I refer to your recent request for information regarding Elective Home Education. Please find responses to your questions below:

A) Of the 33 children registered as Electively Home Educated, I would like to know how many are there where the visiting person has concerns that a 'suitable' education is being provided?

There are concerns over 4 children, the families of whom we have, as yet, been unable to make contact with.

B) I would also appreciate it if this information could be broken down into categories: 1)whether they feel that no education is taking place? 2)whether they feel that the philosophy of education is inadequate -for example in the case of autonomous or child led learning , that particular child is not appearing to be learning 'enough'? 3)whether there are concerns because the family have not implemented a structured approached? 4)or whether the fact that the national Curriculum is not being followed is causing concern?

As no contact has been made, unable to categorise.

C) If there are children in the above 4 categories , please indicate if further steps are being taken- for example , issuance of a School Attendance Order?

The 4 cases are still in the process of investigation. No school attendance orders have been issued.

D )Please also indicate if any any Education Supervision Orders are currently in court for this population.?

No

E) Please can you confirm whether any children who fit into the above categories of concern about 'educational provision suitability' would also therefore be referred to Social Services?

None of the 4 cases above have been referred to a social worker.

F) Lastly is it possible in your Local Authority that Social Services are involved with a family but that The EHE department do not know of this involvement (This involvement would be on an on-going basis rather than a one off referral which is found to be of no genuine concern)

No. The home educator coordinator provides a report to the *Locality team indicating whether the provision for the young person is appropriate or not. Locality teams are multi-disciplinary therefore if there is concern around the appropriateness of the provision the case would be allocated to a social worker should this be appropriate and the Home educator coordinator would be informed of this.

However, should referrals be made directly to the Duty and Investigation team regarding the safety or well being of a young person who is home educated the Home educator would be informed should the decision be that home education is inappropriate.

*Locality teams are geographically based units made up of staff from different professional backgrounds including education welfare officers, social care workers, educational psychologists and family action co-ordinators.