Petition to stop SEN pupils being classified as persistently Absent

[romanatonic]

Hello, I hope this is ok to post here. My daughter has a very rare and complex health condition (Klippel Trenaunay Syndrome and Lymphedema) which means that every morning she has to get up and remove six layers of compression bandages from her leg and don two compression garments to control her swelling. After school, she has to rush home and have dinner before having an hour of therapy (manual lymphatic drainage massage, skin care and overnight compression bandages). Without this her swelling would increase and with it her risk of cellulitis and possible sepsis. She also has sensory processing issues and the bandages often become itchy, painful or otherwise uncomfortable for her in the night and have to be removed and a night time garment donned instead but this does not contain the swelling adequately. She is only five years old, despite this she manages to go every single day to school and has only been absent for one week since starting in September with an ear infection and a temperature of 40 degrees.
However, because she is seen by a multidisciplinary team including two specialist hospitals in London aswell as by Orthopaedics and a paediatrician locally, her medical appointments have brought her attendance down to close to the 90% mark and she is on the brink of being classified as persistently absent. All of her absences have been authorised by the school, they have all been medical and related to her condition but the current policy on the persistently absent classification makes no consideration at all for children like my daughter who have no choice but to miss school because of their medical needs. If my daughter did not go to those appointments she would be discharged and not get the care she needs for her condition. For all local appointments we already request that they are after school but this is not always possible and it also means we are unable to carry out her therapy in the evening. Her Lymphedema and disturbed sleep from compression therapy can both make her tired and she needs 11.5 -12 hours sleep a night. It is a tough schedule to work around school and she puts up already with so much because of her conditions.
I have started a government petition to try to change the policy so that children with medical conditions, SEN or disabilities are not classified as persistently absent for authorised medical absences related to their conditions. I've tried to outline the disadvantages of the label in the petition , although this was very limited by word count! but essentially want to highlight what damage this can do to pupils as they get older and begin to apply for jobs and places at educational institutions. The policy is so poorly thought out and although the government says that schools must not discriminate against pupils with disabilities, requiring them to classify pupils in this way is doing just that.
Here is a link to the petition and also instagram page where I plan to post videos from signees saying they support the petition and maybe also their reasons for doing so. If you agree that the policy should be changed and made more inclusionary for children with health conditions please sign and share as widely as you can or if you would like to make a short video for the instagram page to show support please do get in touch! thank you for taking the time to read.

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/658686
https://www.instagram.com/persistently_absent/

So sorry this is happening to your daughter and that she has this condition. Signed for you and hope you get it changed.

Ah yes, I've had the persistent absence letter. DS has ASD. He has poor sleep, despite being under sleep clinic and prescribed melatonin and EBSA. He often struggles with Mondays because of the transition from weekend to weekday particularly. He is also "working at greater depth" across all his subjects.

I've contacted to school to explain when we're struggling to get him in and why. When he won't go he often won't get out of bed or speak at all or will just sit dressed on the stairs in silence for hours. The letter suggested I should consider trying to improve his attendance, I did briefly think about replying to ask if they knew how I could maybe make him be a bit less autistic but I decided to just ignore it instead.

It's completely unfair to set attendance goals that are impossible for certain cohorts. For adults in employment they would be enabled by the Disability Act to ask for a reasonable adjustment to the attendance policy (lower threshold for trigger point or to record the absence differently) but the government won't allow schools to do this and I don't understand why. It doesn't achieve anything positive least of all the improvement in attendance they are aiming for.

Also, isn't the onus equally on school and not only the parent/carer to see what can be done to improve attendance? Government say schools should take a support first approach but most of the letters sent out to parents don't offer any kind of support at all. More the opposite!

We are about 30 weeks into the school year so she has been off about 15 days in 2 ands half terms.A full week for an earache (sounds a lot) must mean she has 10 full day appointments? Is that right, it sounds excessive

@romanatonic, that sounds so tough for your little DD to have to cope with. Of course she needs to attend her medical appointments. I've signed the petition for your DD.

That's what I thought and did query if they had calculated it correctly but they told me it was calculated per term. She had an ear infection which needed antibiotics and she was off for a week please don't forget kids with medical conditions often have compromised immune systems! which is the point of the petition and why it is unfair to hold them to the same standards as children without medical needs or disabilities.

How would they distinguish though? A child who has major surgery is likely to be persistently absent but it could be a one-off. Giving them a special dispensation for that year would be too much of an administrative burden. And some parents would argue that their child has a disability because of anxiety - do we accept all these cases or just those under CAMHS? I’m really sympathetic, I just don’t know if it would work.

I do know that no employer is going to ask or care about school attendance, though. All they’re bothered about is qualifications and experience.

