Unauthorised Absence: An independent film

Interview: Mia Sneyd, Trustee, Human Scale Education, in conversation with Jo Clayton, Storyteller | Writer | Director.

Human Scale Education advocates for learning environments designed around relationships, dignity and the flourishing of every child. In this interview, Mia Sneyd speaks with writer-director Jo Clayton about Unauthorised Absence, a film rooted in lived experience and created in response to the harm caused when attendance compliance overrides children’s wellbeing, unmet SEND needs and the realities of school distress.

Mia: What inspired the idea for the film?

Jo Clayton: The idea came about because I’d been a parent in the SEND system for eight years and the only way I kept my sanity was through writing to process everything. I wrote a longer, totally unfilmable script about the shock of becoming a mother and passed it to Charlotte Bogard Macleod at The Script Factory for feedback. Charlotte was fantastically encouraging, but asked me to hone in on one area and turn it into a tight short film.

She also asked if there was just one thing I could change about the education system, what would it be? It was a no-brainer: fixed penalty notices and prosecutions for school absence have to be some of the cruellest and least fit-for-purpose legislation in the country. They were the start of my family’s eight-year excursion into the wild west of the SEND system. They’re abhorrent, and I knew they were harming thousands of families every day.

“Fixed penalty notices and prosecutions for school

absence have to be some of the cruellest and

least fit-for-purpose legislation in the country.”

Mia: Human Scale Education advocates for institutions designed around human relationships rather than administrative convenience. How did you approach showing the tension between a punitive, data-driven system and the human reality of school distress?

Jo: It was really important to show the stark contrast between Thea at school, where she is quiet, amenable and studious, and Thea at home, where she is either happily in her own creative world or, on school days, completely dysregulated and distraught.

To illustrate the bureaucracy and the “computer says no” attitude of the attendance system, I took details from my own experience and merged them with hundreds of other parents’ accounts. We see mildly irritated phone calls from the school secretary, threatening official letters, and endless meetings where parents- overwhelmingly mothers- ask for support but feel ambushed and outnumbered.

All of this system-driven behaviour is juxtaposed with scenes of home, which begin in safety, love and connection for mother and daughter, before escalating into the distress and relational rupture so many families experience daily.

Mia: A central value of human-scale learning is listening deeply to young people and honouring their lived experience. What visual and auditory choices helped the audience feel Thea’s environment rather than viewing her non-attendance as refusal?

Jo: Thea’s story was central to what I wanted to say, but as an adult and parent it was not really my story to tell. The central narrative is very much the mother’s perspective, because that is what I knew intimately, but through sound design, low child-level camera angles and film speed, Georgia Parris, our director, was able to give a glimpse into Thea’s experience too.

It is easy to take “behaviour” out of context and see an out-of-control child and a permissive parent. Film is uniquely equipped to place the audience inside that sensory and emotional world. Being able to feel Thea’s overwhelm and terror was central to our mission to show the reality of school distress.

“Thea’s behaviour at home, though extreme and

incredibly upsetting, is simply a logical manifestation

of her overwhelm and distress.”

When our trailer went viral- three million views in less than three days- and messages of support and requests for screenings arrived from all over the world, we knew we had created something powerful and important.

Mia: How does the parent role reflect the ways rigid policy damages the essential relationship between home and school?

Jo: Having been shredded by that process myself, I was determined to get that conflict between anger, powerlessness and love into the DNA of the script. As parents we're told “tough love” is what our children need for academic excellence. Well I call “BS” on that — particularly for neurodivergent or traumatised children.

We’re fed the same, ridiculous manipulation of the DfE data that missing a day of school will destroy our children’s future prospects, and we’re treated as if we’re infants ourselves. Like Anna in the film, I’ve spent a long time feeling very broken and angry. I’ve also had to live with the guilt that I was complicit in harming my child on a very deep and enduring level, because I didn’t see or stop the systemic abuse sooner.

The fixed penalty notice legislation is still relatively new, and I, and many other teachers and parents, have vivid memories of when parents — not systems — called the shots about whether or not a child was well enough to attend school. The DfE’s over-reach into family life is outrageous, authoritarian and, quite frankly, disturbing. This legislation is causing widespread and long-lasting harm which should be of concern to everyone in this country who values our children and our future.

“I want attitudes within the system to change from compliance to compassion.”

Mia: Language shapes culture. Terms like “truancy” or “unauthorised absence” criminalise what is often Emotionally Based School Non-Attendance. How do you hope Unauthorised Absence will help shift the national conversation away from attendance compliance and toward understanding unmet SEND needs?

