Thank you for your recent FOI / EIR request.  Please find attached an
acknowledgement for this request.

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Dear Michelle Zaher

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000 - INFORMATION REQUEST

Thank you for your request for information received on 2^nd September
2024. We have considered your request and enclose the following
information:

1)Please can you provide a copy of the initial contact letter sent to new
home educators in your Local Authority?

Please see attached.

2)(a)Is the initial contact letter the same whether the parent has
deregistered from a school or been home-educating from the start and you
become aware of the family some other way?

The EHE Officer initiates contact with families by telephone as we feel
this expedites contact and helps to build positive working relationships
with members of the EHE community.  Where the Officer is unable to make
contact via telephone / voicemail, a text message is sent offering
families the opportunity to make contact, followed by an email, and if
still no response, the letter attached here is sent to the family.

(b)If they are different please provide a copy of both letters.

N/A

3)When was your EHE policy last updated?

The EHE policy was updated in October 2023 and published in January 2024.

4) Were local home educators involved directly in the process of reviewing
the EHE policy when it was last updated

Further to stakeholder feedback, amendments were made to the policy in
July 2024, and re-published in August 2024. 

We supply this information based on your original request.  If this is not
what you wanted or if you feel we have not fully understood your request
please do not hesitate to contact me to clarify your exact requirements.

If you have any queries or concerns or are in any way dissatisfied with
the handling of your request please contact us.

Yours sincerely

CORPORATE INFORMATION GOVERNANCE UNIT

Freedom of Information Act 2000 / Environmental Information Regulations
2004

You have the right to appeal against our decision.
If you wish to appeal please set out If you are unhappy with that decision
in writing your grounds of appeal you have the right to appeal to:
and send to:
 
 
Information Commissioner’s Office –
Corporate Information Governance Wales
Unit 2nd Floor
Caerphilly county borough council, Churchill House
Penallta House Churchill Way
Tredomen Park Cardiff
Hengoed. CF82 7PG CF10 2HH

Appeals will be determined by an Telephone: 0330 414 6421 
appropriate senior officer.
 

Website: [1]www.ico.org.uk

Email: [2][email address]

Re-use of information without permission may infringe the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988. Re-use can include, but is not limited to,
making multiple copies, publishing and issuing copies of the information
to a wider audience. If you would like to re-use copyright material owned
by Caerphilly County Borough Council, please contact us. Authorisation to
re-use copyright material not owned by this Authority should be sought
directly from the copyright owner.

How we will use your information

Caerphilly County Borough Council will process your request, the
information relevant to your request, your identity and contact details
for the purposes of providing you with a response.  A copy of your request
and your response will be kept for 3 years.  Some requests and responses
may be kept longer but this will be in an anonymised form.  

Your request including your identity and contact details will be
distributed to relevant service areas and elected members who may either
hold the information you have requested or are involved in the processing
of requests.  Other organisations and individuals who may be affected by
the disclosure of the information you have requested may be consulted
prior to a decision being made on the disclosure.

If you have made a complaint to the Information Commissioners Office (ICO)
or others in relation to the processing of your request, copies of your
request, response and any additional correspondence between you and
Caerphilly County Borough Council in relevant to your request may be
shared with them.

You have a number of rights in relation to your information including the
right of access to information we hold about you and the right of
complaint if you are unhappy with the way that we have handled your
request or your information.

For further information on how we process your information and your rights
please click the following link:

[3]https://www.caerphilly.gov.uk/Caerphilly...

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Dear Michelle Zaher

Thank-you for your email received on 12th September.

To clarify our response to question 4, we were in contact with home education groups whilst we reviewed our policy, but home educators were not directly involved in the reviewing process. The home education groups in contact with us at that time were informed that we would welcome their feedback on the policy further to publication. Further to a response made by a home education group, our policy was amended.

If you have any queries or concerns or are in any way dissatisfied with the handling of your request, please contact us.

Yours sincerely

CORPORATE INFORMATION GOVERNANCE UNIT

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