Schools in England sending police to homes of absent kids in 'crackdown'

Schools in England are sending police to the homes of absent pupils with threats to jail their parents. But the "heavy-handed" crackdown ignores underlying reasons for failure to attend classes, critics have this weekend said.

The Guardian's Sunday newspaper The Observer has reported some schools in England are sending police to the homes of children who are persistently absent, or warning them their parents may go to prison if their attendance doesn’t improve.

Ellie Costello, co-founder of Square Peg, said: “Parents have told us about very strict schools actually forcing entry to their homes. Schools are turning up with community police. They are shouting up the stairs to highly anxious children, demanding they come into school now.”

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Dr Naomi Fisher, a child psychologist who specialises in trauma and autism, said: “I’ve heard many times from parents about a child being told, ‘If you don’t come in your mum or dad will go to prison’.” She describes this as “the most terrible thing you can say to a child”.

She said: “The children I see tell me that they are so worried about school they aren’t sleeping, or they’ve stopped eating, or they are having nightmares.” A spokesperson for the Department for Education said: “We know some children face greater barriers to attendance, like pupils with long-term medical conditions or special educational needs and disabilities.

“That is why we are taking a support-first approach to tackling absence, setting clear expectations that schools and local authorities work closely with families to identify and address the underlying issues.”

Oliver Conway, a child protection solicitor at London law firm Oliver Fisher, asked: “Why aren’t they giving these families proper mental health support and support from social services instead of trying to punish them?” He went on, saying: “Her daughter wasn’t going in because she was pregnant. She was involved in county lines [drug trafficking] and she was being sexually abused by a drug dealer."