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?

They still can't charge for it though if its a safeguarding issue.

Its unenforcable and could be regarded as harassment or bullying if they continue to persue it.

I think you’re delusional in thinking this is a legal matter. It’s clearly their policy, designed to safeguard children, no state schools don’t have resources to make case by case assessments. If DH is on a call and your daughter doesn’t arrive when will he realise? 300m is still plenty distance for something to happen. I live in a very nice area, and a neighbours 10 yr old was almost snatched by some men in a car. She was certainly nearer than 300m from home.

Apologies, if I'm missing something but why can't she just walk out?

@ChampagneLassie It's clearly a legal matter if their policy breaks the law.
School doesn't need to make a case by case assessment. Just change the rules to Yr 4 and up, or similar.

Great, and I expect that the fee for yesterday will be waived in the end when there's been enough jumping up and down done about it. I don't think that's the key issue though - it appears that nobody collected the child, so the school kept them at school pending collection. From here on, the parents now have the option of ASC or collection, or social services will be called.

Incidentally aren't lots of school policies not actually the law of the land?

I mean, I heard of a school that emailed parents to inform them that pupils will be punished for calling other people Sigma, and I've not spotted any pertinent legislation on that.

@bignosebignose Of course. It is not the law of the land that you learn recorder or wear a blue tie. But it is not against the law for the school to have these rules in school time and on school premises. But it is not the law that the school can enforce guitars and blue ties outside their premises and/or outside school time. That is the difference.

Of course schools make case by case assessments. If school believes a child isn't safe to walk home alone, no matter how old they are, they have a procedure to make a safeguarding referral.

By not making such a referral, the school have taken safeguarding policy into their own hands. They've not shared their concerns with other services.

But it absoluetely SHOULD be part of this and should trigger a reasonable complaint.

If they are safeguarding they should report that the parents were being negligent. If they weren't reporting they are failing in their legal responsibilities to report suspected negligence to the relevant body responsible. They are overstepping their own remit and not referring when they should.

If there is no negligence and no suspicion of negligence they can't keep the child there against their parents wishes because thats also not legally ok. And they certainly can not try and charge the parents for this...

Better worded than what I said. But they've overstepped.

A failure to share information with the relevant body is a safeguarding failure. A lot of the worst tradgies come out of failures to share safeguarding concerns between agencies.

Either its a safeguarding matter or its not. The school don't get to decide the severity of that because its not their job to make that judgment call.

Wearing a tie might be a rule.

Walking home is a life skill that should be encouraged and developed as part of independence building.

A school can't bill parents for a failure to wear a tie.

If we have written permission for the child to go home alone then they leave the school at 3pm with no involvement from me. No one has ever tried to give permission for a child in a year group lower than Y5 to go home alone so it’s not an issue I’ve ever dealt with.

I think you have misread my post. There isn’t a law to say the children have to be collected by an adult from a certain age. I wasn’t talking about them breaking the law by withholding a child back. I’ve also RTFT

I swear a school could be requiring children to do lessons standing on their heads and some parents on MN would say, well you knew the rules so if you don't like it you'll need to find a different school.

Another one of these?? What an over reach from the school....absolutely ridiculous. School policy?

1. They are creating unnecessary work for themselves
2. This is a parent decision.

What is going on in England??? This is not safeguarding....I'd be on to the LA about this.

I'm don't really see the logical connection between your second and third paragraphs. If the school had no previous concerns but a parent didn't turn up on time, then keeping the child safely in school for one or two hours without hitting the social services panic button doesn't seem unreasonably lax. But that's no reason to abandon their own apparent policy by sending the child home alone.

"If there is no negligence and no suspicion of negligence they can't keep the child there against their parents wishes because thats also not legally ok"

The school has a duty of care under the law to safeguard children. Their policy on pupil being collected incorporates this and would have been drafted in consultation with the dsl etc and signed off by the governors. So they absolutely do have grounds to " detain" a child until they can be collected safely.

Whilst on school grounds s and at after school clubs the child is cared for by DBs staff and is in no danger. But the school does not have to immediately refer to social services if a child is kept at school if a parent is running late as these referral require certain thresholds to be passed. So if the parent does not collect safely after a certain time or a pattern of incidents are built up then a referral will follow.

Ivery much doubt the law is being broken here despite the hysterical posters adamant it is. OP contacted the police who weren't interested either.

This thread has reminded me of a rule my daughter's youth group recently put in.

I was told she would have to be collected at the door by me and was not permitted leave alone. This was because of safeguarding the youth.

My daughter was 17. The car was parked in the venue's car park.

The way some of you are responding to this thread, I should not have challenged that ridiculousness, as in your opinion, the safeguarding lead at the youth group had their training and exceptions shouldn't be made for the blanket safeguarding policy.

Don’t be daft- the children will be allowed from April. Their development is not going to be stunted from this.

She can tell them her opinion, which she has done. They have responded with a reiteration of their rule.
Everyone has rules they don’t like, but that’s how society works.

If the school has a genuine concern in this specific instance, they would be right to raise that concern with the proper authorities (in fact as PPs have pointed out, they have a legal duty to do this). What they do not have the right to do is detain the DC in question by not allowing them to walk home or forcing them to attend an ASC for which OP has not given permission.

It never ceases to amaze me how many people, even people who work in schools, think that school rules and policies take precedence over the law even outside school hours. They do not. OP has made her wishes known, expressly and in writing, and the school are obliged to follow those wishes unless they can provide a very specific reason it is unsafe to do so. 'We have a policy' won't cut it.

At present there is only one party in this dispute which is actually breaking the law and it isn't @Kutika.

Yes, but why should the OP be inconvenienced just to protect all the children that go to the school.

Clearly, the school are acting illegally and just to be awkward for absolutely no reason whatsoever.

Can a parent in the same class collect her and drop her at the house?

I was told by the head teacher that the law does not apply to them

Wait, what? I've just re-read your OP @Kutika, I must have missed this before. The HT actually voiced the opinion that the law does not apply to them? Of course it fucking does. Schools don't get to ignore disability discrimination legislation, for example, just because they are a school. Sadly I have plenty of (professional, not personal) experience of schools – most often their HTs – thinking this, but have never heard one actually say it out loud.