Elective Home Education team and numbers of children known and deregistered

The request was successful.

Dear Buckinghamshire County Council,

I am submitting this freedom of information request to find out the following information regarding elective home education. When I refer to 'children', I mean they are either de-registered from a school or have never been registered with a school. Please provide copies of all available documents, research and paperwork.

A) I would like to know which department within Buckinghamshire County Council local authority deals with elective home education?
1) I would like to know who is currently employed in this team, and who the team leader is.
2) I would like to know who they report to.
3) What form of contact they use with families the first time they contact them.
i) Please supply copies of policies and procedures used for elective home education, for staff use or supplied to Home educators.

B) Has the LA made the team dealing with elective home education aware that there is no requirement to investigate a case or for the LA to seek to satisfy itself that a suitable education is being provided when they know the reason why a child has ceased to attend school? The specified reason being, parents have given legal notification to a school that they are educating otherwise than at school.

C) I would like to know how many children are currently known as being electively home educated in ‘…..........’ local authority.

D) How many pupils have been de-registered from school to be electively home educated?
Please provide numbers for: July 2015, July 2016 and July 2017. Please categorise these into:
- Children with no known SEN
- Children with SEN
- Children de-registered from special schools
- Children with care plans
- Children under services such as; CAHMS

Yours faithfully,

Katherine Norman

Freedom of Information Mailbox, Buckinghamshire County Council

Dear Customer,

 

Thank you for contacting Buckinghamshire County Council.

 

Please be assured that your email is important to us.

 

Your enquiry has been received and we will respond as soon as possible,
but the statutory deadlines to respond are as follows:

 

Data Protection Act 1998 - 40 calendar days.

 

Freedom of Information Act 2000 - 20 working days.

 

Further information on our services can be found at: [1]www.buckscc.gov.uk

 

Information on the Council is available [2]here and independent guidance
is available from the Information Commissioner at: [3]http://ico.org.uk/

 

 

Kind regards,

 

Freedom of Information Team

 

[4]Fostering

Buckinghamshire County Council

Visit our Web Site : [5]http://www.buckscc.gov.uk

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Dear Buckinghamshire County Council,

I am writing to see if there have been any problems with my FOI request 'Elective Home Education team and numbers of children known and deregistered' as I have not received a prompt response within the 20 working days, or been informed that the deadline has been extended.

Yours faithfully,

KNorman

Freedom of Information Mailbox, Buckinghamshire County Council

Dear Customer,

 

Thank you for contacting Buckinghamshire County Council.

 

Please be assured that your email is important to us.

 

Your enquiry has been received and we will respond as soon as possible,
but the statutory deadlines to respond are as follows:

 

Data Protection Act 1998 - 40 calendar days.

 

Freedom of Information Act 2000 - 20 working days.

 

Further information on our services can be found at: [1]www.buckscc.gov.uk

 

Information on the Council is available [2]here and independent guidance
is available from the Information Commissioner at: [3]http://ico.org.uk/

 

 

Kind regards,

 

Freedom of Information Team

 

[4]Be A Good Neighbour
Buckinghamshire County Council

Visit our Web Site : [5]http://www.buckscc.gov.uk

Buckinghamshire County Council Email Disclaimer

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6. mailto:[email address]

Freedom of Information Mailbox, Buckinghamshire County Council

Dear Ms Norman    

 

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000 - INFORMATION REQUEST

FOI/18/156

Thank you for contacting Buckinghamshire County Council.

 

Your request for information regarding Elective Home Education has now
been considered and our response is as follows:

A)   I would like to know which department within Buckinghamshire County
Council local authority deals with elective home education?

Education Entitlement Team

 

I would like to know who is currently employed in this team, and who the
team leader is.  Elective Home Education, Child Employment, Child Missing
Education, County Attendance, Exclusions and Reintegration - Education
Entitlement Manager.

 

I would like to know who they report to.  Education Champion

 

What form of contact they use with families the first time they contact
them.

