we ended up agreeing to disagree. The HT has changed the attendance procedure as a result of our meeting, to reflect the excessive waiting times for CAMHS assessment. But all this means is that they only accept medical evidence from a GP.

Please can someone help? Can anyone clarify what the attendance rules actually are?

Thanks in advance - and well done if you made it through my beast of a post!

There is some new guidance from the DfE dated 7th Feb 23 - 'Mental health issues affecting a pupil's attendance: guidance for schools': www.gov.uk/government/publications/mental-health-issues-affecting-a-pupils-attendance-guidance-for-schools

The DfE should also be releasing some guidance in regards to remote learning very soon i.e. schools will have to providesome remote learning for pupils who can't attend school. The mental health crisis in young people is unprecedented and schools are fire fighting with it. Also worth having a look at the EoTAS criteria in your area or seeing if school will support an application.

I think this is one of those situations where the law is the school must authorise it unless they believe its not authentic and the LA have their own rule that below 90% you ask for evidence but is not an LA rule not statutory.

you probably want your child to be healthy enough to attend school so perhaps asking for them to support you in accessing medical care with referrals woukd be one avenue. They could write to the gp and cahms stating how your daughter needs more support. There might also be more they should be doing in school.

Another tact us asking why they dont feel the absences are genuine.

The gps in our local area did a joint letter to schools basically saying stop asking for evidence for stuff that doesnt need GP involvement. Its a huge waste of nhs resources. So i dont think its a very popular 'rule'

Sorry. School are correct. They can only accept doctors notes for individual occasions.

The DfE guidance is clear. Ask school why they think her absence is not genuinely related to her medical issues - which is one of the few reasons they can refuse to authorise. I suspect the LA have their own guidance which the school are pressured to follow. In which case ask the school to refer to the education welfare office who deal with this at LA level. This would normally be done as a matter of course if they believe the absences are not genuine medical absence. Generally speaking, they are have more flexibility than the school.

You can also turn this around on the school / LA - if a student is absent for more than 15 days (or it is anticipated that they will be) then there is an obligation on the LA to provide alternative education. So be proactive and ask them to do this!

assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/941900/health_needs_guidance_accessible.pdf

The DfE guidance about mental health absence (linked above) is helpful to a point. Go through it and highlight the relevant points. There are also some case studies which are... interesting. In my experience, our local schools do not have access to the resources suggested in these case studies so cannot possibly use them as the basis of provision. But they are helpful in being able to ask the school if they have considered all the interventions suggested - and if not why not. This will usually lead to a place where school say they cannot offer the provision expected in the case studies and you have a case for them not doing all they can to support your child to improve attendance - not because of what you are doing, but because the school to or LA do not have the resources to effectively provide what the DfE expects in cases like this.

Thanks for your replies. I really appreciate you taking the time to reply.

@handmademitlove I agree - I think the DfE guidance is clear. It's very frustrating. I've actually already contacted the Education Welfare Officer at the LA to ask her to clarify why DDs absences can't be authorised, and her reply was that if I wanted to make a formal complaint, I should do so to the school. I don't want to complain - I want clarity on the official rules around authorising absences. Do you think it is just down to how people are interpreting the guidance?

Thanks for the advice @libertine80 I hope the guidance is released soon.. I saw that the House of Lords had issued a 'call for evidence' around school attendance last month and it was open to parents as well as school teachers and leaders.. Unfortunately, DDs attendance is around 80% so I don't think she'd be considered for EoTAS yet.

Thanks @Spendonsend - I agree, and I wish that school would do more to support her. However, because she is still on track to reach (and exceed) her targets, they don't see a problem. She masks in school, and appears to be absolutely fine. Her HoY said to me that she doesn't need any RA as 'she's just not that high on the spectrum' (ARGH... Don't get me started on that!)

