elective home education - suitable education

Tania Berlow made this Freedom of Information request to West Berkshire Council

The request was successful.

From: Tania Berlow

4 August 2009

Dear Sir or Madam,
I read that you currently have 45 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.

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)

Yours faithfully,

Tania Berlow

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From: Sue Broughton
West Berkshire Council

4 August 2009

I am out of the office on Tuesday 4th August. For urgent matters please
contact David Lowe on [email address] I will respond to emails on
my return.

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From: Sue Broughton
West Berkshire Council

5 August 2009

FoI/2009/283

Dear Ms Berlow,

Thank you for your request. I have passed this to Education and we will
respond within 20 working days.

Yours sincerely

Sue Broughton

Information Management Officer

Policy & Communication

* West Berkshire Council, Council Offices, Market Street, Newbury RG14
5LD

Email: [West Berkshire Council request email]

01635 519747 (external) ' 2747 (internal) 6: 01635 519613

You should be aware that all emails received and sent by this Council
are subject to the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and therefore may be
disclosed to a third party.

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From: Sue Broughton
West Berkshire Council

25 August 2009

Attachment Annex S40.doc
31K Download View as HTML

FoI/2009/283

Dear Ms Berlow,

Thank you for your request. We have now collated the information to
respond to your request - however, some information is not held in the
format you have requested, and other aspects of your request are not
covered by Freedom of Information (in that you have asked for an opinion
- not recorded information) - we have therefore provided a narrative
response. We have also refused to confirm or deny whether some
information is held, and this is explained below.

The authority now has 49 children in elective home education. Amongst
those, nine concerns have been raised, all of which have been followed
up, although not via parenting or supervision orders. We do not
categorise the concerns in the way you have indicated in your request
and therefore cannot provide information in response to this aspect of
your request.

You have also asked about referrals to Social Services. The Children &
Youth Services and Education Services are both part of the Children &
Young People Directorate, and work closely together where additional
support is required for families and children. Where a referral is felt
necessary the required processes are in place to support this. However,
because of the small statistical sample of children, and the likelihood
that if this information exists they could be identified, we regret that
on this occasion the Council can neither confirm nor deny that it holds
the information you requested as the duty in s.1(1)(a) of the Freedom of
Information Act 2000 does not apply. However, this should not be taken
as evidence that the information you requested exists or does not exist.

This is because even confirming or denying whether we hold information
of that nature would itself reveal information which we would be
entitled to treat as exempt under Section 40 of the Freedom of
Information Act 2000 and I have attached the exemption as an annex.

If you are unhappy with the way your request has been handled, you may
ask for an internal review. You should contact David Lowe, Policy &
Scrutiny Manager, Policy & Communication, Council Offices, Market
Street, Newbury RG14 5LD, email [email address] if you wish to
request a review. If you are not content with the outcome of the
internal review, you have the right to apply directly to the Information
Commissioner for a decision. The Information Commissioner can be
contacted at:
Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow,
Cheshire SK9 5AF

Yours sincerely

Sue Broughton

Information Management Officer

Policy & Communication

* West Berkshire Council, Council Offices, Market Street, Newbury RG14
5LD

Email: [West Berkshire Council request email]

01635 519747 (external) ' 2747 (internal) 6: 01635 519613

You should be aware that all emails received and sent by this Council
are subject to the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and therefore may be
disclosed to a third party.

P Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail

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From: Tania Berlow

25 August 2009

Dear Sue Broughton,

thank you for the information. Please could you categorise as to
why the LA considers the 9 children 's education to be
unsatisfactory-if not due to the 4 reasons i gave then according to
the actual reasons.
Also , I did not ask for a number of cases referred to social
services -I only asked if a child would automatically be referred
to social services if there were educational concerns which is a
yes or no answer. I also asked if a family came to the attention of
social services for any reason and it was also the case that they
were home educating, would social services inform the EHE team if
there were on going social services concerns.That to is a yes or no
answer.
thank you

Yours sincerely,

Tania Berlow

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From: Sue Broughton
West Berkshire Council

25 August 2009

FoI/2009/283

Dear Ms Berlow,

Thank you for your enquiry. I will discuss with the Education Service
whether they consider it appropriate to access children's files in order
to respond to a Freedom of Information request with additional detail
from the files. It appears to me at first sight that this may be a
breach of the Second Principle of the Data Protection Act 1998, since
the processing would not be compatible with the purpose for which it is
collected. The Second Principle is:
'Personal data shall be obtained only for one or more specified and
lawful purposes, and shall not be further processed in any manner
incompatible with that purpose or those purposes'.

