Cheshire
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Meeting the LA Education Department
Guidance on improving LEAs
Cheshire County Council One
EHE consultation response
Cheshire County Council, Children’s Services
1 Do you agree that it is helpful for the DfES to issue guidelines to local authorities?
Yes
Comments:
Any guidance needs to be clear and specific and should outline the rights and responsibilities of Local Authorities, parents and children. It should also reflect local and national priorities and agenda such as Every Child Matters and Working Together to Safeguard Children.
2 Do you agree that the description of the law (paragraphs 2.1-2.3) relating to elective home education is accurate and clear?
Not Sure
Comments:
Whilst the description of the law is clear and accurate the terms ‘suitable’ and ‘efficient’ when related to educational provision are capable of interpretation in a very broad way. This is not helpful to Local Authorities or parents when trying to define what constitutes an ‘efficient’ and ‘suitable’ education. The quoted case law states that it ‘should not foreclose the child’s options in later years to adopt some other form of life if he wishes to do so.’ There is a need for a more detailed description of an ‘efficient’ and ‘suitable’ education which includes as a minimum literacy and numeracy as compulsory activities. There is a need for legislation which should ensure that a clear curriculum entitlement is defined which is broad and balanced.
3 Do you agree that the description of local authorities’ responsibilities (paragraphs 2.5-2.11) is accurate and helpful?
No
Comments:
This section is ambiguous and contains sections which are contradictory to other paragraphs in the guidance.
Paragraph 2.5 states that local authorities should provide clear and accurate written information which is made widely available and this is agreed. However, it also states that ‘all children should make reasonable progress. It is not possible for the local authority to ascertain whether a child is making progress if the parent will not permit an officer of the authority to see the child or to provide information about the education they are providing, which is their parental right as stated in paragraphs 2.8 and 2.11.
Paragraph 2.6 makes it clear that children who are being educated at home by parental preference are excluded from the local authority duty to identify children who are missing, or in danger of missing, education. This is contradictory to the safeguarding duty of the local authority highlighted in paragraph 2.11. Local authorities are committed to ensure that Every Child Matters and this should mean every child, including those being educated at home by parental preference.
4 Do you agree that the section on contact with the local authority (paragraphs 3.4-3.7) is accurate and helpful?
No
Comments:
The guidance states that where parents do not want involvement the LA should not automatically assume that there is a problem which needs investigating. (Para. 3.4). The next paragraph goes on to state that “If information exists which may cast doubt on whether an “efficient and suitable education “ can be provided, the local authority should seek to gather any relevant information that will assist them in reaching a properly informed judgement.’ Our experience is that the majority of home educating parents welcome contact with the local authority and the advice and support which we currently provide for them. The guidance makes it quite clear that parents have the right to refuse to engage with the local authority, to refuse access to their children and to refuse access to their home. However, the authority has the responsibility to ensure that children make reasonable progress (Para. 2.5) and to safeguard and promote the welfare of children (Para. 2.11). Where parents do not want involvement with the local authority it is difficult for the authority to make an informed judgement on the suitability of the education being provided, progress or welfare of the child.
Paragraph 3.4 refers to research into Gypsy, Roma and Traveller children who are educated at home and uses a reference from that research stating that “few Gypsy/Roma and Traveller parents have the knowledge skills and resources to provide or deliver a full-time education that is efficient and suitable”. The guidance then goes on to state that ‘We do know that there will be Gypsy, Roma and Traveller children who do receive a good education at home.” Traveller Education Support Services across England have been instrumental in raising the issue of the increasing numbers of Gypsy, Roma and Traveller children who opt out of the education system at the end of Key Stage 2 to be educated at home. This is because of their concerns that in the majority of cases their parents are not able to provide a suitable education, as the quoted research has shown. Many of these parents are using Elective Home Education to remove their children from secondary education secure in the knowledge that the local authority has no right to see the child or right of access to information about the education they are providing. Whilst one has the greatest respect for the cultural mores of the Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities their children have the right to a suitable education which “primarily equips a child for life within the community of which he is a member, rather than the way of life of the country as a whole, as long as it does not foreclose the child’s options in later years to adopt some other form of life if he wishes to do so.” DCSF statistics show that Gypsy, Roma and Traveller children are the lowest achieving group in education at all Key Stages. When they are taken out of school at the end of Key Stage 2 and “few Gypsy/Roma and Traveller parents have the knowledge skills and resources to provide or deliver a full-time education that is efficient and suitable”, their options in later years are likely to be considerably curtailed.
