What Our Latest FOI Requests Reveal About School Attendance Fines in Torbay - And Why Families Should Be Worried

Over the past few months, Punk Against Poverty has submitted a series of Freedom of Information (FOI) requests to Torbay Council about school attendance enforcement. What we found paints a deeply concerning picture particularly for families with children who have Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND).

Our FOIs uncover high volumes of fines, untracked costs to the tax payer, disproportionate impacts on SEND families, and an apparent absence of Equality Impact Assessments (EIAs), despite legal duties under the Equality Act.

Below is a breakdown of the key findings.

1. Fines Are High — and They Generated Nearly £58,000 in a Single Year

For the 2024/25 academic year, Torbay Council issued:

• 976 school attendance fines

• £57,920 collected through those fines

This is only a slight drop from the previous year’s 1,056 fines — but the scale remains huge for a small local authority.

2. SEND Families Are Hit Disproportionately

Of the 976 fines:

• 160 were issued to families with children on the SEND register

That’s 16.4% of all fines, despite SEND children making up only 13% of Torbay’s pupil population.

Using population-adjusted rates:

• SEND children were fined at around 4.1% per 100 pupils

• Non-SEND children were fined at around 3.1% per 100 pupils

This means SEND families in Torbay were around 1.3 times more likely to be fined than non-SEND families.

This does not include:

• children with undiagnosed SEND,

• children awaiting assessment,

• or children whose needs schools have not yet acknowledged.

So the real disparity is likely worse.

3. 136 Parents Were Prosecuted — But the Council Cannot Say How Much It Cost

Torbay Council confirmed:

• 
  

• 136 prosecutions for school attendance in 2024/25

• They do not know how many involved SEND pupils

• They do not know how much these prosecutions cost taxpayers

• They do not know the outcomes of the court hearings

Their official statement:

“Information not known as this is not costed as a single item. It is included in a block provision.”

This means Torbay Council is:

• Prosecuting parents

• Spending public money on court action

• Not tracking the financial cost

• Not providing transparency to taxpayers

Meanwhile, families — including those already struggling with disability, poverty, and unmet educational needs — are facing harsh penalties.

4. No Evidence Equality Impact Assessments (EIAs) Were Completed

In our follow-up FOI, Torbay Council gave no answer to our question

“Has the Council carried out any Equality Impact Assessments (EIAs)

regarding the disproportionate effect of attendance fines and prosecutions on

SEND families or low-income families?”

They provided no evidence of

• Equality Impact Assessment relating to school attendance fines

• Equality Impact Assessment relating to prosecutions

• No evidence they have assessed how attendance enforcement affects:

• SEND families

• Low-income families

• Young carers

• Children with health needs

• Families from minority groups

This is extraordinarily concerning.

Under the Equality Act 2010, councils must consider how their policies impact people with protected characteristics — and SEND status falls under disability.

If the council is:

• fining SEND pupils at higher rates,

• prosecuting families without tracking cost or impact,

• and failing to complete EiAs…

…then they are potentially failing in their Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED).

5. Why This Matters

Schools and councils often say fines and prosecutions are about improving attendance.

But our findings show:

• SEND children may be being penalised for disabilities their schools may not be meeting.

• Families in crisis are potentially being punished rather than supported.

• The council is collecting tens of thousands in fines yet holding no data on the costs administering these fines or prosecuting families.

• No equality analysis is being done to understand whether enforcement is discriminatory.

This raises urgent questions:

• How can the council justify punishing families when they don’t even assess the impact of their actions?

• Why are SEND families being disproportionately targeted?

• How can enforcement be lawful without Equality Impact Assessments?

• Why are taxpayer-funded prosecutions not tracked or costed?

6. What We’re Doing Next

We have now submitted a FOI to Portsmouth Magistrates Court requesting further detail on prosecutions including:

• Case outcomes - a breakdown of the number of guilty, not guilty, withdrawn or dismissed and adjourned

• A breakdown of penalties/ sentences imposed by the court

• Details of any costs to the council

We will publish every response as soon as it arrives.

Our goal is simple:

🔍 Transparency

⚖️ Fairness

🛑 An end to punitive measures that disproportionately target SEND and low-income families

Families deserve support — not fines, threats, and court action.

If you would like to view the FOIs in full please get in touch and we will share them with you.