Are we heading this way?

I am so tired at the moment and sleeping so much in the afternoon that despite promises to the contrary I don't have the oomph to blog much.

Added to that the depression at so many Local Authorities acting outside their legal duties and so many tales of what amounts to abuse and neglect on the part of the NHS on the lists I belong to, something that resonates all too clearly in my own life, I do not feel I have anything useful to offer.

However this so shocked me that I had to share it.

'Fourth, such policies criminalize childish, otherwise innocent behavior and in many cases create a permanent record that will haunt that child into adulthood. Moreover, by involving the police in incidents that should never leave the environs of the school, it turns the schools into little more than a police state. For example, 9-year-old Michael Parson was suspended from school for a day and ordered to undergo a psychological evaluation after mentioning to a classmate his intent to “shoot” a fellow classmate with a wad of paper. Despite the fact that the “weapon” considered suspect consisted of a wadded-up piece of moistened paper and a rubber band with which to launch it, district officials notified local police, suspended Michael under the school’s zero tolerance policy, and required him to undergo a psychological evaluation before returning to class. Incredibly, local police also went to Michael’s home after midnight in order to question the fourth grader about the so-called “shooting” incident.'

Link here.

Is so then surely we will have uprising here as well!

Are you home educating, privately fostering, disabled, according to the Metropolitan Police Service these are potentially vulnerable situations and they will be on alert for signs of abuse!

The absence of a child from a conventional school environment where staff are routinely trained in safeguarding responsibilities can in some circumstances lead to that child being in a more vulnerable situation and at a higher risk of neglect or abuse.


Oh really, evidence please.  Have they been nobbled by the NSPCC maybe?


Guess what, they don't have any, they are going on a few high profile cases in the media, which as we know were exploited for political purposes and nothing to do with home education.  Oh and lets lump in disability and private fostering too, everybody knows children in these situations sometimes are victims of abuse don't they.  Unlike children in schools and state care, so safe they are.


As Ali says So no Equalities Impact Assessment, no proper definitions, no evidence base, no justification = prejudice. 


Nice to know our police force are so ethical. Not!



Freedom of Information Request re Metropolitan Police Child Risk Assessment Matrix.




Update from Alison at Home Education Forums. 


What Grit has to say.

Cornwall County Council, Tackling Ultra Vires Practices

To: children@cornwall.gov.uk; klavery@cornwall.gov.uk; tdoughty@cornwall.gov.uk

cc: comments@cornwall.gov.uk; nburden@cornwall.gov.uk; Amanda.Hale@cornwall.gov.uk

Elective Home Education - For the attention of John Heath

Re: https://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B23GNcZa7kQPNmRiNWZjYWItMmJkMy00MDIxLThkYmItNjQ0NDNjZjk1ZmQ0&hl=en_GB&authkey=CLCuvfsP&pli=1

As a Beacon Council and aiming for democracy in local government, providing excellent service an understanding the law on home education I would have thought that you would have known that this job description seems designed to recruit someone to carry out ultra vires practices.

Perhaps you are not aware that you have no duty or right to monitor families who do not avail themselves of your services, but only to intervene if you find no education is taking place, you do not have to go looking for this.

1.       See Home Education Guidelines for Local authorities

2.       3.6.  ‘... parents are not legally required to give the local authority access to their home.’

3.       Also

4.       2.7  ‘Local authorities have no statutory duties in relation to monitoring the quality of home education on a routine basis.’

5.       In fact Graham Stuart, recently elected chairman of the Children, Schools and Families Select Committee, has just confirmed this in his response to Ofsted’s Report on Home Education.

6.       ‘Under section 436A of the Education Act 1996, inserted by the Education and Inspections Act 2006, local authorities have a duty to identify children who are not receiving a suitable education in their area, so far as it is practical to do so. As the 2007 Elective Home Education Guidelines for Local Authorities make clear, however, ‘local authorities have no statutory duties in relation to monitoring the quality of home education on a routine basis’ and are only required to intervene if it appears that parents are not providing a suitable education.’

7.       See http://cnes4education.wordpress.com/2010/06/17/education-select-committees-chairmans-statement-on-home-education-report/

I hope that this advertisement reflects a misunderstanding, perhaps you should bear in mind these things are not private and can seen by Elective Home Educators, many of whom understand the law and the complexity surrounding it with some mastery.

