Recommendations & Conclusions
11 items
1
Recommendation
Third Report - Strengthening Home Educa…
Deferred
The Committee unanimously supports the right of families to opt for EHE, provided it is in the best interests of the child and the education provided is of a suitable standard to meet the needs of the child. In the eyes of the law, the duty to secure an education …
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The Committee unanimously supports the right of families to opt for EHE, provided it is in the best interests of the child and the education provided is of a suitable standard to meet the needs of the child. In the eyes of the law, the duty to secure an education for a child rests with parents. It follows that the choice to home educate should be afforded the same respect as the choice for children to attend a state or private school. However, without data on outcomes we cannot know how many children receiving EHE are getting a suitable education. For that reason, it is reasonable that local authorities have the ability to assess the suitability of education.
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Government response AI summary
The government agreed with the committee's stance on EHE and the need for better outcome data to assess suitable education, committing to a form of registration for children not in school to improve data and LA assessment abilities, with further details deferred to an upcoming …
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Department for Education
3
Recommendation
Third Report - Strengthening Home Educa…
Deferred
The Committee heard from home educators that home-educated children are not ‘invisible’, and that safeguarding has failed children who were already known to local authorities. However, the relevant authorities cannot begin to reach any children who may be at risk without a consistent and accurate method of knowing who they …
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The Committee heard from home educators that home-educated children are not ‘invisible’, and that safeguarding has failed children who were already known to local authorities. However, the relevant authorities cannot begin to reach any children who may be at risk without a consistent and accurate method of knowing who they are. The context has changed dramatically in the last decade, as the number of children receiving EHE has grown. At present, local authorities may only know about home-educated children who have been withdrawn from school, and may lose touch with these children when families move.
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Government response AI summary
The government committed to a local authority administered statutory registration to identify children not in school, but deferred further details on its implementation and proposals for supporting home-educated children to its forthcoming consultation response.
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Department for Education
4
Recommendation
Third Report - Strengthening Home Educa…
Deferred
The Committee’s view remains that a statutory register, serving to more consistently identify children outside of school, is absolutely necessary. This would aim not to remove freedoms from those who are providing an effective education for their families, but to better target support to those who need it. The register …
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The Committee’s view remains that a statutory register, serving to more consistently identify children outside of school, is absolutely necessary. This would aim not to remove freedoms from those who are providing an effective education for their families, but to better target support to those who need it. The register should have a national reach but be administered locally. Rather than only targeting EHE children, it must cover all those who do not receive their principal education in a mainstream school. It may well be that the Government announces a statutory register ahead of this report being published. In any case, it must adhere to the principles we outline.
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Government response AI summary
The government remains committed to a form of local authority administered statutory registration for children not in school, but further details on its scope and implementation will be provided in a forthcoming consultation response.
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Department for Education
11
Recommendation
Third Report - Strengthening Home Educa…
Deferred
Some children in those illegal schools prosecuted so far have been nominally home educated, with families misled by providers. Without the consistent and robust data on children outside school that a register could provide, we cannot know the true impact of off-rolling and illegal schools on children nominally receiving EHE. …
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Some children in those illegal schools prosecuted so far have been nominally home educated, with families misled by providers. Without the consistent and robust data on children outside school that a register could provide, we cannot know the true impact of off-rolling and illegal schools on children nominally receiving EHE. We welcome the Government and Ofsted’s efforts to clamp down on unregistered schools and await the outcome of the consultation on independent educational institutions with interest. It cannot be right that settings where children receive their principal education escape regulatory scrutiny by exploiting loopholes in the law. (Paragraph 56) Strengthening Home Education 39
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Government response AI summary
The government committed to a local authority administered statutory registration system to identify children not in school, including those electively home educated, but stated further details would be provided in the upcoming Children Not In School consultation response.
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Department for Education
19
Recommendation
Third Report - Strengthening Home Educa…
Deferred
Although we were pleased to see that Keeping Children Safe in Education was updated during the inquiry, we heard that key guidance documents on safeguarding did not recognise EHE. It is therefore hardly surprising that that local authorities and others vary hugely in their approach to EHE families. EHE is …
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Although we were pleased to see that Keeping Children Safe in Education was updated during the inquiry, we heard that key guidance documents on safeguarding did not recognise EHE. It is therefore hardly surprising that that local authorities and others vary hugely in their approach to EHE families. EHE is a legally recognised choice, and as such must be recognised in guidance so that professionals across education, health and other services understand what it is, and how to respond appropriately when they come into contact with EHE families. Guidance must be consistent so that both families and local authorities know where they stand with regards to sanctions like SAOs but also the processes which professionals and parents will need to follow.
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Government response AI summary
The government states it will consider including Elective Home Education (EHE) in the 'Working Together to Safeguard Children' guidance at its next review point, without providing a specific timeline for this.
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Department for Education
20
Recommendation
Third Report - Strengthening Home Educa…
Deferred
The Department must revisit and revise key statutory guidance such as Working Together to Safeguard Children as soon as possible, so that they explicitly contain EHE within their scope, and contain clear and consistent messages for families, local authorities and others.