@fernfriend I would consider a formal complaint. It sounds like a huge step to make but I work in education and can see how sadly for some schools it is the only way to make them take you seriously! Most schools have an "informal" complaint stage - where you can talk through your concerns with a (usually) senior member of staff, and if you are not happy with what is discussed, progress to formal complaint. Sometimes this is enough to have your concerns addressed - particularly if it is something like this where a bit of common sense would do wonders. Often things just get stuck in a loop and another viewpoint can be helpful.

I would look up your complaints policy and see what it says, then email to say you would like to discuss making a complaint and see where it goes from there. Feel free to PM me if you need any help!

Thanks for your reply @handmademitlove - it does feel like common sense has gone out of the window in this instance, but complaining is what I've been trying to avoid. I've worked really hard to maintain positive communication with the school.

I had a look at their compaint procedure - it is as you say. An informal meet first, and if things aren't resolved, it goes to the HT, and then onto panel. I'll have a think. Thanks again. I really do appreciate your thoughts and advice.

I’d also consider the fact that probably by rights your daughter would be classed as having a disability so would be protected under equality laws.

in a work place situation sickness related to disability wouldn’t be counted in an employees sickness record ie, they couldn’t discipline you for being off too much if it’s because of the disability

by rights I think you could apply this to things like school and fines etc and so they SHOULD be authorised.

the letters will probably be automatically triggered (guidance from LA)

what I think I’d be doing now is putting some pressure back on the school.

mid you daughter is autistic and has concurrent mental health challenges exacerbated by this then really she SHOULD have an EHCP.

why doesn’t she? If school have previous evidence of issues such as previous GP letters, appt evidence and letters from CAMHS etc (all of this can be used as proof that she’s under medical care) then why the hell isn’t their SEND coordinator doing more to help her in school. Why isn’t the LEA involved in provision of alternate provision and are they even aware of what’s going on? you can contact them directly too.

Autism isn’t going to magically cure itself. It’s not tonsillitis and if your daughter is officially diagnosed school really should be on the ball with this and it sounds like they’ve dropped it somewhere along the way. I’d definitely be dumping this one back on them

we would never authorise an absence for autism.

Is she in the right school?

The school should be authorising it. They don’t need medical evidence unless they are questioning the authenticity of the absences. The guidance may be non-statutory but it is very clear. The Education (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2006 states absences should be authorised if it is due to sickness or other unavoidable cause.

Are the LA providing alternative education? This should begin once it becomes clear 15 days will be missed. The days don’t need to have already been missed or consecutive.

You should also apply for an EHCNA.

It's probably no consolation but I have just had similar and quoted the guidance to the school.
I met with a senior pastoral care person who talked it through.
Effectively the policy is the LAs not the statutory guidance.
In my case I said I felt the letter was threatening not supportive and I wasn't wasting GP/other medical professional time.
She agreed but said it was policy.
I asked what would happen if the absences were unauthorised as that is what is going to happen. She said that it would be recorded as unauthorised but it was unlikely to go further as that is down to the head who had never asked for fines to be issued.
She pointed out that it's been lapsed due to COVID but this was standard.
However, I personally have had more illness in my own class and my own children than before COVID. (Lack of immune system due to COVID stripping or lack of mixing previously now introducing new bugs??)
I left happy that I wasn't going to be prosecuted but it would require a formal complaint (or 100) to the LA to have any real impact on the problem policy.
I would imagine the LA policy is written out of the government's drive to knock down PA! Such rubbish.

Anyway, I would make it formal via letter/email. Explain the statutory guidance including the mental health part as pp mentioned. I would be asking for 'reasonable adjustments' because of her disability and that you want it confirmed in writing. Refuse to talk on the phone or in person - you want the paper trail in case there is comeback.
Sorry to say that you will be better off doing this than by being kind.

Hope you can get the appropriate solution.
Unmumsnetty hugs

You might find this case law a helpful read.

Which code are your child's absences being coded as in the register?

I wonder if there's a couple of different issues going on here.

