To be worried about all the vulnerable children not attending school for months?

[hibbledobble]

Locally, it's a very deprived area. While some children are entitled to go to school if they are deemed vulnerable (have a social worker or an ehcp plan), statistics show that few of these children do attend, and it isn't enforced.

It seems like a complete disaster for many children, who are vulnerable due to parental drug use/alcohol use/domestic violence or other issues.

I have seen blatant examples of this locally. It's really sad, and I really worry that no one is checking on the welfare of these children. I have already referred to social services where relevant, but now it seems that there will be little ongoing monitoring.

I am sure social services are doing what they can.

It’s very worrying but there’s a limit to how much anyone can do. The schools are open for vulnerable children, professionals are risking their own health to care for children whose parents won’t care for them properly. But if the parents aren’t actually prepared to allow them to do this, there’s a limit to what anyone can do. Makes you realise how fucking awful some parents are. And who’d be a social worker or a teacher. No doubt these parents will be the first to blame everyone else if these children end up suffering

It's a tricky situation. Schools will be in contact with kids deemed vulnerable, or with their parents. Social workers will be informed of non-attendance and will be monitoring the kids on their case loads, doing visual checks and home visits as usual. Parents of kids with an EHCP can send them in if they need to or ask from extra support from school- ultimately there is little reason that they'd be more at risk of abuse than others in this situation. Generally, I find that parents who have pushed for an EHCP are trying their best and tend to be very supportive of their kids. All we can hope is that the ones who are really struggling reach out for support.

Kids who are not on the radar are more of a concern. You can't reliably identify these though, so ultimately we have to presume that parents aren't abusing their kids unless there is evidence to the contrary. The alternative would be the presumption that everyone is abusing their kids, and then what? Some sort of dystopian mandatory boarding school?

I agree, there are tragedies happening.
We are not in a particularly deprived area, but i know that most kids in our scouts group haven’t touched a book in 5 weeks, haven’t eaten a even remotely healthy meal in weeks. And that is a pretty average neighbourhood. These kids are paying a high price!

Children with an ehc plan are not expected to attend school. Some are through parental choice if their needs are difficult/impossible to meet at home and their is a place available for them ( many special schools are completely shut) but there is no expectation that they will attend.

Thank you for thinking of them and for making referrals. Schools are also doing their best to keep in touch with the ones who aren’t attending school. A lot of schools are phoning all students and flagging up concerns through the normal safeguarding procedures.

It Is concerning, even on here there have posts from people living in volatile homes and those children currently have to safe place to escape too, nobody they can confide in.

We are calling families at least weekly, usually more often. I know many schools are physically printing and dropping round FSM vouchers so that they have a reason to be at the house. It’s so tough, we can offer a space at school until we are blue in the face but we can’t make attendance mandatory. Some vulnerable families are still legitimately worried about their children contracting the virus.

I completely agree with all the above points and schools do have procedures in place to check in these children and speak to them and their parents inline with social services. A bigger worry is the children who are vunerable and slipped under the radar of social services support as it doesn't meet a certain threshold.

Also worth mentioning that I know it's been a while that children have not been in school, but bigger picture is children nationally have missed 3 weeks or 15 days of school and children who attend independent school only 2 weeks or 10 days (as they have a 3 week Easter break usually rather than 2 that state schools get).

It is bad, but ultimately there is not much anyone can do and teachers and other suppose agencies will be there to pick up the pieces afterwards. Maybe the government will start funding children's mental health services better after this?

There is also a stigma attached to sending your child into school if you are not a keyworker. People have been abused online for doing it.

In my area I know teachers are regularly checking in on vulnerable children by phone and inviting them into school where they’re not coping.

I'm not sure where you live op, but personally i wouldn't profess to know which kids are vulnerable and which ones aren't at my dcs school. What are you going on exactly? You might walk past my house and hear my son screaming blue murder, for example, and be concerned, but that is because he's a) autistic and b) being asked to put his shoes on. He has an EHCP because I fought tooth and nail for it. Most parents are doing their absolute best, now more than ever.

