Dear Mr. Tyler

Freedom of Information Act 2000 - internal review

I am writing with regards to your request for an internal review of your freedom of information request.

The Council maintains its position that it did not hold the information that you requested at the time when your original request was made. As explained, the information was submitted to the DCSF electronically and a copy was not retained by the local authority.

Following receipt of a number of freedom of information requests on this subject, we requested a copy of our response from the DCSF some months ago and I am pleased to inform you that we have now had a response. A copy of the information submitted is provided below:

Responsibility

Responsibility for EHE falls within Children's Services - School Improvement and Development. It is related to the wider Education Other Than At School (EOTAS) services and has the same lead officer. We also have two visiting officers who are on loan to us one morning a week from the Home and Hospital Teaching Service (HHTS) and an administrator (shared with another team). CMEs are the responsibility of Education Welfare.

EHE Cohort

As at 1 Jan we have 87 children registered at EHE.

Children on the EHE role cover most of those who are `not in school', except for those in hospital (covered by HHTS) and those who attend pupil referral units (22 attend The Bridge (see below) and are dual-registered as EHE). Therefore our “EHE” cohort includes those excluded from school, appealing for a school place or temporarily out of school before moving to another area. Some of the cohort has been withdrawn from school because of bullying or other problems. Roughly two-thirds of the EHE cohort is from traveller families who have a base in Darlington.

A number of previously-EHE children are now registered as CME as they have left the area and are not expected to return (usually travellers).

Staff Training

Visiting officers are qualified teachers, teaching assistants, education welfare officers or Connexions personal assistants. The main officers are HHTS staff and have received training in working with parents, supporting transitions and functional skills. They also receive in-house safeguarding training covering identifying signs of possible abuse, referral procedures, CAF and advanced sessions on specialist topics such as bullying and domestic violence.

We have previously had a session with the Sauer Consultancy, who train local authorities to deal with home education. We are organising a group training event in the summer term for all those involved, which will include SEN, Traveller Education, Safeguarding and Education Welfare.

Information Sharing

We are notified of children leaving school by the school, Admissions, Education Welfare, the Traveller Education Service or occasionally the parents. We also work with Admissions to pick up children who either attend nursery and have not applied to school or are in year 6 and have not applied to (or not accepted a place at) secondary school. Finding out about children who have never attended school or who have moved into the area is more difficult and we continue to develop protocols.

The names and dates of birth of children on the EHE list are shared as they are added with Education Welfare, Traveller Education, SEN, Safeguarding, YOS, Admissions, CAMHS, Data Team, Adult Social Care, HHTS, The Bridge (a PRU offering vocational courses, maths and English) and Connexions so that we can pick up any involvement with other agencies. We hold a termly meeting, which all these agencies are invited to, to discuss general issues within EHE. We also meet more regularly with The Bridge and Traveller Education to keep records up to date.

When a child comes to EHE from a school, we request their file. All the relevant information we receive about the pupil is included in a `pupil profile' sheet, which officers can then refer to when visiting. This includes any safeguarding or other concerns.

Support Provided

We operate a system of monitoring visits, usually in the child's home but occasionally elsewhere, where we speak to parents and children and provide advice. One officer is always from our team, but the second officer can be from Education Welfare, Connexions, SEN, Admissions, CAMHS etc. depending on the support that the family needs or who is involved with them.

We also offer telephone support at other times. We will refer children to other agencies and inform them of resources. We produce a `Guide for Parents' which is given to all new EHEs. We will shortly send out the first issue of a newsletter to go to families to advise them of more local resources and are also organising a get-together to discuss arrangements with them.

We do not provide teaching materials, although we may suggest websites/books. We do not recommend tutors, although we make suggestions of how to find them. At present there are no third party support arrangements in place, although the local museum has agreed to give EHE children free entry as for schools.

A number of EHE children in years 10 and 11 attend The Bridge either full or part-time. They are dual registered with EHE in case they stop attending.

Assessing Suitability

At visits we look at work produced by the child and discuss it with the child and parent. The official definition of suitable is sketchy, so the visiting officer then uses their professional judgement as to whether the education is suitable. As a minimum we usually expect a suitable education to include evidence of progress in literacy and numeracy and provision for exercise and development of social/life skills. We generally recommend keeping a diary of what the child has learnt and completing projects that interest the child.

We inform the parent of our judgement at the visit. After each visit we write to parents within a week (usually sooner) with a summary of the education being provided, our judgement on it and some recommendations for improvement. Parents are invited to correct this if it is not accurate and can provide other evidence to challenge our judgement if they feel it is incorrect. Parents are given opportunities to improve the education provided or show that it is suitable and no school attendance orders have been necessary for several years.

If you have any queries or concerns or are dissatisfied with the handling of your internal review please contact:

Freedom of Information Officer

Darlington Borough Council

Corporate Services

Town Hall

Darlington

DL1 5QT

Tel: 01325 388905

E-mail: [Darlington Borough Council request email]

Website: www.darlington.gov.uk/democracy/information_rights

If you would like to submit an official complaint about the handling of your request or appeal against a decision to rely on an exception, please use the Council's complaints procedure, details of which can be found on our website at:

www.darlington.gov.uk/complaints

If you do not have access to the Internet please contact the Freedom of Information Officer, using the contact details above, for a copy of the Council's corporate feedback form.

You can also obtain further information from the Information Commissioner at:

Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF 
Tel:   01625 545 700
Website: www.ico.gov.uk

Enquiries: www.ico.gov.uk/Global/online_enquiries.aspx

Yours sincerely

Freedom of Information Officer

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INVESTOR IN PEOPLE

Director : Paul Wildsmith