Jo: Just that really- I hope the film will highlight that what we used to call “school refusal” is simply unmet need. In our film, it’s Thea’s undiagnosed autistic processing that causes her distress, but there are myriad reasons for “unauthorised absence” and the DfE aren’t collecting the data to show why children are out of school in such disturbing numbers.

There is no code for absence due to mental ill-health, neurodivergence, ME/CFS, FND, rare genetic conditions, Long Covid or Fetal Alcohol Syndrome symptoms, poverty, or any number of reasons a child can’t be in school at 8.45 every single morning. We want the public to know these children exist and to put them centre stage in the debate about attendance.

“We hope to cut through that denial with emotional clarity and a huge weight of lived experience.”

Putting pressure on parents who are trying everything and desperately want their children to thrive in school is an utterly Dickensian way of tackling the problem, glaringly “Gradgrind” in its approach. We know so much more about children’s motivations and struggles in school than we did thirty years ago, but for reasons unknown, the DfE chooses to put its fingers firmly in its ears when faced with the research, psychology and facts.

Mia: How did drawing on real stories shape the writing process and keep the narrative grounded in genuine truth?

Jo: I’ve been a member of Not Fine in School parent peer support for school attendance difficulties for about 10 years. I honestly don’t know how I would have coped without them. I have absorbed the injustice of hundreds of stories and desperate cries for help over a long period of time, and they’re firmly mixed up with my own guilt, grief and rage.

I feel those histories at a cellular level and when I write I draw on that. So much of this story couldn’t be told in documentary because it would be too invasive of the most traumatic moments of a child’s life. For me, drama was the perfect vehicle, and turning all that pain and harm into a tool for change has been really life-affirming and hopeful.

My ultimate dream is that change happens soon and this film throws a spotlight onto that lived experience so we can put an end to children and families being pushed to the brink by ingrained systemic ignorance.

Mia: Human Scale Education champions smaller learning environments where every child is known and supported. Unauthorised Absence exposes what happens when children with neurodivergent profile traits are forced to adapt to overwhelming environments. What does the film suggest about the need for schools to adapt to the child, rather than demanding the child adapt to a one-size-fits-all model?

Jo: I hope we show that a one-size-fits-all approach to education isn’t working for children like Thea. The harm and distress is real, and if we know better it really is time to put that into practice and do better for the “hidden 20%”.

The best teachers and headteachers have always met children and young people where they are, built authentic and compassionate relationships, and made meaningful and significant accommodations where they’re able, even if that means admitting that they can’t meet a child’s needs in a mainstream classroom.

“Education should be a life-affirming experience for every child and young person in this country, regardless of their needs.”

Today, British children are amongst the most miserable in the developed world and those children forced out of education aren’t reflected in the PISA results or the international league tables - they’re invisible, silent, blamed and shamed. Something has gone very, very wrong in our education system and unless it’s addressed with humility and purpose, soon, we are simply creating a ticking time bomb for the future.

Mia: The SEND crisis affects entire family units and communities, often pushing parents to burnout and isolation. How does the film draw attention to the emotional and financial toll exacted on parents who are simply trying to keep their children safe?

Jo: The script is the story of a mother's journey from struggling but coping, to the desperate, burnt-out shell she becomes. Sadly, those who’ve lived it will know this is just the start of the fight to access a child’s basic human right to a suitable education.

Emily Bruni’s performance as Anna is devastating, and takes the story to a level I could only have dreamt. The administrative and bureaucratic process is layered into her character arc at every turn, so you see not just the emotional toll but the blatant detached bureaucracy levelled against her. It’s a case of mother versus the machine, and it’s our hymn to the love, care and resilience of mothers and fathers going through this everywhere.

Mia: What specific conversations or policy shifts do you hope to trigger when this film is screened for families, educators, school leaders and policymakers? What is the hope for children?

Jo: Personally, I want to see the fines and prosecutions abolished - end of - and a return to trusting parents to have their children’s best interests at heart. I’d also love to see the ridiculous burden of attendance targets taken off schools and teachers so they can concentrate on teaching and learning, not policing compliance and aggravating already precarious relationships with parents.

Now, more than ever, we need schools to be safe and nurturing places of growth and hope at the heart of our communities: places that value all our children and young people for who they are now, as well as the potential they can bring to our society in the future. Each child has a part to play in shaping a better future: for some that will be 10 A star GCSEs; for others it will be the confidence to face adulthood secure in who they are and what they can contribute outside academics; and for all our children it is important to look to a future where they can live a fulfilling, secure life, free from prejudice and fear.

To watch the trailer click here.

To view details on IMDb click here.

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