HED0320
Written evidence submitted by Thompson
Education Committee Review – Elective Home Education
3, Home education allows children to receive a bespoke education with diferentiated curriculum so that each child can learn in a manner that is individual and meets their needs.
Many children thrive outside of the confines of school and are able to experience greater levels of well being.
4,7,8, Sadly some LAs use Elective Home Education as a reason to refuse assistance, such as EHCP assesment.
A Home Educated child’s rights to SEND support should be clearly protected and supported in the guidelines to ensure LAs are fulfilling their duty of care.
Many children require GCSEs to access further and higher education, there is currently no provision for Home Educated pupils to access GCSE exams through the LA, this needs to be addressed; the plight of home educated students was particularly evident during the 2020 exam debacle when many Home Educated students were robbed of their grades by independent exam providers.
Covid guidance has not gone far enough to provide for and protect home educators, while a whole school is able to function, sadly Home Educators have been subject to significant restrictions having to follow guidance for out of school settings, this limits groups to 15. As families need to meet together for Home Education there should be allowances for greater numbers.
1,2,5,6 The current regulatory framework is sufficient, I do not believe a statutory register of Home Educated children is required.
I believe the The EHE Departments at LAs need better training and should be inspected to ensure that EHE provision is consistent and that they are following the guidelines, the LA should be accountable for how they treat Home Educators.