Part2 - Reading Through Children Missing Education Document by ISOS Partnership November 2020

HERE is the link to the document I am reading through.

HERE is the link to Part 1.

Yesterday I got as far as halfway down Page9 of this 58 page document, so now we start the section entitled “Who is responsible for ensuring children do not miss education?”.

Section 7 of the Education Act 1996 clearly puts this responsibility on the parents. (https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1996/56/section/7)

The CME report by ISOS Partnership has a blue box detailing the responsibilities of LAs and schools, and that is all correct. The following paragraph says:

“The Department for Education has consulted on the regulations and guidance relating to elective home education and has acknowledged explicitly that “a number of problems arise from lacunae or shortcomings in the current legislation which have been drawn to the department’s attention by local authorities and by local children’s safeguarding boards”. They describe the current legislative arrangement pertaining to home education as ‘designed for a different age’. Indeed, a common theme that has emerged from this research, both in the local authority workshops and the literature review, is that the way that the range of existing policies and guidance around pupil registration, attendance, admissions, exclusions and education otherwise than at school comes together is not seamless.”

I would like to know what specifically has been said, and whether they have differentiated between EOTAS (ie the LA providing the materials) and Home Education (where parents facilitate the education)? My guess is they didn’t even know there was a difference.

And yet again, it is interesting to note that in attempting to determine whether the regulations and guidance relating to elective home education works or whether there are any short-comings, they have failed to consult with home educators – current, past, or any national organisations.

“Parents are not currently required to notify the local authority if they decide to home educate their child or make provision for education at an institution other than a registered school.”

Because HE is the default position. Parents are always responsible for their child’s education, and it’s only if they decide to outsource this education then the need to apply for a place at a school.

“But this provides no visibility for children who have never been registered at a school or may move local authorities while being educated other than at school.”

“No visibility” is a red herring here. Graham Stuart MP said, when he was Chair of the Education Committee, that home educate children are “peculiarly visible”. HE children who have never been to school are still registered at birth, registered with a GP, with an Optician, with a Dentist – and that’s the bare minimum. My children have attended (and therefore are registered with) Dance schools, Gymnastics Clubs, Swimming Clubs, Play groups, social meets, Science clubs, Computer Clubs, to name a few.

“In April 2019 the Department for Education consulted on primary legislation that would introduce a new duty on local authorities to maintain a register of children of compulsory school age who are not at a state funded or registered independent school and a new duty on parents to provide information if their child is not attending a mainstream school. However, no legislation has yet been brought before parliament to make these proposed changes.”

Good. There is no benefit to having a register of home educators.

“In terms of the quality of education being offered other than at school, there is no statutory definition of what constitutes ‘suitable’ education either in terms of curriculum, content, taught hours, progress or outcomes.”

A suitable education is defined as one that is suitable to the child’s age, ability, aptitude and special needs, and enables that child to live in their community as an adult.

‘How’ that education takes place is entirely different, and should not be regimented. Even looking at schooled children (who are schooled throughout their education), there is such variation in outcomes, despite having been taught the same curriculum, content and taught hours, that it is obvious that not all children learn the same way. It is far better to enable children to be taught according to their interests and abilities, so that they grow up still loving to learn, rather than being desperate to leave school and learning behind them, and then pass on to the next generation that learning is boring or difficult and generally not cool.

“Furthermore, local authorities have no express power to monitor on a routine basis the educational provision being made for a home educated child.”

Good. Given that, despite every schooled child being monitored to within an inch of their lives, some children leave school without basic numeracy or literacy, I fail to see on what basis the LA should be able to routinely monitor the education of HE children. Not to mention that the individual EHEOs have received little training in HE at all, have little to no understanding of the differing styles of HE – as demonstrated by LAs calling for this research.

The third bullet point is about schools and their registers. My only thought about this is that there should be a specific code for flexischoolers because it is wrong that they may be considered CME because they don’t attend school full time, despite an agreement with the school to attend on a part time basis. Similarly, by having a specific code, it may enable schools to allow more flexischoolers without it impacting various league tables or Ofsted reports. That said, this isn’t my area of expertise, so these are just some general thoughts.

“What are the routes whereby children can miss out on a formal full-time education?”

There is no such thing as missing out on a ‘formal education’, only whether they miss out on an education or not. The only way a child can miss out on a formal education is if the child wants or needs a formal education and are not being provided with one. Please Note, that by ‘need’ I mean in very specific circumstances. In my experience, most children do not need a formal education, and would flourish if they are provided with more autonomy than is provided in most schools. This ‘need’ is prompted by the child, not because some external agency demands it of the child.

“The children who are missing out on a formal full-time education are not a homogenous group and the pathways that have led them there are equally varied.”

Correct. We can help simplify this complexity for you, by removing the children who are receiving a full-time education – ie non-structured home educators and flexischoolers.

“They have been generated through our workshops with local authority officers, conversations with headteacher representatives and evidence provided through parents in our on-line survey.”

Yet again, absolutely no consultation with home educators nor HE organisations.

“In describing these routes, it is important to note that not all the children captured by these descriptions will end up missing out on a formal full-time education. Indeed, none of the pathways that we describe are inherently wrong in themselves. Decisions to remove a child from a school or to place them on a part-time timetable, for example, can all be made for very rational and well-intentioned reasons. When these decisions are taken with the best interests of the child in mind, they may well contribute to that child accessing education more successfully in future.”

This sounds very much like a legal disclaimer, so that when they are called out on their biases, they can say “oh no, we didn’t mean you, we mean those others, over there” and point generally as they try and create division amongst the HE community.

“However, our research has highlighted these are the scenarios in which children can end up missing out on their entitlement to a formal full-time education, and in some of the scenarios described this outcome becomes highly likely.”

You mean your research that, either purposely or ignorantly, has avoided any contact with actual elective home educators, yes?

