MPs hear evidence on School absence of disabled children

SSIF • June 6, 2023

MPs hear evidence on school absence of disabled children

MPs must address the disproportionate number of children with complex special educational needs (SEN) among severe-absence statistics, a parliamentary committee heard last week.

Speaking on behalf of the Special Education Consortium, of which Contact is a member, Dr Daniel Stavrou told MPs: “It feels misguided to approach this in a punitive way.”


The Education Committee listened to evidence from charity professionals as part of its inquiry into persistent absence and support for disadvantaged pupils.


We submitted evidence to the inquiry earlier this year. In our submission, we identified the biggest factor contributing to absence among children with SEN as unmet need. Just under 40% of calls to our helpline come from parents who say the school or local authority is not providing the right support for their child. Many parents are resorting to home schooling their child as schools become less willing to make reasonable adjustments.



We also hear from parents that the school environment and culture is detrimental to their child’s needs. Schools are under pressure to strive for high attendance from both OFSTED and the Children’s Commissioner. Chasing attendance figures is coming at the cost of pupil wellbeing and good relationships with parents.


A culture shift is needed

o rectify this, we suggest a culture shift. The government must look beyond the quantitative figures collected by OFSTED and focus on how schools are supporting pupils with barriers to attendance.


We would suggest seeking solutions by documenting good practice in schools achieving high rates of attendance for pupils with SEN.


Schools should also be building and fostering strong relationships with families. Parents should not be facing threats from schools for persistence absence, particularly where absence is authorised for medical reasons.


Schools should look into bespoke options for supporting children with SEN, including flex-Schooling.


School attendance advice for families in England

We have advice about school attendance on our website, including information on what your rights are if your child is absent due to medical reasons.



If you are considering home educating your child, visit our Home Education webpage to understand what your duties and options are.

Improving the way Ofsted inspects education

February 7, 2025
Ofsted want to know what you think about their proposed plans for inspecting schools and other settings where children and adults learn. This includes:  early years state-funded schools non-association independent schools further education and skills ( FE and skills) initial teacher education ( ITE ) In summary, they propose: Report cards – these would give parents and carers more detailed information than the current reports, including a new 5-point grading scale to evaluate more areas of a provider’s work and short summaries of what inspectors found. Education inspection toolkits – this tool shows providers and inspectors the evaluation areas that we’ll focus inspections on and how we’ll assess and grade providers (scroll down to see our toolkits). Inspection methodology – changes to how we carry out inspection. Full inspections and monitoring inspections, state-funded schools – we plan to end ungraded inspections of state-funded schools and change our monitoring programmes so that we can check that timely action is taken to raise standards. Identifying state-funded schools causing concern – a new approach to how we’ll place a school into a category of concern. Read the full report and respond to the consultation.

Kids Autism Hub

February 3, 2025
Kids the charity Autism HUB. Are you a young autistic person who has just been diagnosed? Are you a parent wondering how best to support your autistic child? Do you want to connect with people like you? Then The Kids Autism HUB could be for you. The Kids Autism Hub is for young people aged 12 – 25 who are newly diagnosed with autism, young people who are on the diagnosis pathway, and the family members of those young people. It is now possible to self - refer and you can find out more information and how to do this on the KIDS Website .

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SSIF Seminar - Support Plans and Support Whilst Waiting for EHCNA or EHCP

By Irvana Davies • January 6, 2025
SSIF invite ParentCarers of Children with SEND to our third Seminar this year. ‘Support Plans, ISPs, Support Whilst Waiting for EHCNA and EHCP’ is the third in a series of valuable an informative events for ParentCarers that will run throughout the year. This seminar is aimed at ParentCarers who are not sure of the support and information available to them and their families whilst they are waiting for an Education and Health Care Needs Assessment (EHCNA) or an Education and Health Care Plan (EHCP). We will aim to answer questions such as: What is an Individual Support Plan (ISP), and who is it for? What are Reasonable Adjustments and can I expect them to be made for my child? What is the SEN Register? What is SEN Support? What can I do to support my child or young person at home? Are there any workshops or webinars I can access? We have a panel of professionals from the Special Educational Needs and/or Disabilities (SEND) Team, Health and Education, who will talk about what support is available and how to find it. They will also bust some common myths. We are inviting ParentCarers to submit any questions they have for the panel by email, by Monday 20th January 2025, via email, to jody@southendsendindependentforum.org.uk There will also be an opportunity for people to participate in a co-production session to develop a useful route map/flow chart of the Support Whilst Waiting process. Book your ticket here.
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