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.

our messaging system can translate into around 30 different languages so at a minimum any written contact can be understood.

As a professional translator this worries me... but I don’t know what the answer is.

Parents seem to like it, I'm not sure how good a translation is but given the range and number of languages in schools it's hard to think of an alternative that would work.

I'm glad to hear there is a lot of thought going into to this by schools. I don't know what is happening behind the scenes.

I am still worried about the vulnerable children I see though. I have no idea if anyone checks on them in particular.

Yeah I agree with you. It’s clear from some of the posts on this thread that schools are doing what they can and I’m not at all knowledgeable about this but it just seems to me that there must be thousands of children who aren’t ‘vulnerable’ but still have sub-optimal or difficult home environments, and these school closures will have a terrible effect on them.

Speaking personally, when I was a kid, this lockdown would have been a disaster for me. The difficulties with my home life would never have been noticed by anyone outside the home.

Just had a message round from school who are calling all families daily (small specialist school) to say some families are not answering the phone despite repeated calls (not guilty! though if it's DH looking after the DCs I hand over to him).

It sounds like they are then having to call in social services; not ideal all round. I don't know if they will have the power to insist on attendance for some if schools partially open, but it looks like there are some for whom that wouldn't be a bad idea.

All of our vulnerable children ( in terms of social care) attend school, not every day in some cases but at a minimum three times a week. Not every child with an EHCP does as some are safer, for medical reasons, at home and some just because parents prefer it ( as the child would find social distancing difficult or the change in routines and staff would be difficult to deal with) Families who are marginally vulnerable ( ie no social services involvement but previous or other difficulties) are kept in touch with regularly and a risk assessment completed every two weeks. If circumstances change or if I am concerned, the children are invited into school once a week ( across the week to keep numbers in school as restricted as possible) so that at least we ensure we can keep app an eye on them. I'm also making more referrals than usual- probably because I can't see the child involved on a daily basis so I err on the side of caution.

Some parents do try to avoid me when I call, but I'm persistent! We do visit vulnerable families ( keeping at a safe distance) if we can't get in touch and I have asked the PCSOs to check out a couple!

I think the real issue are there are so many children living in homes where they aren't safe.

Why do we keep skirting round that issue ? Why is the UK government and society ok with this ?

If anything this fear should force us to make real changes to social care and not allow people to breed child after child.that they're unwilling to offer basic care to.

I totally agree with your first two sentences @WhatWouldYouDoWhatWouldJesusDo

You are totally oversimplifying and being quite rude and insulting with your third sentence though.

People on this thread were responding to the OP in this particular thread though. I think there's a lot of scope for a completely fresh thread in your thoughts.

Haven't RTT

My foster child is attending (full EHCP).

Myself and the social workers believe it to be in his best interests. Plus he wants to go.

however one of the teachers in particular has been really sly and unpleasant making us feel as though we are doing something wrong. She doesn't say anything in front of the lovely head teacher though

She's also done it to at least one of the other parents (key worker) so I'm wondering whether some people who are 'entitled to' may have considered sending children in but have been put off by school!

A HUGE amount of work is being done by Children’s services to try to get children open to social workers into schools to try to keep them safe. It is hard work on top of all of the many many other things that social workers are doing to try to keep children safe at the moment (and fed, housed etc).
For most of social care this is the busiest time we have ever known and the impact of domestic violence on children is worse than ever.
Children open to social care are checked on much more regularly than they were before by various agencies but you wouldn’t see that as a lot is being done over the phone and video calls. Social workers are still doing face to face visits though.
This work, as it has always been, is completely invisible, unless it goes wrong in a horrible way and ends up on the front page of the newspapers.

And also we are doing this with no support from our teams as we are all working from home, so the job is even harder than usual.
I have never been so tired and cried so much for the children I work with.

It is the children who aren’t working with social care that are at risk and the public need to be mindful of this and make referrals to social care if they think it is needed, as our biggest referrer, schools, are not doing this now.

Hmmm I thought it was lovely I/my daughter were getting a call every 2 weeks. I'd realised not everyone was. I'd assumed it was due to autism and being in yr 6/struggling with school finishing.

Was it a welfare call and they're checking up on me?!?!

What is "checking how you are" other welfare?

*other than

In my mind there's a difference between keeping in touch with children (which some small schools are doing with all children /a friends had a zoom assembly) so the child feels part of the communtiy/connected etc and checking up on a parent who they feel may not be providing a basic safe home/looking after their child properly. I'd hope they'd know me better.

We'd already had a lovely chat with the Elsa lady about transition to secondary which is our current worry as lots of extra transition had been arranged.

Well, all the calls are to check that all the many ways your DD could not be OK are not affecting her, surely, so you can have advice if you need it, or more input?
I don't think anyone believes we are a danger to DS but the school is still checking he's OK, daily .
I don't really get the "how DARE they check my family is OK" indignation.

That's not really it. I'm pleased my school called. I just hadnt realised it could be because they considered us at risk.

Yanbu. And of course the issue is far wider than vulnerability, it's inequality. There will be a massive impact: private v comprehensive education, where many private schools are going above and beyond to keep the children engaged in a proper curriculum; between the 'leafy' comprehensives and those servicing more deprived areas; and, wherever children go to school, between parents who are educated and uneducated; and those who care and those who don't or can't.
It is an absolute tragedy that will lead to poorer, more deprived lives, yet more inequality, and earlier deaths. But politics is always about the short-term and people's memories are short too. The media doesn't and won't ever give us daily front page news of deaths due to poverty, obesity, air pollution, and all the inter-related causes of early death; so as a population, we don't care about those.

Totally spot on @Harryrotter

@SquashedFlyBiscuit - there are ALL SORTS of calls going on at ALL SORTS of levels.

Some schools have the staff and capabilities to contact every family.
Some are having to focus on the 'more likely to be vulnerable in some way' - which can be for a myriad of reasons, and is NOT in any way a criticism of parents or parenting. A LOT of families are under all sorts of pressures they aren't normally under. I don't think I would have coped with trying to work at home when my 3 dc were any age U14 - anybody could surely do with someone checking they are okay every now and then.

I think the real issue are there are so many children living in homes where they aren't safe

Yes this is an issue. That's why we have social workers, early help workers etc

Why do we keep skirting round that issue ? Why is the UK government and society ok with this ?

In what way are we skirting the issue? What makes you think this? How do you think the government and society is ok with children being unsafe?

If anything this fear should force us to make real changes to social care and not allow people to breed child after child.that they're unwilling to offer basic care to.

It sounds like you're advocating forced sterilisation here. That can't be what you meant, can it? Do you have any amazing ideas to overhaul social care apart from 'stop them breeding'?