Refusing school place "as directed" by HT/school

[sparklyjumper80]

A fairly niche question but I have scoured the internet and cannot find an answer!

If a school/headteacher/LA has directed a child to attend alternative provision rather than attend their current school (due to behaviour, not SEN), can the LA prosecute if the place is refused and child is not attending any school?

The only info I can find if on the gov website that says it's the parents responsibility to ensure the child attends.

It depends if the child is on the roll of the alternative provision or not. If a child is on roll at the alternative provision, but doesn’t attend, then parents are responsible. I’m assuming the child is off roll from his/her previous school.

If you are saying this is a managed move but you disagree with it, you still have to ensure the child attends educational provision if a place is provided. It appears it has been.

You could disagree with the provision, refuse it, and home educate. Others will correct me if I’m wrong but unless you home educate, then it’s parents responsibility to ensure attendance.

Thanks @BubblesBuddy. They are still on the old school's roll as we haven't actually visited and the child never started.

do you mean can you get fined for non-attendance?

and do you mean the child refused the place or the alternative provision refused the child?

our alternative provision we remained on roll of original school (it was a home tutor for 3 hours a week) we did have to 'attend' so I think you could be pursued for not getting your child to attend.

why didn't you visit or your child start ? Were you wanting to homeschool?

I would go and see the alternative provision. That’s the starting point. I think you then need to negotiate with your school about reintegration. However not going anywhere will be a problem.

Any school can direct a pupil to another school or alternate provision and the pupil stays on the register of the original school. They will simply be counted as not being present and this will eventually lead to somebody contacting you as parent about their absence.
The question is whether this is just a short term measure, so that the pupil sees (if he went) that the grass is not always greener on the other side or whether this is AP as a prelude to some kind of permanent exclusion or managed move. You need to establish that and you really need to get him to school somewhere!