Then the document has a summary table, and goes on to describe each of these boxes in a bit more detail.

“Children who leave school at the instigation of the parent

There have always been a small proportion of parents who, for a variety of philosophical, cultural, lifestyle or religious reasons decide to remove their children from mainstream schooling and educate them at home, themselves. This is a right, set out in law, which parents are free to exercise. However, there is mounting evidence that more parents than before are choosing to take their children out of the school in which they are enrolled and educate them at home.”

Why is there a ‘However’ at the start of that last sentence? If it is a fact, it is a fact, and doesn’t need to have any negative implications associated with it.

“In our survey, many of the 183 parents who replied had opted to take their child out of school and educate them at home.”

This would be much more interesting if they actually stated how many had withdrawn their children from school. Additionally, I would want to know whether these 183 parents are 183 individual families, or whether there is some double-counting going on, in order to make the research seem more legitimate and statistically accurate.

“Most [of the parents who had withdrawn their children from school] had done so because they were dissatisfied with the ability of the school to meet their child’s learning needs. In the large majority of cases this was because the parent felt that either their child’s special educational needs or their child’s mental health needs were not being met. Most of the parents who replied to our survey and had taken their children out of school described situations in which they felt that they had exhausted all other options, and this was the last resort.”

Again, it is important to note who they have directed these questions to - “with the support of the National Network for Parent Carer Forums we conducted a small scale survey of parents and carers whose children were currently or had previously been missing education.”

The National Network for Parent Carer Forums (NNPCF) state “Our mission is to deliver better outcomes for families living with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).” http://www.nnpcf.org.uk/ Whilst there are many home educators whose children have SEND, they are not representative.

Other things to pull out of the preceding paragraph – if a parent feels that HE is a last resort, this is a huge failing of the school or school system, and home educators should not be made to pay for this. Also, there are plenty of people within the HE community who did indeed pull their children out ‘as a last resort’ only to discover what HE actually is, and wish they had never put their children in school in the first place! Without having seen the questionnaire (and how the questions were worded / whether there were implicit biases in the questions) it is very difficult to objectively do anything with this information.

Finally, given that it is the parent’s responsibility to ensure their child receives an education, if a parent is “dissatisfied with the ability of the school to meet their child’s learning needs”, then they absolutely should remove their child from that school (whether to find a new school or home educate), and it would be neglectful not to!

“However, some school leaders to whom we spoke also identified lower levels of resilience to setbacks in some families, choosing to remove their children from school rather than work through a difficult period in their child’s educational life.”

Can I say Victim Blaming?!

“Several school leaders also identified an increase in the number of parents who decided to take their child out of mainstream schooling in order to evade local authority action or a fine for their child’s non-attendance or if the school raised concerns with local authority children’s services about the well-being of a child. ... some of those families have opted to remove their child from school rather than face a fine or what they deem to be unwarranted state intrusion into their family life. The children removed from full-time formal education where the school had concerns about the child’s wellbeing or where the child was already subject to a protection plan by children’s social care caused the greatest anxiety for school leaders.”

Again, conflating two different issues, namely education and welfare.

Whenever a child is removed from school, it is the school’s responsibility to inform the LA, and the LA should then get in touch with the parents. If a school has raised concerns with the LA about the well-being of a child, and the parent then removes the child from school, the LA should investigate. Why wouldn’t they? If there are genuine concerns for the welfare of a child, no home educator will get in the way.

As for parents who remove their children from school in order to evade a fine, it depends on the individual circumstances. Is the child simply truanting, or school-refusing? Or is the child too young to leave school alone, and it is the parents who are simply not taking their children to school? Maybe the child has family abroad who are ill, so they spend significant amounts of time travelling, and the parents deem is more sensible to simply home educate? Or perhaps there is some illness or disability that means the child finds it difficult to be in school during daytime hours, and would rather be able to sleep or rest then, and be educated in the evenings?

Again, there is too much nuance in these situations to suggest that they all are causes for concern.

“Children who leave school at the instigation of the school”

This section is all about the failure of schools. Off-rolling is not a part of home education, and schools who off-roll pupils should be sanctioned appropriately.

“Successfully electively home educating a child requires dedication, preparation and full-time commitment. A parent who removes a child from mainstream education not through choice but under duress is unlikely to be able to provide that child with the formal full-time education to which they are entitled.”

I find myself agreeing with the first sentence and disagreeing with the second. Again, we have the problem of the word ‘formal’. Whether a parent removes their child from school under duress or not, has absolutely no bearing on the parent’s ability to facilitate home education for their children – it is totally nonsensical to suggest otherwise.

“Children who stay in school but do not access full-time”

This section is also about schools. It does have the sentence “The second group of children who are missing out on a formal full-time education, despite being on a school roll, are those on part-time timetables” and does not mention or account for flexischoolers, who are different to the children being described here.

“Children or families with poor health

A small but very important subset of those children who remain on a school roll but do not attend school all day or every day are those children where either their own poor health or that of their family members makes routine attendance impossible. … many young carers ‘remain hidden from official sight’. Nearly 15,000 children under 17 are providing more than 50 hours care a week and the Children’s Society’s own analysis shows that around 1 in 20 young carers aged 11 to 15 miss school because of their caring responsibilities.”

I don’t understand how a young carer can ‘remain hidden from official sight’ if they are on a school roll but not attending school. Surely there are processes for schools to highlight those children that are missing school to provide 50hrs/week care? Surely these are the people and families that the LA should step-in and help?

“Children who cannot be provided with a school place

The final two pathways out of formal full-time education relate to those children who are not on a school roll. Local authority admissions teams maintain a list of children who are waiting for a school place. ... there are a minority of children who are very hard to place and might remain on a waiting list for a significant period of time.”

So, this is a failing of the LA.

