Stop threats of EWO Action to Parents of SEND Children for low school attendance related to needs

It is very important that this step or similar is included in Section 444 of The Education Act to avoid what is currently taking place for some families.

Of course parents who are not bothering to take their children to school for no good reason should be dealt with. However, when you have disabled children or in my case Autistic children the causation of lower attendance can be for very different reasons.

For example, numerous legitimate hospital and clinic appointments can soon lead to lower attendance levels and children being flagged up for concerns. This is especially true during the statutory assessment process when there are lots of appointments with professionals and assessments undertaken.

I have autistic children. Children with high levels of anxiety around social interactions with associated sensory processing dysregulation who need a higher level of support. Getting that support in place can be a protracted process where budgets available to support are already stretched. Sometimes support fails and needs updating or amending. Again unfortunately this tends not to happen quickly. In the interim, while children are waiting for help to be put in place it can lead to very real school based anxiety reflected very often in school refusal or lateness.

This is a very different kettle of fish. I believe that there should be a separate process for these situations and that is a simple fix by way of an amendment or exclusion.

Too often EWO action is used as the first response and this can really frighten parents who are already parenting under pressure. This response to difficulties doesn't help the child and it certainly doesn't solve the situation. I feel it is not what Section 444 was designed for.

I live in Exeter, Devon. I am currently party to such a situation. I have an autistic child in the middle of a statutory assessment. I am nearly at week 20 of the process. Many needs have been identified including new diagnosis and the local authority in charge have confirmed that they will issue an EHCP in response to those needs. Those needs include Autism, Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder, Cerebral Palsy, Sensory Processing Dysregulation, Dysarthria. This is a child with many barriers to the mainstream school environment.

In the interim whilst needs are identified, there is still no Education, Health, Care Plan (EHCP) in place and subsequently no extra funding available to deliver extra help in school. SEND Support has not been stepped up in response. SEND Support comes out of a budget which is not ring fenced and so many schools in the current climate simply do not have money available. Children have very often already broken down or are suffering by the time all of the i’s are dotted and t’s are crossed.

My son is presently in limbo without the support that he needs being put in place. As a result, his anxiety has increased around going to school, in the absence of any consistent support to the recommendations around this, we have had to bring him into school slightly later to avoid the sensory overload (noise, visual stimulation) that the very busy mainstream morning school environment causes him. This has got much worse, the longer his now very much identified needs have gone unidentified and unmet. He will be 6 years old in the summer.

The first response of the school and the local authority has not been to support us and work together to put support in place with the professionals around the child, but rather to fire out an EWO letter to us with no prior meeting to discuss or resolve. Fire this letter knowing full well that this child has special educational needs and that he is in the middle of this statutory process. We have done our level best as parents, contacting the team around the child as the difficulties began to present themselves and we have asked for their help. We wait hopefully for a response.

Also sometimes attendance issues can be the first red flag for children who have special educational needs or disabilities. This should be factored in to my mind when the school or local authority are noticing attendance issues. Is this being caused by SEND?

Section 22 and 23 of the Children and Families Act highlights statutory duty around these children. Section 22: The duty of Identifying children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities and Section 23: The duty of health bodies to bring certain children to local authority's attention. SEND as a causation should surely be the FIRST possibility ruled out?

Lots of parents to disabled children become so afraid with this gun being held to their heads that they deregister and home educate their children rather than face a legal battle. Section 444 shouldn't cause exclusion of disabled/SEND children from school, backing helpless parents into a corner? That cannot be allowed to be the knock on effect of this law! It needs to be amended or SEND children need to be excluded.

EWO letters/action clearly are not a helpful response to unmet special educational needs for disabled children.

For lots of parents this can cause more very real worry, distress and anxiety on top of what is already a difficult situation. Section 444 allows in extreme cases for action towards parents that falls under criminal law. This is not an appropriate road to travel in these circumstances.

As a seasoned and experienced parent to SEND children, I can confirm that It's a common nationwide practice that I see occur more often than it should do. I don't believe that the intention of this law was that it be used in this way towards disabled/SEND children and their parents/carers and that there should be clear steps involved in the process to prevent this from happening or that disabled children should be exempt from Section 444 and different legislation be applied altogether.