The first, likely, issue is that the Local Authority are pushing schools to use LA guidance instead of the law. Some LAs are bad for this.

The second might be crossed wires about attendance codes. If your child's absence is coded as an I on the register then it will be logged as illness, not unauthorized absence. It will still count for attendance purposes though and will factor into having a low attendance.
If you're wanting this swapping to a C code (leave of absence authorised by the school), then this is unlikely, as I is already authorised.

If they are coding your child's absence as O then they're recording it as absent without authorisation.

Whether they're reasonable or not to ask for evidence would depend on a range of features, for example patterns of absence, whether there's been reasonable adjustments within school to support her attending school, whether she would be eligible for alternative provision, whether school/you are putting things in place for an EHCP, whether there's lots of sporadic days off.

I would also look into EOTAS as an option if there's an ongoing issue.

Thanks again, everyone, for your replies. They are really helpful.

I spoke with my local MP this morning, who explained that the DfE guidance around attendance is non statutory. LA's use the guidance as a reference, but, ultimately, each LA creates its own rules around attendance.

Thank you @LolaSmiles - I was not aware of the different attendance codes. I've checked through DDs records and she has a mixture of I and O. The school currently records lateness as I, as the GP and CAMHS have provided evidence that she experiences disrupted sleep. (They didn't do any medical assessments, I just told the GP and CAMHS that she often doesn't sleep, and they wrote it in their report). All other anxiety related absences are recorded as O.

@FloatingBean - thank you! That webpage is super helpful! The HT told me that case law does not recognise MH, so I'm glad that this is not acutally the case. I really hope that it doesn't get to that stage for us though... I did apply for an EHCP a few years ago, but it was rejected due to DDs academic profile. And school had not put in any RA, so they argued that she didn't meet the threshold. I was also told that ECHPs are not granted based on emotional needs alone, and there needed to be some sort of academic impact for it to be granted. The process nearly broke me, as her school at the time (primary) did not cooperate.

Thanks for sharing your experiences @Littlebluebird123 , and I am sorry that you have been through this as well. I thought it was the LA that issues the fines, not the school? Your HT sounds really supportive. I've contacted the EWO again to ask for a copy of their policy.

@Wellillsayitifnoonelsewill - thanks for your thoughts. See above re. EHCP. But do you think it is worth me reapplying? I don't know if I can go through the process again and cope with it being rejected. You've encouraged me to put some more pressure on the school and I am going to try to do try. We've recently got a new SENDCO, who seems to be more proactive than the last one. They have been listening, and have implemented some RA (in the form of a slightly reduced timetable) which has been positive for DD.

I think that I am slowly getting my head around this and I really do appreciate all of your expertise and advice. There's so much to think about.

Reapply for an EHCNA and appeal if you are refused again. EHCPs are about far more than academic ability. It is a myth you can’t have an EHCP if academically able. It is also possible to get one for SEMH needs alone, although as DD has ASD she also have Communication and Interaction needs. Case law shows you can get an EHCP if the school could do more, but won’t. Although LAs often act unlawfully the vast majority of appeals are upheld. On their website IPSEA have a model letter you can use.

As well as applying for an EHCNA you should email the LA’s Director of Children’s Services requesting provision under s.19 of the Education Act 1996. This should have begun once it was clear DD would miss 15 days, the days didn’t need to have already been missed or consecutive. If the provision isn’t forthcoming email again threatening judicial review. Then if that fails contact SOSSEN for help with a pre-action letter.

You should challenge the O codes. The guidance may be non-statutory but it is fairly explicit and the regulations are legislation. The HT was lying about MH not being covered.

I haven't read the whole thread but it looks as though you are getting good advice.
I am dealing with similar background and circumstances - ASD/ADHD, academically bright, undiagnosed until secondary. Unfortunately, my DC is currently under the care of CAMHS Crisis team. They have been absent from school since January with all absences recorded as "Authorised" by the school.

