Welfare check after three day absence - is this normal?

[SnottyLittleMango]

Hi, I have no experience of this as DD8 has had 100 percent attendance for the last two years, but has had a really nasty virus this week and has been off since Tuesday. I've called the school each morning to let them know but we had a welfare officer turn up this morning asking to see her. No problem with that- she was sat on the sofa with DH both in PJs as he's also got the bug now, I was just surprised especially as he was a bit rude to DH, asking why he was dressed like that (in his PJs I assume) in a pretty snarky way. Is this normal for a three day absence from primary? No problems at all with the school.

Well actually for many child would be at Granny's or Aunties while parents work. Lots of people can't afford to miss shifts due to a sick child.

Thanks again to everyone who has respinded, the school safeguarding lead didn't call me back, but I have spoken to a friend of my Dsis who works in a local secondary. She says the three-day welfare checks are now a standard policy in a lot of schools directed (or recommended)? by the coroners office after this heartbreaking case: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c740xvwyvreo This isn't my local area though, and I think PP's in this thread will know better than me if that's the case. TBH after reading that I would far rather be pissed off by an unexpected call than think of another child suffering like that.

I'm still going to discuss the pyjama crack with the school, as I can't think of a situation where it is at all helpful to make snarky comments like that to someone.

Thats a child who was already known to Social Work. She'd spent most of her childhood living with her Gran.

So everyone is being tarred with the same brush. Absolutely ridiculous.
Are you in Scotland - this stinks of the SNPs named person scheme.

The money saved on the Welfare Officer would be better spent on having another Social Worker to actually deal with vulnerable children

Ffs. What’s wrong g with the education system at the moment
thank god my kids are older and I’m nearly done.

im often in pjs in the morning as I shower after I’ve done the housework. And so what if I didn’t change. My response to that question would be pretty cutting tbh.

Yes quite common for children to be at grandparents so parents can continue to work.
Calling cards are left to say a visit has tried to happen. Parents then often ring to say the child is at another address.
it’s not uncommon for parents to take children on holiday without informing the school.

No not in Scotland, so it puzzled me as well that this case is (apparently) why at least fofs school have changed their policy.

That case is extreme.
Its almost like they are taking it completely out of context what actually happened.

Its like diluting resources to check up on everyone when really they need to focus resources on the children who are already known to be at risk.
A child with perfect attendance and no other flags is not a child at risk.

3 days off is nothing, children go for weeks without being seen. And even longer as baby's and toddlers.

We had the same last year (year 2) Son with 100% attendance had an awful D&V bug. He was laid on the sofa looking white as a sheet and extremely thin. Front door wide open as it was summer and I was trying to avoid the bug myself. A face appeared at the open door and it was the safeguarding officer from school. She said a third of the school were off and they were closing for the afternoon to deep clean the school as absence was so bad.

She agreed my son was ill and then left!

I think a lot of it is safeguarding but I guess the cynical part of me would say they are checking that kids aren't calling in sick and then going off on holidays.

I would assume a call from a school welfare officer can be treated like that of an health visitor or social worker. Unless mutually arranged and/or agreed upon the knock, access is only required upon production of a court order.

Please complain about the snarkiness over your dh's pyjamas from an uninvited guest in your home. Reprehensible conduct.

Sounds insane to me! Why do they always check on the wrong families 🤯🤯 Id think this was good work if you hadn’t phoned in on day one, they were already concerned about welfare, or her attendance was horrific, but this just seems nuts. I think she was really rude to your hubby too.

@InABalletBubble have some people lost the plot! I'm rarely ill and rarely in bed but I was with tonsillitis. What anyone wears in their own house is their business. I'm truly flabbergasted at your story but not surprised if you get my meaning

No wonder more people are home schooling. Modern schools sound like purgatory for parents AND teachers.

Yes and nobody is checking on those kids every 3 days.

The more you think about it, this has nothing to do with child welfare, everything to do with trying to fine parents for taking kids out of school.

