Home Education -
registration and
monitoring proposals
Consultation Response Form
The closing date for this consultation is: 19
October 2009
Your comments must reach us by that date.
THIS FORM IS NOT INTERACTIVE. If you wish to respond electronically
please use the online or offline response facility available on the
Department for Children, Schools and Families e-consultation website
(http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/consultations).
The information you provide in your response will be subject to the Freedom of
Information Act 2000 and Environmental Information Regulations, which allow
public access to information held by the Department. This does not necessarily
mean that your response can be made available to the public as there are
exemptions relating to information provided in confidence and information to
which the Data Protection Act 1998 applies. You may request confidentiality by
ticking the box provided, but you should note that neither this, nor an
automatically-generated e-mail confidentiality statement, will necessarily exclude
the public right of access.
Please tick if you want us to keep your response confidential. x
Name
Organisation (if applicable) LB Wandsworth
Address: Town
Hall,
Wandsworth High Street
London SW18 2PU
If your enquiry is related to the policy content of the consultation you can
contact the Public Communications Unit on:
Telephone: 0870 000 2288
e-mail: [email address]
If you have a query relating to the consultation process you can contact the
Consultation Unit on:
Telephone: 01928 794888
Fax: 01928 794 311
e-mail: [email address]
Please tick the box that best describes you as a respondent.
Home
Organisation
educated
Home educating
representing
child/young
parent
home educating
person
families
Other organisation
Other (please
Local
with responsibility for
x
specify in box
Authorities
children (please
below)
specify in box below)
Please Specify:
1 Do you agree that these proposals strike the right balance between the rights
of parents to home educate and the rights of children to receive a suitable
education?
x Agree
Disagree
Not sure
Comments:
Yes – we believe that the right of parents to Home Educate should remain in
law, but that safeguards need to be put in place and that these proposals do
this
2 Do you agree that a register should be kept?
x Agree
Disagree
Not sure
Comments:
Absolutely – this is long overdue. A national scheme needs to be established
that is consistently used across all LAs and agreed criteria for ‘banning’ certain
groups of parents/carers who may pose a risk to children or revoking
registration should be established and consistently applied.
3 Do you agree with the information to be provided for registration?
Agree
Disagree
x Not sure
Comments:
Registration should include basic details of child and family (eg who lives in the
household) as well as statement re educational approach etc as referred to in
the recommendations
4 Do you agree that home educating parents should be required to keep the
register up to date?
x Agree
Disagree
Not sure
Comments:
Parents should be required to notify the LA of any changes in circumstances
(eg change of arrangements, house move etc)
LA should have responsibility for notifying EHE parents of any key changes
locally (eg change of key officers etc)
5 Do you agree that it should be a criminal offence to fail to register or to provide
inadequate or false information?
x Agree
Disagree
Not sure
Comments:
Yes, because the scheme will not be workable unless there are sanctions for
those who misuse it
6 a) Do you agree that home educated children should stay on the roll of their
former school for 20 days after parents notify that they intend to home educate?
x Agree
Disagree
Not sure
Comments:
Agree in principle with a period of time to allow for any disagreement resolution,
time for reflection etc. However thought will need to be given to coding for
schools during this period. Also may need discussion re timescale and how long
the period should be.
6 b) Do you agree that the school should provide the local authority with
achievement and future attainment data?
x Agree
Disagree
Not sure
Comments:
School reports will be very helpful in supporting assessment of education needs
etc. However future attainment data (whilst potentially helpful) may be more
complex as it may not fit with the teaching philosophy of some home educating
parents.
7 Do you agree that DCSF should take powers to issue statutory guidance in
relation to the registration and monitoring of home education?
x Agree
Disagree
Not sure
Comments:
If a compulsory scheme is being introduced, with sanctions if it is not followed,
then statutory guidance will be needed
8 Do you agree that children about whom there are substantial safeguarding
concerns should not be home educated?
x Agree
Disagree
Not sure
Comments:
9 Do you agree that the local authority should visit the premises where home
education is taking place provided 2 weeks notice is given?
x Agree
Disagree
Not sure
Comments:
10 Do you agree that the local authority should have the power to interview the
child, alone if this is judged appropriate, or if not in the presence of a trusted
person who is not the parent/carer?
x Agree
Disagree
Not sure
Comments:
The voice of the child is crucial and within current legislation there is no way to
ensure the child’s independent views can be heard and considered.
11 Do you agree that the local authority should visit the premises and interview
the child within four weeks of home education starting, after 6 months has
elapsed, at the anniversary of home education starting, and thereafter at least on
an annual basis? This would not preclude more frequent monitoring if the local
authority thought that was necessary.
x Agree
Disagree
Not sure
Comments:
In principle we feel this would be a good model.
This level of monitoring would be a substantial increase in workload for LA
Thank you for taking the time to let us have your views. We do not intend to
acknowledge individual responses unless you place an 'X' in the box below.
Please acknowledge this reply
Here at the Department for Children, Schools and Families we carry out our
research on many different topics and consultations. As your views are valuable
to us, would it be alright if we were to contact you again from time to time either
for research or to send through consultation documents?
Yes
No
All DCSF public consultations are required to conform to the following criteria
within the Government Code of Practice on Consultation:
Criterion 1: Formal consultation should take place at a stage when there is scope
to influence the policy outcome.
Criterion 2: Consultations should normally last for at least 12 weeks with
consideration given to longer timescales where feasible and sensible.
Criterion 3: Consultation documents should be clear about the consultation
process, what is being proposed, the scope to influence and the expected costs
and benefits of the proposals.
Criterion 4: Consultation exercises should be designed to be accessible to, and
clearly targeted at, those people the exercise is intended to reach.
Criterion 5: Keeping the burden of consultation to a minimum is essential if
consultations are to be effective and if consultees’ buy-in to the process is to be
obtained.
Criterion 6: Consultation responses should be analysed carefully and clear
feedback should be provided to participants following the consultation.
Criterion 7: Officials running consultations should seek guidance in how to run an
effective consultation exercise and share what they have learned from the
experience.
If you have any comments on how DCSF consultations are conducted, please
contact Donna Harrison, DCSF Consultation Co-ordinator, tel: 01928 794304 /
email: [email address]
Thank you for taking time to respond to this consultation.
Completed questionnaires and other responses should be sent to the address
shown below by 19 October 2009
Send by post to:
Consultation Unit
Area GB
East Lane
CastleView House
Runcorn
Cheshire
WA7 2GJ
Send by e-mail to: [email address]
