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Primary education

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Original poster

Advice needed on schools policy on missing childrennot being followed

61 replies

SammieJP · 26/07/2018 08:52

Hi all, this is my first time writing so I am unsure if I have put this in the right section, apologies if I have. Apologies also for this being quite long.
I am looking for some advice on what I should do and who to complain to about my son's school not following their own procedures set out in their policy for missing children.
I'll try to keep it short but this is what happened.
About a month ago I had arranged for my friend to pick my son up from school for me (we have done this countless times between us). When it come to collecting him, he came out to her and said he would wait by the tree (always does this) while her daughter comes out. In the time of him saying that and her daughter coming out they have lost track of each other. My friend then goes searching for him, shouting his name and asking teachers if they had seen him. After 5 minutes of looking for him she then goes to the school reception to report him missing, one teacher checks his classroom and says he's not in there and does absolutely nothing else. To cut it short he was found by my brother 45 minutes later safe and well walking to his nannas, which is where he was originally going to be dropped off. The following school day I spoke to his teacher and the schools safe guarding teacher to inform them of what had happened and ask why the school did nothing to help seeing as he was still on school grounds when he went missing. They were appalled that any of the staff that my friend spoke to never informed them he was missing, they informed me of their policy and pointed out that not one of the teachers followed it. Whilst I am having the conversation with these 2 teachers another child is reported missing and I witness them follow the procedures to the letter! Anyway I rambling, the conversation ended with them saying they will investigate what happened and why the proper procedures weren't followed. They would then let me know the outcome of the investigation and they would be speaking to all children in assembly to tell them to come back into school if they cannot find who they are supposed to go home with.
I hadn't heard anything from either of them for 2 weeks following this incident so I spoke to my son's teacher last week, she informed me that she has heard nothing from the safe guarding teacher and nothing has been said to the rest of the school in assembly, she said she would speak to her and get back to me.
Yesterday was the last day of term and I've heard absolutely nothing, I've not even seen his teacher to able to speak to her since our last chat.
Normally the school is very good with communication and I'm getting the feeling that they think I'll just let it go, I don't want to let it go because if this happens to another child and procedures aren't followed again then the outcome could be very different!
I'm just not sure on what I do next, on the schools complaints procedure online it says to write to the schools head teacher, the head teacher is currently off sick and it is the safe guarding teacher that is acting head teacher. I can't very well write to her to complain about her so I'm unsure on who I write/speak to next seeing as schools now finished for 6 weeks.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

OP posts:

Iamagreyhoundhearmeroar · 26/07/2018 14:05

Don’t let your friend collect your child again, since she seems to be unable to keep him safe.
He told her he’d wait by the tree, so she left him there and walked off?
Why would the school assume responsiblity for her stupidity?

cansu · 26/07/2018 14:23

You need to stop lookng for other people to blame here. Your ds took off by himself. Your friend should have kept him with her. It really isn't the schools responsibility here. A full search of the grounds etc would have been ridiculous and would not have helped at all! Spending your time trying to ensure an investigation is being done is really daft. Your dd and your friend caused this issue. You don't need an investigation to look into this! Focus your energy on your ds and what he should do in this scenario.

cansu · 26/07/2018 14:24

Also you need to be honest with yourself, you feel bad that your ds was missing and this is why you are devoting all your energy to a fruitless investigation. The school safeguarded your ds. They handed hm over to your chosen person.

JennyOnAPlate · 26/07/2018 14:30

You are massively unreasonable to have not taught your son what to do in this situation. Why did he not know to go back to his teacher/into the School office rather than wander off on his own?

Melliegrantfirstlady · 26/07/2018 14:30

Definitely your friends fault. She should have called you and the police!

I’m guessing the safeguarder gave the teachers a telling off

BubblesBuddy · 26/07/2018 15:14

Am I correct in thinking the tree is in the school grounds? I think that’s a critical point. If it is, then I think the school could have been more helpful. Obviously DS had wandered off but he wandered off from school grounds. He clearly wasn’t in the care of the school staff, but if he had been, many school policies say the police should be contacted 10 minutes after the child is first reported missing. I think it’s a grey area to say the school has no role to play in this if he’s on their premises. If he’s not, that’s entirely different but it still would have been helpful if teachers had searched and helped.

What I might do, op, is ask about their arrival, dismissal and missing child policy. Should the worst have happened, would they be comfortable with what happened?

I think your friend would have been very upset. I think your DS needs to understand this. He should now stay close to anyone collecting him and not nominate a spot and wander off. You might find friends won’t be too keen on collecting him for you if you make a huge fuss. So just discretely ask the school what their policies are.

AuroraFloyd · 26/07/2018 15:18

You need to teach your son that if he is lost he must stay exactly where he is so that the adults can find him.

Iamagreyhoundhearmeroar · 26/07/2018 15:21

When you say you “weren’t informed” that your child was missing; why do you think the school should have informed you?
Have you asked your friend why she didn’t tell you what was happening??
And why she collected your child and immediately dumped him in the playground to go and collect her own child... That is bizarre beyond belief, and it doesn’t seem to bother you?

Witchend · 26/07/2018 16:49

What I might do, op, is ask about their arrival, dismissal and missing child policy. Should the worst have happened, would they be comfortable with what happened?

How on earth can their arrival/dismissal policy going to effect what happened? Unless you expect them to quiz every parent what exactly they're planning on doing with each child they hand over. "I'll only let you have him Mrs Jones if you promise not to let go of his hand all the way home."

