SEND Transport Consultation- Post 16 transport

Dear Parents/Carers,

I would like to draw your attention to the SEND transport consultation that opened on 7th November.

Please view the news release here: - Consultation under way on school transport funding.

As you may be aware, Leicester City Council’s budget is in crisis and it is expecting a substantial gap between its spending and its income in 2025/26. Consequently, the council is exploring ways in which it can reduce cost.

The council currently spends more than £4 million a year on the transport costs of around 500 young people with SEND. The funding for Post-16 SEND transport had been due to end in July 2024, following a consultation that took place two years ago. However, after concerns were raised by many special school parents/carers about the process, the council announced that funding would continue for the 2024/2025 academic year, and a new consultation would take place.

The proposed new policy includes the general withdrawal of support for Post-16 transport for the academic year 2025/26 onwards. It also sets out in detail where exceptions will be made to this, however, these exceptions will mean that only a very small percentage of SEND pupils will meet the criteria for transport support and this would take the form of a Personal Transport Budget only.

The new consultation asks for views on this revised SEND transport policy, and how it will impact parents and children.

The council is not required to provide Post-16 school SEND transport, and receives no funding from the Government to do so. Therefore, without strong opposition to their proposed new policy, transport for SEND pupils post-16 may be withdrawn. I would strongly encourage you to have your say in this consultation. Whilst this policy does not affect the transport for your child whilst they are at Oaklands School, we feel that it is important that you as parents/carers of future Post-16 SEND transport users have a say. This will affect you and your child when they are 16 yrs old.

The consultation will run until 2 January 2025 and can be found on the council’s website here: Leicester City Council - Citizen Space

If you have any questions about this or would like to speak to me about it, please do call the school office.

Yours sincerely

Sarah Osborne

(Headteacher)

With the introduction of the new National Framework for Penalty Notices, the following changes will come into force for Penalty Notice fines issued for unauthorised absence that occurs after 19 August 2024.

Per Parent, Per Child

Penalty Notice fines will be issued to each parent, for each child who was absent. For example: 3 siblings absent for term time leave will result in each parent receiving 3 separate fines.

5 Consecutive Days of Term Time Leave

Penalty Notice fines will be issued for term time leave of 5 or more consecutive days, and for fewer days where this has happened before.

10 Sessions of Unauthorised Absence in a 10-week period Penalty Notice fines will be considered when there have been 10 sessions of absence in a 10-week period.

First Offence

The first time a Penalty Notice is issued for Term Time Leave or irregular attendance the amount will be: £160 per parent, per child when paid within 28 days. Reduced to £80 per parent , per child if paid within 21 days.

Second Offence (within 3 years)

The second time a Penalty Notice is issued for Term Time Leave or irregular attendance the amount will be: £160 per parent, per child when paid within 28 days. (No option to pay at £80 level).

Third Offence and Any Further Offences (within 3 years)

The third time an offence is committed for Term Time Leave or irregular attendance a Penalty Notice will not be issued. The case will proceed to the Magistrates’ court. Magistrate’s fines can be up to £2,500 per parent, per child. Cases found guilty in Magistrates’ Court can show on the parent’s future DBS certificate and may impact on job applications and travel abroad.

Court prosecutions

Penalty Notices will not automatically be issued. Parents are advised that where the LA considers that a Penalty Notice is not appropriate due to the level of concern about a child’s absence, prosecution action may be taken.

By law, all Penalty Notice payments go to the local authority and not to schools.

We are pleased to announce that we have successfully maintained our flagship status for the Inclusion Quality Mark after our recent review.  To see the full report please click on the link below

https://primarysite-prod-sorted.s3.amazonaws.com/oaklands-school-leicester/UploadedDocument/51c987de-edf0-41fe-b035-dbec1c55233b/oaklands-school-review-may-2024.pdf

Tuesday 7th May 2024

Advice regarding unauthorised leave from school

Dear Parents/Carers,

I am writing to inform you that from the 19 August 2024, new regulations come into force regarding unauthorised leave of absence from school. The changes have come after almost 400,000 penalty notices were issued to parents in England in 2022-23 for unauthorised school absences - which is much higher than pre-pandemic levels.

The Dfe are trying to improve consistency across England by introducing a new National Threshold at which a penalty notice would be considered. The Dfe aim is to improve the deterrent of penalty notices by increasing the amount. A fine must be considered if a child misses five days of school for unauthorised absence.

The following information comes from the Dfe advice and the local authority:

For unauthorised absence from August 2024, Penalty Notices will increase to £160 per parent per child (discounted to £80 if paid within 21 days).  If there is occasion to issue a second Penalty Notice for unauthorised leave of absence within a rolling 3 year period, it will be issued at the higher rate of £160 per parent per child, with no opportunity to pay at the lower level.  A Penalty Notice cannot be issued if there is a third occasion of unauthorised leave of absence in the rolling 3 year period and it is highly likely that the local authority will take direct prosecution action in the Magistrates’ Court which can result in you receiving a criminal conviction.  Please also be aware that any cases of extended periods of unauthorised absence, linked to holidays or trips away, are highly likely to result in prosecution action by the local authority.

If your child has unauthorised leave of absence prior to the end of the summer term in 2024 and a penalty notice is deemed necessary, there will be a Penalty Notice of £120 per parent per child (discounted to £60 if paid within 21 days), or, your case will be referred by the Local Authority directly to the Magistrates’ Court.