“Highly mobile children and families

Finally, local authorities identified some children who may not be known to services in a local area at all, and when they do become known are often very challenging to find a school place for due to the complex nature of their needs. Within this category are those who meet the DfE’s legal definition of children missing education – they are not and may never have been on a school roll and are not receiving education in any other setting, including at home.”

Again, I want to highlight the word ‘and’ in that final sentence. If a child is not and has never been on a school roll, it does not logically follow that the child is missing education.

I’ll continue with part 3 tomorrow: Click HERE

Part1 - Reading Through Children Missing Education Document by ISOS Partnership November 2020

 

Reading Through Children Missing Education Document by ISOS Partnership

November 2020

Here is a link to the document: HERE
Apologies to those with visual impairments, I have coloured quoted sections of the document purple, but have endeavoured to also make it clear in the text to which documents I am refering.

ISOS Partnership (https://www.isospartnership.com/) states in their Who We Are section:

“We have in-depth experience of working with the public sector, in the UK and overseas, in education, local government, health and social care. We have expertise and a proven track record in developing policy and strategy, solving delivery problems, undertaking national evaluations and writing influential research reports, advising on organisational reform, and facilitating workshops and conferences.”

As such, you would expect them to be experienced and unbiased when conducting research and influencing policy. Given that “Home Education” is written 30 times in this document, and “home educated” a further 37 times, it is worthy of note that they have not listed a single Home Education organisation in their Bibliography! I have emailed them to ask what authorities of home education they have used, if any, and will update this when they reply.

From the Executive Summary, p2, “This research was commissioned by the Local Government Association in December 2019”. The Local Government Association (LGA, https://www.local.gov.uk/) describes itself as “The LGA is the national membership body for local authorities and we work on behalf of our member councils to support, promote and improve local government.

…

We are a politically-led, cross-party organisation that works on behalf of councils to ensure local government has a strong, credible voice with national government. We aim to influence and set the political agenda on the issues that matter to councils so they are able to deliver local solutions to national problems.”

So, the LGA follows the agendas of Local Authorities (LA) and tries to influence government accordingly. Unfortunately, it is well known that not all LA’s have Home Educator’s best interests in mind, and whether they adhere to EHE guidance is a bit of a “postcode lottery”. (Support for Home Education, Fifth Report, 2012-13, https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201213/cmselect/cmeduc/559/559.pdf)

However, giving the benefit of the doubt, just because the organisation asking for the research may be biased, the company conducting the research should be neutral and look at all sources of information…

The document starts with the Executive Summary, and does succinctly summarise their bias against Home Educators:

“The statutory definition for Children Missing Education states that “Children missing education are children of compulsory school age who are not registered pupils at a school and are not receiving suitable education otherwise than at a school.” However, one of the clear conclusions of this research is that this relatively narrow definition risks some significant blind-spots in our collective understanding of the cohort of children missing education. We are therefore proposing, for this research, a wider definition of children missing education – any child of statutory school age who is missing out on a formal, full-time education. By ‘formal’, we mean an education that is well-structured, contains significant taught input, pursues learning goals that are appropriate to a child or young person’s age and ability and which supports them to access their next stage in education, learning or employment. By full-time we mean an education for at least 18 hours per week.”

Basically, this report is saying that they only consider Home Education valid if it recreates school-at-home. This is NOT what the law says. The is NOT what the EHE Departmental Guidance for LAs (EHE DGfLA) nor Parents (EHE DGfP) say. It is extremely discriminatory of all the other style of Home Education that are legal.

Not only that, there is no legal definition of full-time education. It is easily arguable that Home Educators who are autonomous in their approach are actually educating for far longer than 18 hours, as according to the EHE DgfLAs Home Education is not limited to school times, school days nor school hours.

The next paragraph follows in the same vein: “Children missing education do not form a homogenous group and are not always easy to identify. Our research has suggested that there are multiple routes whereby children may end up missing out on a formal full-time education,... These include ... at home receiving different forms of educational input…”

Again, they are saying that if you do not recreate school-at-home, then the education is not suitable or efficient. Totally wrong. There is much literature, not to mention anecdotes, about outcomes for Home Educators who do not follow a formal curriculum nor structured learning. It seems incredible that an experienced research company would fail to come across any of it…

“Without a clear sense of how many children in England might be missing out on their entitlement to a formal full time education it is very difficult to be precise about the scale or nature of intervention that might be needed either locally or nationally to address the issue.”

Just because somebody is entitled to a formal education does NOT mean that is the best education. Many people are entitled to things that they do not wish to claim, and it should not be forced upon them, and the same goes for a schooled education.
[Edited to clarify: I mean this paragraph in the hypothetical sense. "Unknown" has rightly commented below that legally, there is no distinction between formal or informal education.]

Now, this next bit is not HE related, but still interesting nonetheless: “The large majority of these included those with social and behavioural needs; those with complex needs and no suitable school place available; those with medical or mental health needs; and of those with mental health needs, those accessing CAMHS either as an inpatient or through services in the community. … Put simply, wider societal factors have meant that children are arriving in schools with a combination of needs, often linked to disruption in their family lives…” In other words, if your child has complex needs, medical or mental health needs, they are blaming the child’s family life.

Back to HE…

There is much talk about the detriment to children who are missing education, and I would quite agree – except that Home Educated children are NOT missing education, they are simply being educated otherwise than at school, as per the law.

Outcome No4: “Strengthen the legislative framework around electively home educated children

In April 2019 the Government consulted on changes to primary legislation that would strengthen the oversight and mechanisms for reassurance around electively home educated children. It proposed a new duty on local authorities to maintain a register of children of compulsory school age who are not at a state funded or registered independent school and a new duty on parents to provide information if their child is not attending a mainstream school. The purpose of these changes would be to enable better registration and visibility of those educated other than at school. The evidence collected through this research suggests that both changes would be beneficial in strengthening the oversight afforded to vulnerable children within this cohort and we therefore recommend that the necessary legislative changes are made at the first opportunity.”

