Home Education: Evidence of current Local Authority monitoring

Dear Ms Fox

Thank you for your recent email. A reply will be sent to you as soon as
possible. For information, the departmental standard for correspondence
received is that responses should be sent within 20 working days as you
are requesting information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Your correspondence has been allocated the reference number
2009/0061638.

Thank you.

Central Allocation Team

Public Communications Team

Tel: 0870 0002288
www.dcsf.gov.uk

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Dear Rebeka

Thank you for your recent email. A reply will be sent to you as soon as
possible. For information, the departmental standard for correspondence
received is that responses should be sent within 20 working days as you
are requesting information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Your correspondence has been allocated the reference number
2009/0085849.

Thank you.

Central Allocation Team

Public Communications Team

Tel: 0870 0002288
www.dcsf.gov.uk

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Dear Ms Fox,
I refer to your email of 8 October 2009, in which you request an internal
review of the handling of your FOI request 'Home Education: Evidence of
current Local Authority monitoring' dated 8 July 2009.

I would like to apologise for the delay in replying. The Department is
aware that there has been a very considerable delay. I much regret this.
While I appreciate that it is in no way a justification, I should like to
explain that the Department makes every effort to respond quickly to
requests for internal reviews, but the delay in responding in this case
has been due to the unusual volume of requests the Department has received
in recent months.

Unfortunately, we have no record of receiving your original FOI request of
8 July 2009. The reference number of 2009/0061638 that you were given,
refers to the FOI request that you sent to us on 7 July 2009, titled 'Home
Education: Anticipated cost of proposal'.

We have now arranged for your request 'Home Education: Evidence of current
Local Authority monitoring' to be put onto our correspondence handling
system and be dealt with under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

If you are unhappy with the reply to your FOI request, please contact me
and an internal review will be considered.
Yours sincerely,

Jill Clark
Independent Schools
[email address]
[1]www.dcsf.gov.uk

Your correspondence has been allocated the reference number 2009/0085857.

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Communications via the GSi may be automatically logged, monitored and/or
recorded for legal purposes.

References

Visible links
1. http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/

Dear Ms Fox,
Thank you for your request for information, which appeared on the website whatdotheyknow.com, dated 8 July 2009. Unfortunately,
the Department has no record of receiving this request at that time. You then sent a reminder, dated 24 July, which was
incorrectly linked to another of your requests dated 7 July (2009/0061638). Please accept my apologies for this error and the
delay it has caused. The Department is aware that there has now been a considerable delay and that it has missed the statutory
deadline for reply and is in breach of its obligations under the Act.

In your request, dated 8 July, you asked two questions relating to the written answer given by Baroness Morgan to the question
by Lord Lucas about home schooling, in which Baroness Morgan stated, in connection with local authorities, that `....most
already monitor home education ...'.

I have dealt with your request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 ("the Act"). The questions you asked were -

1. Please provide details of the evidential basis of her statement

Feedback from local authorities - including in response to a questionnaire that was forwarded to all top tier local authorities
in England, of which 90 responded. Section 4 of the questionnaire asked a number of questions about assessment and monitoring
arrangements. The questionnaire is available as Annex D of Graham Badman's Review of Elective Home Education, published 11 June
2009, and available on the Department's Every Child Matters website at
[1]http://publications.everychildmatters.go...

2. Clarify the regulatory or other legal basis of any such monitoring, given that paragraph 2.7 of the existing `Elective Home
Education Guidelines for Local Authorities' states that: `Local Authorities have no statutory duties in relation to monitoring
the quality of home education on a routine basis'.

Section 436A of the Education Act 1996 requires local authorities to make arrangements to establish (so far as it is possible to
do so) the identities of children who are not pupils at schools and who are not otherwise receiving suitable education. In order
to comply with this duty local authorities need to make arrangements which will as far as possible enable them to determine
whether any children who are not pupils at schools, such as those being educated at home, are receiving suitable education. In
order to do this local authorities should make inquiries with parents educating children at home about the educational provision
being made for them. The procedures to be followed with respect to such investigations are set out in the Elective Home
Education Guidelines, 2.7-2.11 and 3.4-3.6 (available at [2]http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/everychildmatters... ).

In order to discharge their duties in relation to children not receiving an education, local authorities should make inquiries
with parents about whether their home educated children are receiving a suitable education. Local authorities have a duty under
section 437 of the Education Act 1996 (School Attendance Orders) to act if it appears to them that a child of compulsory school
age in their area is not receiving suitable education, either by regular attendance at school or otherwise. Further information
is available in "Ensuring Children's Right to Education" at: [3]www.dcsf.gov.uk/behaviourandattendance/

If you have any queries about this letter, please contact me. Please remember to quote the reference number above in any future
communications.

If you are unhappy with the way your request has been handled, you should make a complaint to the Department by writing to me
within two calendar months of the date of this letter. Your complaint will be considered by an independent review panel, who
were not involved in the original consideration of your request.

If you are not content with the outcome of your complaint to the Department, you may then contact the Information Commissioner's
Office.
Yours sincerely,

Josephine Bell
Independent Education and School Governance
[email address]
[4]www.dcsf.gov.uk

Your correspondence has been allocated the reference number 2010/0004807.

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Communications via the GSi may be automatically logged, monitored and/or
recorded for legal purposes.

References

Visible links
1. http://publications.everychildmatters.go...
2. http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/everychildmatters...
3. http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/behaviourandatten...
4. http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/