Concerns about Suitability of Elective Home Education provision

Thank you for your Freedom of Information Act request received on 3 August
2009. Your request has been processed, and your unique reference number is
273345. Please make note of this reference number should you need to
contact us about your request.

Our team has sent your request to the appropriate service area within
Islington Council, and an officer from that team will respond directly to
your request.

If you have any questions, please contact us by email at
[1][Islington Borough Council request email] or by phone on 020 7527 1789.

Kind regards

Andy Lindup
Information Officer
Information Governance
Corporate Resources
Islington Council
60 Highbury New Park, London N5 2DJ

Tel: 020 7527 2754
Alternative contact: Kit Good 020 7527 1789

[2]www.islington.gov.uk

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Hi, Tony

I think you're right ... I've cc'd this note to the full address but,
just in case there's a further error, please note that:

The query was from L.Thorn, and asked:
"I read that you had 52 children registered as Electively Home Educated
in 2009. This request concerns children currently registered as
receiving EHE in Islington - for the purposes of this FOI request ,
these children are either de-registered from a school or have never been
registered with a school. A) I would like to know of these children how
many are there where the visiting person has concerns that a 'suitable'
education is being provided? 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? 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? D)Please also indicate if any any Education
Supervision Orders are currently in court for this population.? 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? 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)"

With best wishes

Ken Witham
Senior Officer: Policy, Communications and Organisational Development,
Cambridge Education @ Islington,
222, Upper Street,
London,
N1 1XR

tel: 0207 527 5545
fax: 0207 527 5903
email: [email address]

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Thank you for your email, which I have forward to the officer who
responded to your original request, asking that she respond direct to
you regarding the additional points you have raised.

Ken Witham
Senior Officer: Policy, Communications and Organisational Development,
Cambridge Education @ Islington,
222, Upper Street,
London,
N1 1XR

tel: 0207 527 5545
fax: 0207 527 5903
email: [email address]

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Dear Mr/Ms Thorn,

Jackie Headley, Team Manager for our Education Welfare Service, and the
officer who responded to your original request, has asked me to forward
you the following information in respect of your follow-up enquiry.

"The Consultant Inspector assesses the suitability of the education
being provided based on age, aptitude and ability of the child, if a
child has special educational needs these need to be taken into account.

The philosophy of the education is not assessed and parents are not
required to follow the national curriculum.

The other five families listed were assessed as requiring further visit,
as the education being provided did not yet meet the needs of the child.
However the Consultant Inspector felt that they were going in the right
direction and required more time to produce further work that
demonstrated the education was suitable. Those families are then
visited again to assess whether they have taken on the advice and
produced the work requested.

Two of the families felt that they were not happy with their current
choice and were actively seeking a return to a mainstream school.

There can be many other reasons that education provision could be deemed
as unsuitable, such as lack/no supervision of work, failure to
mark/assess progress, failure to take into account a child's specific
educational needs.

I hope this answers your questions in full. "

Ken Witham
Senior Officer: Policy, Communications and Organisational Development,
Cambridge Education @ Islington,
222, Upper Street,
London,
N1 1XR

tel: 0207 527 5545
fax: 0207 527 5903
email: [email address]

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Dear Mr/Ms Thorn

The officer from our Education Welfare team who has provided the
responses to your previous requests has contacted me to ask that I pass
on the following information:

"Many of our families who home educate use specific books or internet
programmes which enables the parent to mark work produced by their
child. Parents need to be aware of their child's progress, whether the
child is struggling with the work or not.

The Consultant Inspector advises parents and guides them towards
suitable materials or programmes that enable them to assess the progress
their child has made.

It can be very difficult to maintain momentum or focus if a child
receives no feedback on their work. Therefore parents are asked to
ensure they have an overview of their child's progress, it also informs
what type/level of work is required next.

However our main concern is that all the children are in receipt of a
suitable education appropriate to their age, ability, aptitude and any
special needs.

Islington does not have a combative approach to parents who home educate
their children and offer support and advice via the Consultant
Inspector. In the main our parents have not found the process of
registering and visits difficult."

We trust that this now draws a conclusion to this particular enquiry.

Ken Witham
Senior Officer: Policy, Communications and Organisational Development,
Cambridge Education @ Islington,
222, Upper Street,
London,
N1 1XR

tel: 0207 527 5545
fax: 0207 527 5903
email: [email address]

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