In April 2019 the government produced new guidance for LAs and Parents, and I have gone over that information before HERE and HERE. Yet again, there are calls for a register, and I have gone over that previously HERE. Since Home Educated children ARE educated (it’s kinda in the name), a register will not be of benefit for anyone.

From the Introduction on p6, “This research was commissioned by the Local Government Association in response to a growing concern that more and more children were missing out on their entitlement to a formal full-time education. Previous research, select committee inquiries and independent government reviews have shone a light on various aspects of this issue, be it the rising numbers of pupils permanently excluded, the apparent growth in ‘off-rolling’ and the increasing trend in children being electively home educated. This research tries to look at the issue of children missing education in its entirety.”

I repeat, children who are home educated are NOT missing education, and certainly not in its entirety.

The Purpose and Methodology section starts of well, and shows that Home Education should not be included in the scope of this report.

“In December 2019, Isos Partnership was commissioned by the Local Government Association to carry out a national piece of research looking at children missing out on a formal full-time education. Specifically, the purpose of the research was to: • develop a national picture of trends in numbers and characteristics of children and young people who are missing a formal full-time education; • understand the routes whereby children and young people end up missing education; • assess the factors which are contributing to the increasing numbers of children missing education; • describe the impact of children and young people missing out on education; • identify good practice in how local authorities and their partners can reduce the numbers of children missing education; and • make recommendations for what might need to change nationally.”

However, given that ISOS have elected to include HE within these parameters, it is astonishing that they have not thought to consult with any Home Education organisations. “Thirdly, we conducted individual interviews with a range of professionals and experts able to offer a particular insight into the issues surrounding children missing education. These included headteacher representatives from the executive committees of ASCL and NAHT, Ofsted, a Regional Schools Commissioner and PRUsAP (the National Association for PRUs and Alternative Provision).”

“Finally, with the support of the National Network for Parent Carer Forums we conducted a smallscale survey of parents and carers whose children were currently or had previously been missing education.”

And this explains why no home educators were consulted – because they didn’t think to contact any!

Starting at Chapter 1 on p8, ISOS states “Critically, if children are deemed to be receiving an education “otherwise than at school” then they will not be counted as children missing education.”

If children are receiving an education, then they will not be considered missing education because they are receiving an education! It’s tautologous!

“Similarly, if children are on a school roll but are not attending or not attending full-time, they will also not be counted as children missing education.” Again, this shows a lack of understanding of the nuances of the situation. If a child is registered at school full time and does not attend, they are missing education. If a child is registered at school full time and does not attend full time, they are missing education (usually, there may be temporary medical reasons – I said it’s nuanced!).

However, if a child is registered at school and does not attend full time, it could be because they have agreed with the head teacher that the child will be flexi-schooled. This is another valid and legal education option alongside school or home education.

The report claims that the CME guidance is insufficient: “It does not, for example, acknowledge that there will be children and young people amongst those who are being educated other than at school whose education is neither efficient, full-time or suitable to their age, ability and aptitude.” Yet just the paragraph before it says this, it quotes the CME guidance as “Children missing education are children of compulsory school age who are not registered pupils at a school and are not receiving suitable education otherwise than at a school.”

How can they claim that the CME guidance does not acknowledge there will be children whose education is not suitable, when it specifically states that it considers those same children to be missing education? Madness! This from a supposedly experienced research organisation!

At this juncture, I feel I should point out that I have also compared CME to EHE guidance previously HERE.

This is the point where Ofsted gets involved. From the Memorandum of Understanding between Ofsted and the Department for Education

(https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/571243/MoU_Ofsted_and_DfE_sharing_notifiable_incidents_information.pdf?fbclid=IwAR2mk6GaaL0LBGrT3JE6ZgptxTs-0lJPLsXm-O_AK6u16zGwIK1phhp_jrE)

Paragraphs 4 and 5:

“Role of Ofsted and the Department for Education

4. Ofsted regulates and inspects to achieve excellence in the care of children and young people, and in education and skills for learners of all ages. It regulates and inspects childcare and children’s social care and inspects the Children and Family Courts Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass), schools, colleges, initial teacher training, work-based further education and skills training, adult and community learning and education and training in prisons and other secure
establishments. It assesses local authority children’s services and inspects services for looked after children, safeguarding and child protection.

5. The DfE is a department of the UK government. It is responsible for issues affecting children and young people in England up to the age of 18, including child protection and education, and, within this, regulates academies and free schools in England. The DfE uses safeguarding information received from local authorities by Ofsted to inform development of policy on child protection in England and any action being taken by Government to intervene in the local
authority.”

Which, when read in conjunction with House of Commons, Education Committee, Support for Home Education, Fifth Report Session 2012-13

(https://publications.parliament.uk/.../cmeduc/559/559.pdf), Paragraph 24, strongly suggests to me that it is the DfE that should be checking the behaviour of LAs, and is not something Ofsted should be involved in at all.

"We recommend that the Department for Education carry out an audit of local authorities’ performance regarding home education, and the information they make available on their websites and elsewhere, and publish the results, ascertaining which local authorities are performing well with regard to home education. We consider that, far from damaging the Government’s localism agenda, this review would fit well with the Department for Education’s transparency drive"

I have looked at this Fifth Report in more detail in amongst this post HERE.

In Ofsted’s study "Exploring moving to home education in secondary schools" 2019

(https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/936259/Exploring_moving_into_home_education.pdf) p4 "Ofsted has, for some time, had concerns about off-rolling. We have identified and investigated examples of off-rolling during our inspections".

