Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to help provide alternative learning opportunities for cases of school refusal among children.

Local authorities have the responsibility for arranging and providing suitable alternative provision for children of compulsory schooling age unable to receive their education in school due to ill health, under section 19 of the Education Act.

The department expects and encourages schools to work with families or carers and with the child themselves to arrange and put in place suitable provision that will help the child re-engage in education.

If a school believes they can no longer support the child’s needs, the local authority should arrange alternative provision that will provide suitable education and targeted support to help the child overcome their barriers to learning and to re-engage back into mainstream schooling.

The department’s ‘Working together to improve school attendance’ guidance also makes clear that schools and local authorities should be taking a ‘support first’ approach to attendance challenges.