Whilst your child is a registered pupil at a maintained school they must attend
regularly. If your child has an unauthorised absence from school the local
authority could pursue non-attendance proceedings against you.
What are non-attendance
proceedings?
Local authorities have the power to pursue
proceedings for a child's non-attendance at school which could be a fine and/ or
imprisonment.
In most cases local authorities will issue a
fixed penalty notice first. The fixed penalty notice will be for the sum of £50
and will rise to £100 if this is not paid within 28 days of issue. If the fixed
penalty notice is not paid the parents/ guardians or anyone else with parental
responsibility can be summoned to the Magistrates’ Court and prosecuted.
Local authorities do not have to issue a fixed
penalty notice first and could summon you to the Magistrate’ Court. This is
understandably a scary prospect for parents/guardians or anyone else with
parental responsibility. However it is unlikely that a prison sentence would be
imposed.
What can I do to
prevent non-attendance proceedings?
Try to ensure that your child does not have any
unauthorised absences. If they are absent due to illness then we recommend
obtaining a doctor's note confirming this, provide a copy of it to the school
and retain the original to use as evidence in case you are summoned to
Magistrates’ Court. If your child is truanting, then try to establish the reason
for this. For example a child might truant as a result of bullying
It might then be possible for you to work with the school to resolve this and
ensure they attend regularly.
Unfortunately, it is at discretion of the local
authority whether or not they pursue non-attendance proceedings. However in most
cases an Education Welfare Officer will contact you first to discuss concerns
regarding attendance to see if non-attendance proceedings can be avoided.
What do I do if the
local authority pursues non-attendance proceedings?
Should this happen you will need
to seek advice from a criminal specialist, as non-attendance proceedings are
considered a criminal matter. This means that any applications for public
funding to assist with this would have to be made under the Criminal Defence
Service Legal Aid funding rules. Under these rules only defendants who are
likely to be given a prison sentence if found guilty are eligible for public
funding. Therefore we recommend parents contact the duty solicitor at the
Magistrates’ Court for further assistance.
What do I do if I decide not to send my
child to the school where they are registered?
You must de-register you child from the school.
Upon de-registration the local authority will be notified that your child is no
longer receiving education and will want to check that they receive suitable
education through either a further school admission or home education.
Contact Us
For more information please contact our Education Law Solicitor Samantha Hale
on Colchester (01206) 835230 or email Education@fjg.co.uk