I do hope you can amend you plans for Elective Home Education in order to stay within the law.

Yours sincerely

Maire Stafford

More details about the people I have sent this too and copied in at Cornwall County Council.

Kevin Lavery

Chief Executive

The chief executive is the head of the paid service and is responsible for a budget of approximately £1 billion and 22,500 members of staff.

Contact details

Cornwall Council, County Hall, Truro, TR1 3AY
Phone: 0300 1234 100
klavery@cornwall.gov.uk

Trevor Doughty

Corporate Director for Children, Schools and Families

The children, young people and families directorate includes children's social care, schools, youth service and child protection services.

Contact details

Cornwall Council, County Hall, Truro, TR1 3AY
Phone: 0300 1234 100
tdoughty@cornwall.gov.uk

Neil Burden

Cabinet member for Children's Services

The services contained in this portfolio include;

·         Education and Schools

·         Safeguarding Children

·         Family Services

·         Integrated Youth Services

·         Individual Needs and Disability Services

·         Carers Board

Neil Burden, the Independent Councillor for Stoke Climsland, joined Cornwall Council in 2009.

Amanda Hale
Deputy Risk and Insurance Manager (Policy)
01872 323231
Amanda.Hale@cornwall.gov.uk

All policy related Issues

Thoughts on meeting with Helen Sadler

Never got round to a more sophisticated interpretation of my meeting than this.

Pleasant but has her own agenda which is not in our best interests

Says she wants to help new home edders as do I

Acts surprised when say literature does not reflect the law but think she is bluffing

Means it is a real battle on and cannot rely on her to work to make stuff reflect the law

So need to approach councillors

How does one approach the Ombudsman?

Who is answerable for the policy documents?

It is clear that whoever implemented the new policy took little or no notice of our contribution to the consultation.  At a glance the policy and information pages seem to have changed very little and still misrepresent the law and imply that the LA has more power and responsibility than it actually does.

Ofsted’s report is seriously flawed

Press release from Graham Stuart MP.

NEWS RELEASE
June 17th, 2010

Ofsted Home Education Report Seriously Flawed Says Graham Stuart MP

Graham Stuart MP, who last week was elected to take the Chair of the Commons Education Select Committee, today condemned Ofsted’s report on home education, “Local Authorities and Home Education” as “an unpleasant hangover of the last government: a manifesto for more state power at the expense of dedicated home educators and their children”.

Mr Stuart went on, “It is astonishing that the Chief Inspector of Schools should stray onto home education and get it so wrong. In Ofsted’s official press release she says that “it is extremely challenging for local authorities to meet their statutory duty to ensure children have a suitable education”, when they have no such duty. Parents, not the state, have the statutory duty to ensure that their children have a suitable education.

“I find it deeply concerning that, after months of work, the Chief Inspector should make such a basic mistake and so utterly confuse the duties of local authorities and parents. Parents who home educate deserve our respect and awe at their dedication and achievements, not the relentless suspicion of an over mighty state.”

Under section 436A of the Education Act 1996, inserted by the Education and Inspections Act 2006, local authorities have a duty to identify children who are not receiving a suitable education in their area, so far as it is practical to do so. As the 2007 Elective Home Education Guidelines for Local Authorities make clear, however, ‘local authorities have no statutory duties in relation to monitoring the quality of home education on a routine basis’ and are only required to intervene if it appears that parents are not providing a suitable education.

Mr Stuart went on, “As local authorities do not have the power to demand access to home educated children and cannot insist on parents registering with them, the obvious and correct answer is for local authorities to improve their support for families so that more families make contact with them voluntarily. If they did this and made sure that they employed sympathetic staff who built good reputations, then the number of “unknown” children would be reduced. Such a positive approach would respect the primacy of parents in determining the education of their children and put the onus on local authorities to serve and support, rather than catalogue and monitor, families who home educate.

“Ofsted’s report has little to say about improving local authority support for home educated children and says only that the Department of Education should “consider” funding an entitlement for home-educated children to take public examinations. Ofsted’s report is seriously flawed and damaging to the confidence of home educating parents who had hoped that the relentless disinformation and bullying of the previous regime was over.”

ENDS


More details here.

Home Educators have the Association of Directors of Children's Services to thank for their misery

They are the  people who want to own home educating family’s lives, and probably every other family’s but they are keeping quiet about that for now.

