Education Committee - Fifth Report Support for Home Education

The report is now published and I and a fair few of my facebook friends stayed up to read it, it was late!


The submissions from most of us are missing even though there was originally a link.  I emailed the webmaster and received this reply:

Dear Maire,

Thank you for your email.

We have contact The Stationary Office who look after this content and the link was added in error. It has been removed and will be republished on the 20th December.

Sorry for any inconvenience.

Yours sincerely,

Webmaster | Parliament Website | webmaster@parliament.uk

Why?  There has been various speculation about the methods used to produce the report!  My 

favourite,, "copy and paste is so last year".

Again I have not read it carefully yet, trawling things with a fine tooth comb is not my forte.

A few things noticed on first pass:

"2.  We believe that the case law definitions of 'suitable' and 'efficient' education are sufficient, and encourage local authorities to use these as required. However, some aspects of existing guidance require clarification, and we recommend that the Department for Education undertake a review of the guidance concerning home education, working with local authorities and home educators to iron out any tensions. (Paragraph 15)"

So it looks like those new guidelines we have all strenuously opposed are coming anyway.  :( more time taken from our children answering yet more consultations.

A facebook friend and Bruce got a mention in the report, the friend (who made a very good point) unfortunately renamed and with  typos introduced into her comment!  Why are they not just cutting and pasting?  Bruce for his suggestions about mandatory training and certification of EHE officers; he has yet to check whether his contribution has been accurately reproduced.

The committee clearly found this shocking:

"12. Local authorities have a responsibility to follow the law, and to be seen to do so. Considering evidence that only thirty [out of 152] do not currently have ultra vires statements on their websites, regarding home education, we urge all local authorities to undertake a swift review of their own material, and to ensure that their policies reflect the guidance available."  (information obtained by Alison Sauer)

Liking this:

"Whilst Government guidance sets out the role of local authorities with regard to home education, we heard evidence that some authorities are acting outside the law. We urge all local authorities to undertake a swift review of their own material, including websites, and to ensure that their policies reflect the guidance available"

and this:

"It is not the role of the local authority to routinely monitor wether a suitable education is being provided, and local authorities should not act as if it is, or cause parents to believe that it is.[8]."


And The Guardian has reported it and not suggested we might be trying to hide something which is good.

I am hoping to see analysis from other bloggers more skilled at the task in the near future and will be watching my sidebar for it.

Support for Home Education - Education Select Committee report published 18th December 2012

Press Release

No mention of the submissions so don't know if they will be published at the same time.   Hope it is a pleasant surprise.

Education Committee

PN38

Select Committee Announcement

12 December 2012

For Immediate Release:

SUPPORT FOR HOME EDUCATION

Publication of the Committee’s Fifth Report of Session
2012-13

The Education Committee publishes its Fifth Report (HC 559-I) at 00.01am on Tuesday 18 December: Support for Home Education, Session 2012–13.

Hard copies of the Report will be posted on Tuesday 18 December to those who gave oral evidence to the original inquiry.

Embargoed electronic copies of the Report can be supplied upon request to Government departments, media and witnesses who gave oral evidence from 10.30am on Monday 17 December.  Non-media requests to educom@parliament.uk by 9.00am on Monday 17 December. 

All media enquiries should be addressed to Hannah Pearce, on 020 7219 8430 / 07917 488162 (pearcehm@parliament.uk).   

The report can also be ordered from The Stationery Office (tel: 0845 702 3474) or from the Parliamentary Bookshop (020 7219 3890), or can be viewed on the Committee’s website from 00.01am on Tuesday 18 December 2012.

FURTHER INFORMATION:

Committee Membership is as follows: 

Mr Graham Stuart (Chair), Conservative, Beverley and Holderness

Neil Carmichael, Conservative, Stroud

Alex Cunningham, Labour, Stockton North

Bill Esterson, Labour, Sefton Central

Pat Glass, Labour, North West Durham

Charlotte Leslie, Conservative, Bristol North West

Ian Mearns, Labour, Gateshead

Siobhain McDonagh, Labour, Mitcham and Morden

Chris Skidmore, Conservative, Kingswood

David Ward, Liberal Democrat, Bradford East

Craig Whittaker, Conservative, Calder Valley

Specific Committee Information:  educom@parliament.uk / 020 7219 6181

Media Information: Hannah Pearce pearcehm@parliament.uk 020 7219 8430 / 07917 488162

Committee Website: www.parliament.uk/education-committee

Watch committees and parliamentary debates online:  www.parliamentlive.tv 

Publications / Reports / Reference Material: Copies of all select committee reports are available from the Parliamentary Bookshop (12 Bridge St, Westminster, 020 7219 3890) or the Stationery Office (0845 7023474).  Committee reports, press releases, evidence transcripts, Bills; research papers, a directory of MPs, plus Hansard (from 2 hours after publication) and much more, can be found on www.parliament.uk

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!

Barking Mad and Dagenham Lost the plot

This brilliant post provides the laughs that are the only alternative 

to tears of despair over the attitude of many LAs to home ed.

I have today introduced a monitoring policy for the staff at Barking 

and Dagenham Elective Home Education Department:

Many people make a success of holding down a job whilst also 

complying with the law, and make at least satisfactory provision.  

However, because local authority staff are not monitored and 

supervised by the general public whom they serve, there is the 

potential for abuse of their power, and neglect to properly follow 

existing law and procedures, to go unnoticed.  This possibility has 

been thrown into sharp relief by some recent high-profile cases in 

which children have died due to failures by local authorities to 

follow proper and legal procedures.

The law gives no power or duty for members of the public to 

investigate any instances of people working for the Elective Home 

Education department which come to their attention, unless there 

are grounds for suspicion that a law is being broken in which case, 

as with all breaches of law, this can be reported to the appropriate 

authorities.  This is clearly an untenable position in that, without 

gathering information in a reasonably systematic way, the public 

will have little basis on which to judge. 

   There is no statutory right to see the local authority staff or to enter the place at which they work, or their home.

·      Monitoring of them by the public is not required in law and it is therefore difficult to engage with elective home education staff who are resistant or resentful of the people they serve wanting to ensure they are not acting outside the law.

  read the whole post here.  

         Sadly this is not the only LA making up what the law does not allow but what they wish was true, Doncaster have similarly lost the plot in an orgy of control freakery.

         Leicester seem unable to comprehend the guidelines or maybe they think they are above the law like the LAs above, their add for a trained teacher to assess and monitor home educators would suggest so.

         The Education Select Committee is asking for submissions on support for Home Education from LAs, perhaps if the persecution could stop for a moment we could take the idea seriously.