To tell you the school does not decide when your child can walk home alone

[Itisuptoyou]

I keep seeing this on threads and I don’t want to derail what the thread is about.

But the school cannot decide this. You do as parent. It may be you are broadly in agreement with the school and I am but this is your choice and not the schools.

It irrationally annoys me when people claim ‘the schools don’t allow …’ Not up to the school!

Some aren’t though, and of course the school should intervene to protect those children.

You don’t safeguard children by imposing blanket rules on everyone, and think you’ve done your job. You do need to assess risk on an individual basis. If a parent gives permission for their child to walk home alone it’s ridiculous to say no because some parents won’t make that assessment based on their child’s capacity. You have to address individual concerns with individual parents.

I don’t think for a second that 7 year old shows no other signs of vulnerability or difficulty, which is what the school should be responding to.

The parents should have ganged up.

As I said, they are likely to ask the child to be released, but it would be logged and there would likely be a follow up call to the parents to check everything is okay.

Schools don’t make decisions on safeguarding. They report concerns. Social work have access to a far bigger picture than schools do.

I was reported to social work by a nurse once because I had to walk with dd in my arms to an appointment when she was a baby. They assumed I had no pram. I did have a pram; I had forgotten to take it out the boot of the car, and my partner had taken the car to work. Social work looked over our file and gave us a quick call to check everything was good, then closed the case.

And if you actually read my posts, you’ll see that I said that schools shouldn’t have a blanket rule and should judge each case individually. It’s literally there in black and white. Several times.

Countries, where kids navigate themselves around the streets at a young age, teach children these skills from very young. Here parents stop at crossings and do the left and right bit, or wait for the green man, but they do not teach in anywhere like the same depth. So tiny children would be taught from 2/3 years old things like we do not cross between parked cars as we do not have a good view. Children not taught develop road crossing skills much later.

No you can leave your kids at home alone at a younger age.

Otherwise lots of parents I know are neglectful for leaving their kids from 30 minutes to a day aged on their own.

If I didn't cross the road between parked cars we wouldn't be able to cross the road.

Have you lived in a UK city or large town?

@febrezeme Not true anyway. Lots of parents work from home who can't get out to do the school run.

Parents aren't allowed to leave their kids home alone below the age of what 14???

You’ve got that very wrong, there is no lower age for leaving a child home alone. As a parent you need to assess your child’s capacity to get themselves home safely, let themselves in (ie having responsibility for having a key to the house) and being able to cope at home until a parent arrives eg can they get a snack if needed, do they know how to get help in an emergency etc. if you assess your child to be capable at age 10 there’s no law stopping you, but if something happened and your child was harmed you would be accountable for your decision making.

EXACTLY!

Which is why a 7 year old walking home alone is a concern.

Which is why it was reported.

Which is why the report was taken seriously.

No I don't agree. If there was some sort of incident then the school would be involved in any enquiry. So it is up to them to raise an issue if they dont think it's safe for a child to walk home alone.

Not necessarily. You can state your reasons why you need this to happen and negotiate it. For some children not getting picked up will be a safeguarding issue, they'll also be home alone and I've known of children who's parents are addicts etc who will be put at risk if the school didn't have this policy. When children were off school during lockdown a lot ended up dead, many more seriously abused. Schools are a good way of safeguarding. This is part of safeguarding. Like allowing authorised time off, discretion can be used.

That is an issue of public planning that needs dealing with. Over here we have zebra crossings everywhere, you never have to walk far to get to the next crossing so no need to cross between parked cars (which is something I teach my children never to do, and don't do it myself so they don't get the idea to copy).

Some parents risk assess well.

Some parents do not.

Some parents risk assess well but have to balance the risks of children walking hone alone vs loss of employment, for example.

You have to understand that a school does not have the power to instantly prevent child A from walking home alone even if they know full well that the risk is high. They will log it as a safeguarding incident, alongside everything else they spot, and with luck, that pile of evidence will tip
into ‘meeting the threshold for action’ before very serious harm occurs.

As standing at the door and saying ‘you can go because your parents can risk assess well / no, you can’t as we worry about your parents’ is not a practical option, most schools work via ‘age related’ criteria which can be over-ridden by exception and with everything in writing.

