School ‘to automatically call social services’ if parents are 30 minutes late to collect child

A primary school will fine parents a pound for every five minutes they are late picking up their children.

Holy Trinity Church of England Primary School, in Gravesend in Kent, will also contact social services if a child remains uncollected at 4pm, just half an hour after school finishes, according to a policy introduced earlier this month.

The move — which will target those picking up their children just 10 minutes late — has been criticised by parents and unions who warn it could “undermine positive relationships” with families. 

But the school claims the move is needed to cover the cost of paying teachers who need to stay late.

One parent, who wished to remain anonymous, said: “As parents of the school we were shocked and appalled to receive this notification from the school. 

“Gravesend is a deprived area and many parents struggle to work due to the cost of childcare. Lots of schools finish around the same time and this means that it is a struggle to get kids on time.”

They added: “The letter says that if kids aren’t picked up by 4pm the school will ring social services.

“We think the fact that the governors have agreed to impose this is disgraceful and must be illegal.”

Jerry Glazier, from the National Education Union (NEU), told the BBC that he did not think “fining parents is the right way to engage in the issue”.

He said it was important “parents understand why particular actions are detrimental to the school, but the best way of doing that is through proper meaningful engagement, not by punitive actions like fining”.

Mr Glazier added that the “unnecessary threat” of contacting social services could antagonise people.

The policy was introduced this week to ensure all children are collected from school before 3.40pm. 

Headteacher Denise Gibbs-Naguar said: “School finishes at 3.30pm but it is becoming an increasingly regular occurrence to have a significant number of uncollected children still onsite at 4pm.

“When this occurs a member of staff has to be paid overtime to supervise those children. The school is not able to sustain this ongoing cost without it impacting upon other areas of the school budget and therefore on the children’s schooling.

She added: “Additionally, pupils who are collected late often exhibit signs of anxiety and distress as they don’t know where their parent/carer is and worry that something may have happened to them.

“Clearly this is not something anyone wants a child to experience.”