Off-rolling is indeed a problem, and there should be strict sanctions and penalties on schools that do this, as this behaviour not only impacts the individual child, but as we can see from this document published by ISOS, it damages the HE community as a whole.

Page 5 of the same study says “"Because Ofsted has no remit to inspect home education, the research did not seek to establish the content or quality of what is being taught by home-educators. We have not sought to make a judgement about individual cases nor was our research related to recent government consultations about a register for children who are home educated.”

So, even Ofsted admit here that they have no jurisdiction over home education. However, further within the same study, Ofsted go on to say (paragraphs 15 and 16):

"15. Under the current guidance, parents are only advised that it is ‘sensible’ to inform their school and LA that their child is ‘being withdrawn for home education’.

In our research, we saw that the steps schools, LA and parents went through to officially remove children from school rolls were clear. Withdrawing a child from a school roll to move to home education is a quick and easy process.

16. Often, parents simply wrote a letter to the school to move their child to home
education.”

Withdrawing a child from school absolutely should be a quick and easy process. Upon receipt of the deregistration letter, the child’s name should be removed from the school roll immediately. Because off-rolling is a big issue, I will concede that it is not a bad idea for the school place to remain unfilled until the Elective Home Education Officers (EHEOs) have made contact with the parents (as is their duty anyway) to confirm that the Home Education is indeed elected by the parents, rather than forced by the school. However, this is entirely different to a school ignoring the deregistration letter and keeping the child’s name on the school role for an unspecified amount of time. It is the schools behaving badly, not the parents.

Back to the ISOS report, we next come to a section quoting the Children’s Commissioner, Anne Longfield. “In her report “Skipping School: Invisible children”, the Children’s Commissioner shines a light on those children who have been off-rolled according to Ofsted’s definition but also those children who have been removed from school by parents because the school was unable to meet their child’s needs...”.

Removing your child from school because you think you can meet their needs better is absolutely a valid reason to choose to Home Educate. Again, this document is failing to see the nuances between people choosing home education because it is a better fit for their child or their family, or because of failing schools (even though the parents would rather not take on the responsibility themselves), and as such they need to be categorised separately and distinctly.

The final paragraph in the definitions part of the Introduction says in full:

“A core purpose of this research is to attempt to untangle what is a complex issue and understand the full extent of children and young people in England who may be missing out on their entitlement to education. We are therefore proposing, for this research, a wider definition of children missing education – any child of statutory school age who is missing out on a formal, full-time education. By ‘formal’, we mean an education that is well-structured, contains significant taught input, pursues learning goals that are appropriate to a child or young person’s age and ability and which supports them to access their next stage in education, learning or employment. By full-time we mean an education for at least 18 hours per week, as set out in the DfE’s recent consultation on defining full time education for the purpose of regulating independent educational institutions. Only by framing our definition thus widely can we be confident of raising awareness and understanding of all those children and young people who are missing out on their entitlement to education and learning.”

So they claim to want to “untangle” this “complex issue”, yet instead of doing any untangling, they are actually grouping whole swathes of children who are NOT missing education, and thereby are making the whole thing more incoherent – ie they seem to be purposely ignoring the needs of a large section of home educators, and don’t even have the decency to involve any home educators or home ed organisation to determine the impact it will have on us.

At this point, I’m on page 6 of my rebuttal (I have no idea if that’s the right word? lol) so I’ll stop here and do this in instalments.

I have had some people ask me about who to complain to and whether writing letters will help.

Personally, I think it can’t harm, especially if you are writing from your own point of view. I am happy for you to use bits and pieces from this blog to help you, but try to use your own words as much as possible, or cite me/my website. Thanks.

Edited to add: Part 2 can be found HERE

Weekly Update Y2w46

 I'm hoping things have turned a corner, and my weight is starting to go down again!

Clearly, going for at least one long walk a day is starting to help, as is starting to eat home cooked foods again. Now it's winter, I'm starting to make stews, soups and casseroles again, which I pack with vegetables.

I've actually been really busy this week.  I read a whole series of books, that I need to write a review for, as well as finishing a 7day prayer Bible Study.  We're starting to make progress at finishing the girls' bedrooms (well, DD1's, since DD2's was finished over the summer), which in turn means it hopefully won't be too much longer before my room gets done.  I'm really busy with tutoring, and am having to turn people away.  Once DD2 goes to school next year, I'll be able to take on more students.

And speaking of home education, my LA is being awful atm, so I'm having to organise, counteract and help coordinate the response to that, as how they are acting atm is totally unlawful. Grrr.

Home Education Inquiry - Call for Evidence

The UK government has launched an inquiry into Home Education and is currently calling for evidence.

Click HERE for the link to submit your own response.  The deadline is 6th November 2020.

I have been asked to go through this documentation and put together my own thoughts and reasonings, in case they are of use to others, so here goes...

The Call for Evidence introduces itself as:

The Committee invites written submissions addressing any or all of the following points:

• The duties of local authorities with regards to home education, including safeguarding and assuring the quality of home education;
• whether a statutory register of home-educated children is required;
• the benefits children gain from home education, and the potential disadvantages they may face;
• the quality and accessibility of support (including financial support) available for home educators and their children, including those with special educational needs, disabilities, mental health issues, or caring responsibilities, and those making the transition to further and higher education;
• whether the current regulatory framework is sufficient to ensure that the wellbeing and academic achievement of home educated children is safeguarded, including where they may attend unregistered schools, have been formally excluded from school, or have been subject to ‘off-rolling’;
• the role that inspection should play in future regulation of home education;
• what improvements have been made to support home educators since the 2010-15 Education Committee published their report on ‘Support for Home Education’ in 2012; and
• the impact COVID-19 has had on home educated children, and what additional measures might need to be taken in order to mitigate any negative impacts.’