At one point I was advised (by CAMHS) to contact the local council's "Attendance Officer" myself as it is sometimes better to raise the issue as a parent and make it their problem - "how do I safely get my child back into school?" - rather than have the school report you.
In our case I made self-harm (including self harm in school), a safeguarding issue. So yes, my DC is too unwell to attend school but even if I force them how will you ensure their safety.
Our EHCP has now been submitted and for the first time, the SENCO has asked if I can provide a written statement saying DC is not in a fit state to attend school. However, the written statement was only requested in order to support a claim for education provision outside of school. I guess they are hoping the Council will then have to provide this rather than the school.
Finally, please please do not allow your daughter go into school if you don't think it is healthy for her. Especially if she is masking all day. We learned that the hard way.

@cowzen the duty to provide education for those unable to attend school due to their health &/or SEN always lies with the LA, not the school. If provision isn’t already in place for your DC you should email the Director of Children’s Services as it should have been put in place before now.

has she had a diagnosis of autism? Autism is a disability and should be recognised as such. Even without an ehcp they still can’t discriminate. If she’s diagnosed they can’t refuse to recognise it just because she’s not got an EHCP. That just entitles the school to more funding. The lack of one doesn’t mean they can ignore her conditions.

I can’t get my head round how a child diagnosed with autism can be rejected for EHCP anyway? By the very nature of autism there will be some educational needs?? Also if it was rejected at primary then it should be reassessed anyway because needs change.

id definitely start putting more pressure on school and sendco and also push again for the EHCP and appeal appeal appeal any decisions

I can’t get my head round how a child diagnosed with autism can be rejected for EHCP anyway?

Why? Not all pupils with ASD will need and qualify for an EHCP. Having SEN and requiring SEP on their own aren’t enough.

It will only be reassessed if another EHCNA is requested.

Thank you again @FloatingBean - you're comments are so helpful. When I first applied for an EHCP, the council worker that called to tell me the decision recommended that I appeal, but I was utterly disillusioned and broken from the whole experience, I had nothing left in me to fight. I highlighted her sensory differences, and her challenges with communication (she has auditory processing disorder), and the different ways in which she processes information. I wrote 5000 words on her! And I used evidence from her therapist, GP, tutor and a private assessment she'd had to help me understand her sensory differences. I tried to highlight how masking all of these things in school were contributing to her MH challenges and impacting on her ability to access school. I'm feeling emotional now just writing about it. I wish I had appealed. Thanks for encouraging me to try again. I've got a clearer understanding of her needs now, so the application will be easier this time.

@cowzen - thank you for sharing your experiences - I'm sorry that your DC is experiencing similar challenges with MH and is also receiving CAMHS care. It's so hard isn't it? Thank you for the advice about contacting the Attendance Officer at the council. Do you think that's the same job role as an Education Welfare Officer? I don't understand why they make it so difficult. And thank you for reassuring me that sending my DD into school when she is clearly not well enough to go is the right thing to do. I never send her in when she is struggling.

@Wellillsayitifnoonelsewill - thanks for your comments - you'd be surprised how high the threshold is for an EHCP. I know a family who's DC has profound dyslexia, ADD and autism and has had their EHCP application rejected. I don't know why they make it so difficult. And I agree, my DDs needs have changed since starting secondary school, so it is definitely worth her being reassessed.

Out of interest, do you phone the school on each day of her absence?

I ring and leave a message. The school's attendance policy says we have to contact school every day that the child is absent.

Sadly many LAs refuse the majority of requests. They rely on parents not appealing. It saves them money. It’s not your fault, try not to dwell on the past, we all have regrets and we can’t change the past. Focus on reapplying.

IPSEA and SOSSEN have lots of helpful resources on their websites and both have advice lines. The SN and SEN boards on here are helpful too.

Yes I agree @fernfriend it’s money

Every single one of my child's autism related absences have been authorised. It's appalling that some schools make it so difficult