Maintaining good mental health is as fundamental as 5-a-day, 30 mins of exercise a day. We know it is vital that everyone knows ‘it’s ok not to be ok.’ But how does this extend to our children and young people?

By prioritising the wellbeing of our children and families as a public health requirement and ensuring mental health in childhood is recognised and protected, we are actively preventing health inequalities and poor outcomes in later life. 

Introducing a Mental Health Absence Code will achieve several key outcomes:

Give schools agency to authorise absence for mental ill health (too many currently do not recognise mental health as legitimate or valid)

Ensure families are not caught in the ‘unauthorised absence’ black hole, which may track them into punitive, harmful, destabilising threats of fines and prosecution

Separate & identify the numbers of children struggling with disabling or clinical levels of mental ill health from the physical illness absence data and thus capture the impact of mental ill health on children’s ability to access education

Act as a pastoral ‘flag’ for schools to notice and check in with the family to put in place informal or formal support or refer to specialist services, as appropriate, by following the Attendance Code of Practice (Ask 2)

Early intervention, a robust pastoral whole-school framework, prioritising happiness and enjoyment at school, will result in better outcomes - not least attendance and a reduced need for high level CAMHS support.

Workforce wellbeing is vital too, and by offering support to teachers and leaders for their wellbeing and mental health, scaffolded with individual supervision for professional support, guidance and practice, the entire wellbeing ecosystem flourishes. 

An Attendance Code of Practice mapped, designed and co-produced with organisations such as ours, those with lived experience of barriers to attendance and brings together third sector organisations working across disability, SEN, intersectionality, children & families support as well as education professionals, health and care practitioners and welfare teams. The Attendance Code of Practice would set out the gold-standard replacement offer to criminalising families.

Like the Admissions Code and SEND Code, it would afford Parliamentary oversight and development prior to implementation, bringing together existing legislation, statutory duty and cross-sector expertise.

Currently there is DfE non-statutory guidance, statutory guidance, secondary legislation which is often at odds with statutory duty, equality, diversity, health and mental healthcare duties and departmental initiatives.

A robust, cohesive Code of Practice is very much required and necessary.

The threat and use of Fixed Penalty Notices via the Single Justice Procedure and the formal prosecution of families without doubt increases harm and vulnerabilities for them. It widens inequalities, increases adversity and leaves deep wounds driving withdrawal, disengagement and distrust. 

Criminalising parents does not improve outcomes for the child or their family, nor does it increase attendance. It harms the most vulnerable, increasing the likelihood of anger, resentment, instability. It weaves intergenerational institutional cycles of harm and has no place in civil society.

We're calling for:

a. Ending truancy laws and replacing with a compassion-focussed, agile response which focuses on ensuring welfare, social care, disability and SEN / educational support, mental health and appropriate healthcare needs have been assessed and provision is in place, alongside ensuring housing, transport, employment and family support is secure.

b. Where it is found a child is at risk of abuse or parental neglect, there are existing mechanisms in place to address this via safeguarding, child protection and social services.

c. Ensure all efforts to work with the child and their family is a priority and protected standard.