5 Do you agree that the section on providing a full-time education (paragraphs 3.11-3.14) – and in particular, the characteristics of provision (paragraph 3.13) – is accurate and helpful?
Not Sure
Comments:
This section could be very helpful but again includes contradictory statements.
Paragraph 3.13 gives helpful guidance but those stated characteristics of acceptable provision could only be established as existing by meeting with the child in their educational environment. The guidance falls short on outlining the rights of the child to express their needs and aspirations.
Current advice in the DCSF guidelines for parents states that:
“When a child has a statement of special educational needs which names a special school, the child’s name may not be the removed from the register of that school without the consent of the education authority. “
Sections 3.15 – 3.19 in the consultation document makes a somewhat oblique reference to this. Paragraph 3.18 needs some clarification so that the situation of children with a statement naming a special school is clearly defined as to whether or not they may be withdrawn for EHE without the consent of the local authority.
6 Do you agree that the section on developing relationships (section 4) is useful?
Not sure
Comments:
In the main this section is helpful and outlines current good practice that is in operation in many local authorities.
There are some anomalies, however.
Paragraph 4.8 reinforces the right of the parents to provide evidence of a suitable education by a variety of means, all of which can preclude a meeting with the child who should be at the centre of all our concerns.
Paragraph 4.9 highlights the fact that child protection issues are of paramount concern. Children who are educated at home are excluded from local authorities’ duty under the Education and Inspections Act 2006 to identify children who are missing, or in danger of missing, education (Para.2.6). The Every Child Matters agenda which was established following Lord Laming’s Inquiry into the death of Victoria Climbie, seeks to ensure that no child will ‘fall through the net’. Children who are being educated at home may not come to the attention of the local authority and there is a possibility that some could ‘fall through the net’.
Paragraph 4.12 states that Ofsted will report on the way that local authorities cater for home-educating families within their areas and this is welcomed. However, Elective Home Education is the only form of education that is not subject to external inspection and consideration should be given to introducing this on a national basis with an established framework of inspection that could be helpful to local authorities, parents and children.
7 a) Are the suggested resources in section 5 and appendix 2 useful?
Yes
7 b) Should any other contacts be included?
8 Please use this space for any other comments you wish to make about the guidelines
Comments:
The guidelines quote from “The situation regarding the current policy, provision and practice in Elective Home Education for Gypsy, Roma and Traveller Children, Ivatts, 2006.”
That same report states in its conclusions that:
“in the light of the recent legislative programme to improve the education of all children and to protect them from harm and abuse, it is strange that elective home education is the only area of education and child care that is not subject to more rigorous statutory regulation concerned with quality assurance and accountability. The existing legislation is essentially only concerned with parents’ rights and may now be judged as inadequate to protect the educational rights and to safeguard the welfare of children.”
There is a need for legislation in this area which would ensure that all children should be registered as EHE, whether or not they have been registered with a school. Children should be involved in the assessment of EHE so that their needs and aspirations are taken into account and their progress can be assessed. This can only be done by reasonable contact with the child. There should be a standardised system of monitoring visits and reporting to parents which is applied across all local authorities. These requirements when linked to a national definition of a minimum curriculum entitlement which is very broad and balanced but measurable, would ensure that parents, children and local authorities would have a framework in which to build a secure and trusting relationship to the benefit of all parties, whilst safeguarding the rights of the child.
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