HED0999

Written evidence submitted by The Association of Elective Home Education Professionals[i] (AEHEP)

To the Education Select Committee,

I am writing in response to the evidence submitted by The Association of Elective Home Education Professionals[ii] (AEHEP) dated 12th March 2021 and published 25th May 2021 (ref HED0995).

Rather than debunking the whole document, I am specifically concentrating on the end of the fourth major paragraph:

“Certainly, lobby groups such as Education Otherwise, Education Freedom [sic] and others such as the Patriotic Alternative Campaign would project EHE as always providing an excellent education with local authorities being unreasonable and often giving advice on how to not engage with local authority officers.”

The AEHEP have been purposely misleading by linking Educational Freedom next to the far right group, Patriotic Alternative[iii].  Educational Freedom strongly rejects any insinuation that that we have ties to any extremist groups or are involved in any way with radicalising children.

Educational Freedom is not a ‘lobby group’.  As clearly shown on the home page of our website, Educational Freedom[iv] is “a non-profit organisation with the primary purpose of ensuring all Home Educators have access to free information and support.”  In recent years, we have been asked by individual home educators to submit evidence into various governmental enquiries, and similarly we have joined forces with other home education organisations and charities (not limited to Education Otherwise[v]) when necessary.

Educational Freedom does not give advice on “how to not engage with local authority officers”.  In fact, a brief perusal of our website demonstrates that we always say that home educators should respond to their local authority.  We do recommend that everything is kept in writing, however, and that is so there is no miscommunication between any parties.  We also state that some parents prefer to meet up and chat to the local authority face-to-face, and that is their choice too.

“What ever the LA sends you, you should ALWAYS respond, never ignore them.  Respond with one of our sample letters or contact us if you are not sure.”[vi]

“Throughout this website that we encourage you to keep correspondence in writing with the LA as much as possible. Some parents feel the need to meet with the LA; if you wish to, and would like someone else present, please do get in touch and we will help find someone local.”[vii]

“It is recommended that you keep communication by writing. This means you have records of any communication that takes place if ever needed. Always respond to letters from the ELB”[viii]

I can see that this letter is the only submission[ix] from the AEHEP.  Did they not enter a submission before the 6th November 2020 deadline?

Due to the lack of public information about the association itself, and their regular purposeful conflation of Education and Welfare, I hope that you can see that they should not be trusted and any further submissions from them will be treated with the contempt it deserves.

Yours sincerely,
Liz Jenkins

Educational Freedom