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.
Name Rennie
Thompson
Organisation (if applicable) Oxfordshire County Council
Address:
County Hall, New Road
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:
The recommendations are an improvement on current guidance and strike the
right balance between the rights of parents to home educate and the rights of
children to receive a suitable education. They address issues of potential
safeguarding concerns.
2 Do you agree that a register should be kept?
x Agree
Disagree
Not sure
Comments:
A register supports good safeguarding practice, reducing the risk of a child
missing / missing education.
A register identifies home educated children and allows an independent party
(the LA) to ensure that the child’s right to education is fulfilled.
3 Do you agree with the information to be provided for registration?
x Agree
Disagree
Not sure
Comments:
This can be kept to a necessary minimum.
We welcome greater clarity around registration and more clarity around what
parents will be required to provide.
There should be assurances that protocols on confidentiality, data security and
information sharing will be followed.
4 Do you agree that home educating parents should be required to keep the
register up to date?
x Agree
Disagree
Not sure
Comments:
This would minimise the risk of children missing / missing education and
enhance safeguarding.
Updating is particularly important for families who move around the country
frequently. Better support could be designed for such highly mobile families if
they wanted it.
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:
These proposals are rooted in safeguarding. LA resources should be used
efficiently and to provide best value. False or inadequate information could
potentially waste such resources and generally would not be in the interest of
Children and Young People. Sanctions could be imposed but criminal
proceedings should be taken only in extreme cases.
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:
A 20 working day period on school roll would be extremely helpful to children,
LAs and schools. There would be distinct advantages for pupils such as those
who opt for EHE following behaviour sanctions in schools or bullying incidents
and who may wish to return to school following resolution of the problems.
The only issue of concern around attendance would be the coding used for the
20 day period after first notification. If the child remains on roll but is actually
being home educated could we have clarity on the use of codes so schools do
not carry unnecessary absence?
Keeping the school place open would cause difficulty under current admissions
law, but a protocol could be established to allow the place to be kept open for
potential EHE pupils for 20 days.
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:
This information would greatly help the LA EHE visitor to establish whether the
child is making progress. ECM outcomes should also be considered.
The EHE visitor would take other factors into consideration and would not use
this exclusively as the measure of the child’s progress.
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 it is optional, then the LA can monitor only those who volunteer. Statutory
guidance for registration and monitoring of home education would strengthen
the LA’s ability to safeguard children and young people and establish whether
their right to education was being fulfilled.
Grater clarity would be appreciated in the meaning of suitable education.
Greater clarity would be appreciated around the responsibilities of the parents
of a child with SEN in providing specialist interventions for their children if they
are stipulated on the statement.
Has this document given full consideration to children and young people who
might have complex needs requiring a special school whose parents have
opted out of that system?
8 Do you agree that children about whom there are substantial safeguarding
concerns should not be home educated?
x Agree
Disagree
Not sure
Comments:
This would need to be considered in the context of each individual child and the
nature of the concern. In general, for most cases with a significant
safeguarding concern, home education would not be appropriate.
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:
Yes, access to the main base for the provision of education would be helpful in
assessing suitability of education. This may present some difficulty when the
child is receiving education in a variety of venues but the main venue at least
should be visited. Two weeks notice is reasonable.
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?
Agree
x Disagree
Not sure
Comments:
Interviewing a child alone is not good practice.
Interviewing a child about the education provided without the parent present
would need to be with the approval of the parent and in the presence of another
responsible adult.
There is great importance in being able to speak with/communicate with the
young person…in person. This will need to be very clear in the case e.g. of
pupils with severe ASD. The presence of appropriate others at the time is
essential.
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.
Agree
x Disagree
Not sure
Comments:
Yes the LA should visit the premises and interview the child. Priority cases
should be visited urgently and within 4 weeks. For most cases, visiting within 4
weeks would not be manageable or necessary. Contact should be made within
4 weeks by phone, e-mail or letter but not necessarily by a visit and interview.
The time of the next visit should be determined by the first visit and where home
education is seen to be ‘suitable’, annual follow up visits would suffice. Where
the education is not demonstrably ‘suitable’, then a revisit should be arranged
within a negotiated time (e.g. 2 months, 6 months, depending on the individual
situation) giving the parents sufficient time to be able to demonstrate suitability.
There should be access for both parties for further communication at any time
in the light of changes or developments.
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 x
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?
xYes
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]
Document Outline
