Source · Select Committees · Education Committee
Third Report - Strengthening Home Education
Education Committee
HC 84
Published 26 July 2021
Recommendations
10
Para 55
Schools should publish their permanent and fixed term exclusion rates by year group every term,...
Recommendation
Schools should publish their permanent and fixed term exclusion rates by year group every term, including providing information about pupils with SEND and looked- after children. Schools should also publish data on the number of pupils who have left the …
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Department for Education
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14
Para 59
We urge the Government to publish its SEND Review without further delay, and will look...
Recommendation
We urge the Government to publish its SEND Review without further delay, and will look forward to scrutinising any proposals it makes.
Department for Education
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28
Given the rise in EHE numbers and lack of consistent support from local authorities, the...
Recommendation
Given the rise in EHE numbers and lack of consistent support from local authorities, the Department should commission and roll out a national training package for all local authority officers with responsibility for EHE—developed with a wide range of stakeholders—so …
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Department for Education
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33
The Government must place a duty on every local authority to ensure that home- educated...
Recommendation
The Government must place a duty on every local authority to ensure that home- educated children and young people have fair access to centres where they can sit accredited public examinations, with the Government meeting the entry costs for those …
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Department for Education
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Conclusions (29)
1
Conclusion
Para 19
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 …
2
Conclusion
The next iteration of the Government’s guidance for local authorities and parents must set out a clearer vision for a ‘suitable’ education - including the levels of numeracy and literacy which it would usually expect students to have achieved before they move on to later education, training or employment. This …
3
Conclusion
Para 38
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 …
4
Conclusion
Para 39
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 …
5
Conclusion
There is no single definitive figure for the number of children and young people being educated at home. The numbers that are available are likely to under-report as parents do not have a duty to tell local authorities that they have chosen EHE, and studies often rely on Freedom of …
6
Conclusion
Para 41
Covid-19 appears to have driven a further rise in EHE numbers, the long-term impact of which is not yet known. During the covid-19 pandemic, some may have found that educating at home worked better for them. However, some parents may have chosen EHE without a full understanding of the responsibilities …
7
Conclusion
Para 42
Once the statutory register of children outside of school is up and running, the Department for Education must make use of it to collate, analyse and publish anonymised annual data on the number of children out of school so that the Department, local authorities and others are better able to …
8
Conclusion
Para 43
When a pupil is excluded from school for more than five non-consecutive days in a school year, the pupil and their parents or carers should be given access to an independent advocate to help them navigate the process. Families considering EHE should also have access to these advocates, to ensure …
9
Conclusion
Para 54
There is clearly a distinction between those families who make a free choice to EHE, and those for whom it is not truly ‘elective.’ We understand that many home educators do not see off-rolling, exclusion or illegal schools as a problem of EHE. However, the fact remains that some families—especially …
11
Conclusion
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. …
12
Conclusion
Para 57
Many children with SEND may be happiest educated at home, but this should absolutely not be a choice that parents are forced to make for lack of the right support. We accept that what begins as a negative choice can become positive over time, but support must be in place …
13
Conclusion
Para 58
In light of the evidence we heard on children with SEND, the Department must reconsider the potential for creating an independent, neutral role, allocated to every parent or carer with a child when a request is made for a needs assessment, which has the responsibility for co-ordinating all statutory SEND …
15
Conclusion
The SEND Review must address the need for consistent and sufficient support for children with SEND, no matter how they are educated. Access to Education, Health and Care Plans and the support they offer should not depend on being on roll at a school. (Paragraph 60) Elective Home Education: Local …
16
Conclusion
Para 71
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 …
17
Conclusion
Para 72
Without a clearer definition of what a ‘suitable’ education is and what the threshold might be for intervention, local authorities have to rely on their safeguarding powers. We understand that, where powers are seen to be used inappropriately, there is a negative impact both on individuals and on relationships with …
18
Conclusion
Para 73
When the Department responds to the 2019 consultation, it must clearly set out the expectations on LAs, other parts of the public sector (including health and social care) and parents with regards to EHE. It should supply case study examples so that EHE families and local authorities have a clear …
19
Conclusion
Para 75
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 …
20
Conclusion
Para 76
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.
21
Conclusion
Para 87
We heard that there is a lack of consistency in the approach local authorities take to support EHE. Departmental guidance is ambiguous and does not provide the necessary clarity on what is expected of them. Ofsted told us that for it to inspect home educating parents would be disproportionate. However, …
22
Conclusion
Para 88
The Department must assign Ofsted a role in quality assuring the delivery of local authority support for EHE and adherence to EHE guidance. This will require the creation of an inspection framework, based on the clarified guidance for local authorities and EHE families that we also expect the Department to …
23
Conclusion
Para 89
On the whole, local authorities did not see themselves as potential ‘inspectors’ in the Ofsted mould—even though the former Children’s Commissioner called for “at least a once a year, if not once a term” inspection. However, some local authorities would like more powers to see children and to establish whether …
24
Conclusion
Para 90
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 …
25
Conclusion
Para 91
The Department must clarify and strengthen the expectation in its 2019 guidance that local authorities make contact with parents on at least an annual basis, so that local authorities have the ability to see a child in person (at a venue of the family’s choosing) in situations where this is …
26
Conclusion
Para 92
The Department should provide local authorities with a set of clear criteria against which suitability of education can be assessed, taking into account the full range of pedagogical approaches taken in EHE, as well as the age, ability and aptitude of individual children, including where they may have SEND.
27
Conclusion
We heard that parents receive more support from networks than they do from local authorities, but without the robust data that a register would provide we cannot know for certain whether everyone who needs support is able to access it. Furthermore, the evidence we received indicated a lack of mutual …
29
Conclusion
Para 110
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 …
30
Conclusion
Para 111
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 …
31
Conclusion
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 …
32
Conclusion
Para 123
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.