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.

Please tick if you want us to keep your response confidential.

Name

Ken Stevenson

Organisation (if applicable)

Dorset County Council

Address:

County Hall, Dorchester DT1 1XJ

Home educated child/young person

Home educating parent

Organisation representing home educating families

X

Local Authorities

Other organisation with responsibility for children (please specify in box below)

Other (please specify in box below)

Please Specify:

X

Agree

Disagree

Not sure

Comments:

The proposals do not reduce the right of parents to home educate, although implications within the proposals may lead some parents not to take up this option for fear of misunderstanding or suspicion. This needs to be avoided, and a clearer statement of parents' right to choose home education should be made.

There is a strengthening of the position towards ensuring the rights of children to receive a “suitable” education, but further clarification is needed to define what is meant by this phrase, especially if inspection arrangements are to be further developed.

It is our view that such a definition should not limit the intention of the home educator to provide a personalised curriculum for the child. However the County Council does recognise the opportunity an EHE visitor has to engage in a constructive discussion with the home educator around the range and challenge provided by a selected curriculum model, and we believe this should be a key feature of future visits (see issues raised in answer to question 9).

While the proposals strike a reasonable balance within the actions proposed it is clear that many people have found the tone of the proposals to have raised levels of suspicion and to have tarnished the image of home education through linkage to abuse and child-trafficking. The County Council sees home education as a legitimate right of parents and their children and more should be done within subsequent documentation to present EHE as a positive addition to effective school provision.

X

Agree

Disagree

Not sure

Comments:

A register enables local authorities to determine that a child is receiving education, and is an important tool to safeguard children's rights.

However it is clear that at the moment registration is seen by many home educators as a threat to their right to select an education they deem appropriate. It is important that this link, created by a lack of knowledge and/or trust in the County Council, is broken. This will not be best achieved by approaching this issue insensitively.

Instead the County Council believes that best practice should be defined in which registration offers further opportunities to home educators and their children of additional support from the County Council. Support is likely to include advice and guidance on improving the learning experiences available to the child and on access to external examinations and accreditation. Best practice guidance to County Council should promote a better relationship between home educators and the authority, and the encouragement of positive support. A national funding stream should be established to support the implementation of this guidance by County Councils.

Links between an EHE register and ContactPoint need to be clarified, along with the responsibility for recording EHE on ContactPoint. Issues of confidentiality are raised as ContactPoint will maintain a public record of children who are being home educated. These issues have not yet been sufficiently explored.

X

Agree

Disagree

Not sure

Comments:

The County Council broadly agrees with the proposals but recognises the difficulty many home educators have in developing a statement of their approach to education prior to starting to educate at home. An appropriate time should be allowed for the development of this statement - possibly within 6 months - and the opportunity for support from the County Council or other organisation provided. Clarification is needed about the nature of this statement and the implications for the subsequent learning programme. Home educators will wish to maintain elements of spontaneity in their programmes and the statement should not limit this option.

X

Agree

Disagree

Not sure

Comments:

If not maintained the register will not have any function. However appropriate guidance should be provided on time-scale for renewal of registration - no more than once each year - and procedures to be adopted when choosing to end home education or when changing authorities.

Agree

X

Disagree

Not sure

Comments:

See answer to question 2.

While the County Council believes that that home educators should be required to register, making it a criminal offence to fail to register at this time will be detrimental to the objectives of the proposals, and that this would drive home education “underground” to avoid registration. More should be done initially to encourage home educators to register with an intention to make this a statutory requirement within a specified time scale e.g. 3 years. This will provide time for government and County Council to improve levels of support for home educators and to engage more home educators in voluntary registration.

X

Agree

Disagree

Not sure

Comments:

This provides an opportunity for reflection on the decision to home educate - in essence a “cooling off” period. This is welcomed.

It is not clear if the child is expected to continue to attend for that period of 20 days. This needs clarification.

Schools will anticipate uncertainty if a child is required to attend during the 20 day period. This will focus on legal responsibility for the child, the impact of the child's attitude and behaviour on other children and the implications for sanction systems in the event of inappropriate behaviour. It is likely that schools would prefer to establish a clearer break in responsibility.

If the child is not required to attend thought should be given to how schools record this in registers as this step will increase levels of absence for the school and the potential impact on the school of re-entry of a pupil after this period if the decision is reversed.

X

Agree

Disagree

Not sure

Comments:

This provides the County Council with helpful information which can be discussed with the child and home educators at a subsequent meeting. It may enable the County Council support to provide information about specific opportunities for learning, to build on existing strengths or to overcome existing weaknesses.

However it is not realistic to follow this up with assessments against National Curriculum levels. Home educators believe this will limit the focus of their programmes to National Curriculum core subjects; LA inspectors are concerned at the lack of moderation procedures in any such judgements.

There appears to be a reasonable consensus that establishing final outcome data for home educated children, such as destinations, would be useful.

X

Agree

Disagree

Not sure

Comments:

See answer to question 2.

The DCSF should issue statutory guidance to County Councils which examines best practice and provides case studies of innovative approaches to supporting home educators. National funding should be provided to support the implementation of this guidance.

X

Agree

Disagree

Not sure

Comments:

The County Council believes that if concerns exist about the safety of a child in the home then it is inappropriate for home education to be allowed. While existing safeguarding legislation and guidance provides a framework to protect a child, the County Council should be provided with the powers necessary to refuse home education for children who are subject to child protection procedures.

Agree

X

Disagree

Not sure

Comments:

The County Council does believe that it is appropriate to visit premises where home education is taking place. This should be as a support to home educators and to the child. Such visits should be agreed in advance with the home educators. However specifying a 2 week notice period appears inappropriate, and in many cases is too short a period, e.g. if a home educator and child are on holiday. It is appropriate to establish a minimum period of notice - and 2 weeks may be appropriate - but not to expect that this will enforce compliance.

In the case of home educators refusing a visit from the County Council the authority should retain the right to require the home educator to record in writing that they have been offered a visit and that they have declined the visit. This response should also include confirmation that home education is continuing (maintenance of registration) and details of any changes to the approach taken to the child's education.

The County Council also believes there is merit in developing voluntary quality assurance processes for home educators, for example through support from EHE networks. Where such an approach is used the home educator should be encouraged to provide details of this at the annual re-registration.

Further work should be undertaken nationally on developing and accrediting EHE networks to provide quality assurance support.

Agree

X

Disagree

Not sure

Comments:

This is a power that County Council EHE inspectors do not want. They believe the motivation for this proposal signals mistrust of home educators and to take up this option within a County Council visit will not help to establish a positive relationship with the family. Inspectors are also concerned that interviewing the child alone places them in a difficult situation if the child subsequently makes claims or accusations of inappropriate behaviour.

However the County Council recognises the right of the child to have access to an adult other than the home educator to express any concerns or other feelings they have and believes that more needs to be done to ensure that all home educated children are aware of this right, and that there are options available to meet any such requests.

In the rare event of the inspector judging that there are concerns that can not be resolved in the presence of the parent or carer then separate safeguarding procedures should be used to engage more directly with the child involving other designated professionals.

X

Agree

Disagree

Not sure

Comments:

The County Council broadly agrees with the timescales proposed while recognising that it is sometimes difficult to arrange a first visit within 4 weeks of home education starting.

It should be acknowledged that increased registration and increased expectation of regular visits will increase LA costs in this area, and additional national funding will be required to implement such a step.

Part of these costs will be in training additional EHE visitors. Statutory guidance for County Councils should include guidance on this training and consideration of accrediting trained visitors.

X Yes

No