Going through the links, it states that the evidence should be concise, and if it is over 3000 words it should include a summary at the start, and specifies:

Your uploaded file must

• be less than 25MB
• be a single Word, ODT or RTF document
• not contain logos 

And then you get taken through to the place where you can upload your file.

I am not going to share my actual response here, but rather my thoughts and concerns about each of the things mentioned above.

1) The duties of local authorities with regards to home education, including safeguarding and assuring the quality of home education;

The LA has no such duty to assure the quality of home education.  Section 7 of the 1996 Education Act states the responsibility of PARENTS as follows:

Duty of parents to secure education of children of compulsory school age.

The parent of every child of compulsory school age shall cause him to receive efficient full-time education suitable —

(a) to his age, ability and aptitude, and

(b) to any special educational needs he may have, either by regular attendance at school or otherwise.

It is the parents responsibility to ensure that the quality of education being provided to their children, whether at school or otherwise, is suitable and efficient.  However, if there is genuine concern that the child is not being given an appropriate education, the LA can make informal enquiries, and if these are not satisfied, then there are further steps that can be taken.  

In fact, the recent Guidance for Parents (published in April 2019, that I have previously gone through HERE) specifically states:

5.1 Your local authority has no formal powers or duty to monitor the provision of education at home.

Regarding Safeguarding, Section 7.3 of the Guidance for LAs explicitly states "There is no proven correlation between home education and safeguarding risk".  Indeed Graham Stuart, MP and previous Chair of the Education Select Committee, stated that home educated children are "peculiarly visible".  There has been a review of all the Serious Case Reviews (SCRs) in the country, and there has never been a case where home education has been a causative factor.  Just because a child is home educated, does not mean they are locked under the stairs, rather they are out and about in society, and very noticeable due to the relative lack of other children who are hidden away in schools...

LAs do have a duty of care regarding the safeguarding of ALL children - and if there are any concerns, then they should get Social Services involved, using the processes and powers that they already have.

2) whether a statutory register of home-educated children is required;

I have talked about whether a register of home educated children is necessary before which you can read HERE.

3) the benefits children gain from home education, and the potential disadvantages they may face;

This is interesting that they have included this here, and it is not something that I have seen asked about before - the benefits of HE!  And there are many.  

Just off the top of my head: freedom to learn, freedom to live, freedom to choose friends who share interests, rather than sharing age.  Being part of society, rather than apart from society.  Following your own interests in as much depth as you want, without being bound by arbitrary bells, signalling the end of a lesson, or arbitrary syllabi stating that it is out of scope of the exam.  Learning life skills, not just cooking and cleaning, but how society works - seeing parents making appointments with the doctor, dentist, optician; going to banks and post offices; paying bills, learning about taxes, learning about budgets and meal planning and shopping accordingly, growing plants from seeds that you care for and can eventually eat the fruits of the harvest.  Discovering your passion in an unusual area, doing your own research to find out what skills and qualifications are required to pursue that career.  Realising that learning is fun and learning is life.  Knowing deep in your soul that learning does not stop at 18years old, and there is no such thing as "too late".  Understanding that if you don't have a passion for a specific career at a young age, it's ok, because you have your whole life ahead of you and you can always go to college or university later in life.  
As I said, that's just off the top of my head.  It wouldn't surprise me if there are many more. Lack of bullying...

Potential disadvantages of HE:

Honestly? The only one I can think of is "computer says no".  DD1 is now in school, and DD2 has started showing interest in following her, but when I was imagining/anticipating HEing throughout their childhood, I would have strongly encouraged them to get their maths and English GCSEs.  Not because I think they hold any particular value - quite the contrary. But because I can honestly imagine (and having an engineering degree myself, so knowing some programmers it is not a stretch of the imagination by any means!) the situation where a HE child with a passion for maths, for example, skips GCSEs and maybe A-Levels too, studies a maths degree with the OU, then goes to a brick university for Masters or PhD in a maths discipline, decides academia isn't for them, so wants to be get a job somewhere, and despite being the world expert in their particular field, because they don't have maths GCSEs, they can't "tick the box" on an online recruitment form, and so are denied a myriad of jobs that they would be brilliant at.

Other "potential" disadvantages sound like you are scraping the barrel to come up with hypothetical scenarios, and then twist them into "proof" that HE is bad.  Everyone knows about the S-word (socialisation) and how untrue it actually is for people who home educate. Lack of breadth of learning - but the same can be said for schools, for kids who are not into academics, but would rather do something practical, and perhaps learn business alongside where the maths/english etc has relevance.  

But as I said, the fact it has asked for potential disadvantages, makes me feel like they are clasping at straws, so other than the one above I mentioned, I'm inclined to not reply to this section.

4) the quality and accessibility of support (including financial support) available for home educators and their children, including those with special educational needs, disabilities, mental health issues, or caring responsibilities, and those making the transition to further and higher education;

When parents opt to home educate their children, they opt to take on all financial responsibility for their children's education - much like when a parent opts to use a private or independent school.  As such, there is no financial support available for the majority of HErs.  

Other than the obvious impact if a parent decides to stop working in order to facilitate HE, the main financial concern comes surrounding exams.  Parents need to find an exam board, pay for the exam, find a centre to sit the exam, and pay the centre for the privilege of sitting the exam, at the minimum. For example, if it is impossible to find a local exam centre that accepts external candidates, the cost of transport and accommodation, food and other sundries, needs to be taken into account for every exam.

Some HE parents want the government to provide free exams (usually GCSEs) for HE kids, whilst other HE parents are rightly concerned about what "strings" will be attached for such an arrangement.  If such an arrangement were possible, I would want it optional, and parents still be able to choose to arrange exams without governmental control.  My preference, rather, is that all HE colleges must accept external candidate, without charge for using the premises, if they are already sitting an exam on that date.  So, the exam itself could still cost money, but everyone will be able to find somewhere local to them in order to sit the exam.  In the rare case where the college cannot accommodate an external student, they have to be able to justify it.  (For example, I have heard some smaller colleges do not accept external candidates for summer exams, because they are full to capacity, but do accept them in November and January because fewer of their students are doing resits.)