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The Department must revisit and revise key statutory guidance such as Working Together to Safeguard Children as soon as possible, so that they explicitly contain EHE within their scope, and contain clear and consistent messages for families, local authorities and others.
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Government response AI summary
The government states it will consider including Elective Home Education (EHE) in 'Working Together to Safeguard Children' guidance at its next regular review point.
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Department for Education
24
Recommendation
Third Report - Strengthening Home Educa…
Deferred
HMCI Amanda Spielman told us it was “very un-joined up” that children who were on a child protection plan and experiencing harm could be withdrawn into home education. We share HMCI’s concerns and call on the Department to ensure that children subject to a child protection plan are educated in …
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HMCI Amanda Spielman told us it was “very un-joined up” that children who were on a child protection plan and experiencing harm could be withdrawn into home education. We share HMCI’s concerns and call on the Department to ensure that children subject to a child protection plan are educated in a suitable setting to ensure that they are properly protected.
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Government response AI summary
The Department states it will consider including Elective Home Education (EHE) in its "Working Together to Safeguard Children" statutory guidance at the next review point.
Read full response →
Department for Education
29
Recommendation
Third Report - Strengthening Home Educa…
Deferred
Without large-scale, objective data, our understanding of the attainment and outcomes achieved by EHE children remains largely anecdotal. Despite assurances from the EHE community, we therefore cannot be sure that all EHE children get an education ‘suitable’ to prepare them for the next stage of their lives. Children’s voices are …
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Without large-scale, objective data, our understanding of the attainment and outcomes achieved by EHE children remains largely anecdotal. Despite assurances from the EHE community, we therefore cannot be sure that all EHE children get an education ‘suitable’ to prepare them for the next stage of their lives. Children’s voices are lacking from research. We understand that assessment is more challenging territory than simply understanding who is being home-educated and why. Home educators told us that assessment was stressful for some children, especially those who have come to EHE precisely because a formal system does not work for them. We heard that EHE children might take exams such as GCSEs on a different timetable to their schooled peers, and that some who initially struggled with reading or writing went on to excel when allowed to go at their own pace. Furthermore, exams are not the only measure of positive educational or life outcomes. However, we expect that, as a minimum, home-educated children must have equity of access to the next stage of their education, work or training. All EHE children should have the opportunity to take GCSEs, A-Levels and vocational exams as appropriate.
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Government response AI summary
The government acknowledges the value and challenges of researching EHE outcomes due to data limitations. It commits to reviewing potential research approaches after the Children Not In School consultation response, but does not directly address equity of access to exams or future education for EHE …
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Department for Education
30
Recommendation
Third Report - Strengthening Home Educa…
Deferred
The Department must urgently commission and publish longitudinal research examining the life chances and social outcomes of EHE children in England (as a short-, medium- or long-term intervention), compared with those who have received a formal schooled education. This will need to include a range of short-, medium-and long- term …
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The Department must urgently commission and publish longitudinal research examining the life chances and social outcomes of EHE children in England (as a short-, medium- or long-term intervention), compared with those who have received a formal schooled education. This will need to include a range of short-, medium-and long- term self-reported experiences, ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ outcomes’, and work in partnership with the full range of EHE communities. ‘Hard’ outcomes to be measured will include ability to demonstrate the skills in literacy and numeracy that are essential to future work or training. Soft outcomes could include less quantifiable factors such as mental wellbeing.
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Government response AI summary
The government acknowledges the value of the recommended longitudinal research but defers reviewing potential approaches until after the Children Not In School consultation response is published, citing challenges with data availability.
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Department for Education
31
Recommendation
Third Report - Strengthening Home Educa…
Deferred
The Government needs to act on the longstanding issue of inequitable access to exams for those children receiving EHE. The cancellation of exams in 2020 has had a massive impact on all students, but a particularly acute impact on those receiving EHE. With a register in place, it may well …
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The Government needs to act on the longstanding issue of inequitable access to exams for those children receiving EHE. The cancellation of exams in 2020 has had a massive impact on all students, but a particularly acute impact on those receiving EHE. With a register in place, it may well have been easier to identify those children who would have been affected. If better relationships between home educators and local authorities are to be developed, it makes sense to provide ‘carrots’ as well as ‘sticks’. Removing barriers of cost and distance to exam entry for EHE children would put them on a level playing field with their schooled peers and improve our knowledge about their educational outcomes. (Paragraph 122) Strengthening Home Education 43
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Government response AI summary
The government describes existing arrangements for private exam candidates and past exceptional grants, stating that parents are generally financially responsible. It notes a consultation proposed local authority support, but details will be deferred until the consultation response is published.
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Department for Education
32
Recommendation
Third Report - Strengthening Home Educa…
Deferred
For that reason, we repeat our predecessor Committee’s recommendations with regards to public examinations. This seems reasonable in order to help EHE children gain the qualifications needed for future education, training and employment.
Government response AI summary
The government reiterated that access to public examinations for private candidates is at the discretion of individual centres and parents are financially responsible. It deferred details of potential future examination support for home-educating families to the upcoming Children Not In School consultation response.
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Department for Education