Educational Concerns

The request was partially successful.

Dear Newcastle upon Tyne City Council,

A) Can you please categorise how those known to the team dealing with elective home education became known? E.g. School, Doctor, self-referral, concerns about the educational provision reported etc.

i) Does the local authority seek to satisfy itself that the educational provision the parent(s) are providing is suitable to the child's age, aptitude, ability and any SEN as soon as they become aware that parents are electively home educating, regardless of how they become known to the local authority?

ii) How many instances have there been from June 2016, 2017 and to the date of this FOI where the person dealing with elective home education has or has had concerns that a 'suitable' education is not 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 the particular child is not appearing to be learning 'enough'?
3) whether there are concerns because the family have not implemented a structured approach?
4) or whether the fact that the national Curriculum is not being followed is causing concern?
5) a qualified third party is not involved in the child’s education?
6) An educational report has not been provided by a third party such as; a teacher etc.

C) I would like to know of these children, how many of these concerns were proven?

i) Of the children in the above 6 categories, please indicate if further steps have or are being taken - for example, referred to CME or issued with a School Attendance Order. Please break it down into each year asked for.

ii) Please indicate how many of these went to court in 2016 and 2017.

iii) Please also indicate if any Education Supervision Orders are currently in court for this population?

Finally, please provide all recorded documentation relating to elective home education including policies, procedures (2015 - present) and recorded communications relating to elective home education (2017 - present), including any e-mail attachments. This does not include communications between the Elective Home Education team and electively home educating parents or information that falls under S40 (which I expect to be redacted).

Yours faithfully,

J Carter

foi people directorate, Newcastle upon Tyne City Council

1 Attachment

Dear Ms/Mr Carter

Please find attached response to your recent FOI request.

Kind regards

Janet Walton
School Appeals and Complaints Officer
Complaints and Customer Relations Team

0191 277 7427/ x27427

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From: Freedom Of Information Requests Mailbox
Sent: 09 March 2018 10:16 AM
To: foi people directorate <[email address]>
Subject: FOI 13068 - Carter - Educational Concerns - Deadline 09/04/18 - Not Sensitive

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