SEND mothers continue to battle fines over school attendance

For over four years a group of mothers have been fighting for parents with children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) to be exempt from school absence fines.

On Tuesday the group, called No School Fines, handed a petition with 290,000 signatures to 10 Downing Street with the support of Motherland actor Anna Maxwell Martin.

It called for families with children who have, or were suspected to have, SEND not to be fined and prosecuted when they do not attend school.

Parents in England currently have no statutory right of appeal against a school attendance penalty notice.

A Department for Education spokesperson said: "Whilst fixed penalty notices continue to have a vital place in our system, schools should take a support-first approach for children who are facing barriers to regular school attendance."

What impact do the fines have on parents struggling to get their children to attend school?

Jo, from Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire, was one of the petition's signatories and has three children, Kai, 15, Josh, 13, and Ben, 10.

Jo said her eldest Kai has always struggled with going to nursery and school and has been diagnosed with autism.

"Every day became harder and harder to get him in," she said.

She said Josh has not been in full-time education for about four years and has ADHD and autism, adding: "He's got really demand-avoidant traits, and he really struggles with the mainstream and the behavioural expectations of being at school."

Ben has no official diagnosis but Jo believes he meets SEND needs, adding: "We get to the school gates or I ask him to get out of the car and then that's it, it's a complete shutdown.

"I've spent hours and hours in the car park asking for staff to come out to help and to try and get him in.

"Then there's other times where we've got him through the door and I've been called to collect him because he hasn't moved. It's exhausting - I'm fighting fires."

She said the letters and fines for parents whose children are struggling to attend school were "scaremongering" and just added to their stress.

Gareth Mackey, an Independent councillor and executive member for children and families at Central Bedfordshire Council, said: "We understand that for some children and young people with SEND, attending school can be challenging, and that families can face significant pressures while seeking support, assessments or diagnoses.

"Fixed penalty notices are not issued automatically and every case is considered on its individual circumstances.

"We are happy to work with any of the petitioners, because we share the same goal, which is to get a better deal for our children."

Susan Liverman, from Corby, Northamptonshire, is the co-founder of the group and said she felt compelled to take action as her child was "unable to attend school".

"They needed help and support and we were trying to seek that support from various systems and while this was happening to our shock, dismay, horror, we were also being threatened with the prospect of fines if we couldn't get him back into school.

"It felt like the system was attacking us. I just felt like this has to stop, this can't happen to further families, but sadly it is."

"We really want to highlight the human cost," she added.

The group said the campaign was not linked to fines given to families who have taken children out of school for a holiday.

Actor Maxwell Martin has supported the campaign and said as a single mother she wanted the fines to become a "dinosaur of the past".

"It doesn't help anybody, it doesn't help young vulnerable people, it doesn't help their families.

"We have children who are grieving, we have children who have so many different struggles on long waiting lists to be seen and while that is the situation we shouldn't be criminalising attendance we should be meeting the needs of children with compassion and care," she added.

She said she wanted to make sure families who do not have "any choices or options when things start to go wrong" were helped.

Claire Barrett, from Croughton, Northamptonshire, is from a similar campaign group called Not Fine in School, which is supporting the petition.

She has a 22-year-old daughter who became ill at 12 and received an autistic diagnosis at 18.

At school Barrett said her daughter was "incredibly anxious and was eventually diagnosed with general anxiety disorder and depression".

"When you're faced with a young child going through that, it's incredibly difficult, very distressing, your family falls apart.

"You're trying to juggle everything, your own job, your own wellbeing, as well as looking after your child, so it's very, very difficult," she said.

She said parents wanted their "children to go to school", adding: "The children themselves often want to go to school, they want to be with their peers, they want to be learning, but actually can't leave the house.

"Sometimes you might get to the school gates, can't go through the gates, sat parked up in the car, just can't get out of the car, and just such high levels of distress."

Maddie Roberts, from Sandy, Bedfordshire, who helped start the campaign with Liverman, hoped the government would listen to their concerns.

She said the group had become become a voice "for our community and all the other families that are in the situations that we've been in, and to give that bit of hope that we can make a change and we can get protection for our families".

"We need clearer guidelines around what support looks like and to stop the fines when that support isn't working," she added.

A Department for Education spokesperson said that with a £4bn investment it was "taking action to transform the system – backing schools to improve inclusion, widening access to specialist support and rolling out training for every teacher".

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