elective home education and suitable education

The request was successful.

Dear Sir or Madam,

I read that you currently have 349 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: *whether they feel that no education is
taking place? *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'? *whether there are concerns because the family have not
implemented a structured approached? or whether the fact that the
national Curriculum is not being followed is causing concern? *any
other concerns? (please give details)

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

FOI East, Cheshire East Council

Dear Tania

Thank you for your email. It will be treated as a request within the meaning of the Act: this means that we will send you a full response within 20 working days, either supplying you with the information which you want, or explaining to you why we cannot supply it. If we need any further clarification or there is any problem we will be in touch.

In the meantime if you wish to discuss this further please contact me. It would be helpful if you could quote the log number 800234.

Julie Gibbs
Information Officer
Cheshire East Council
Tel: 01270 529644
www.cheshireeast.gov.uk

show quoted sections

FOI East, Cheshire East Council

Rose Raine
Information and Record Management Officer
Cheshire East Council
Tel 01270 529668
www.cheshireeast.gov.uk

show quoted sections

Dear FOI East,

was there supposed to be a message from Rose Raine?

Yours sincerely,

Tania Berlow

FOI East, Cheshire East Council

Sorry - no my finger moved faster than my brain.

Rose Raine
Information and Record Management Officer
Cheshire East Council
Tel 01270 529668
www.cheshireeast.gov.uk

show quoted sections

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 Cheshire East Council's handling of my FOI request 'elective home education and 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

FOI East, Cheshire East Council

Dear Ms Berlow

Thank you for your request for information concerning elective home education.

Please be aware that in July 2009 Cheshire East LA had 127 children known to be Electively Home Educated, including the Year 11 EHE children.

In answer to your questions I would offer the following:

How many cases are there where the visiting person has concerns that a 'suitable' education is being provided?

There is no statutory definition or guidance regarding the phrase 'suitable education' other than it being suitable to the age and ability of the child.

Where there is no evidence provided and/or no contact then concerns may be raised. Currently there are three children who have been referred to EWS because there are concerns regarding the suitability of education, as there has not been any evidence supplied. As the numbers constantly fluctuate, there are often times when we are awaiting a response from families to our enquiries.

There are also three EHE children who are listed as missing.

*whether they feel that no education is taking place?

In the case of the 3 children referred to the EWS and the 3 who are listed as missing

*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'?

The LA's primary interest lies in the educational provision and not the parents' philosophy or reason behind home educating

*whether there are concerns because the family have not implemented a structured approached? or whether the fact that the national Curriculum is not being followed is causing concern?

Home educating parents are not required to teach the National Curriculum. There is not a legal requirement for parents to implement a structured approach to learning.

*any other concerns?

An element of 'unease' may be felt where communication is by correspondence only, where visits are rearranged/cancelled many times by parents, where parents have low literacy levels (evidenced by their own admission and the quality of some deregistration letters)
and by the high levels of families known to Social Care, especially prior to children becoming EHE.

Cheshire East aims to support all EHE families and would like it noted that there are also a significant number of families who are providing their children with an efficient full-time education suitable to their age, aptitude and ability.

Please indicate if further steps are being taken- for example, issuance of a School Attendance Order?

We are aware of three children that have been referred to EWS re concerns and a possible SAO

Are any Education Supervision Orders are currently in court for this population?

None

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?

Where there are specific safeguarding concerns then normal policies and procedures will be followed.

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)

It is possible, as EHE families whom are known to Social Care in other authorities may move into an area and not inform anyone for a period of time.

Families may also be involved with Social Care and there may be a time lapse for the EHE department to be aware of this.

I hope the above answers your queries. If you have any queries on the content of this message please feel free to contact me.

I note from your email dated 5th September, which I received this morning that you are requesting an internal review of the Council's handling of your FOI request. If you are unhappy with the service you have received in relation to your request and wish to make a complaint please could you let me know the basis of your complaint in order that I might progress it further.

If you are not content with the outcome of your complaint following the internal review, you may apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision. Generally, the ICO cannot make a decision unless you have exhausted the complaints procedure provided by the Council. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at: The Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF

Yours sincerely

Rose Raine
Information and Record Management Officer
Cheshire East Council
Tel 01270 529668
www.cheshireeast.gov.uk

show quoted sections

Dear FOI East,

I think it will be unnecessary to raise to internal review. The reason i did was that there was no response by the legal deadline.
I would like to clarify a couple of the statements made in your response.
First the 'missing' children. Is it that these children have moved home and not given a forwarding address but you had concerns previously or is it that they may just have moved home.

Secondly, 3 have not provided any evidence. Does this mean that they did provide written evidence but that as stated later you have concerns when families will not accept visits or have these 3 concerns arisen because the LA has written to the family/ families and never received any response from them? thank you

Yours sincerely,

Tania Berlow

Dear Sir or Madam,

sorry I forgot one more question? you state that 'given the high numbers of children known to social care previous to HE '............

is it that Cheshire East has experience of this being the case fo this or is this a quote from the statistics in the Badman Review on Home Education in reference to the EHE population in general? thank you

Yours faithfully,

Tania Berlow

FOI East, Cheshire East Council

Dear Ms Berlow

Here are our answers to your further queries:

1. Missing children - Children and families are no longer in contact at
known address. This is evidenced by; mail being returned as 'not at
this address' and/or also being told this at addresses, or receiving
information along these lines. It does not necessarily mean there were
prior concerns, but that there may have been.

2. No evidence supplied in any form at any time, nor response to
correspondence.

3. This is the experience of Cheshire East, formerly Cheshire County
Council.

I hope this clarifies matters; if you have any further queries please contact me.

Yours sincerely

Rose Raine
Information and Record Management Officer
Cheshire East Council
Tel 01270 529668
www.cheshireeast.gov.uk

show quoted sections