Penalty Notice Fine and school refusal

[catsruleok]

We have just received Penalty Notice for my sons school refusal since Easter !

I have emailed the Virtual School to see if we can appeal.

Mad is an understatement !!!😡

I don't have any advice but I'm presuming it's a complex situation and your family has been trying to get support - and instead of listening to you, someone's sent you a fine! Is anyone at all supporting you? Adoption UK maybe, or NATP? I'm sorry it's so hard.

My son has not been to school for a year. It is very stressful.

I think you need to get post adoption support involved. Your son has a Post Adoption Support Fund, to help with support and age appropriate counselling.

How old is your son?

Agree it's ridiculous.
Agree to get post adoption support involved.

Morning thank you all.

We have Post adoption support involved, social worker was copied in to every blooming email but they never contacted him.

Looking at our local councils website they did not follow protocol, they did reduced timetable twice then my son would not attend and the cycle of non attendance started again but no other support from council or other agencies.

I emailed every single morning of non attendance.

I spoke to staff various times and was sobbing down the phone due to my frustration and fear for him.
Hardly enabling him not to attend to school but all to no avail in the end we are just a statistic.
I don't think a few meetings with Pastoral support, two meetings with the Head of Year (15 mins each time) constitute as support.

There is no right to appeal. As far as I can see we are all at the whim of the Head teacher hence why some are fined and some are not.

Our son begged us to change schools which we have done and he starts the new school in September.
It is the other end of town so he knows nobody so who knows if it will be a success or if the new school are more sympathetic or supportive.

If he school refused again maybe my only option will be home schooling to avoid fines or prosecution ??? That will be a massive fail with our relationship and education as he will not engage.

I've no idea I am just MAD at the injustice of it all. Poor kids.

thanks for listening.

I would counter the fine arguing the local authority aren’t meeting their duty to ensure accessible education provision - take it under the equalities act. What supports have the school put in place to support him in school, what steps have they taken to understand his school refusal - does the reduced timetable effectively amount to informal exclusion etc etc.

Are you in England? This is ridiculous. After 15 days of being out of school the local authority should have been providing provision. Does your child have an EHCP? It doesn’t matter - even without they should have been providing support. Hang on, I will paste a few links. Feel free to pm me.

https://www.ipsea.org.uk/pages/category/children-out-of-school

https://www.ipsea.org.uk/school-anxiety

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/63ee20a3d3bf7f62e5f76ba4/Summary_of_responsibilities_where_a_mental_health_issue_is_affecting_attendance.pdf

https://educationhub.blog.gov.uk/2024/02/29/fines-for-parents-for-taking-children-out-of-school-what-you-need-to-know/

https://notfineinschool.co.uk/home/f/absence-due-to-illness---do-mental-health-problems-count