Care and support for people with SEN - legally there should be no difference whether the child is at school or otherwise.  However, anecdotally, this is not always the case.  Many people pursuing EHCPs for their children get told that this can only be done in a school environment (untrue) or conversely that because their child has an EHCP that they cannot HE (also untrue).  The same is often true for people looking for official diagnosis of autism or ADD, GPs will tell parents that they have to go through the school for referral (untrue).  Referral to CAMHS, TAMHS and other children's mental health support, can also be difficult when HE, not least because parents try to mitigate any factors automatically as part of their parenting, so the children may appear to have milder symptoms compared to others at school, when they do indeed need high levels of support.

Though not SEN related, there are other disparities between care for schooled and home-educated children, eg use of a school nurse (who legal is responsibly for the care of all school-aged children) or getting vaccinations and being told by doctor's receptionists that HE kids cannot book into the surgery because they will be done at school!

Transition to further and higher education doesn't seem to be a problem; generally educational establishments liaise with parents as they would with a schooled kids' teachers.

5) whether the current regulatory framework is sufficient to ensure that the wellbeing and academic achievement of home educated children is safeguarded, including where they may attend unregistered schools, have been formally excluded from school, or have been subject to ‘off-rolling’;

I've already talked about the first half of this, though when I write the report I'll probably just C&P what I wrote above.  I'll also add in/ask how they ensure the academic achievement of schooled children is safe guarded, when too many children come out of school without reaching the government's "minimum standards"?

Attending unregistered schools isn't home education. I'm trying to think of a good analogy but my brain isn't working this morning, so I hope this suffices: Most people use banks or building societies for their money; however some people prefer to save up in piggy banks at home.  This question is the equivalent of asking whether the current frame work is sufficient for people who save at home, including those who invest in dodgy deals?!  If you are investing in dodgy deals, you are not saving at home.  If your child is attending an unregistered school, then you are not educating at home!

Similarly, I have to ask if being formally excluded from school the same as home education?  Surely that's a totally separate thing, and because it's the parent's choice to register their child in school, if their child is excluded, then it is the LAs responsibility for finding another school place or ensuring the child is educated.

And again, Off-rolling Prevention should be an LA/Ofsted joint initiative, and though the parents/child have been forced to home educate, really this situation should not have anything to do with HE regs or guidance, but all within the monitoring of the behaviour of schools.

6) the role that inspection should play in future regulation of home education;

Define "inspection". LAs have no duty to monitor HE (C&P from above).

The government does not inspect the kitchens of all parents to ensure they are feeding their children a balanced/government approved diet; they only go in to inspect when there is cause for concern.  The same should be for home education.

In fact, the time of year when most child abuse instances occur is over the summer holidays, and the government does not routinely inspect parents homes whose kids are out of school, yet there is statistical proof that these children are the most at risk.

7) what improvements have been made to support home educators since the 2010-15 Education Committee published their report on ‘Support for Home Education’ in 2012; 

This is a 112 page document, and can be found HERE though the main document is only the first 25 pages, the rest being annexes.

This question asks what improvements have been made since this report, and judging by the summary that I'll copy below, the answer is Zero improvements.

Summary

In England, the responsibility for a child’s education rests with his or her parents: education is compulsory, but school is not. Our inquiry sought to look specifically at the support which is available to home educators, and at the relationships between home educators and local authorities.

Whilst Government guidance sets out the role of local authorities with regard to home education, we heard evidence that some authorities are acting outside the law. We urge all local authorities to undertake a swift review of their own material, including websites, and to ensure that their policies reflect the guidance available. Some aspects of existing guidance require clarification, and we recommend that the Department for Education undertakes a review of guidance relating to home education.

We saw some examples of outstanding practice, where local authorities have made real efforts to improve their behaviour, structures and accessibility better to work with and for home educators. However, we also saw evidence of inconsistency across the country, leading to a ‘postcode lottery’ for home educators. A number of innovative models for remedying this were described to us, and we are pleased to support those. The development of a more formalised professional association of, and/or annual conference for, home education officers could be a welcome step in terms of sharing best practice nationally. Local authorities might also improve their relationships with home educators by ensuring officers dealing with these issues are placed in a dedicated or neutral team: locating home education officers with those working on, for example, attendance, children in care or safeguarding gives an unhelpful impression.

We also recommend that the Department for Education carries out an audit of local authorities’ performance regarding home education. Publishing the results, showing which local authorities are performing well, would fit well with the Government’s transparency drive. We received little evidence from home educators arguing for increased financial support, but we heard many calls for better or fairer provision of services. We have not, therefore, recommended any system-wide changes to financial support for home educators, although we call on central Government to explain better how available funding might be obtained and utilised, and on local authorities to utilise and claim such funding. We do, however, make a number of recommendations regarding the provision of services for home educators and their families. At present, some home-educated young people experience difficulties in accessing and affording public examinations which are readily available to others. We recommend that the Government places a duty on every local authorities to ensure access to local centres for home-educated young people to sit accredited public exams. We further recommend—given the contribution that many home educators make through their taxes—that the costs of sitting public examinations (to an appropriate level of entitlement) be met by the State.

In other areas, such as transition to further education, and access to cultural and leisure services, we heard of patchy provision across the country. Whilst we agree with the 4 Support for Home Education Minister that local authorities, and not central Government, must be responsible for service provision in their area, it is not acceptable that home-educated young people receive such different levels and quality of support dependent purely upon their postcode. Local authorities should produce ‘local offers of support’, stating what services are available to home-educating families, and the Department for Education should support pilots for such a scheme. We also look forward to the outcomes of the Department’s investigations into allegations of malpractice around young people with SEN or health needs who are home-educated: we heard some worrying evidence that provisions were not being fully met as they would be for schooled children.