These people would feel much better if we would just behave as pawns in their much more important lives and careers.

They are mistaken if they think that access to our homes and children would really help as it is their own incompetence that has caused them trouble, that and a consistent underfunding and lack of respect for real expertise.

Funnily enough ADCS agree with all the intrusions and assaults on our civil liberties suggested in the consultation, this is probably because they had a large hand in writing the questions.

The major players who have so far come to light seem to be

I want my knighthood and to impose my prejudices on you all Graham Badman

Cover my own back Peter Traves

Snotogram ‘two words’ Maggie Atkinson

but I am sure we have not uncovered all the dirt yet.

We could of course write to these people as part of our campaign to defend ourselves from their attacks.

This response has been compiled on behalf of ADCS by Becky Godar, ADCS Press and Policy Officer. Any queries regarding this response should be addressed in the first instance to Rob Belli, Administrative Officer, ADCS (e) robert.belli@adcs.org.uk.



I am not religious but some sayings from the religion I was brought up in come to mind.

And why do you take note of the grain of dust in your brother's eye, ... the splinter in your brother's eye, and not notice the beam which is in your own eye?

Let he who is without sin throw the first stone.

Well the stone has been well and truly thrown and it would seem that it has been thrown because of the splinter in their eye and the sins on their conscience.

I used to have some sympathy with social workers, it cannot be an easy job, it must often be harrowing for people with humanity and integrity. It cannot be easy to strike the right balance at all times and it must be terrible to be vilified in the press for making a mistake especially when it costs a child their life. The Association of Directors of Children’s Services do not seem to worry about little things like truth, integrity, humanity or justice though. In their campaign to divert negative attention away from the mistakes of their members it doesn’t seem to matter to them who they slur. Well maybe that is not quite true; they probably want access to the home and the child alone of every family in the country, but they know that campaigning for that would create an outcry. So as a misunderstood minority, often verbally abused by school going families for our implied criticism of their choices, suspected of all sorts of unsavoury ulterior motives for our choice we stand as the first barrier to the takeover of all families’ lives.

We cannot afford to give in, those terrible mistakes these people make could be imported into our lives if we do, and for no good purpose. We do not know what prejudice or error on their part might put our family at risk; please do not be complacent and assume it will not happen to you.

We must fight this in every possible way, and if we cannot persuade we must just say NO!

Khyra Ishaq a tool in the government’s campaign to oppress children and families.

There is much fear amongst home educators that despite a record 5342 responses to the consultation on registration and monitoring of home educators the government will slip something into legislation that will bring the changes it wants to see into law without them going through due process and without the consultation responses being analysed and taken into account. Government has already sneaked past a dozing parliament major changes to the right of entry to our homes that give the LA and others the power invade homes and seize assets if it suspects citizens of minor misdemeanours. Power to enter our homes without a warrant in a way the police cannot.

If proof were needed that this is a very real danger long before the consultation closed the government had a clause about registration and monitoring for EHE in the Improving Schools and Safeguarding Children Bill.

Plans were hatching back in January when the following exchange took place involving Ed Balls, Maggie Atkinson and the ‘completely independent’ Graham Badman, an expert in Elective Home Education because of his many years of dedicated service to Children’s services, the very people clamouring for entry to our homes and access to our children as a right.

‘On Friday January 16th 2009 the joint president of the Association of Directors of Children's Services wrote about


"a 24-hour session with the Department for Children, Schools and Families and partners about the Children's Plan. Ed Balls introduces. The event is excellent with a great sense of opportunity and shared commitment. My co-president John Freeman and directors Maggie Atkinson and Graham Badman fly the ADCS flag."


DCSF launched the Badman Review of Home Education on January 19th.'

Apart from my vehement philosophical and moral objections to the government enacting laws that make it the parent of first resort I have very real pragmatic concerns which the Adam Smith institute shares.

‘The government is practically teaching children that they need to be protected from their parents. If public-run institutions are any indication of how well things turn out under government control, then I’m afraid families don’t stand a chance.'

We are living in peculiar: times

We know that politicians are not known for their honesty in fact the profession rather like that of estate agent is somewhat renowned for it’s lack of it but even the most cynical amongst us have been shocked by the extent to which so many dishonest politicians have been seen to be cheating the taxpayer and setting up rules to enable them to pay themselves more without the public realising it. They now whine ‘please miss it wasn’t my fault they said I could do it’ and expect to be forgiven. Let us not forget that the very system was set up as a means to deceive us!