We would normally write to the family in the first instance providing
information and offering a visit.
Please supply copies of policies and procedures used for elective home
education, for staff use or supplied to Home
educators.[1]https://www.buckscc.gov.uk/services/educ...

 

 

B)   Has the LA made the team dealing with elective home education aware
that there is no requirement to investigate a case or for the LA to seek
to satisfy itself that a suitable education is being provided when they
know the reason why a child has ceased to attend school? The specified
reason being, parents have given legal notification to a school that they
are educating otherwise than at school. 
We would refer you to the Department for Education guidance which states:

“Section 436A of the Education Act 1996 – ‘requires all local authorities
to make arrangements to enable them to establish (so far as it is possible
to do so) the identities of children residing in their area who are not
receiving a suitable education” “Local authorities have a duty to
establish whether a child who is being educated at home (under section 7
of the Education Act 1997) is not receiving a suitable education…. where
it is known that they are home educated and where the place that they are
being educated is known”

 

C) I would like to know how many children are currently known as being
electively home educated in ‘Buckinghamshire’ local authority. 554
children

 

D) How many pupils have been de-registered from school to be electively
home educated?
Please note that numbers as recorded on ONE as at 31^st July each year

Jul-15 Jul-16 Jul-17
Total EHE 336 425 460
No SEN 253 328 362
SEN (including SEN Support) 83 97 98
From Special Schools 2 3 3
Care Plans 9 5 2

 

Please provide numbers for: July 2015, July 2016 and July 2017. Please
categorise these into:

- Children with no known SEN
July 15 378, July 16 467, July 17 505

- Children with SEN
July 15 20, July 16 26, July 17 26 – Children with either a statement or
EHC plan

- Children de-registered from special schools
less than 5 for each year so I do not feel we should disclose this
information.

- Children with care plans
The EHE team do not hold this information

- Children under services such as; CAHMS –
We do not hold this information.

 

 

If you have any further questions then please do not hesitate to get in
touch.

 

If you have a complaint about the handling of your request then please use
the Council’s complaints procedure (at Stage 3) in the first instance.

 

This is available at:
[2]http://www.buckscc.gov.uk/sites/bcc/abou...

 

Or by writing to:

FOI Monitoring Officer

Buckinghamshire County Council

County Hall

Aylesbury

Bucks

HP20 1UA

Or via email: [3][Buckinghamshire County Council request email]

 

You can also then complain to the Information Commissioner at:

Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane 
Wilmslow 
Cheshire 
SK9 5AF 
Tel: 0303 123 1113
Fax: 01625 524510

Email: [4][email address]
[5]www.ico.org.uk

 

With kind regards

 

Joanna Kelly

Freedom of Information

[6][Buckinghamshire County Council request email]

 

Buckinghamshire County Council

G41, Ground Floor, New County Offices

Walton Street, Aylesbury, Bucks, HP20 1UA

 

[7]Be A Good Neighbour
Buckinghamshire County Council

Visit our Web Site : [8]http://www.buckscc.gov.uk

Buckinghamshire County Council Email Disclaimer

This Email, and any attachments, may contain Protected or Restricted
information and is intended solely for the individual to whom it is
addressed. It may contain sensitive or protectively marked material and
should be handled accordingly. If this Email has been misdirected, please
notify the author or [9][email address] immediately. If you are
not the intended recipient you must not disclose, distribute, copy, print
or rely on any of the information contained in it or attached, and all
copies must be deleted immediately. Whilst we take reasonable steps to try
to identify any software viruses, any attachments to this Email may
nevertheless contain viruses which our anti-virus software has failed to
identify. You should therefore carry out your own anti-virus checks before
opening any documents.

Buckinghamshire County Council will not accept any liability for damage
caused by computer viruses emanating from any attachment or other document
supplied with this email.

All GCSx traffic may be subject to recording and / or monitoring in
accordance with relevant legislation.

The views expressed in this email are not necessarily those of
Buckinghamshire County Council unless explicitly stated.

This footnote also confirms that this email has been swept for content and
for the presence of computer viruses.

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