It is clear from the evidence we received that many parties, both home educators and local authorities, have made real efforts to engage, to understand each other’s motivations and constraints, and to ensure more constructive relationships and better support. We acknowledge that there is some way to go, and look forward to seeing a more consistent approach to home education across the country. 

Many LAs still act outside the law, demand to visit homes, meet the children and see examples of work - all of which are unnecessary according the the Guidance for LAs (2019) and the Guidance for Parents (2019).  Some LAs refuse to given give new HErs information about local peer support, such as groups on Facebook.

LAs still do not have adequate training of their EHEOs.  Many are still ex teachers (so expect to see school-at-home), or have no knowledge of HE, education, pedagogy or any relevant qualifications.  Attempts for HErs to educate and work alongside their LA have mixed results.  Locally we have been going through a cycle of getting to an agreement, and then the EHEOs find new jobs, so we have to start again; and worse, we've been told, verbally, "yes" and the right sounds, only for nothing to actually change in reality. And there is still the overlap (ie the literal same people) being EHEOs and EWOs.  Paragraph 28 of the aforementioned document states "The team within which local authority home education officers sit can give out an important message about that authority’s view of home education. For example, it is inappropriate for such officers to be located with those working on attendance, children in care or safeguarding" - this hasn't changed at all.

Paragraph 34 on funding available for HE kids: "However, where funding is available, central Government needs to explain better how this can be obtained and utilised. We cannot understand why some local authorities refuse to utilise or claim such funding, and urge those that have done so to change their position."; in from Para 33 "Alison Sauer, who has conducted audits of local authorities, wrote that “many have decided that they will not be offering this funding”; Swindon and Poole were cited as having adopted this policy,".

Paragraph 43 on access to exam centres: "It does not seem reasonable to us that home educators in some areas have such a struggle accessing examinations centres for their children. We recommend that the Government place a duty on every local authority to ensure access to local centres for home-educated young people to sit accredited public examinations."  AFAIK people are still having to travel across the country in order to access and sit various examinations.

Paragraph 47 on access to college: "We congratulate the Government on giving further education colleges the power to admit 14 to 15-year-olds directly, and welcome this policy move, which we hope might benefit home educators as well as others." Whilst admittance of pre-16s to college is a good thing, some colleges have determined that it is too much of a hassle, some will only allow HE students to study specific subjects, or a narrow range of qualifications within that subject.  Some also will not allow all 14yos to study there, citing that the child "must be in years 10 or 11", meaning that kids who turn 14 at the start of September, have to wait a whole year before being allowed to enroll in a course.

Para 52 on local support: "Whilst we agree with the Minister’s view that local authorities, and not central Government, must be responsible for service provision in their area, we do not consider it acceptable that home-educated young people receive such different levels and quality of support dependent purely upon their postcode. Local authorities should be expected to produce a ‘local offer of support’ for home educators, stating what services are available, how these differ from those for parents of schooled children, and enabling home educators to compare with practice elsewhere. Critically, local offers must be developed in consultation with home educators and their families. We recommend that the Department for Education support pilots for such a scheme, and play a role in monitoring the quality of local offers and the adherence applied to them by local authorities. " - I haven't seen any evidence of this happening at all.

Para 57 is about children with SEN and EHCPs: "We are pleased that the Minister confirmed, in her evidence to us, that local authorities remain responsible for ensuring that provisions in Statements are met, and were equally pleased that she agreed the issues relating to home-educated young people with SEN or complex health needs, but without Statements, should be investigated. We look forward to the outcomes of the Department for Education’s investigations in this area. In the meantime we urge local authorities to comply with statutory guidance and ensure that home-educated young people with SEN or medical conditions are not being discriminated against" - this isn't my area of expertise, tbh, but this paragraph doesn't seem to say very much, other than "don't discriminate".

I'm not going to go through the Annexes of that document, but the link is just above in case you did want to read it through.

8) the impact COVID-19 has had on home educated children, and what additional measures might need to be taken in order to mitigate any negative impacts.

The main two impacts (off the top of my head - I'm getting tired now!) are about exams and groups/meets.

There are many HE students who were due to take exams over the summer that were cancelled due to covid. The parents had already paid for the examinations, and have received no refund.  And because the candidates were home educated, they could not be examined based on continuous assessment, because (somewhat understandably) so have been left with no grades. Link to Independent Article

Whilst some lucky students have been accepted on courses without their grades (see Section 3 above for potential problems facing people without grades), and some have been allowed to "resit" the exams in the November exam period, others have been left floundering with nothing, and no way to change it.

Similarly, there is still uncertainty about 2021 exams due to covid, and some parents are not entering their children in to exams for fear of having the same issues as this year's cohort.

Groups and meets are the other main issue due to covid.  Larger meets generally haven't had any problems, especially those provided by local businesses, because they have large enough premises to be socially distant, are fully insured, and are large enough that they have enough business to keep running in these unprecedented times.  Smaller meets, that are run for free in each others homes, are the ones that have had to stop.  Due to the Rule of 6, only smaller families can meet socially with one another.  It's not all loss - thankfully due to advances in technology, zoom, discord etc, kids can still access various online groups, they can still FaceTime each other, spend time with friends etc, but this has had an impact on HE families.

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I've been at this a while so I'm going to stop there for today.  I'll leave writing my actual response to a different day - as a reminder, we have until 6th November 2020.

I hope this has at least prompted some thoughts about they type of thing you can include, if you wish.  I don't claim this is exhaustive, or that it is the perfect response, but merely provide it as a help for you to write your own.