Elective Home Education- suitable education

Dear Ms Berlow,

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000 - INFORMATION REQUEST

Thank you for your Freedom of Information request, received by us today,
August 3. We have forwarded your request to an FOI Officer within
Children's Services.

Our twenty working day deadline for your request is September 1 and we
aim to respond as soon as possible within the time period.

You will be informed in advance if there is a charge for supplying
copies of the information. We will also provide an explanation if any
information is not released to you. If the requested information
contains references to any third parties, we may need to consult with
them before deciding whether or not to release the information.

Should you have any queries regarding your request, please feel free to
contact us at [Norfolk County Council request email] .

Yours sincerely,

Deirdre Sharp

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Dear Ms Berlow,
Freedom of Information Act 2000
I refer to your request for information dated 3rd August 2009 .
In accordance with the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act 2000,
I have now processed your request. Please find below the information you
have requested.

You wrote:
"I read that you currently have 474 children registered as Electively Home
Educated. Therefore for the purposes of this FOI request , these children
are either de-registered from a school or have never been registered with
a school."

As of 1st August 2009 we currently have 367 children registered as
Electively Home Educated. This figure excludes all of the previous
academic year's Year 11 children, who were counted in the figure you
quote.

Your questions, with our answers:
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?

Answer: 35
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?
Answer: 2
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'?

Answer: None
3) whether there are concerns because the family have not implemented a
structured approached?
Answer: 33
4) or whether the fact that the national Curriculum is not being followed
is causing concern?
Answer: None
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?
Answer: In 2 cases School Attendance Orders have been issued
D)Please also indicate if any Education Supervision Orders are currently
in court for this population.?
Answer: None
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?

Answer: Yes. Norfolk County Council has an integrated Children's Services
Department, as such appropriate referrals to other colleagues take place
on a regular basis

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)

Answer: No. Norfolk County Council Children's Services staff access a
shared database that indicates involvement of other areas.

If you are dissatisfied with our handling of your request, you have the
right of appeal through the Council's internal complaints procedure by
setting out the grounds of your appeal in writing to the Freedom of
Information Officer at:

Freedom of Information & Data Protection Unit
The Archive Centre
Martineau Lane
Norwich NR1 2DQ

e-mail: [1][Norfolk County Council request email]
Telephone: 01603 222661

If you are dissatisfied after pursuing the complaints procedure, you may
apply to the Information Commissioner under Section 50 of the Act for a
decision whether your request for information has been dealt with in
accordance with the requirements of Part I of the Act. Contact details as
follows:-

Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire SK9 5AF
Telephone 01625 545 700
[2]www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk

Should you have any queries regarding the information provided, please do
not hesitate to contact me.
Yours sincerely
Christina Hobbs
Data Protection & Freedom of Information Officer
Information Governance Team
Room 37, County Hall
Martineau Lane
Norwich. NR1 2DL
Tel: 01603 638017
Fax: 01603 222119

Norfolk County Council - a four star authority.

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References

Visible links
1. mailto:[Norfolk County Council request email]
2. http://www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk/

Dear Ms Berlow,

I'll pass your message on to our Children's Services Department . If it
is acceptable, we'll treat this as a follow up to your request, and
aiming to answer within 20 working days, i.e. by September 18.

Deirdre Sharp

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Dear Ms Berlow,

As you request, I am now treating your messages of August 20 and August
30 as a request for an internal review of the original request. I attach
a copy of our procedure for your information.

We aim to complete each stage of an internal review within 15 working
days. Taking this from the day following receipt of your earlier
message, our deadline is therefore next Friday, September 11.

Deirdre Sharp

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Dear Ms Berlow,

I have now been provided with the following information as a result of
internal review of your request for clarification:

Q. Are you able to state what the LA considers as a lack of 'structured'
approach seeing as there is a high incidence of children not considered to
be receiving an adequate education in this category? Also what steps if
any are taken in these cases?

A. Norfolk County Council consider a home education to be lacking a
structured approach when there is no education taking place at all. This
is often the case when a parent removes a child from school without having
first contacted our department or any of the home education organisations
eg . Most often these children are deregistered because the family is
under threat of prosecution for the non-attendance of their child. Please
see our website [1]www.norfolk.gov.uk/homeeducation for the steps we take
when not satisfied with the child's home education.

Q. I also forgot to ask for a second clarification- I asked whether any
children for whom there were educational concerns would also automatically
be referred to social services and your answer was that 'when
appropriate'. This is unclear as to whether educational concerns are
considered appropriate reasons for social services involvement or if cases
are only referred if there are other concerns that make it appropriate to
refer (which is rather obvious)

A. Norfolk County Council would not refer a child to social care if our
concerns were only about the child's education.
Should you have need further clarification of points made in our response
above or our earlier reply to your request, the Manager for Services to
Home Educators, Felicity Hemmings, will be happy to correspond with you
directly. Her e-mail address is [2][email address]

Yours sincerely,
Deirdre Sharp

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