Hello,

Last week, an important debate was held in the House of Lords on the “role of schools in caring for the mental health and well-being of pupils”.

For two hours, members from across all parties spoke eloquently on the “mental health emergency” facing young people across the UK. Broadly, there was a good understanding and consensus that action is required.

The official government response? Mainly to focus on the importance of behaviour and tell the house, “At our peril do we have such a negative tone...”

Not listening and not understanding.

We had a similar feeling this week when we received a generic response from the Schools Minister in response to highlighting the current escalation of fines and prosecution—a generic template letter – in response to a different subject.

The Department for Education also recently wrote to us absolving themselves of any responsibility about fines and prosecutions – pointing to Local Authorities… Who point to Schools…who point to…The Department for Education. And around they go.

Not listening and not understanding.

The House of Lords debate ended with a comment on the importance of evidence-based approaches.

We agree.

Lived experience is evidence, too, and Maddie and I have decided to use our platform to lift voices of lived experience. From tomorrow, we will publish the voices of lived experience here.

If you are a parent, teacher or otherwise impacted by fines and prosecution and wish to share your recent lived experience, please get in touch with us:

maddieandsusan.noschoolfines@gmail.com.

Anonymous accounts are welcomed. We know it's not safe for everyone to speak out.

We would love to hear positive accounts, too – what is working well is as helpful to share as what is going so badly wrong.

At our peril, we ignore what happens to families whose children can’t attend school.

Maddie and Susan

You can read the full speeches from the House of Lords on Hansard