'Special educational needs families are falling through the cracks'

The mother of a boy with autism wants to change the way parents of children with suspected special education needs or disability (SEND) are treated when their children do not attend school.

In a petition to Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi, Susan Liverman says parents of children who have yet to have a diagnosis are particularly vulnerable to fines, or the threat of one, unless they get their children back into education.

What are the experiences of parents whose children are not in school?

Ms Liverman, from Corby, Northamptonshire, started the petition after her nine-year-old son Arthur was unable to go to school due to extreme anxiety and panic attacks.

"Last year, Arthur had an autistic breakdown, we didn't know that's what it was at the time as he wasn't diagnosed with autism," she says.

"He has now been diagnosed with autism and is recovering from that breakdown.

"I felt the treatment we had, and continue to have, was just not fit-for-purpose and had put more pressure on us as a family."

Although the school was marking his absences as authorised, she says she was told by the local authority "things would get tricky" if she was unable to provide proof of illness.

Ms Liverman says her son's case was then classed as an urgent referral but "he wasn't seen for months".

"One system was pressuring us for evidence and one system was saying we can't see you for months even though you are an urgent case. We were falling through the cracks," she says.

She received a diagnosis from her doctor and was able to seek private assessment, "but other families are not so fortunate", she adds.

"There is a crisis, every SEND parent will have a negative story to tell," she says.

Maddie Roberts, from Sandy, Bedfordshire, says she was unable to get her now nine-year-old son Harleigh into school when he began to suffer from anxiety.

"The idea of getting into school and then trying to comply with so many demands and rules, the hustle and bustle, the amount of children, he just wasn't able to do it," she says.

"It was mentioned to me through the school that, because they didn't see a medical or justifiable reason why he wasn't in school, they were marking his attendance as unauthorised, so we knew that would very quickly add up to a fine."

She says the possibility of a fine "puts so much pressure" on parents.

It can take six months to a year before an assessment, which can then lead to a SEND diagnosis, she says.

Ms Roberts adds: "If there is nowhere to go, you're just lost, you feel like you're failing as a parent."

Central Bedfordshire Council told the BBC: "The council has a legal duty to fine parents who do not send their children to school and do not have what is considered a reasonable reason.

"When a child has a special educational need but does not yet have a diagnosis, this can mean they fall into a grey area where they are not attending school but do not yet have a valid reason. In these cases, we listen to the views of parents and other professionals and use our discretion not to fine the parents."

The Department for Education (DfE) said: "We expect schools and local authorities to work with families to discuss the reasons behind any child's absence and together agree an action plan so that the right support can be put in place to help them return to full-time attendance.

"As usual, attendance fines for parents are available to be used by schools and local authorities to improve attendance, but only as a last resort and where there is no valid reason for the child's absence."

North Northamptonshire Council has also been contacted for comment.

Holly Bascom, from Sandy, is pursuing an autism spectrum disorder diagnosis for her son Sami, 14, after he stopped going to school.

"It's been ongoing since he was younger but his issues have gone unnoticed," she says.

"Now it has become a more structured way of education, he is struggling to cope, keep up with class, his emotional maturity has stalled."

She says her son would tell her he was ill but "I know he's not ill, it's very difficult then because he would get distressed, he would get upset, and I know there is something else going on.

"His mental health deteriorated to the point he just wasn't getting out of bed," she says.

In December she received a fine for unauthorised absence, which she describes as "devastating".

Ms Bascom says: "There is nothing more I would love for him than to get up in the morning with a smile on his face, with his uniform on, have his breakfast and go to school.

"All it did was make Sami feel guilty [and] made everything in our home really awful.

"I felt really isolated. It's embarrassing. The whole thing is negative. It's completely pointless."

She has not paid the fine and is preparing to face court proceedings.

"The whole thing makes you feel like you've completely failed as a parent when your children are going through something like that," she adds.

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