Define Fine: Parent Peer Support for School Attendance Difficulties

Define Fine has been created by a small, committed team of parents and professionals who have lived experience of school attendance difficulties.

We are a parent/carer-led organisation set up in response to the growing number of children and young people who experience school attendance difficulties. This is sometimes referred to as ‘school refusal’. Or emotionally based school avoidance and may be due to unmet Special Educational Needs and Disabilities including physical / mental illness, bullying, issues relating to academic pressure or the school environment. 

We provide peer support, using our tried and tested resources and to help parents advocate for the support their children and young people need. We run regular online webinars and workshops to share effective methods of advocacy and requests for support and work closely with other SEND support groups. In some areas we work with the Local Authority and SENDIASS. We do not charge for support services as we are grant and donation funded. Although we do charge a fee to organisations who invite us to present our workshops or to speak at conferences. We are currently in the process of registering our courses for Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Certification. 

We are building up a growing network of parent peer supporters, who we train and support to use our guides to enable them to communicate with professionals and request the necessary support to improve attendance. Many of our parents, who we have supported in the past, choose to stay with us to help other families experiencing attendance difficulties.

We find that empowering parents to effectively work with professionals, encourages not only earlier intervention, with much better outcomes, but also reduce the risk and impact of unhelpful and unnecessary attendance prosecutions and social services safeguarding interventions. It is vital that children, young people and their families receive appropriate support and especially in cases where professionals insist children are “fine in school,” all are clear as to how fine is defined. 

For us “fine in school” would mean that children are safe, healthy, happy and their needs are acknowledged and supported to be able to access suitable education and learn.