School not letting my child from the school

[Kutika]

I have read numerous discussions where people mention that schools cannot legally prevent a child from leaving, yet I find myself in this exact situation. The school is refusing to allow my child to leave, despite my clear instructions. I've sent an email, filed a complaint with the trust, and even contacted the police, but to my surprise, none of these actions have resolved the issue. I was told by the head teacher that the law does not apply to them. Any ideas on who to contact?

Which law is this?

If the school has a safeguarding concerns, they must report it and inform the op.

If the school has info about an external threat eg a stranger tried to abduct a child, they'd be alerting parents. As would the police.

So what exactly do you mean by safeguarding issues? Other than using the term 'safeguarding' to excuse their behaviour, whilst ignoring well established safeguarding procedures.

Surely the simplest option for the school is to let parents decide if they want their child to walk home and write a letter consenting to that. If school then have any safeguarding concerns about a particular child they can escalate it.

The one that prevents people from detaining a child without any justification.

And let's be absolutely clear. If they believed the child was at risk, they are duty bound to escalate this concern.

@NetflixAndKill The school are breaking the law. It's not about a specific law that can be identified (although if you read the whole thread, a few are mentioned). The school is a part of the "state" in a loose sense and unless they have the power to do something, they cannot do it. In this case, they do not have the right to prevent a child leaving the school and going home. Therefore they are breaking the law, by refusing to allow this. English law works on the principle that everything is allowed, unless it is specifically forbidden.

I disagree. The appropriate age might vary a bit according to the child's circumstances and maturity but that's even more reason for the school not to make blanket rules. They should let the parents decide because only they know the child's individual circumstances. If the child is so young that it would be inappropriate in all situations they need to inform social services as that child is obviously being neglected.

Absolutely agree. It's what happens already in 99% of schools.

I agree, and it doesn't sound like that's a longterm plan from the school, based on this from the OP - more like something done when they felt that they had no alternative.

The last email I received stated that if I don’t collect my child, social services will be involved. My response was simple: let's involve them and explain why you’re not allowing my child to walk home.

"If the child is so young that it would be inappropriate in all situations they need to inform social services as that child is obviously being neglected."

Yes but what age is that? Four, five, six, seven, eight, nine?

It's different.

There may be an 11 year old who the school feel can't make their own way home safely.

Hopefully they'd immediately follow their own procedure for how to deal with this. This would probably involve escalating the issue.

But they do have justification, they have a policy which states that children of that age are not allowed to walk home alone.

It is certainly not 9 which is the age of OP's child.

A policy is not justification.

Of course it bloody is??

They have a policy which states children of that age cannot walk home alone=justifies why they are not letting the child walk home alone

Borderline. At my kids' school they couldn't walk home alone during the first two terms at age nine though it looks like the OP's kid is a year above if they're ten next month. But then if they made the rule that nine was okay but eight wasn't, there'd be a parent insisting that their eight year-old smasher was special and shouldn't need to abide by it.

You can't override the law with a policy.

The poster stated the law the school are breaking is you ‘cannot detain a child without justification’- the school have justification

Employer, landlord, school... whatever.

Writing a policy doesn't make it correct or legal.

If the school has identified a safeguarding concern they have a procedure to follow. The procedure is not. Send the child to afterschool club.

Do you think the school are correct to ignore basic safeguarding?

No it's not on the borderline. Regardless of your school rules I'm sure they wouldn't inform social services if a sensible 9 year old walked three hundred metre home by themselves to a house that their parent was in.

They are demanding money for services not wanted or requested and then holding a child saying they won't release her.

There's a massive conflict of interest here.

This is 'problematic'.

They couldn't have done that - the kids had to be collected from the playground. Of course it's borderline, our school didn't allow it and while that's not an uncommon policy, neither is it a universal one, because it's a borderline age.

A policy is just a decision to do something one way, not another. It is not the law, and it cannot possibly override the law.

This makes the point well.

The school, because they are demanding money as part of this, have put themselves in a particularly difficult position.

They can't say its safeguarding if they haven't reported it to SS and are demanding money.

If they are demanding money then their priority isn't safeguarding its their bank balance.

In demanding money they've made it a conflict of interest which isn't centring the well being of the child. If they have concerns they should flag them not try to enforce a resolution at cost to the OP in this manner.

They don't want to report it to social services because they know damn well that SS will say they are in the wrong and there isn't a risk. Thus blowing a big fat hole in their policy as being unworkable.

As far as we know they have done it once, and then said they will call social services the next time the child is left uncollected. It's not exactly an abduction.

Agree.

The irony is that their policy does override all safeguarding principles.

They've responded to a concern by inventing a system of compulsory after school attendance.

Is their concern genuine? Because if so why aren't they applying the principles of joined up thinking that we all learn about. (Within the school system)