Missing child, again, wasn't missing from their care. It was up to your friend to contact you or the police. If they'd phoned the police, the police would have asked to speak to your friend as otherwise they're saying "we've been told..."

But the person you should be angry with is your ds. He's at least 5yo, and has done the wait by the tree before. What possessed him to decide to walk off to his nans? He knew he shouldn't and caused hassle. He needs to know to stay where he's told, and if he thought he'd been forgotten go back into school and ask a teacher, not set off on his own.

itbemay · 26/07/2018 16:58

How old is the child, I think that would help.. I don't think school are at fault either, child SHOULD NOT have left premises, friend should not have left child. Why 'blame' the school.

typoqueen · 26/07/2018 17:54

once the child was handed over to your friend then the onus is on her not the school, different if he went missing during school

MM5 · 26/07/2018 18:26

My school’s policy ends at the point of handing over to the adult. Thus, it is not the school’s responsibility.

However, I do know my school would have helped to find the child and we would have suggested calling the police.

But, to be clear, your friend was the responsible adult and should have called the police herself. At that point, she had the info. The school just had second hand knowledge.

User14789013 · 28/07/2018 06:21

Can people not read? The OP has stated very clearly that because the child was lost on school grounds the policy still applies in her school, even tho it was after handover. The safeguarding lead has told her that they didn’t followed the policy and have done an investigation but not communicated the findings, which again is poor.

Even if the school had a different policy which resolved them of any responsibility at handover, the child was missing for 45 minutes!! I would still expect my child’s school to be actively helping to find him in those circumstances.

Fgs, you are being totally ridiculous. You want a policy of what to do after children are handed over to the person you have nominated? I have about a million more things to do, I'm afraid

If you think your million admin tasks are more important than finding a missing child you are in the wrong job (and I’m a teacher myself so not saying that lightly)

Norestformrz · 28/07/2018 06:41

People can read but the school's duty of care ends when the child is collected by a parent or a named person.

MaisyPops · 28/07/2018 06:44

School handed child over to the correct adult.
Child walked off.
Responsibility lies with the friend (for supervision) and the child (for not doing as they were told and walking off, assuming they are reasonably old if they can walk themselves to nanna's).

User14789013 · 28/07/2018 07:14

They didn’t follow their own policy. They have admitted that but not followed it up.

But regardless of policies and who is legally responsible, if a child went missing in these circumstances from your school, would you really not help because your duty of care ended when they were collected?

Feenie · 28/07/2018 12:25

If you think your million admin tasks are more important than finding a missing child you are in the wrong job (and I’m a teacher myself so not saying that lightly)

I don’t, obviously - and that will be why I didn’t say that. Can you not read? I said I have more important things to do than write such a policy. You can’t write a policy that legislates for a nominated person being an arsehole AFTER a child has been released into their care - it’s not possible and wouldn’t be worth the paper it’s written on because you would be writing a policy for literally anything. You might as well have one for a zombie apocalypse.

spanieleyes · 28/07/2018 13:35

You might as well have one for a zombie apocalypse.

zombie.wikia.com/wiki/Schools MIGHT HELP!

Clairetree1 · 28/07/2018 13:43

The school had absolutely no responsibility nor control, it is nothing to do with them. Your friend seems very sloppy, and your child doesn't seem to have been taught what to do in that sort of situation - both down to you. Nothing to do with the school.

If anything, it will be logged as a safeguarding concern against you, not the school.

Clairetree1 · 28/07/2018 13:50

Just drop it, you hadn't made adequate provision for the care of your child. YOU hadn't.

the school did help, they looked to see if he had returned to his classroom. several times.

How old is your child, you haven't said, but if a small child is lost, the most important thing is to LOOK IN THE MOST DANGEROUS PLACES FIRST - in other words a search of the school, especially after he had already exited the school, is way down on the list.

I don't know how many times a week a parent loses track of a child after the end of the school day in our school, ( which is secondary, so different) but many many times, well into double figures. The normal response would be a tannoy, occasionally if someone has been missing an hour or so we have had an email request for teachers to help look, if they are not supervising other children, and if it goes beyond that, maybe lost for a few hours, then a police room by room check.

However, it is not the schools responsibility to do anything at all, we would help a bit if we could, sounds like your school did too.

User14789013 · 28/07/2018 14:26

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

BubblesBuddy · 28/07/2018 14:28

All of you saying a school has no responsibility to follow their own policy are wrong. The fact that few of you would help is an utterly bizarre response. If the child is lost whilst on school grounds, some schools do include this in their policy and would have followed it. I agree with user: it’s extremely poor to have not followed the policy and not helped. If the child had been removed and abused, or worse, what then? Could the school leadership really have lived with this and it would have led to major repercussions because they didn’t do what they said they would do in such circumstances. I’m really shocked that adults really didn’t care and posters don’t either.

User14789013 · 28/07/2018 14:39

claire what are you talking about?? Of course this wouldn’t be logged as a safeguarding against the OP. Another ridiculous comment on a thread full of them.

Norestformrz · 28/07/2018 14:41

"Why would you need to write a new one?" To include what to do if. Feckless friend picks up a child then allows them to wander off.

cansu · 28/07/2018 14:46

Searching the school premises would have been utterly daft as the child wasn't lost on the premises - he had left the premises! What were the teachers meant to search? Looking around the classrooms when he was last seen waiting by a tree for the feckless friend would be ridiculous. All this is deflecting from the issue that the OPs friend wasn't supervising him closely enough given that the child is unreliable and wanders off on his own.

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