Saturday 12 June 2010

90 Question Questionnaire, Leicestershire

Blogged to help liaise with Leicestershire to bring their documentation into compliance with the law.

Completed by Helen Sadler 


Q5 Which team(s) have the main responsibility for supporting and monitoring home educated children within the local authority and other agencies?
Home Education Officer (HEO) within Access & Welfare Service (CYPS)

Q6 List all teams / professionals involved in supporting home educating families

Home Education Officer (HEO) Term time plus 2 weeks
Administrative Assistant (15%)
Special Educational Needs Assessment Service (SENA)
Connexions
Education Welfare Service (EWS)
Traveller Education Service (TES)
Parent Partnership
Children Missing Education (CME)/Admissions/Locality Support Team

Q7 List all teams / professionals involved in monitoring home educating families

Home Education Officer
SENA on occasions and TES (joint visits to sites)
EWS/CME, etc, if the child’s education is thought not suitable

Q8 Describe how you ensure collaboration and communication between these teams / individuals

Data and tracking via electronic database, which also enables statistical monitoring
HEO disseminates information, draws in responses and either acts on response or refers onwards.

Q9 How many children are currently home educated in your local authority of primary age (Registered with LA)

59

Q10 How many children are currently home educated in your local authority of primary age (Non-registered with LA)

Not Known

Q11 How many children are currently home educated in your local authority of secondary age (Registered with LA)

116

Q12 How many children are currently home educated in your local authority of secondary age (Non-registered with LA)

Not known.

Q13 Total (Registered with LA)

175

Q14 Total (Non-registered with LA)

Not known.

Q15 Are these figures accurate or based on estimates?

Accurate.

Q16 If accurate, where do you get this data from?

Based on known cases in local authority records

Q17 If accurate, how do you know the data is accurate?

Based on known cases in local authority records

Q18 If estimated, what data have you used to arrive at this figure? (List all sources)

N/A

Q18 If estimated, what data have you used to arrive at this figure? (List all sources)

Very confident
.

Q20 How often does the local authority get updated data? (List frequency for each source separately)

Local authority keeps a record of all children and young people notified as home educated. This is updated on an on-going basis, but relies on parents and schools notifying the local authority.

Q21 What proportion (as a percentage) of your home educated population is statemented for SEN? (please state whether accurate or estimate.

5.8% (accurate)

Q22 What proportion (as a percentage) of your home educated population is non-statemented for SEN (please state whether accurate or estimate)

8.6% (accurate according to the number of children formerly at school action/school action plus, in Leicestershire schools).

Q23 What proportion (as a percentage) of your home educated population is from Gypsy, Roma and Traveller heritage (please state whether accurate or estimate)

14.29% (accurate according to numbers of children known to Traveller Education Service).

Q24 What proportion (as a percentage) of your home educated population is made up of other Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) groups

20% (according to ethnicity data on the local authority’s pupil database).

Q25 Please list which BME groups.

AAO: Any other Asian background
AIN: Indian
BLF: African
CHE: Chinese
MOT: Any other mixed background
WHA: Any other white background
WHT (SHOWMAN): Traveller (Showman)
WHT: Traveller – Irish Heritage

Q26 Do you believe the local authority knows about all the home educated children in your area?

We think we know about the vast majority of home educated children in the area

Q27 Do you think that you will be better able to track children in your area in the near future? e.g. planned changes to your own systems, ContactPoint, other system improvements?

Yes

Q28 Please use this space to add detail to the answer you have just given

CME tracking systems are under continuing development; these are in the same service as the HEO.

Q29 How does the local authority ensure families know about their rights and responsibilities in relation to home education? (List all approaches used)

EHE policy, parental guidelines, FAQs (all under consultation at present) available on the website and as hard copy. Also telephone contact and via other families, EWS and TES/schools, other agencies.

Q30 What support does your local authority provide to home educating families? (List all forms of support offered)

Telephone support, providing information about events open to schools (e.g. competitions for children), mail shots alerting families to vaccination schedule and schools’ admission dates, meetings either in the family home or at a neutral venue and questionnaires about provision/emails/advice, etc
Q31 How does the local authority let families know about the services provided to support them in home educating their children? (List all approaches used)

Advice about HE voluntary organisations, e.g. Education Otherwise, etc.

Q32 Following the initial assessment visit, are further monitoring visits made to a home educated child?

Yes

Q33 If yes, how often, on average, are these carried out?

Once a year.

Q34 Please use this space to add detail to the answer you have just given

On rare occasions families decline a home visit or a meeting at a neutral location but respond to enquiries about the education they offer in a written report or a completed questionnaire. Face to face contact at any location occurs annually but more often when the need arises.

Q35 On average, how often is the child seen when a visit is made?

Usually, but not always 

Q36 Please use this space to add detail to the answer you have just given

Some families decline visits and a few view it as an intrusion. There is no legal requirement placed on home educating families to allow visits and some choose to engage with the local authority via report or questionnaire. This lack of legal requirement makes contact between the local authority and, for example, the traveller community, difficult in some cases. However, most children are seen during a visit.

