HED0574
Written evidence submitted by [member of the public]
[Note: This evidence has been redacted by the Committee. Text in square brackets has been inserted where text has been redacted.]
Education Committee – Home Education
Response to call for evidence by [name] (5/11/2020)ennongHenning
We are a 2-parent family, with 4 children [ages]. We chose to home educate all our children from the start. Our eldest went to 6th Form college and achieved 3 A* and 1 A at A’Level. The other three children are currently working towards taking some GCSEs and equivalent qualifications, as well as following other educational passions in suitable ways. Due to their age and abilities, we felt it appropriate to give them the opportunity to contribute to some questions. Comments contributed by some of them are asterixed.
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The Committee invited written submissions addressing any or all of the following points:
- The duties of local authorities with regards to home education, including safeguarding and assuring the quality of home education;
Education Act 1996 - Section 7 - Duty of parents to secure education of children of compulsory school age.
The parent of every child of compulsory school age shall cause him to receive efficient full-time education suitable—
(a) to his age, ability and aptitude, and
(b) to any special educational needs he may have, either by regular attendance at school or otherwise.
The Education Act is clear that the responsibility for the quality of education a child receives lies with the parents, not the Local Authority.
As the Local Authority (LA) already has both a duty to safeguard all children (whether attending school or educated otherwise) & the necessary powers to carry out that duty (as already legislated for in the Education Act s436A and the provisions of the Children’s Act), I see no reason for home-educated children to be singled out as needing any further duties to be placed on the local authority.
- whether a statutory register of home-educated children is required;
Personally, I am not against a register of home-educated children for information purposes only. When I completed my children’s school forms, I wrote clearly on them that they were to be home-educated on the assumption that the LA would then be aware. This seems to be a very simple/inexpensive way to collect the information.
My concern, however, is that the information that a child is being home-educated could easily lead to much more intrusive & coercive actions by the LA. Although I don’t have records of the details, I have heard that this has already been experienced by home-educating families in different areas of the country, who have felt that LA representatives were telling them that a certain educational approach must be adhered to for the education they were providing to be considered ‘suitable’. The consequence of non-compliance with these instructions would have been that their children would have been subject to a school attendance order and the parents would then not even have had input into which school their children attended.
I appreciate that this action is outside of the current guidelines to LAs. However, if such ultra vires action is already being taken within the current voluntary registration system & guidelines, you can understand that it does not foster confidence in home educators about embracing a compulsory registration system. Who would choose to opt into that potential scenario?
- the benefits children gain from home education, and the potential disadvantages they may face;
Examples of benefits of home-education:
- Gain independent learning skills*
- Broader education: subject areas and experiences*
- More opportunities to try different things*
- Don’t get as much bullying*
- More time to be with your family*
- Get to go on a lot of trips*
- Get to meet a lot of different people*
- The flexibility of home-education allows learning to be tailored to the individual child e.g. learning methods, subject areas, prioritised apportionment of time
- Ability to choose the appropriate pathway without the pressure of target/national curriculum/league table implications needing to be considered
e.g. academically gifted children can move forwards on an academic pathway at the rate that suits them, whereas practically gifted children can get breadth & depth experience in various areas and then focus on a vocational pathway of their choice without having to jump through unnecessary academic hoops. Both of these are often advantages for special needs children.
Potential disadvantages they may face:
- excluded from some opportunities/offers unnecessarily restricted to schools/school pupils*
- possible social isolation*
- some qualifications have NEAs, which excludes most home-educated students who enter as private candidates
- difficulty finding an exam centre that will accept private candidates means that home-educated children may not be able to take as many exams/their preferred choice of exams and that they are likely to have to travel further to reach an exam centre, so will be more tired before they start.
- prohibitive costs of exams, especially if access arrangements are required
- lack of opportunity for two-way flow of sharing knowledge/best practice between home-educators and state education staff may disadvantage home-educated children. Home educators choose not to opt into educational provision through schools, we don’t choose to opt out of educating our children. I see no reason home educators could not also benefit from workshops/resources offered to teachers. We still pay our taxes and therefore should have access to all appropriate LA services, including support for our children’s education
- secondary school-aged children do not get notified when recommended vaccinations are due, so some may be completely missed
- biased opinions of institutions/individuals about home-education, fuelled by unbalanced coverage in the media: this can affect future educational/employment opportunities
- the quality and accessibility of support (including financial support) available for home educators and their children, including those with special educational needs, disabilities, mental health issues, or caring responsibilities, and those making the transition to further and higher education;
- The 6th Form college had measures in place to aid transition, however, written information on what a college day/college life is like in practice would have been useful beforehand*
- there is no financial support from our LA
- our EHE team has traditionally been very supportive over the 16 years we have been home-educating, viewing themselves as consultants to home-educators and a conduit of best practice between home-educators. Recently, though, new people have started and the tone of written communications has become much more formal – I suspect due to the new guidelines following the 2018 Home Education Guidelines for LAs. This creates a defensive response, decreases the desire to cooperate and makes me feel less supported. However, I have heard from others that face-to-face contact is still perceived as very positive by many in my area.
- I have children with physical disabilities, special needs and mental health issues. The LA has been aware of some of these and has been very sympathetic and very encouraging about our approach to continuing education through the challenges. However, no practical/financial support or suggestions have been offered: no discussion of EHCP, no signposting to respite care, carer’s support etc. We have dealt with everything alone and had to spend a lot of money on private provision.