If in return for the ‘parents know their own children so have the right to tell the school what their child is doing’, every teacher had the right to say everything that happens outside the school gate, except that which is necessary to record as a safeguarding concern, is nothing to do with school’, I think that would be a fair exchange. Hours spent resolving friendship or social media -related issues from outside school, the behaviour in the park of children wearing school
uniform, ‘I know I said he could walk home alone but he’s not cone home and I’m raging so you must find him’, supervising homework ‘because she won’t do it for me’ etc etc etc…

I'm talking about the parents who don't WFH obviously

It might not strictly be illegal but I've read countless threads on MN where if a poster has said can I leave my 8 year old for 10 mins whilst I pop to the shops the answer has been a resounding no

But when it suits they can be left for 3 hours having walked home from school 🤔

*Which is why a 7 year old walking home alone is a concern.

Which is why it was reported.

Which is why the report was taken seriously.*

Its why that 7 year old walking home alone was a concern, not all 7 year olds.

And if you actually read my posts, you’ll see that I said that schools shouldn’t have a blanket rule and should judge each case individually.

You’ve said parents aren’t best placed to assess whether a child is able to walk home alone, you’ve also said schools can’t risk assess every family and so need a blanket rule. You’ve also given the example of one 7 year old saying that’s why all 7 year olds shouldn’t be allowed to walk home. I have read, and quoted your posts.

That 9 year old walking home alone can then feed into other safeguarding concerns. Which is why policies are very much needed to keep some children safe, if not alive. There's children living very miserable lives, at risk constantly. It's for these children these policies are needed.

I was a child protection social worker for 12 years, including in lockdown, so do know a thing or two about child safeguarding. How is a child walking home from school alone more risky than being in their home with a parent who is addicted to drugs? This doesn't make sense. It's the parent's behaviour while using drugs - not the walk home, that causes harm to the child. Safeguarding is used as a guise for authoritarianism, and it's pathetic, frankly. I put this in bold as it's come up again and again. Safeguarding cannot be a word that is inserted into every conversation to avoid children ever being exposed to any risk. Your post shows me you don't understand risk, and it's sad to see someone working in schools just not getting it.

Surely the only reason to not allow a child to walk alone is if there is an unmanageable risk from cars on the roads, or there is a peado rehab unit on the route for example. Once a child is capable and sensible enough they should be able to travel alone. My SEN kid has been travelling across London by tube since he was just turned 10, he made some mistakes and has had some tricky times, but has learnt from them and is very independent now.

@GneissGuysFinishLast But you did not just report a 7 year old walking home alone. You reported a whole load of other issues as well.
A child walking home alone might be part of a wider picture of neglect, or it might not. Just as a child arriving at school without lunch might be part of a wider picture of neglect, or might not.

I’ve RTFT now! 😂

I am not arguing with schools. I don’t actually have school age children, yet. I am a teacher, though.

Schools may have preferences - that’s fine, they may prefer to hand a child over to the parent. What they don’t have is the right not to permit a child to go, with their parents’ permission, at the end of the school day.

As it happens, I’m broadly in agreement that Y5/6 is about right, but there is a world of difference between ‘this is our preference’ and ‘we don’t allow that.’

@Dumbphone Great comment. Loads of people just use safeguarding to mean any parenting they disapprove of.

That 9 year old walking home alone can then feed into other safeguarding concerns. Which is why policies are very much needed to keep some children safe, if not alive. There's children living very miserable lives, at risk constantly. It's for these children these policies are needed.

If there are other safeguarding concerns these need to be addressed, a child in a neglectful or abusive home won’t be more safe, or less miserable, for being picked up at school because of a blanket policy. To be honest neglectful parents aren’t likely to pick up their child because school says so, they’ll get someone else to do it, or tell their child to say their parent is at the gate when they aren’t or simply not send them to school.

All a blanket policy does is persuade the school that they’ve ticked a box, it does nothing to actually improve the quality of a neglected child’s life.

That's rubbish!

I won't release my brownies either to walk home alone. I have a duty to ensure that they don't come to any harm whilst in my care, until they are in the care of someone else. Basic safeguarding.

@cantkeepawayforever I do not ask the school to get involved in things that happen outside of school. That is my job as a parent.