ADHD in Practice · Opinion & practical support · England · Updated 28 October 2026
On 20 October, two mothers took a petition to 10 Downing Street. Susan Liverman and Maddie Roberts were joined by Anna Maxwell Martin and supporters of the No School Fines campaign. By 23 October, the organisers said it carried more than 300,000 signatures.
Three hundred thousand people. And behind many of those signatures, a family with a story that will never fit neatly into an attendance spreadsheet.
I've worked in education for more than 34 years, including as a SENCo. I know attendance matters. I also know that telling a parent to get their child into school is not the same thing as making school manageable for that child.
It's 8.15am. The telephone rings.
“Just checking how it's going getting him into school?”
How's it going? Everyone's been awake for hours. The uniform has been on and off. The child is frightened, the parent is exhausted and the dog has wisely made itself scarce.
The truthful answer may not be suitable for a school telephone system. So the parent says, “We're having a difficult morning.”
Then comes the advice: “You just need to be firmer.”
I've heard judgements like that made about mothers. She isn't strict enough. She's half the problem. If only she'd stop giving in.
But I remember a mother who wasn't telling school the whole story. When we spoke, I learned that she had held back a report. She was afraid of being judged; sharing it felt to her like betraying her son.
Think about that. We wanted the full picture. She was trying to protect her son. And while she struggled to share what she knew, adults were discussing whether she was doing enough.
Before we assess a mother's backbone, perhaps we ought to ask whether we've made it safe for her to tell us the truth.
Is it the noise, the corridors, the work, the bullying, the transitions? Is the child masking all day and collapsing at home? Sometimes several pressures have quietly piled up until the school gate feels impossible.
You can't fine a nervous system into feeling safe.
And the same £80 is not the same punishment for every family. For one it may be an irritation; for another it competes with food, heating or the bus fare. Particularly when a parent may already be losing work because their child is in distress. Financial punishment falls hardest on those with least room to absorb it.
I've seen what happens when adults do the opposite.
I remember supporting a child in Year 2 whose school day had become difficult. His teacher was excellent. So was the teaching assistant. We worked together rather than deciding someone simply needed to be tougher.
There were sensory walks. Less pressure to force the moment. Time to notice what helped and what didn't. Nothing particularly glamorous. No magic laminated chart. Just adults talking, adjusting and trying again.
And it made a difference.
It would be unfair to pretend that this is always easy. A teacher may have thirty or more children, several with significant needs, and sometimes no teaching assistant. I have been that teacher, and I haven't always got it right either. Sometimes you need five quiet minutes to think, and those five minutes are the very thing you haven't got. You don't need to explain the workload to me.
But the answer cannot be to hand the difficulty back to the parent and call it a parenting problem. What worked in that Year 2 classroom was shared responsibility.
The attendance figure tells us something. It doesn't tell us everything.
In figures published on 15 October 2026, the Department for Education reported that pupils with an EHC plan were more than seven times as likely to be severely absent as pupils with no identified SEN. That does not tell us why each child was absent. But surely it should make us curious about barriers, not just percentages.
Let's distinguish the child whose family has booked a term-time holiday from the one who is sobbing, shutting down or physically unable to face the school day. They are not the same situation. And the parent whose child is distressed should not have to fight to prove they are trying.
My view is that attendance fines should end altogether. I know the term-time-holiday debate is different and deserves its own proper discussion. For this article, I am talking to the families whose child is missing education because something about attending has become unmanageable.
A school cannot always remove every barrier immediately. But if the school environment is part of the problem, we have to change what is happening in that environment. Another attendance letter is not a sensory adjustment.
Two questions I'd want every parent to ask
Not fifteen questions. Not a meeting that ends with “We'll monitor it.” Two questions that begin a proper conversation:
“What is making school difficult for my child, and how are you finding that out — including what my child is telling or showing us?”
“What will change in school, who is responsible, and when will we review whether it is helping?”
Ask for the answers in writing. Think practical: a calm arrival, a safe adult, a quieter transition, sensory breaks, an adjusted demand, help with bullying or a realistic plan for returning. Not every child needs the same thing.
And if your child is missing significant education, ask how suitable education will continue while the difficulties are addressed. In England, local-authority duties may arise under section 19 of the Education Act 1996, depending on the circumstances. An EHC plan may also bring separate duties around provision.
Get the free School Anxiety / EBSA and ABSA guide · What to ask school: parent support
Already had an attendance warning or penalty notice?
Don't ignore the letter or assume that SEND creates an automatic exemption. Ask the school, in writing, how the absences were recorded, what support has been considered and what evidence is being taken into account. Tell the local authority's attendance team if information is missing or the circumstances have not been properly considered.
Current England rules allow penalty notices for qualifying unauthorised absence; a threshold being met does not make a fine automatic. There is no statutory appeal against an issued penalty notice, and writing to challenge it does not automatically stop the payment deadline. Seek independent legal advice promptly if you are facing enforcement.
Official information: attendance enforcement · school attendance guidance · education during health-related absence.
Back to the door of Number 10
That petition did not change the law overnight. The campaigners are asking for support instead of punishment for families facing real barriers to attendance. I agree — and I want us to go further and rethink financial penalties altogether.
But tomorrow morning, at 8.15, another parent will get that phone call. Another teacher will be juggling thirty children. Another child will be wondering whether they can manage the day.
Surely the most useful thing an adult can ask is not “Why aren't you making them come?” but “What can we change so they can?”
For practical next steps, start with my School Support for Parents page. For the campaign, see the 23 October petition update.
