Welsh Consultation Introduction

The Wales Government (Welsh Assembly??) has recently opened a new consultation that affects Home Education.  It opened on the 29th July, and runs until the 21st October. Click here.

Now, I am not Welsh, and don't know whether I'm allowed to complete the consultation or not.
However, I am opinionated and have this blog, so I might as well use it to go through the documents, in the hope it is useful to someone somewhere.

So, here are my raw, unfiltered thoughts as I read through the first document: 10 pages long.  Anything I C&P I'll colour GREEN. (Apologies if this is an issue for anyone who may be colourblind.  I'll try and make it obvious in text too by indenting.)

Ways to respond:

The closing date for responses is 21 October 2019 and you can respond in any of the following ways: 

Email: Please complete the consultation response form and send it to: WELLBEINGshare@gov.wales 

WELLBEINGshare@llyw.cymru 

Please include ‘The home education consultation – WG35754’ in the subject line. 

Post: Please complete the consultation response form and send it to: The Home Education Guidance Consultation, Pupil Wellbeing Team Support for Learners Division, Welsh Government, Cathays Park, Cardiff, CF10 3NQ 

@WG_Education 

Facebook/EducationWales

Ministerial Forward
 "Although the action plan sets out how the school system in Wales will move forward over the next four years, the principles of providing the necessary support for children in schools – and the rights of all children to receive an education – should apply equally to those who are home educated"

This sounds ok at first reading, as long as they are not intending HE children to have to replicate schools.

Their Intention

Using existing powers found in section 29 of the Children Act 2004 the Welsh Government intends to make regulations requiring:  Local authorities to establish and maintain a database to assist them in identifying children not on any maintained schools roll, not on any education other than at school (EOTAS) roll, or independent school roll, and not receiving a suitable education.  Local health boards (LHBs) to disclose to local authorities specified, limited, non– clinical information about a child who is ordinarily resident in that local authority’s area.  Independent schools to share data on the pupils registered with them with the local authority. 

The first bullet point says "Local authorities to establish and maintain a database to assist them in identifying children not on any maintained schools roll, not on any education other than at school (EOTAS) roll, or independent school roll, and not receiving a suitable education."
Breaking this down, 1. they are stating their intent to establish and maintain a database; and 2. to discover people who are not (a) at maintained school, (b) EOTAS or (c) at independent school AND (d) receiving a suitable education.  As HE children are receiving a suitable education, this database should not be trying to find them (based on 2.) yet they, and all other children, will be included on 1.

The second bullet point says that LHBs (and I'm assuming by this GPs etc) will need to pass on information to LAs regarding children that attend (either their appointment, or presumably attending a parent's appointment) during school hours.

The third bullet point emphasises that all children will be put on this database.

The draft Children Act 2004 Database (Wales) Regulations 2020 and the Education (Information about Children in Independent Schools) (Wales) Regulations 2020 will provide the legal framework for these proposals. We will consult separately on the draft regulations

I'm guessing this "legal framework" covers things like data protection, privacy, GDPR etc? I don't understand why they would be consulting separately for them, as surely they impact this consultation?

1. Background And Context

Section 436A of the Education Act 1996(3) places a duty on local authorities to make arrangements to enable them to establish (so far as is possible to do so) the identities of children in their area who are of compulsory school age but:  are not registered pupils at a school, and  are not receiving suitable education otherwise. 

On 30 January 2018 the Cabinet Secretary for Education announced her intention(4) to use existing powers found in section 29 of the Children Act 2004 to make regulations to require local authorities to establish a database to assist them in identifying children not receiving a suitable education.

These regulations will be consulted on separately in the coming months. This consultation seeks views on the content and suitability of the statutory guidance issued under section 436A of the Education Act 1996 to support local authorities in arrangements to assess the suitability of education provided to home educated children. 

So, if I am reading this right (and I may not be - I am being distracted by DD2 watching episodes of SkyDen in order for at least the 4th time!), this consultation is not about the regulations to make a database of all kids.  Rather, this consultation is looking at the statutory guidance to assess the suitability of Home Ed.

Now, if a child is HE, they are receiving a suitable education, and as such they should not be put on a register/database. I have written before on my dislike for a HE register. Similarly, in order to assess the suitability of HE, that would require monitoring of HE which is currently beyond the law (but I'm guessing is what this statutory guidance is looking to change).

This consultation also seeks the views on the content and suitability of the package of support to home educators, including the handbook for home educators. The level of support for and access to services by home educators is inconsistent across local authorities. Home educators have indicated that they experience a disparity in terms of support to access universal services and benefits available between children and young people in mainstream education and those who are home educated. In developing these proposals we have considered how to strengthen the support available to home educators by clarifying referral pathways to education support and services, as well as universal and specialist support services.