- whether the current regulatory framework is sufficient to ensure that the wellbeing and academic achievement of home educated children is safeguarded, including where they may attend unregistered schools, have been formally excluded from school, or have been subject to ‘off-rolling’;
- The wellbeing of home educating families would be further safeguarded by the introduction of regulations to oblige LAs to provide access to financial support, practical help and/or interdisciplinary signposting for families, especially those with extra needs (e.g. disabilities, special needs & mental health issues)
- I feel that the safeguarding of the general welfare of home-educated children does not need any further regulation, as this is already covered by the Children’s Act/Education Act provisions
- Academic achievement of home-educated children would be safeguarded by the introduction of regulations obliging LAs to pay for exam entries and ensure access to at least one exam centre in their region that can accommodate all access arrangements & provide opportunities for home educated children to undertake NEAs. This would ensure that all barriers to obtaining qualifications would be removed consistently across the country, avoiding a postcode lottery. - the role that inspection should play in future regulation of home education;
I believe that inspection is the wrong route to take. As mentioned above, it creates an air of suspicion and a defensive “them & us” atmosphere, which leads to reluctance and reduction of collaboration. A consultancy model would be much more productive. If home educators felt that the education team at the LA was there to support all children’s education, no matter how it was being provided, then they would feel more secure in being registered and more open to requesting/receiving support and sharing ideas. In turn, the LA education team would not see the home educating community as a ‘potential problem to be managed by an inspection regime’ but rather a client group to provide an equal service to, alongside state schools and private schools. This would be a form of co-production, which has been highly successful in other areas, and could involve a steering committee of all relevant stakeholders, including home-educated youth representatives. The committee could be headed up by someone approved by the home education community, in order to further ensure their confidence and participation.
Any ‘inspection’ should be on the same basis as for any other child. Using the powers in the Children’s Act, a family could be investigated if there were any reasonable evidence that a child’s welfare was in some way endangered, which could include reasonable, evidenced suspicions that an effective, full-time, suitable education may not be being provided.
- what improvements have been made to support home educators since the 2010-15 Education Committee published their report on ‘Support for Home Education’ in 2012;
I personally have not noticed any significant improvements in support for home education since 2012. I have, as mentioned, noticed a deterioration towards a more formal, legalities-based approach to written communication from my EHE team recently. - the impact COVID-19 has had on home educated children, and what additional measures might need to be taken in order to mitigate any negative impacts.’
- As for all children, the full lockdown was very isolating and upsetting for home-educated children, who very much enjoy and thrive on external activities and friendships
- My [age of child] faced uncertainty about whether her iGCSE would be exam-based or CAG-based. It only runs in the November CAIE series anyway, but the continuous chopping and changing of what would/did happen with the summer exams was very unsettling and left us unsure if the work she was doing was sufficient for a CAG grade to be issued. This all distracted somewhat from just being able to prepare for a normal exam sitting.
- For my children with mental health issues, the isolation & house-bound nature of lockdown was a very significant challenge and very destabilising. Coupled with the fact that mental health services were simultaneously curtailed, this has led them to be put back in their progress towards improved mental health. In turn, this deterioration impacts the whole family.
- As a whole, home-educated children of exam age were disproportionately affected and disadvantaged by the summer exams situation. Many were unable to get exam grades for their children at all, despite having put in one- two years work towards them. They were forced to accept the fact that they would have to wait until the next sitting, which meant for some that their entire plans had to be put back a year, as they did not have the exam results to enter college/uni. Some of these parents were refunded their exam entry fees, some were not. Even the parents who were able get their children a CAG did so often at significantly additional expense and huge amounts of effort & stress. A couple of private exam centres (Faregos and Tutors & Exams) went over and above the call of duty to provide as many home-educated children with a CAG as possible, including taking transfers from other centres. Help from the LAs was largely nowhere to be seen. Home educators felt at best abandoned, at worst invisible. Ofqual have since recognised their failure to serve the home education community (and other private candidates) during the summer exams crisis and have opened up to discussions with home educators on how to improve for the future, In order to more easily facilitate this discussion process, a body of home educators have formed an organisation called the ‘Home Educator’s Qualifications Association’ (HEQA) so that Ofqual, exam boards, Department for Education and other bodies can have a single point of contact. https://heqa.uk/
- A direct consequence of the difficulties faced by home educators over Summer 2020 is that many schools are now refusing to accept private candidates at all. At a time when exam centres were becoming increasingly few and far between anyway, this comes as a huge blow to us. Standard exams are becoming incredibly difficult to sit and increasingly expensive. For example, I had to drive 1.5 hours to the exam centre in order for my daughter to take her Oct/Nov iGCSE – others have to travel the day before and pay for a room at a hotel. This is hardly a level playing field for our children to have the same chance to perform their best as their schooled peers.
- In order to mitigate any negative effects of these problems, which Covid19 has only exacerbated, there needs to be equality & certainty of provision of exam centres for home-educated children in the coming exam sessions and beyond. Schools will not choose this option themselves, as we have seen by them ending provision in their droves. Regulation & funding is needed to require LAs to ensure that there is at least one exam centre in each region at which home-educated children can sit the exams of their choice, free of charge. Only in this way can there be equality for all children.
Personal example:
I have two children due to take 2 exams each in summer 2021, costing at least £600. I have to book them into exam centres outside of my region and I have to book them now, as the demand for places will be much higher than before, due to the considerably reduced availability of exam centres. All this, with no certainty whatsoever that they will be able to sit the exams or even get a grade.
This situation is extremely concerning, and we would appreciate urgent action by the Department for Education. Please consider what support you might offer. Thank you.
November 2020