Fisking Graham Badman's Plea to Local Authorities for Some Evidence

Letter contained in this request from Badman via the DCSF.


Wonder who asked him to do this so long after the Report has been published and why?


Directors of Children’s Services

All local authorities in England

17 September 2009

Select Committee hearing on the Review of Elective Home Education in

England

I am writing to make you aware of the forthcoming Select Committee hearing

in early October which is likely to examine the evidence from the various

sources which led me to make the 28 recommendations in my Review. The

Review recognised that most home educators do a good job and that they

should be supported by local authorities (LAs) in accessing appropriate

services for their children. You may be aware from press reports and activity

within your local authority that some sections of the home educating

community are questioning some of the LA evidence which assisted me in

arriving at my conclusions.

Well it’s not exactly the evidence but the claims made from it and its selective use isn’t it.  And let’s face it, most of the conclusions.

I had a good response from LAs to my call for evidence to inform the Review.

This provided a rich source of contextual information which I considered

alongside submissions from individuals and a wide range of organisations

with relevant expertise. Most of my recommendations have not been

challenged, reflecting the sound evidence base.

Well as we know that’s another porky, there is no evidence base for the conclusions that’s why he is on hands and knees begging for evidence.

However, a small group of home educators have refused to accept my conclusion that ‘the number of children known to children’s social care in some local authorities is disproportionately high relative to the size of the home educating population’

with others disputing the evidence base that shows that a small but significant

proportion of home educated children are receiving no, or an inadequate,

education.

Well we are in a position to know that it isn’t a small number and includes a professional statistician, a professional public policy researcher and a retired ofsted inspector.  Together with many highly intelligent home educators used to rigorous research in educating their children and answering far too many vexatious consultations from this government.

I would like to strengthen (dig some evidence from under a stone) my statistical evidence in advance of the Select Committee hearing so that it is more extensive and statistically robust. This would allow the Select Committee to consider good quality factual information that supplements the qualitative analyses underpinning my report. For this reason I need a response to this letter by 1 October.

DCSF’s ‘Star Chamber’ gave approval for this voluntary data collection on 15

September.

Why we ask when he is supposed to be ‘independent’ and home educators are unable to ask him questions as he has finished his work on the report?

For those LAs which did not submit information earlier

In the course of the Review we collected statistical evidence from a sample of

local authorities on vulnerable children who were home educated. This

provided persuasive evidence for change. However, it was a small sample

and we would like to supplement this data in order to provide more statistically

rigorous information to the Select Committee about safeguarding and

educational issues that affect home educated children. The supplementary

information we are seeking is described below and we would be grateful if you

could indicate for each dataset whether the figures are accurate or estimates.

Home educated children where there are child protection concerns

Each year local authorities return statistics on the number of referrals,

assessments and children who are subject to a child protection plan (the

‘CPR3’ return). We would be grateful if you could identify the number of home

educated children of compulsory school age who are the subject of child

protection plans using the attached spreadsheet (information reproduced

below for ease of reference). We will compare this information on home

educated children with the wider child population using the 2008-09 CPR3

return published on 17 September 2009. 

Ah an inspired thought here, he must be a genius.  (Ooops sarcasm, that’s going to get me barred then!)

CPR3 Category Number of EHE children

Electively home educated children

who were the subject of a child

protection plan at 31 March 2009

Number of electively home educated

children in local authority

Inadequate education

Please can you provide information about the number of electively home

educated children of compulsory school age not receiving a suitable

education:

Number not receiving any education

Number receiving some education but

not a full time education

 Wait a minute when I last looked there was no definition of full time.

Number receiving a full time but not

‘suitable’ education 

Don’t we need to know why here so we can make sure that the Local Authority is not acting outside the law?  

Number not cooperating with

monitoring so no assessment can be

made

Wait a minute when I last looked Local Authorities had no duty to monitor.

Known to home educate but no

assessment yet

Total number of electively home

educated children not known to be

receiving a ‘suitable education’

 Again are these judgements valid, we know how often they are not.

School attendance orders

Number issued in past 12 months to electively home educated children

(please do not include any child more than once).

 Well if the LA is doing its job this should be the same as children not receiving a suitable education shouldn’t it.

NEETs

The Connexions Service carries out an annual survey of year 11 leavers to

check their destination. Please can you forward any figures you have for the

2008 leavers cohort who were home educated,

There are no home educated children in the 2008 leavers cohort by definition, where would they have left?  Home educated children can carry on being educated at home until they are 19 so this data would be nonsense.  (again sigh)

showing the number or percentage that were classified as Not Settled in a Full Time Activity, when this survey was carried out, and comparative information for all young people in this cohort.

  

This at least is an attempt at legitimate data collection, shame that the question is wrong.

The attached Annex helps explain the different categories that

contribute to this total.

Missing children (runaways)

Local authorities should hold information about missing children. If you have

information available that identifies their last known education setting, please

could you provide the total number of missing children and indicate how many

were electively home educated prior to their disappearance.

Background information/case studies

Please add any information or explanations you think would be helpful in

returning this information.

Some local authorities have already provided anonymised

(and we know how carefully anonymised they are NOT)

 case studies illustrating the difficult circumstances that LAs face in making decisions in relation to home educating families: we would be grateful for any further case

studies you are able to provide. These will be treated in strictest confidence,

bearing in mind the significant damage that could be caused if any child could

be identified through any form of disclosure of individual or grouped

information of this type.

Timescales

We need this information by 1 October in order to collate it in time for the

Select Committee hearing. Therefore we would be very grateful if you could

return information on the attached excel spreadsheet to the secure mailbox

independenthe.review@dcsf.gsi.gov.uk by 1 October. If you are unable to

complete the entire form we would be very grateful for a partial return as we

appreciate that your administrative systems may not be set up to provide

everything we are requesting.

If you have any questions about this letter please contact Lisa White on 01325

391162 or lisa.white@dcsf.gsi.gov.uk.

I am very grateful for your assistance while the Review was under way, and

for your continuing support for DCSF as they carry out their consultation on

legislation to implement a registration and monitoring system. I believe that

my proposals will improve support for home educators, and raise the status

and quality of home education,

(Excuse me, raise it in the way your slurs of abuse have already done, your twisting of the evidence and you desire to see our children on their own, that sort of help we can do without)

and hope that you will help me make the strongest possible case to the Select Committee in October.  I can well imagine.

He should have added be careful what you say because my recommendations are about to land you with and immense amount of extra work with an incredibly hostile population and we won’t be giving you a penny to help.

Yours sincerely

Graham Badman CBE


Right jumping to conclusions myself, must consider the spreadsheet.


Click to see larger.

Not commenting on this because it has been said above.