 At first glance, this is a worthy reason for the consultation, though I am inclined to be skeptical based on my experience of LAs.

2. The Issues

Welsh local authorities are under a duty to make arrangements to identify children who are not receiving suitable education and who are not registered at school – this can include those children who are home educated as well as those children who are not being educated at all.

To me, it depends on what it means by 'and'.  As I'm from an engineering/mathematical/logical background, the 'and' implies both - ie ...identify children who are BOTH not receiving suitable education AND who are not registered at school.  Therefore, this would NOT include home educated children.
However, judging by the second half of the sentence, they mean 'and' to be 'or' - ie. ...identify children who are not receiving suitable education OR who are not registered at school.  Therefore, imo, they should also be collecting data on children who ARE in school AND are not receiving a suitable education.  I wonder how many Welsh parents would want to be able to comment and be consulted on the lack of education of their children, but assume this consultation is not for them?
As I don't know what it means by 'and' I would be interested to hear from any legal beagles about how this sentence should be interpreted.

Local authorities have repeatedly argued they have difficulty meeting this requirement as there is no duty on parents to ‘register’ they are home educating, and that they do not have the requisite powers to assess the education that home educated children receive.  

Because, obviously, parents cannot be trusted <eye roll>.  Again, I refer you to my argument against registration as to why this is bull.

I do understand that due to the recent case of Dylan Seabridge that the Welsh Government needs to look like it's doing something. However, chasing home educators, when that's an aside rather than the main problem is not the right thing.  According to this report in The Guardian "By the time of Dylan’s death, he and his sibling were known to the authorities but professionals believed they had no right to insist on seeing the youngsters." So there needs to be more training within LAs, SS and the like as to what their roles and responsibilities are.  If SS has a concern about the welfare of a child, they can ask for police assistance and get access to any property.  This article, from The Telegraph, states "Social services were warned about the health of an eight-year-old boy a year before he died of scurvy, a leaked report has revealed."

But back to the consultation...

Local authorities are of the opinion they require more legal powers to identify home educating families, make assessments of the education they are providing, and take action where necessary, for instance when a suitable education is not been provided, will enable them to discharge their legal duty.

How to identify HEing families? Ask them.
Why do they need to assess the education? It is wearying having the same old discussions and arguments all the time.  HE is not like schooled education.  Children grow and develop at different rates and different subjects.  "Assessing" education is meaningless, unless you intend to force age-based "standards" which leads to a curriculum and forced schooling for every child.
If there are (used to suggest and argument, when I'm 99% sure there is) children who are in school who are not being educated accurately, who can the parents complain to and how can they get the education sorted? Why doesn't the government ensure they discharge their legal duty by ensuring that all the children, of parents who have elected to use schools, receive a suitable education?

3. The Welsh Government Response to Issues Raised

However, there will be a small number of instances where this is not the case, which is why we are taking these steps in order to protect the rights of children and young people. 

What is the proof? How is this judged? If the 'success' of an education can only be judged based on outcomes at the end of the education, then regular assessment in the meanwhile is meaningless.

Non–statutory guidance was issued to local authorities in respect of home educated children in January 2017. However, local authorities have called for more robust guidance in terms of identifying children and young people not receiving a suitable education, and on assessing the suitability of home education. 

4. The Proposal

Draft Statutory Guidance

To support local authorities to identify children and young people not on a maintained school register, not in EOTAS, not on an independent school roll and not receiving a suitable education, we have developed statutory guidance.

So, because the government and agencies can't do their own jobs, they want to force the onus on HEing parents to do the job for them.
This is the main focus of this consultation.

Draft Handbook for Home Educators

The consultation will also look at the proposed handbook for HErs.

Home Education Database

The Welsh Government is currently undertaking an extensive scoping exercise with stakeholders to consider the requirements of the database, existing software available, and any practical or legal limitations. As a result, the regulations for the database will be consulted on later this year.

Good(ish) - clarification that the idea of a database of HErs is not in the scope of this consultation, but there will be a further consultation later in the year.

 5. Conclusion

The overriding priority of this approach is to support local authorities in ensuring that children and young people are receiving a suitable education and to clarify the position in relation to the existing levers already at their disposal.

This will reinforce the Welsh Government’s commitment to ensuring children and young people receive a suitable education, and that that all children in Wales are given the chance to thrive and fulfil their potential. 

So "supporting LAs" rather than supporting Parents, in order to help them educate and facilitate education to the best of their abilities.

Given that this first document was only the intro, and I managed to write a fair bit, I'll look at the other documents in different posts.  I'll try to remember to include links to people can easily jump from one to the next.

Link to the first half of my read-through of the guidance: Click Here.
Link to the second half of my read-through of the guidance: Click Here