Elective Home Education- suitable education

The request was successful.

Dear Sir or Madam,
I read that you currently have 279 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:
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 particular child is not appearing to be learning 'enough'?
3)whether there are concerns because the family have not implemented a structured approached?
4)or whether the fact that the national Curriculum is not being followed is causing concern?

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

Carmen Allen, Northamptonshire County Council

Dear Ms Berlow

Freedom of Information Request: FR1431

I am writing to acknowledge your request for information dated 3^rd August
2009.

Our team is dealing with your request and we will be in contact with you
soon. If you have any queries about this email, please contact me quoting
the reference FR1431 in any future communications.

You should expect a further response within 20 working days.

Yours sincerely

Rubertine Carmen Allen

Freedom of Information and Data Protection Officer

Legal and Democratic Services

Tel 01604 236328

Email: [email address]

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Freedom of Information, Northamptonshire County Council

1 Attachment

Dear Ms Berlow

Please see attached a response to your recent request.

Kind regards

Gillian Hollowell

Senior Freedom of Information/Data Protection Officer

Legal and Democratic Services

Northamptonshire County Council

Tel: 01604 237407

E Mail [email address]

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Dear Freedom of Information,
thank you for the response. It indicates that there are no current concerns about the education of any of the children in the LA area. Other LA's have responded saying that there are parents for whom there has been no response and no letter sent in with an educational plan and philosophy of education whereas some LA's have indicated that some parents have written in but that there are still concerns and then a visit is instigated.If a parent refuses that visit then the child is placed in the category of 'concern'. It appears that NOrthamptonshire has no children in these categories either .

Also regarding the recommendations of the Badman review- not only has this review yet to go to consultation but there is also a Select Committee enquiry regarding the conduct and findings- surely Northamptonshire is not considering ultra vires changes to procedures based on a review that has not changed the current law or guidelines?

Yours sincerely,

Tania Berlow

Dear Freedom of Information,

thank you for the response. All 152 Local Authorities have bene asked the same question with 80 already responding. The responders have all been able to quantify a number.
please could you ask the appropriate person- usually the Principle Education Social Worker who has responsibility for EHE to quantify how many of the EHE population there are concerns about the educational provision.

Yours sincerely,

Tania Berlow

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 Northamptonshire County Council's handling of my FOI request 'Elective Home Education- 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

Gillian Hollowell, Northamptonshire County Council

1 Attachment

FAO Tania Berlow

Please see attached an acknowledgement of your request for a review.

Kind regards

Gillian Hollowell
Senior Freedom of Information/Data Protection Officer
Legal and Democratic Services
Northamptonshire County Council
Tel: 01604 237407
E Mail [email address]

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Freedom of Information, Northamptonshire County Council

FAO Tania Berlow

Upon receiving your e mail of 28/8/2008 for ease of administration quoted
below in bold and italics, we requested a response to the question raised
within it in paragraph two.

Dear Freedom of Information, thank you for the response. It indicates that
there are no current concerns about the education of any of the children
in the LA area. Other LA's have responded saying that there are parents
for whom there has been no response and no letter sent in with an
educational plan and philosophy of education whereas some LA's have
indicated that some parents have written in but that there are still
concerns and then a visit is instigated. If a parent refuses that visit
then the child is placed in the category of 'concern'. It appears that
NOrthamptonshire has no children in these categories either .

Also regarding the recommendations of the Badman review- not only has this
review yet to go to consultation but there is also a Select Committee
enquiry regarding the conduct and findings- surely Northamptonshire is not
considering ultra vires changes to procedures based on a review that has
not changed the current law or guidelines?

An answer has been provided to us today and is given below.

Your question was received on 28.08.2009 and was not recorded as a FOI as
it was not considered a request for written information, we nevertheless
have sought to respond within 20 working days.

We considered the first paragraph was observational relating to the
practice of other authorities. The question asked in paragraph two can be
answered; "Northamptonshire County Council is not considering this
option".

Our response to your original FOI was intended to highlight that NCC would
like the requestor to be aware that we are reviewing our procedures in
line with current legislation, whilst acknowledging that Badman makes a
series of recommendations.

Whilst we are happy to put forward your request for a review, given the
above and that your latest communication was not considered under FOI, can
you please confirm whether you still wish the review to proceed.

Kind regards

Gillian Hollowell

Senior Freedom of Information/Data Protection Officer

Legal and Democratic Services

Northamptonshire County Council

Tel: 01604 237407

E Mail [email address]

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