The role of the GP in maximising school attendance

Alison Hesley

doi:10.3399/bjgp23X735033

The article ‘The role of the GP in maximising school attendance’ suggests that GPs should be doing everything they can to get children into school.¹ It suggests that children who suffer anxiety about school just need a bit of encouraging. It suggests that giving in to parents is taking the easy option. I am a former assistant headteacher and now one of many thousands of parents who have been forced to home educate our children because of failings in the education and health systems.

I am the parent of an autistic child who suffered burnout and school trauma after 10 weeks of attending secondary school. We were very lucky that our GP understood autism and wrote to the school to say that my son would not be able to attend for the remainder of the term. Without this letter we would have been subjected to daily phone calls and weekly visits from school, and the threat of a fine.

The article fails to recognise that for many neurodivergent children school is the cause of their anxiety and that being forced to return to an unsuitable environment will result in them becoming ill. Children could be put at further risk of experiencing burnout and school trauma if they are forced to keep going to school when what they need is rest, low pressure, a plan for reasonable adjustments to be made, or an Education and Health Care Plan (EHCP) to provide a different education pathway.

I fully understand the sentiment of the article. We all have a duty to safeguard young people but it is important that we don’t generalise and put other young people at risk in the process. There are many other pathways through education and without the support and understanding of GPs many children will be denied the pathways that would best suit them.