Educational concerns are not an automatic reason for referral to the
Children & Young People Service. As advised in my earlier response, the
Children & Youth Services and Education Services are both part of the
Children & Young People Directorate, and work closely together where
additional support is required for families and children. Each
individual situation will be treated appropriately according to the
concerns raised.

Yours sincerely

Sue Broughton

Information Management Officer

Policy & Communication

* West Berkshire Council, Council Offices, Market Street, Newbury RG14
5LD

Email: [West Berkshire Council request email]

01635 519747 (external) ' 2747 (internal) 6: 01635 519613

You should be aware that all emails received and sent by this Council
are subject to the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and therefore may be
disclosed to a third party.

P Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail

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From: Sue Broughton
West Berkshire Council

2 September 2009

FoI/2009/283

Dear Ms Berlow,

Thank you for your further inquiry. As advised, there have been nine
unsatisfactory Education Welfare Officer visits. Of these, seven relate
to a refusal of visit. Six of these are now registered as Missing in
Education as the EWO failed to get a response. The other two are due to
the education being provided not being up to a satisfactory standard.
These parents are being supported to improve in line with our
policy/processes. I understand that no attendance orders have so far
been issued.

Yours sincerely

Sue Broughton

Information Management Officer

Policy & Communication

* West Berkshire Council, Council Offices, Market Street, Newbury RG14
5LD

Email: [West Berkshire Council request email]

01635 519747 (external) ' 2747 (internal) 6: 01635 519613

You should be aware that all emails received and sent by this Council
are subject to the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and therefore may be
disclosed to a third party.

P Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail

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From: Tania Berlow

2 September 2009

Dear Sue Broughton,

before i input any figures may i just recheck whether the 7
children whose parents have refused a visit have already sent in a
philosophy of education and a plan of education and there have been
concerns about this plan ?
or whether they have refused all contact with the LA,

or whether this is families who have been visited and do not want
the annual visit and have / have not sent in a plan of education?
Yours sincerely,

Tania Berlow

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From: Tania Berlow

20 September 2009

Dear Sir or Madam,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of
Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of West Berkshire
Council's handling of my FOI request 'elective home education -
suitable education'.

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is
available on the Internet at this address:
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/el...

Yours faithfully,

Tania Berlow

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From: Sue Broughton
West Berkshire Council

21 September 2009

Dear Ms Berlow,

Re your FoI request FoI/2009/283

The person who conducts reviews is usually David Lowe, Policy and
Scrutiny Manager.

Perhaps you could outline what aspect of your request you believe was
not properly answered, as without understanding the basis of your
dissatisfaction we cannot progress your request for a review. I have
copies of all email correspondence with myself.

Yours sincerely

Sue Broughton

Information Management Officer

Policy & Communication

* West Berkshire Council, Council Offices, Market Street, Newbury RG14
5LD

Email: [West Berkshire Council request email]

01635 519747 (external) ' 2747 (internal) 6: 01635 519613

You should be aware that all emails received and sent by this Council
are subject to the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and therefore may be
disclosed to a third party.

P Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail

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From: Tania Berlow

21 September 2009

Dear Sue Broughton,

this is what I asked on 2nd September as a clarification...

before i input any figures may i just recheck whether the 7
children whose parents have refused a visit have already sent in a
philosophy of education and a plan of education and there have been
concerns about this plan ? or whether they have refused all contact
with the LA,

or whether this is families who have been visited and do not want
the annual visit and have / have not sent in a plan of education?
Yours sincerely,

Yours sincerely,

Tania Berlow

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From: Sue Broughton
West Berkshire Council

21 September 2009

Dear Ms Berlow,

Did you speak to Rhian Ireland as you were intending to do? I understood
that you were going to pursue your research with her directly. If you do
not wish to do so, I will check with Education for this information, but
you do need to be aware this adds additional time to the processing of
your request.

Yours sincerely

Sue Broughton

Information Management Officer

Policy & Communication

* West Berkshire Council, Council Offices, Market Street, Newbury RG14
5LD

Email: [West Berkshire Council request email]

01635 519747 (external) ' 2747 (internal) 6: 01635 519613

You should be aware that all emails received and sent by this Council
are subject to the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and therefore may be
disclosed to a third party.

P Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail

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Things to do with this request

Anyone:
West Berkshire Council only: