Source · Select Committees · Education Committee
Recommendation 16
16
Paragraph: 71
Local authorities told us that they lack sufficient powers.
Conclusion
Local authorities told us that they lack sufficient powers. It seems to us that the grey area in the Departmental guidance—where there is no legal duty for parents to respond to enquiries about EHE, but the local authority is entitled to conclude that education may not be suitable should those parents not respond—cannot be conducive to constructive relationships between EHE parents and local authorities.
Paragraph Reference:
71
Government Response
Acknowledged
HM Government
Acknowledged
22. EHE expectations on local authorities, other parts of the sector and parents was not part of the scope of the Children Not In School consultation and as such would not be included in the government response. 23. The Department has set out components local authorities should consider when determining suitable education in existing guidance. Therefore, local authorities should already be able to access or request have sufficient information to determine whether a child’s education is suitable. 24. The Department will work with local authorities to understand what data is held and can be supplied relating to School Attendance Orders (SAOs) to complement the data already collected on penalty notices, Parenting Orders and Education Supervision Orders. Data on these is published in the annual Parental responsibility measures statistical release. We will consider further data collection and analysis of SAOs in due course.