Strengthening Home Education; key points from the Education Committee report

Written by Erin Smart, Education Law Solicitor  

The Education Committee recently published its report “Strengthening Home Education” which made recommendations for local authorities to consider in working with parents who elect to home educate.

The recommendations are broadly outlined below:

• Creation of a statutory register for children who are out of school;
• Better support for those children with SEND so that parents are not “forced out” of school education;
• A joint approach to assessing suitability of education being provided;
• Better record keeping regarding outcomes for children who are home educated; and
• Fair access to examinations.

Many parents chose to home educate their children, something which they are entitled to do as long as the child receives suitable education. The reasons for doing this vary greatly between families and a recurring theme in our work with these families is that they are seeking to raise free-thinking children not constrained by the requirements of a traditional school system.

The report seems to suggest that there are many parents failing to ensure their children receive a suitable education. However, for parents electively home educating, many are providing suitable education for their children and would strongly oppose this negative view and starting point.

However, and as recognised above, this is not always the case. Many parents are forced into home schooling their child as a measure to avoid exclusion or to ensure that their child’s special education needs are met. In these cases, we can no longer talk about home education being elective as parents are making this decision because they feel their children’s needs are not being met by the education system. It is important the issues behind this are further considered and parents are properly supported with their child’s education.

Turning to the recommendations themselves it is clear that the register for home educated children is something which the education committee has been keen to implement since inception and, despite 76% of published submissions being against the recommendation, this still features.

On the support for children with SEN, it is clear that this is long overdue and has been an issue for some time. It is hoped that greater support allows parents to have confidence to send their children to school, where this is their choice, and not to feel forced to home educate due to failings in the support from school or local authority. The committee recommends reconsideration of the creation of an independent, neutral advocate. The advocate would have the responsibility for co-ordinating all statutory SEND processes and support families where a choice about EHE is being made.

The current guidance does not provide any assessment criteria or advice on how suitability should be considered. The flexibility home education allows is, usually, welcomed by parents who electively home educate as it provides a certain amount of discretion to enable them to tailor the education provided to their child’s needs and interests. Whilst a better understanding of the definition of suitable can be a positive, there will be many that argue this will diminish the benefit of home educating altogether.

Having better data is again, something with which parents both do not wish, and need not, concern themselves. This information should be available without impeding on parental rights and allow for outcomes to be assessed in a more holistic way.

Finally, the access to examinations is a recommendation which will please all those involved in home education.

Overall, the recommendations seem largely the same as those put forward at the inception of the committee and are very much in line with those expected. However, they face strong opposition from many parents who electively home educate with the result that many of them feel that this has further negatively impacted their relationship with their  local authority.

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Overall, the recommendations seem largely the same as those put forward at the inception of the committee and are very much in line with those expected. However, they face strong opposition from many parents who electively home educate with the result that many of them feel that this has further negatively impacted their relationship with their local authority.”