Both employers and educational institutions can and do ask for assurances on attendance for prospective applicants. Especially school leavers as they won't have experience yet. I wrote to our local MP, Caroline Lucas and she put it to the Secretary for Education in a written question as follows " To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will issue guidance to schools not to include authorised medical absences related to diagnosed medical conditions in their calculations measuring persistent absence.". I also spoke to a headteacher about how they calculate the data, they can include or exclude any specific type of absence (ie exclude medical absence) but the department for education currently asks for all absence to be counted for Persistent Absence regardless of the reason. Parents/carers already have to submit evidence of appointments etc so administratively it is not difficult for schools to do.

I work in education, specifically with vulnerable learners. Many are persistently absent for reasons similar to your daughter. They all progress to education/employment/training. Honestly, you don’t need to worry that her attendance will be a barrier. Most employers don’t even know that below 90% is known as persistently absent.

And your problem is that all medical appointments are classed as M. This includes dental and optician appointments which could arguably be made outside of school time. There isn’t a way for schools to distinguish between different medical appointments in the coding.

I'm hoping the policy will have changed by the time she leaves school but I don't think kids now should be in that situation. There is plenty of evidence that " employers or other institutions ask for references, and most employers ask explicitly for an assurance that a student's attendance has been satisfactory" (quote UCL) and also a recent thread on here where various people working in HR confirmed that questions about attendance is part of the referencing for job applications. Re the coding, there are around 25 different codes at the moment so a specific code for medical absences related to a diagnosed condition is not out of the question. I have to sleep now !

I know the codes. As I say, this is my day-job. School can authorise an absence (C) but this is only used for things like funerals. Medical appointments are M and illness is I. Unauthorised absence is O. There are other codes but those are the only ones which would be applicable here and all count towards absence totals. What you’re essentially asking for is either that M codes don’t count - which is problematic as ultimately it was still a time when school was open but the child wasn’t there - or for a new code. Again, the problem would be how this is then used. Ultimately your daughter doesn’t have 100% attendance and that is not her fault, but if her medical absences don’t count then over time it disguises the impact her illness is having on school.

I can see you’ve quoted UCL research. I’m going to respectfully counter it by saying that my team actually go to job interviews and college interviews to support young people in Y11,12 and 13 who are living in very difficult circumstances and often have attendance well below your daughter’s. None has ever been refused a college place or apprenticeship as a result of this. Colleges and employers understand the circumstances of individuals and want to support.

I do think that in these situations schools shouldn’t send automatic warning letters home. Some of my children I work with attend a special school where a lot of the pupils have illnesses or complex need which mean they have medical absences, and while the school obviously still has to record them as an absence they don’t send the standard letters home to parents as they understand.

Has this come from school? I’m shocked they’re sending these letters when they know your situation.

Is this down to individual school policy?
My son’s attendance was in the 70%s due to ASD/anxiety, school marked it all as authorised, we didn’t get a letter and he was still put forward for a 100% attendance award as they didn’t mark any unauthorised absences.

My older son had dreadful attendance (also ASD/anxiety) and his school handled it very differently, we had threatening letters etc.

I dont feel it is beyond a good database to produce some stats that make m codes not count for persistant absence figures, it can strip out the codes like z. It could create two charts, one to understand how much school a child is missing, so support is in place and one the school is held accountable on for dfe purposes.

I dont necessarily think there is a huge impact on the child that couldnt be managed other ways, but i actually think there is an issue at a school level as schools with a fluke high of students with ongoing medical conditions are penalised. Some school do everything they can to avoid taking a disabled student. My school became known for good send practice and school down the road was hostile to send parents on open days. So we have far more chilren than them with complex medical needs.

Thanks for your comments, they are useful but I think we have to agree to disagree. I am only asking people to sign the petition if they agree with it, if you feel that the system works well for everyone as is then the petition is not for you but I still feel that that things can be improved. As the petition states the term Persistently Absent is defined by the government as describing pupils "who regularly fail to turn up" and that is unfair and inaccurate when those children are for example attending medical appointments as is our case. This is also something that the house of commons education committee picked up on and recommended in their report on the policy last year ( quote "Pupils with SEND have higher absences for legitimate and unavoidable reasons") and also that the government be careful in how they collect data "to avoid unhelpful comparisons". I just want these changes to be implemented sooner rather than later. Hence the petition.

I'm glad to hear that the children you work with do find training and employment but sadly there is a lot of stigma around illness and disability and plenty of evidence to support this. Employers will not usually cite the reasons for turning down an applicant but I have also spoken to employers and absence is an important factor for them otherwise they would not ask for the assurance as part of the reference. (plenty of mums working in HR testifying to that here). Also anyone with a school age child, niece, nephew or grandchild is likely to have heard the term persistent absence and know what it means. Even if they haven't, it is clear that the term is perjorative.

