Select Committee Inquiry: Support for Home Education

Time is getting on for submitting a memorandum to the Education Select Committee's inquiry into Support for Home Education.

The deadline is noon on Monday 9 July 2012

Of course non of us are eager to engage with this process again, myself included but needs must so here are some of the resources I will be using in the hope that they may help others in the process.

I do think it is worth making the effort, I know it is a long shot but wouldn't it be nice if those pesky LAs were to offer real voluntary support instead of the coercive misinformation that is the norm at the moment.

Here are the questions:

Written submissions of evidence are invited on the following specific issues:

• the duties of local authorities with regard to home education;

• what support (financial and otherwise) is currently available for home educators, including from local authorities and other bodies;

• the quality and accessibility of that support;

• whether current arrangements for financial support are adequate;

• the support available for home-educated students’ transition to further education and higher education;

• what improvements have been made to support for home educators since the December 2009 recommendations of the Children, Schools and Families Committee; 

• what guidance is available for local authorities concerning their duties in regard to home education, and the quality of that guidance; 

and

• whether the Government needs to alter existing policy or arrangements concerning the support available for home educators.

I am seeing the questions about support as needing to be informed by the quality of "support" on the ground at the moment. They need to know where they are starting from, so even if you do not want any support and wouldn't touch it with a bargepole it wouldn't hurt to inform them of the sort of harassment home educators experience in the name of support from many councils on a regular basis.

So here are some links that might be useful.

CME Guidance

Elective Home Education Guidelines for Local Authorities

Memoranda from the Badman Inquiry for examples of how to do it and relevant info and ideas.

Information about right to and responsibility for a child's education

Some of the worst current offenders, Doncaster, Lincolnshire, Stoke on Trent and Barking and Dagenham.

I will try and blog about this more up until the deadline.

Remember "Every little (bit of humour) helps" We need to do our best to make it impossible for public servants to behave like this!

But oh dear this does not look good!