Bedford council defends fines for families if children with special needs miss school

The council stated that fines are a “last resort” often requested by schools, and that a blanket policy could remove vital legal tools used to safeguard children’s education.

During yesterday’s Children’s Services Overview and Scrutiny Committee (Monday, June 9) a member of the public said: “Families in this situation are often already under significant emotional, financial, and health-related stress.”

They added that a freedom of information request showed that five families of children with ECHPs were fined during 2023/24 for school non-attendance.

“These figures clearly show that families of children with SEND are still being fined and prosecuted despite the well-documented challenges that these families face in securing suitable education for their children,” the member of the public said.

“I am asking the committee to consider whether the local authority should adopt a zero prosecution policy for SENDfamilies and instead prioritise support, understanding, and early intervention.”

The council’s service director – education, SEND and school infrastructure, Chris Morris, said: “We’ll always take the approach of putting in place early intervention support wherever possible.

“Any decision to proceed to court for issuing fines for non-school attendance is seen as the last resort and all other options have been exhausted.

“But we’re processing those penalty notices on behalf of the request of the schools.

“We are being requested to do that, and it’ll be really difficult for us to say no, actually we can’t.”

The committee heard that the decision to go to court is taken by a legal interventions panel looking “holistically” at all the aspects of every single case.

“There is a challenge in recognising some of the points that you’ve made around children with SEND, ” he told the resident.

He added that there could be issues when potentially putting all 6,000 children with SEND under that one umbrella, or having an all or nothing policy.

“I’ve seen the power that sometimes court ordered parenting assessments, education supervision orders, or other powers that magistrate courts have to impact and support children to improve their school attendance,” he said.

“Sometimes there are powers that the Education Act allows us through magistrates courts to access, that without those powers we wouldn’t be able to do that.

“There is a danger that a blanket policy can remove those powers and therefore remove another potential tool that can be used to safeguard a child’s education.”

The member of the public said: “Families in this situation are obviously trying to engage through the appropriate channels, yet still face formal warning letters or threats of prosecution from the education welfare officer.

“This suggests a lack of coordination within the system where punitive measures are being used despite a multi-active agency support plan being in place.

“The local authority should focus on collaborative trauma-informed and family centred support.

“Legal action in these cases only deepens the trauma,” they added.