I have no issue with my daughter's attendance being recorded as a percentage but as I said it helps no-one to label her negatively as a "persistent absentee" when this doesn't reflect the reality of her situation. As for the implementation common cold = illness, medical appointment M (I don't think annual eyesight or hearing tests will skew this significantly! but as you say these can usually be booked outside of school hours we certainly do this) or new code for example MX when related to a diagnosed medical condition. I don't think this is a bureaucratic impossibility!

Wow! I didn't know that schools were penalised ! When they are saving the government so much money by offering pupils places when they would otherwise need funding for a place at a specialist school. I also didn't know that schools were able to refuse a child on grounds of medical conditions? In fact I'm quite sure that is illegal...

They cant refuse them. But as a parent would you pick the school who were open, approachable and discussed your childs needs or the one that made you feel like a huge problem..

@romanatonic My DD goes to a Special School and absence has to be marked the same as in a mainstream which is madness as the amount of appointments etc is much greater.

I have signed your petition as the whole system needs a rethink.

Good luck

The school have told me they obliged by the DfE to classify all children with an attendance lower than 90% as "Persistently Absent" and also to notify parents when their child's attendance is nearing this mark. To their credit they have said that they are revising the wording of the letters and I do definitely think letters should make clear that fines cannot be issued for authorised absences but the real problem is at government level. All absence whether authorised or not and quote "for whatever reason" are handled in the same way and that is what I don't think is fair. I agree efforts should be made to improve attendance and support should be put in place for students to try to achieve that where possible. But you cannot tackle all absence in the same way and that is what the policy is currently trying to do. There is nothing either I or the school can do to improve my daughter's attendance and many families are in the same situation. It just causes unnecessary friction, when schools and families need to work together. That's why I think it needs to change at government level.

I completely agree! have you heard of send Reform ? they are trying to do this! if you are interested here is the website https://www.sendreformengland.com/

That's so good to hear especially re attendance award! as this is what they should be doing legally so as not to discriminate. It is part of the issue that the guidance for schools is not statutory and so it really varies from school to school how they handle things but they plan to make it so from August this year. There are also recommendations on this subject from the house of commons education committee that acknowledge the barriers SEND children have and the importance of not making "unhelpful comparisons" in collected the data. I think there is a real chance of this change coming about if you read the report.( I'm trying to put all relevant links and info on instagram page if anyone is interested) But it's important for the government to see that this has an impact on people so I hope the petition will show this! thank you if you have signed already please do also consider sharing as well to help it get the reach :)

This is so sad as it seems that not only the kids and their families in this situation are continually swimming against the tide but also that anyone who does want to help and treat these kids more fairly has to do so at literally their own cost. Why do they make it like that? there is so much that needs to be improved to work properly. Thanks for comments.

You might be pleasantly (I know, it's this government, but we can live in hope) surprised by the outcomes of the 2024 changes in coding to make the reasons more specific - particularly the following;

Absent - unable to attend school because of unavoidable cause

Code Q: Unable to attend the school because of a lack of access arrangements

369. The pupil is unable to attend the school because a local authority has a duty set out in regulation 10(12) or (13) to make access arrangements to enable the pupil’s attendance at school and have failed to do so.

370. This code is classified for statistical purposes as not a possible attendance.

Code Y1: Unable to attend due to transport normally provided not being available

371. The pupil is unable to attend because the school is not within walking distance of their home and the transport to and from the school that is normally provided for the pupil by the school or local authority is not available.

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/65f1b048133c22b8eecd38f7/Working_together_to_improve_school_attendance__applies_from_19_August_2024_.pdf

Recording the reasons more specifically will provide data to show how extensive these issues are. And maybe somebody will actually look to do something about the remaining I codes once it's proven to be providing useful data.

You have such a great name and thank you for linking this info. I've had a quick read but it doesn't look as if it will change anything for the circumstance I've made the petition for. It's unchanged in that despite acknowledging the barriers to attendance of pupils with SEND and or medical conditions have compared to their peers they do not make any dispensations for this in terms of attendance expectation.

-" 55. Some pupils face more complex barriers to attendance. This can include pupils who have long term physical or mental health conditions or who have special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). Their right to an education is the same as any other pupil and therefore the attendance ambition for these pupils should be the same as it is for any other pupil but additional support may need to be provided"

What is interesting is that it does mention reasonable adjustments to policies in line with equality act and I wonder what this means in practice. For an adult in employment this solves the issue as they can ask for the absences to be recorded differently or the threshold for the trigger point to be lowered and I wonder if the same adjustments could then be applicable to pupils. Although probably not because this is not school policy but government. It would be good if this was clearer.

"• Consider adjustments to practice and policies to help meet the needs of pupils who are struggling to attend school, as well as making formal reasonable adjustments under section 20 of the Equality Act 2010 where a pupil has a disability. Any adjustments should be agreed by, and regularly reviewed with the pupil and their parents."

Is this your line of work? and do you know if the school can chose to exclude certain cohorts or types of medical absence from the persistently absent criteria?