While giving the mixed message that kids should be kept off for 48hrs from last vomiting episode.

Can I asked what happens in the 6 weeks holidays? It is paternilistic and not proportionate.

Did you miss the part where I said investigate further?

Did you miss the part where I said investigate further?

This

Safeguarding is currently being used as an excuse for government interference in family life.

I completely agree. The social contract between schools and parents/families has completely broken down; it's no longer built on mutual respect and appreciation of the essential role that each other plays and each other's wisdom and experience, but it's become the norm to assume that schools are all-knowing and never wrong, whilst parents are all utter fools and/or liars without any common sense whatsoever - who all need to be educated and infantilised as much as their children - it makes it even worse when the teacher is only half their age!

Absolutely nobody is saying that schools shouldn't look out for warning signs and intervene when they have genuine cause for concern; but the very idea that a parent phoning in and advising that their child is too ill to come to school for two or three days on the odd occasion is a red flag and very probably a safeguarding concern only makes the remotest sense if you're going from an automatic perspective of 'school good; parents bad'.

Schools are there to teach children, and to look out for their wellbeing; they do not own the children (neither do the parents, but you know what I mean).

It may not be uncommon for families to go on holiday and call in sick in an attempt to avoid being fined, but since hassling sick families in the hope you'll catch out the ones going on a cheap holiday is not putting children first. The stress and bad feeling it creates at just the wrong time is part of the reason parents are trusting schools less and less and kids are less and less happy in school.

To be fair, the default distrust of parents that schools now seem to take is created in large part by the stance the Government has taken that distrusts schools and teachers.

Absolutely. If schools were allowed proper control of their own operations (within sensible guidelines and with some basic mandatory procedures), we wouldn't have this culture of schools transferring their fears on to parents.

When I was at school, my parents ran a business and took a week off every March to attend a business-related conference that happened to be held in a hotel at a seaside resort, so they took my DSis and me and made it into a family holiday too. We really enjoyed it.

Every year, a few weeks in advance, they submitted a holiday form for us - which back then was seen as a mutually respectful communication and not an assumed admission of guilt on the part of parents. The headteacher (a strong, wise, kind, much-loved older man who was greatly respected for how he ran the school) knew that we were both conscientious, well-behaved children, who were in school every day except for the occasional bout of illness, and signed it off as a matter of course; and we all had a lovely, much-cherished special week away together as a family, and we caught up with what we'd missed when we returned.

Unfortunately, taking that week off each year led us directly to a life of decadence, no qualifications, fecklessness, repeated terrible decision-making and I now am writing this from my prison cell. Oh, wait, no - that didn't happen.

I also don't like the thing where teachers visit the homes of reception children to see if they are from nice middle class backgrounds with books on the shelves

Even though our house is and was full of books!

parents are all utter fools and/or liars without any common sense whatsoever - who all need to be educated and infantilised as much as their children yes you only have to look at the newsletters which are full of capital letters and underlinings. But I've always felt that teachers forget that the parents aren't kids too - I don't actually think that's anything to do with government policy!

I don’t disagree. The government has a massive push on attendance targets. The system is broken. I don’t know what the answer is. All I know is in my school attendance is dropping week on week.

@Needspaceforlego as far as i am aware this does not happen in Scotland. Maybd if your child is on a risk register. We call the answer machine to let them know our kids will be off ill. No interegation after 3 days. Dont know who would let someone like that into their house. It seems absolutely insane. And dont think a teacher can just leave her/his class and go visiting houses.

School policy doesn't trump law. Gov statutory guidance "Working Together to Improve School Attendance " clearly states schools should accept daily calls for sickness absence. If they don't know where the child is, cannot contact the guardian, or the child has been absent often/for a long time then Welfare visits may be necessary. These '3 day' visits are not law and are intrusive to your homelife. Before people jump with 'safeguarding' unless school already have reasons for concern they are overstepping.