Generation of children facing 'trauma crisis' over their mental health

As a harrowing reality is revealed across the region, families speak out over a school system that is “ill-equipped” to meet their child’s special educational needs (SEN).

And with a “world-leading” clampdown on attendance looming, amid threat of more prosecutions and fines, there are calls for compassion when it comes to children’s needs.

Freedom of Information (FOI) requests today reveal the number of children even entering home education in the region has risen 96 per cent over recent years.

This amounts to more than 10,000 children in Yorkshire home educated at any point over a single term - a figure nearly double that of Autumn 2018.

Some authorities, such as Bradford, have seen a near three-fold increase. And it comes as fines for parents over their child’s attendance rise 71 per cent and as the numbers of young people deemed ‘severely absent’ hits a record high.

The General Secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) has described the findings as “worrying” as he called for investment in mental health support.

Pepe Di’Iasio said “unbelievable” waiting lists are now years’ long, adding: “These are young people that are in turmoil in the family home, and parents making decisions they don’t want to make but they feel they are stuck between a rock and a hard place.

“What we have got is over a decade of under investment in specialist support in schools, enabling headteachers to put support in place to help these young people do well and thrive.”

And Wendy Charles-Warner, chair of Education Otherwise, said the revelations echo her own findings for the charity, with a sharp and sudden rise in the last six months alone.

“What we are seeing is a massive, unprecedented influx,” she said. “We need to step back from condemning home education and concentrate on what the problem is.

“Instead of ploughing money into registers for home educators we need to plough money into children’s mental health services.”

In analysis, snapshot figures from the charity show a 20 per cent increase in the number of children in home education just since October. In polling, a record 39 per cent of parents said they want their child to be in school but it just wasn’t possible. More than half said their mental health or SEN needs could not be met in school.

“I’m horrified at these numbers,” said Ms Charles-Warner. “It’s parents telling us they are not choosing home education, they have had the choice taken away from them.

“They are coming to home education in absolute desperation because they simply do not know where else to turn.”

Experts have called on compassions when it comes to children’s mental health, rather than the draconian approach to tackling school attendance that is piling pressure on families in crisis.

Stark figures which reveal a steep and sudden rise in prosecutions and fines over attendance across Yorkshire as local councils clamp down under a national education drive are not helping the situtation, they say.

Such blanket penalties are rooted in the wrong direction, experts warn, with parents turning to elective home education (EHE) as their children’s wellbeing crumbles in school settings ill-suited to their needs.

Ms Charles-Warner said a “punitive” system of prosecutions and fines does little to alleviate the pressure on distraught families.

She said: “If your child has mental health needs, the Department for Education (DfE) says the best place for them to be is in school.

“If you were ill as an adult, you would be signed off sick. But then the parents are threatened with fines and told they will be prosecuted.”

“Since 1870 the Government has been complaining about absenteeism,” she added.

“Year on year the Government response is yet more punitive. It doesn’t work – it hasn’t worked for 150 years. We need a compassionate approach.”

The Yorkshire Post investigation shows prosecution figures have more than doubled in some areas.

The figures, gathered under Freedom of Information requests to local education authorities (LEAs) comparing 2019 with 2023, show prosecutions in that time more than doubled in Bradford. In York, with penalty notices, there was a near five-fold increase in fines.

More than a fifth (21.2 per cent) of pupils in England were ‘persistently absent’ in the 2022/23 school year, missing 10 per cent or more school sessions. This is nearly double the rate in 2018/19 (10.9 per cent), according to the latest DfE data.

But both the Conservative and Labour parties backed plans to introduce a national register of children who are not in school, amid ambitions to tackle the issue.

Home education is often blamed for ills in the education system, warned Ms Charles-Warner, dismissing the move as “smoke and mirrors” which hides the real cause.

Parent surveys suggest more than half (54 per cent) of parents moved to EHE because they felt their children’s needs – around mental health and SEN – were not met in school.

“The reason there is a rise is because schools are not equipped to support children’s emerging needs,” she said. “These are desperate parents, they are not irresponsible or failing their children. They just don’t know where to turn.”

And rather than punishing desperate families, she called on Government to invest in school settings to remedy a rising crisis – with smaller class sizes and more teaching support.

“Parents, with post-Covid traumatic children, have tried to work with schools,” she said. “They have tried to work with teachers, and tried reduced timetables, and managed moves.

“They have tried all of these things and they haven’t worked. These figures absolutely break all the records, and it’s not a record we want to break. Every parent should have a real and genuine choice for the best education for their child,” she added. “We are failing them.”

Bradford Council declined to comment, while North Yorkshire Council’s assistant director for education, learning and skills, Amanda Newbold, said that “for the vast majority of our children with SEND, their local mainstream school or college is the best place for them to attend school.”