Fife Council to review school safety after pupils leave grounds without permission

SNP councillor Alycia Hayes , who represents East Neuk and Landward, had expressed her concern after hearing about one child with additional support needs who had managed to get out on eight occasions over two years.

She said: “Many of us in the room are parents. For some of us, those primary school years are in the past. For others, it is still a current experience.

“We have dropped our young ones off at school and rushed off to do all the things we had to do in that day.

“Imagine that busy day being interrupted by a phone call telling you your child has gone missing from school. I can imagine that heart stopping moment, the panic or what could be happening to my child.

“That only has to happen once and confidence in school is shattered. When it happens more than once, what matters is your peace of mind.

“We think ‘Should I hang around for a while just in case?’, or ‘I should probably not leave home in case they run away again and try and come home’. I cannot put the phone on silent because what if the school calls?

“Recently I was contacted by a mother whose experience was exactly that. Her nine-year-old daughter has additional support needs.

“This little girl is repeatedly running away from school, eight times in two years. On an earlier occasion, this child was without supervision for over an hour.”

Cllr Hayes said the school had tried with “mixed success” to follow the youngster.

She continued: “This is hugely disruptive to a primary school to have a teacher running about the streets rather than working with children in their classrooms. Understandably the parent is really distressed every time this happens.”

Acknowledging that this was not a unique occurrence, Cllr Hayes is keen to ensure steps are taken to reduce the risk of youngsters leaving their school without permission.

She raised a motion at Thursday’s full council meeting, which was amended to gain cross party support, highlighting the issue and looking at ways to find solutions.

The motion stated: “Council notes with concern recent incidents with primary age children who have left school grounds without permission during the school day, with such incidents causing understandable alarm for family, staff and highlighting questions about safety and suitability or parts of the current school estate.

“Council recognises the growing number of children who have additional support needs, many of whom require environments that are safe, secure and designed to support a range of learning, sensory, communication and behavioural needs and potentially other needs.

“Council acknowledges that much of the existing school estate is not designed to meet modern additional support need requirements or safeguarding expectations.”

The motion asked the council’s education chief to work, in conjunction with health and safety and headteachers, on a review of Fife’s school estate.

The review will look at boundary security and the risk of pupils leaving without permission, the suitability of school lay outs for effective supervision and the adequacy of facilities for pupils with additional support needs.

It will also look at the rates of children leaving without permission over the past five years and the risk assessment procedures.

The motion added: “The review should identify immediate improvements that can be delivered with existing resources, produce a prioritised action plan with further interventions and report findings, costs, timescales and recommendations to the November education scrutiny committee and the cabinet committee following in January.

“The outcome should be used to inform future capital investment and estate planning decisions.”