SEND petition, Helen Fielding, Women's Rugby, Child photographers, Teen Summit

Nuala McGovern (0:00)

Hello, this is Nuala McGovern, and you're listening to the Woman's Hour Podcast. Hello and welcome to the programme. Well, today, a group of parents of children with SEND are delivering a petition to Downing Street. They're calling for an end to school fines and prosecutions for families whose children face barriers to attendance. And this morning, I'd like your thoughts on fines for school absences, particularly if you have received one. What were your circumstances? We know absences can affect a school's Ofsted rating. Maybe you have thoughts on that. It could be as a parent. It could be as a teacher. To get in touch, you can send us a WhatsApp message or a voice note. That number is 3700 100444

On most smart speakers, you can say, Alexa, ask BBC Sounds to send a comment. Or you can text the programme. The number is 84844 on social media. We're at BBC Women's Hour. Or you can email us through our website. That conversation coming up in just a moment. But also today, the author Helen Fielding will be here. Can you believe the novel Bridget Jones was written some 30 years ago? Doesn't time fly? Well Helen is launching and funding the Bridget Jones Writing Prize and she's looking for northern stars, so to speak. We'll talk to her about that. We also have rugby superstars on the programme this morning. Maggie Alphonsi and Ruby Tui. We want to speak about the British and Irish Women's Lions Tour. That has been decades in the making. It's exciting times and we'll also take a little time to hear about the history of children taking photographs. It's linked to a new exhibit called Snap Happy! Plus how teenagers are seeing their presence and their futures. The results from a BBC Teen Summit. Clare McDonnell will be with me to talk us through what they found. But let me begin with campaigners delivering a petition to Downing Street today, calling for parents of children would send to be exempt from being fined if their children miss school.

The founder of the No School Finds campaign, Maddie Roberts, spoke to the Today programme this morning.

Maddie Roberts (2:07)

The big concern is obviously the pressure and stress that that puts on a family when you're already in crisis.

You're trying to get support for your child. You want your child to be attending school, but if their needs aren't being met in school and they can't go, for our family obviously we managed to get to the point of being able to get that support from the mental health services to not receive the fine. But we know that there's hundreds of families that are waiting for such a long time to get that support.

Nuala McGovern (2:42)

So that's Maddie Roberts. The actor Anna Maxwell Martin has also joined the campaign. She has frequently appeared on our Send in the Spotlight podcast where she shared her views on school fines. Here's a little of what she has said.

Anna Maxwell Martin (2:55)

Children who are not attending school and have low or poor attendance, the reason won't be because they can't be bothered. It's because they are unable to be in school. And so what needs to happen is that school environments need to be a personal place of safety for that child.

And when that happens, the attendance will improve. And that's why I campaign against fines, exclusion, threats of court, taking parents to court, threatening parents, anything punitive to do with attendance. We need more humans who show up, who have compassion. And I think that's what we need to be investing in.

Nuala McGovern (3:33)

Anna Maxwell-Martin there. Well, school absence fines in England, they rose from £60 to £80 in 2024 And a parent who receives a second fine for the same child within a three-year period now receives a £160 fine. If the child is off school three or more times within the same period, parents could go to court and be fined up to £2,500 and given a community order or a jail sentence. Let me bring in Alex Stafford, a Senior Solicitor with Ipsea's illegal team. They are an independent provider of a special education advice. Alex, you're frequently advising parents who are facing challenges in getting their child to attend school.

Tell me a little bit about what you hear from them when it comes to these fines.

Alex Stafford (4:22)

Well, obviously, they're very distressed and at Ipsea, although we don't specifically advise once they're in that kind of situation where they're facing fines or worse threatened court action, for example, we'd have to signpost them on. Usually, they're not just dealing with the fact of the fine, but obviously the point is that the fine isn't addressing the underlying root cause of the problem and that's what they're desperately trying to get help with.