Schools consider on a case by case basis whether to issue a penalty notice. Our priority at Oaklands School is always to work with parents/carers and support families to improve attendance. Every moment in school counts and we know that days missed add up quickly. Evidence shows that pupils who have good attendance enjoy better wellbeing and school performance than those who don't.

There are only a few circumstances where a child is allowed to miss school, such as illness, hospital appointments, or where the school has given permission because of an exceptional circumstance. An exceptional circumstance does not include taking holidays in term time due to a child’s needs; family holidays must always be taken in the school holidays. If you are unsure about whether an absence will be authorised, please do call the office and ask to speak with me or our attendance officer, Sally Bott.

Further information about the changes to penalty notices can be found here: Fines for parents for taking children out of school: What you need to know – The Education Hub (blog.gov.uk)

Regards

Sarah Osborne (Headteacher)

Wednesday 1^st May 2024

Dear Parent/Carer,

All schools in the UK have recently been sent information from the National Crime Agency, raising awareness of the recent rise in reporting of financially motivated sexual extortion (a type of online blackmail often known in the media as ‘sextortion’). Children and young people worldwide are being targeted.

This type of crime involves an adult offender (often from an organised crime group based overseas) threatening to release nude or semi-nude images and/or videos of a child or young person, unless they pay money, or meet another financial demand, such as purchasing a pre-paid gift card.

Victims of any age and gender can be targets, however a large proportion of cases have involved male victims aged 14-18.

A child or young person is never to blame if they have been a victim. Offenders will have tricked, groomed and/or manipulated them into sharing an image.

Find out more about online blackmail on CEOP Education’s parents and carers website.

Talking to your child

It’s important to have frequent, open and non-judgemental conversations with your child about relationships, sex and being online to build trust and support them if something goes wrong. Financially motivated sexual extortion should be included in those conversations. Here are some tips about how to approach this:

· Chat regularly about their life online: have ongoing conversations with them about their life and time online. Continue to take an interest as they grow, explore new apps and sites together and talk in a balanced way, considering the benefits and the potential harms.

· Talk about where to find information about relationships and sex: organisations like CEOP Education, Childline and Brook have advice topics such as sexual communication and image sharing. This will help your child to understand what unhealthy relationships look like, such as applying pressure and blackmail; and give them trusted sources of information to explore these topics. Protecting the public from serious and organised crime

· Review privacy settings: talk to your child about the importance of using privacy settings on their accounts to restrict who can contact them. Read CEOP Education’s advice on how to talk your child about their privacy settings.

· Make sure they know where to go for support: let them know that they can come to you with any concerns and won’t be judged. It’s also important to make them aware of other trusted adults or sources of support, if they feel they can’t talk to you, such as Childline.

· Make sure they know where to report: remind your child how you can help them to report an incident to the police or using the CEOP Safety Centre. Let them know that if a nude or semi-nude of them has been shared without their consent, they can take these 3 steps to try and get them removed:

1. Use Report Remove, a tool from Childline and the Internet Watch Foundation. Your child can use this to remove images that have been shared or might be shared.

2. Use Take It Down, a tool from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Your child can use this to remove or stop the online sharing of images or videos.

3. Report directly to the platform or app that the incident has occurred on. For advice on how to report to major social media platforms, visit Internet Matters.

To learn more about what resources are available to help you support your child, visit the UK Safer Internet Centre.

What can I do if this has happened to my child?

If your child tells you that someone is trying to trick, threaten or blackmail them online:

· Don’t pay, do stop contact and block: you may be tempted to pay, but there is no guarantee that this will stop the threats. As the offender’s motive is to get money, once you have shown you can pay, they will likely ask for more and blackmail may continue. If you have paid, don’t panic but don’t pay anything more. Help your child to stop all communication with the offender and block them on any accounts that they have been contacted on.

· Avoid deleting anything: try not to delete anything that could be used as evidence such as messages, images and bank account details. Protecting the public from serious and organised crime

· Report to the police or CEOP: call 101 or 999 if there is an immediate risk of harm to your child. Or you can use the CEOP Safety Centre to report any online blackmail attempts.

If it has already happened and your child has shared an image and sent money to someone exploiting them:

· Reassure them that they’ve done the right thing by telling you: make sure they know they are not to blame for what has happened and they have done the right thing to ask for your help. Children and young people’s mental health may be negatively impacted by experiences of exploitation; you can find advice on looking after your child’s mental health from the NHS.

· Report to the police or CEOP: call 101 or 999 if there is an immediate risk of harm to your child. Or you can use the CEOP Safety Centre to report an incident. If your child is 18 and over, call 101 or 999 if they are at risk of immediate harm.

· Report any images or videos that have been shared: help your child to remove images that are online or prevent images being shared online by following these three steps:

1. Use Report Remove, a tool from Childline and the Internet Watch Foundation. Your child can use this to remove images that have been shared or might be shared.

1. Use Take It Down, a tool from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Your child can use this to remove or stop the online sharing of images or videos.

3. Report directly to the platform or app that the incident has occurred on. For advice on how to report to major social media platforms, visit Internet Matters

Further information about Internet Safety can be found on our website. If you need any advice, please do not hesitate to call the school so you can speak to one of our Safeguarding team.

Regards

Sarah Osborne (Headteacher)