This government in its mad dog days has been setting up more and more improbable and improper legislation, vetting and barring and useless crb checks give parents a false sense of security when they leave their precious children with strangers but parents themselves are deemed unsafe to be around children.

Then there is the drugs fiasco proving that this government have no time for evidence based policy, they much prefer to make it up to comply with prejudiced and ill informed attitudes. Well they do not do this in my name, like many others I do not want my children manipulated by government as if they were too stupid to assess the information for themselves.

So this stupid, any economist would know that a financial incentive creates a moral hazard, dishonest, refusing perfectly reasonable Fois because the truth may make people who have been vilified and harassed even more angry, and sinister government has gone too far.

It cares not about the false positives that will arise from the screening of innocent families for child abuse and the harm this will do to them, it is on a positive campaign to remove our civil rights and reverse the principal of innocent until proven guilty. It does not care about the harm done to innocent children by the harassment of perfectly well functioning families in its no holds barred campaign for total control.

It cares nothing for the waste of money the country hasn’t got even though social services are thoroughly underfunded and understaffed and cannot meet their obligations to children known to be in danger.

Children like Khyra Ishaq, from a family reported to social services while the children were still at school, out of school and therefore a child missing education for many weeks before she was deregistered. A child where there was more reason than most for social services to insist on entry to the house and access to the child on her own; powers they already have in circumstances like this, but powers they didn’t bother to use and so this child is dead. But do the Government and the Directors of Children’s Services hold their heads in shame and say mea culpa, we will make enormous efforts to make sure nothing like this happens through our carelessness again?

No. They say ooh goodie this is an opportunity to get some control of those pesky home educators; look the child was home educated for ten weeks. We can use this to deliver that shopping list of powers we have been after for almost ever. No one will object; we can pretend that if we had had these powers we could have saved little Khyra, who could argue with that. We can lie about these dead children, the NSPCC’s Vijay Patel will help and Maggie Atkinson, the children’s commissioner elect, she will lie for us after all she wants the job. And the period of Kyra’s trial will be a time when lies may abound in our lazy media and opportunities may be created for pushing through draconian legislation due to the moral panic created.

And evidence of this shopping list from Las is here from Lancashire and Derbyshire.
One of the many hysterically ridiculous points here is the idea of Las planning to implement a conciliation service before parents can remove their children to HE. This clearly shows how little they know of what goes on as many parents plead, beg and try to coerce schools to meet their obligations to their children for years before giving up and realising that it would take some effort to do a worse job themselves. These arrogant and ignorant LAs should have stepped in long before if they wanted to stop the total breakdown of such relationships. I tried to liaise with my LA years ago about my one of my kids, guess what, total waste of time and I expect most parents have found the same. How many parents have had to go to tribunal to make Las meet their obligations to children with special needs, a process that eats up a year of your time to say nothing of the stress involved? This is not about helping kids, they really couldn’t give a damn, it is about protecting their own backs and maintaining control of the peasants. Well I don’t work for them so they can bugger off!

Don’t forget to give your guy that extra special expert touch on Guy Fawkes Night this year!

GOVERNMENT ANNOUNCES INDEPENDENT ENQUIRY INTO THE SMEARING WITH ALLEGATIONS OF ABUSE OF TENS OF THOUSANDS

OF INNOCENT ENGLISH FAMILIES BY GOVERNMENT MINISTERS.

BALLS AND MORGAN IN THE DOCK .


Wouldn’t it be good to see this in the papers?


I believe in the power of one's thoughts to create one’s reality.


I am going to be visualising this headline many times each day.


What if we all did this?

Just another way to try and make a difference and what have you got to lose?

Don't Panic

Very good advice about looking to the long haul and not squandering our energy and resources at the start of our battle here.

Renagade Parent has clearly listed why we should just say no here.

Gill speculates about Badman’s reasons for such a vicious attack here.

Panopticon gives a compelling account of one of the reasons why we home educate here
as does Three Degrees of Freedom here.

And that’s enough for now, I actually need to give my child some attention. We are going to start “The First Four Years” by Laura Ingles Wilder. We have really enjoyed this series and will be a bit bereft when we have finished.

If I get the time I may have another whip around the blogosphere and do part two of this later.