Can the school legally ask for a Doctors sick certificate for absence

[lateSeptember1964]

I have received a letter from the school stating that DS recent absence has to be be covered by a sick note/certificate from my Doctor. If I fail to produce the certificate then his absence will be treated as unauthorised. Are they allowed to do this?

My concerns are that sick certificates are usually issued after several days absence. Secondly there will be a cost for a sick note as it falls outside of the NHS remit. As a healthcare professional I am very conscious of the Government Directive for cutting GP hours. I may have to wait 48hrs for an appt resulting in extending his time off school. I know the school are meeting their targets but surely no law has been passed stating parents have to conform to this?

Surely if I phone in an absence he can not just be classed as unauthorised.

How ridiculous, I would just say no.

The school won't pay a fee. They won't authorise the absence.

I know schools that do this; they are academies. Part of their T&Cs and policies that you sign when you accept the place state that a sick-note will be presented upon return to school for absences due to illness.

Presumably they are within their rights to withdraw your child's place if you do not fulfill your agreement with them?

pelican from next September, anything below 90% will be classed as persistence absence!

90% is daft to be considered persistent absence - 90% is easily obtained with a vomiting bug, bad flu and a bout of the squits! Sadly half of these bugs will be from children who are calpoled and sent in regardless of their illness.

I've heard there is now a list of illnesses, each presented with the number of days a child can/cannot take off for the illness. What is forgotten in all this paperwork is that I (not the state) know best how long my child needs off in order to recover from an illness. I'm teaching my boys to look after their own physical and mental health and to be able to take time off when ill.

Well, exactly- one child may bounce back far more quickly than another.
Daft 90% may be... but that is what the govt have set.

Just to put it in context, if you drop below 90% you have missed 19 full days (or, more accurately, 38 half days) in a school year. Around 10% of pupils would be classed as persistent absentees under this definition.

moonrocket - Do you have a link for this? I haven't seen anything to suggest that the definition of persistent absence is being tightened up.

I've heard there is now a list of illnesses...

This refers to a booklet produced by some local councils in South Wales providing guidance for parents as to how long children should have off school for certain illnesses. This is does not affect schools in England at all. My understanding is that even in South Wales it is intended to help parents understand how long children should be off for various illnesses. It does not mean action will be taken against parents who do not comply with these guidelines.

This may have been mentioned but a gp wouldn't provide a sick note for this short a period, they would expect you to self certify.

There are a few rare circumstances where self certifying doesn't apply but not here.

This document refers to it, but I was told this morning by Capita (verbally, at training) that DfE have taken that decision.

Hmm... cannot get link to work, as it's a pdf file, so I cannot grab the URL.
If you google 'September 2015 DfE "persistent absence rate 90%" ' then it's the first hit.

Ironically at my dc's school they all came out clutching leaflets about how to use health services today. Dial 999 for this, 111 for that, GP for t'other, pharmacist for this and self care for XYZ.

Didn't mention wasting NHS resources getting a sick certificate for a two day absence for a cold. Ludicrous.

Just think if just one school had a policy like this and they had 200 children who all had just one period of two day absence where they were required to produce a sick note that would be an extra 50 hours of GP time or about £2500 (assuming 15 minute appointment and £50ph).

I expect some clever person can tell you how many flu jabs that is worth or mammograms or other preventative care. Certainly I can tell you it would fund a term time only breastfeeding support service or a whole year of one-to-one SALT for two children.

Thanks moonrocket.

That Welsh leaflet was withdrawn yesterday for being wrong.

The Welsh councils took the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health logo without permission, and used their information wrongly.

The information is actually about how long children remain infectious to others, not how long it will take them to recover from the condition themselves.

So it seems the council consortium nicked some info from the internet or a publication it didn't understand, and then misadvised parents while pretending to be endorsed by actual doctors. Jolly good.

let them mark it as unauthorised....4 days in a year is not going to flag up anywhere.

Are they allowed to do this?

they don't have any choice, ofsted can insist. But you don't have to pay any attention, its no skin off your nose. Just ignore, if you want to.

'It's no skin of your nose'
Until you get fined... which you can do if the school has evidenced the case well enough.

ZOMBIE thread.

School can't win.

We get it in the neck from the government/Ofsted regarding child absence. Attendance (and the handling of absence) forms part of the criteria we are assessed on.

So we put policies into place to show that we are aware of the criteria the government have set.

We then get it in the neck from the parents (and I can understand that because the criteria are daft in some cases), who are asked for proof of illness.

It's ludicrous!