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August 2013

Revised guidance on Safeguarding Children in Education

This consultation seeks views on draft revised guidance for local authorities, school governing bodies and proprietors of independent schools on arrangements for safeguarding children.

Start of consultation: 27/08/2013

End of consultation: 25/10/2013

If you can take some time to respond to this consultation, below is a sample response that you can base yours on, make sure to change the opinion wording, the guideline quotes are a good start for you to use.

August 1, 2013

FIRST Minister Alex Salmond last night faced growing calls to scrap a “sinister” plan to interfere with family life by assigning every child in Scotland a state guardian.

The country’s lawyers joined with parents in warning the £138million-a-year proposals were a disproportionate attack on families’ rights.

Mr Salmond’s SNP administration wants every child to have a ‘Named Person’ with the legal authority to ensure they are raised in a government-approved manner.

The Children and Young People Bill, which MSPs will vote on later this year, will also mean children’s personal details can be recorded, stored and shared on a central database.

The legislation would also allow children who are angry with their parents to report them to their named person, with potentially devastating consequences.

Hundreds of parents have already signed an online petition demanding the Big Brother-style proposals are ditched.

And yesterday solicitors’ body the Law Society of Scotland backed concerns over the scheme.

It said the plans amount to disproportionate state interference.

Lawyers raised the prospect of a legal challenge under the European Convention on Human Rights, which gives everybody the right to a private and family life, free from state interference.

The measure could also see social work, health and education staff diverted away from where they are most needed, the society said.

Morag Driscoll, convener of the society’s Family Law Committee, said: “It could be interpreted as disproportionate state interference. We are also unclear about how this legislation will work in practice.

“It is still early in the parliamentary process for this legislation so we hope the Scottish Government and MSPs will be able to reflect on these points.”

Under the Bill every child from birth until they reach 18 will be given a Named Person such as a social worker or teacher. They would be responsible for safeguarding the child’s welfare and liaising with the family.

The Law Society’s intervention follows concerns raised by members of Holyrood’s Education Committee.

Alison Preuss, secretary of the Schoolhouse Home Education Association, based in Fife, said the Bill as it stood would place a state agent at the very heart of the family.

She said: “It is obvious many MSPs are not aware of the more sinister aspects of this legislation.

“It is open to abuse and misinterpretation and many parents could fall foul of overzealous agents of the state or people who are just plain busybodies.”

Tory education spokeswoman Liz Smith also criticised the legislation, saying it threatened to “undermine” parents.

She added: “It seems to be all about the nanny state, instead of focusing on vulnerable children.”

A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: “The protection and promotion of the well-being of Scotland’s children and our aim of making our nation the best place for children to grow up are at heart of the Children and Young People Bill.

“Our focus is on the safety and protection of children. The named person, who is likely to be a health visitor, head or deputy head teacher and will usually already know the child, will be a first point of contact if help is needed.

"This is formalising what should already happen and there is evidence it is working well in many areas. We are confident it is compliant with European law.”

June 2013

The Education Funding Agency and the Department for Education have released the official guidance document for 14-16s college admissions from September 2013 

 
"27. Current arrangements for admitting 14-16 year olds by arrangement with schools, local authorities or parents will continue and are not affected by this new guidance, other than that there are new funding arrangements for electively home educated children."

"77. Colleges sometimes admit children aged 14 or 15 who are being electively home educated, to take courses on an infill basis by arrangement with the local authority or with the parents. Where these courses are at level 3, they are funded by entering the student on the ILR and the student then counts for lagged funding in just the same way as if they were aged 16-18.

78. Up to now, students on courses below level 3 have been funded directly by the local authority, or sometimes the parents, paying a fee to the college. These arrangements are changing with effect from September 2013. Colleges will now be able to enter these students on the ILR and they will count towards the college’s student numbers for lagged funding in the following year. Local authorities and parents should no longer be expected to pay fees for this provision.

79. Colleges should make such local arrangements as they deem appropriate. There is no national prescribed model for provision to these students and they do not form a part of the arrangements for the full-time enrolment of 14 -16 year olds in Further Education and Sixth Form." (Annex C)

March, 2013

On 22 February 2013, the Government published revised advice on school attendance. The advice clarified the Government’s expectations on how various school attendance codes should be used to record pupil school attendance.

Schools should not mark a pupil as attending school, using the attendance code B for off-site education activity, unless the school is responsible for supervising the off-site education, and can ensure the safety and the welfare of the pupil off-site. Schools are ultimately responsible for the attainment of every child registered on their roll. Whilst being home educated, parents and carers are responsible for pupils, not schools.

Where parents have entered in to flexi-schooling arrangements, schools may continue to offer those arrangements. Pupils should be marked absent from school during periods when they are receiving home education.

The reference in the Government’s revised advice on school attendance, that was categorical that a school could not agree to a flexi-schooling arrangement, has been removed.