Worth fighting for?
- James Harris
- Apr 14
- 2 min read
This post comes straight from a meeting that I had with a family the other week: one of the parents said to me that they could not see how their child could ever return to their mainstream secondary school so he was asking himself why he was battling the school and local authority to get the provision his child needed. Was it worth the fight?
Their son has not been in school for ages. He has a private diagnosis of autism and PDA. School has tried individual tutoring, mentoring, family support, partial timetables, but he cannot engage. So the school is turning to the blunt instrument of legal action and fines. An EHC needs assessment has been requested but, given the situation with SEND at the local authority no action was expected in anything like a reasonable timeframe. The school considers the absences to be unauthorised, rather than medical, so there has been no action on the section 19 duty - the requirement on the local authority to provide alternative education.
There is so much wrong with this situation and it is replicated across so many families that I work with. It is a microcosm of many of the issues in our education system. Is it worth fighting for?
If the child is withdrawn from the school by the parent (elective home education - EHE) then the school has no further involvement - problem solved, from their point of view. No EHCP is in place, and there is no call for section 19 provision, due to the delays and disagreements so the local authority will not take responsibility for finding a suitable placement. So the child would be in educational limbo with everything falling upon the family.
So, even if the battles seem to be endless, they must be fought because the other option is that everyone (except the family) washes their hands of their educational responsibilities for a vulnerable child.
Is this what we have come to as a society? So many children are "going down the gaps" and we will reap the whirlwind in the years to come.
As always, all comments are welcome.
James
We see this scenario reported on a daily basis in our family support group 'Not Fine in School.'. I wondered if you are aware that the section 19 duty applies to cases of absence for any reason, not just medical/illness? Local authorities have a legal duty to arrange alternative provision under Section 19 of the Education Act 1996, If you look at the legislation it states:
‘Each local authority in England shall make arrangements for the provision of suitable education at school or otherwise than at school for those children of compulsory school age who, by reason of illness, exclusion from school or otherwise, may not for any period receive suitable education unless such arrangements are made for them.' https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1996/56/section/19