I hear your concerns but not all children who fall into the vulnerable category are truly vulnerable though. I foster, the children I care for all have social workers so fall into the vulnerable definition but, like many foster parents, we are keeping our FC home to keep them safe. Children like ours will be skewing the figures.

ruffle An example of a child I am concerned about is one whose parent constantly uses drugs in front of her, amongst other concerning behaviour. This is done in public view. It's incredibly sad and worrying. I don't know everyone's situation by any means, but I have seen some concerning examples.

It's good to hear that schools are trying to make provision for these children. I do worry that many wouldn't reach the threshold for having a social worker, even if there are concerns, and they are vulnerable, especially if schools don't reopen till September.

I work in a school with a high volume of vunerable children, from my schools point of view, they are still working very closely with both police and social services daily and throughout the holidays to ensure safety measures and support are offered where needed.

The parent support officers and SENCO are both keeping in touch regularly with all parents spending more time talking to those who are struggling.

All necessary referrals are still being sent out by teachers (speech/etc)

Food parcles are being delivered from the school by local volunteers as well as free school packed lunches.
And of course the school is still open for those that require it.
We have never had less than 15 children in mixed with key workers/ vunerable/ Care Plan.
Hope this gives a little reassurance to people wondering what is happening.
These families in need have not been forgotten.
We cant promise miracles but collectively as a school, working with outside agencies we can still do our very best.

It is very worrying, a family member is a ks1 teacher and is not sleeping worrying about particular children. She is telephoning them (not all parents will allow their child to speak to her) and doing doorstep visits, ready to escalate to social services if need be.

My daughter has an ehcp the school did call us at the start to ask me if I wanted her to still attend school,I declined and we haven't heard from them since, though we don't have SS involved so that's probably why.

I went to drop something at a friend’s (at the end of her path zero contact) who lives in a deprived area of our town. It’s like a ‘rural poor’ area combined with also having large amounts of newly arrived asylum seeker families who have very little money and are probably finding it really hard to cope. There were kids in the street, no shoes or tops on playing - broken glass and rubbish everywhere. I know it’s a snap judgment, but I know the area, and have worked in the primary school there and I just know lockdown will be hitting people so hard. All the interventions - groups, Health visitor involvement, food deliveries, parenting classes, English classes, extended days at school where children get breakfast and tea as well as their lunch, baby groups, sure start groups etc. I think social services will have their work cut out.

We live in a deprived area. The class teachers are speaking to all parents and all the children who can speak on the phone at least once every week. The school cook is doing packed lunches for children entitled to free school meals for the parents to collect. Any family entitled to them who are self isolating get the packed lunches delivered to their home. The head teacher is posting encouraging messages on the school website. It's probably not enough to safeguard all the children but they are doing their best.

I can understand how you feel but as said there is a limit to what anyone can do. Neither teachers or social services can force parents to take these places for their children. As far as I can see schools are doing their best keep in touch with all parents (ours have called twice) but again if parents say everything fine there's little they can do.
I don't know what the answer is.

An ex colleague of mine has got a 14 month old coming to school a couple of days a week to access nursery provision. They don’t even qualify until 2 but the mother is just desperate. So many women are just completely alone, completely skint - it’s really sad.

In terms of children with SEN some of them come on leaps and bounds by not having the anxiety of attending. Some parents can cope and do well with their children.

However my friends little boy is falling behind in his social skills and facial expressions. His language development has come to a standstill.

My GC is entitled to a school place because my DD is a key worker. The school have quite aggressively questioned whether it's really needed, so she is now going between her Dad, my eldest and me.

You can't speak for every school, some don't want children there.

The lady who lives opposite me has had some struggles and is doing really well by the looks of it but she’s had a crew school visits since lockdown.

Sorry, few

From the families I know, most children with ehc plans even with a disability social worker, are not being offered places. All the maintained special schools in my county are closed due to insufficient staffing.