Q37 If the child is seen, where is s/he usually seen?

In the home.

Q38 Please use this space to add detail to the answer you have just given

Most – but not all – families are happy to meet the HEO and allow the officer to meet the child. Most visits are in the home, but other venues, eg libraries are occasionally used.

Q39 If you are not permitted access to a child, is any further action taken?

Yes

Q40 If yes, what further steps are taken?

This depends on the circumstances. A quick follow-up visit may be possible and it is important to maintain and build on trust, confidence and good relationships. A meeting where a child has not been seen will always trigger further enquiries, possibly including CME/EWS or Children’s Social Care, and in rare cases instigate a police visit for a safe and well check. A GOOD REASON NOT TO ALLOW A VISIT

Q41 How is the suitability of the education provided to the child assessed? (Please describe)

Suitability is assessed primarily through the evidence of education being offered in numeracy, literacy, science, ICT, problem solving and physical development. The HEO is a qualified and experienced teacher.

Q42 Is the local authority clear about what the definition of a 'suitable education' is?

Yes

Q43 Please use this space to add detail to the answer you have just given

Suitable education has been defined in case law as achieving what it sets out to achieve and families have to educate their children to take their place in their community (not society as a whole).

Q44 Does the local authority have systems in place to track the educational progress of home educated children?

Yes

HEO post is relatively new (4 terms). Systems to track progress are established and will develop over time.

Q46 Of the home educated children in your area of whom you have knowledge, what proportion (as a percentage) in your estimation is receiving a suitable, full time (20hrs a week) education? (Please describe)

72% currently assessed as suitable. Other cases are not necessarily unsuitable, but include: 
those currently under consideration, eg awaiting further information or follow-up visit; 
those awaiting first visits; 
those involving hard-to-reach families (eg travellers on the move). 

Q47 Does the local authority take any further steps if a home educated child's education was found to be unsuitable or not full time?

Yes

Advice given regarding improving provision. Follow-up visit scheduled for 4-8 weeks. If there is no improvement, the case is referred to EWS for a return to school.

Q49 Does the local authority face any challenges in assessing whether home educated children receive a suitable education?

Yes

Q50 If you answered yes to Q49, please describe the challenges and what you think could be done to overcome these

Since the law does not require families to notify the local authority of intention to home educate when they withdraw their child or children from school, this relies on the school being aware of their responsibility to notify the local authority. Nor does the law require families to notify the local authority if children are under school age and have never been registered in a school, so the child simply can be unknown to the local authority. 

If families do not have to meet the local authority, the information which they might submit, eg in a report, is not necessarily verifiable, making it difficult for the local authority to come to a view on suitability of education.

It might be in children’s best interests if all HE families had a duty to notify the local authority of their intentions to home educate their child(ren), and to provide some regular information about the education being provided, eg what they intended to achieve and how they would monitor their success in achieving it.
 

Q51 Thinking about your local area, in the last five years, how many cases have you come across that use the premise of home education as a 'cover' for child abuse, forced marriage or other aspects of child neglect?

Nil


Q52 Please use this space to add detail to the answer you have just given. Please include the number of Serious Case Reviews you know about that have a home education element.

There have been a few cases where a home educated child has been the subject of child protection concerns: this is probably statistically inevitable. There is no evidence that Home Education has been used in a deliberate attempt to cover up child abuse. There have been no Serious Case Reviews with home education as an element.

Q53 Do you think the current system for safeguarding children who are educated at home is adequate?

Don't know.

Q54 Please use this space to add detail to the answer you have just given

There is a possible safeguarding risk if the local authority has no power to see the child on a regular basis when assessing the education. Children who attend school are seen on a daily basis, the regular contact allowing a strong safeguard in itself. For any child, local authorities can only take safeguarding action if there were reasonable cause to believe a child is suffering significant harm. In such cases the local authority would need to take into account where the child is educated, as this affects how much contact the child has outside the family and who else sees the child on a regular basis.

Q55 Do you think that home educated children in your local authority are able to achieve the five Every Child Matters outcomes? Please say why you think that for each of the five outcomes

This is dependent on the ethos of each family. Largely it is not possible to predict. There appears to be no legal requirement on parents to achieve the five outcomes for their children.

Q56 Do you think there should be any changes made to the current system for supporting home educating families?

Don't know


Q57 Please use this space to add detail to the answer you have just given

See answer to Q50 and Q54 above.


Q58 Do you think there should be any changes made to the current system for monitoring home educating families and ensuring that home educated children are able to achieve the five outcomes?

Don't know


Q59 Please use this space to add detail to the answer you have just given

See answer to Q50 and Q54 above.

Q60 Has the Director of Children's Services and the Lead Member for Children and Young People seen and agreed with the answers you have given above?

DCS 

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

those answers are almost the same as Hampshire County Council and other LA's a cut and paste job!

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