It is important that all Home Educators try and take the time to respond to this consultation, there are many ways this could affect all of our rights. So please have a read through and send in a response.

 

http://wales.gov.uk/docs/dcells/consultation/270813-draft-guidance-en.pdf

 

 

 and 

 

http://wales.gov.uk/consultations/education/revised-guidance-on-safeguarding-children-in-education/?lang=en

 

 

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.

 

Please submit your comments by 25 October 2013, in any of the following ways: 

Email: SafeguardingChildreninEducation@wales.gsi.gov.uk

Post: Diverse Learners and Safeguarding BranchSupport for Learners Division

Department for Education and Skills,

Welsh Government

Cathays Park

Cardiff

CF10 3NQ

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Response to consultation on Revised Guidance on Safeguarding Children in Education

 

Para 2.7:

‘Responsibility for safeguarding children who are educated at home by their parents or carers, or who are employed, is not solely an education issue. These matters are best dealt with by a multi-agency approach and should be addressed in locally agreed procedures in accordance with the principles set out in Safeguarding Children: Working Together Under the Children Act 2004.’

 

The 2004 Guidance refers to Children who go missing from Education (para 9.79), not Home educated Children, who are not missing from Education. Para 9.81 refers to vulnerable groups to which Home educated children do not belong.

 

This paragraph in the guidance should make clear that safeguarding is first and foremost the responsibility of the parents and only the responsibility of others if parents fail in their duty.  Further, it should make clear that involvement of Multi Agency safeguarding teams, or social services, should only occur if there is cause for concern. Home education is not in itself cause for concern.

 

Para 2.7 should therefore be amended to insert the words: ‘Where there is significant cause for concern, responsibility for…..

 

Para 2.12: This statement is repeated in para. 2.12,  which should be amended by the addition of the same words.

 

Para 3.121:

Chapter 2 of the draft guidance states:

‘All work to safeguard and promote the welfare of children should be

informed by Evidence: Effective practice with children and families requires sound professional judgements which are underpinned by a rigorous evidence base and draw on the practitioner’s knowledge and experience;’

 

Notwithstanding, Para 3.121 states:

‘There is a wide variety of reasons why children and young people fail to engage in, or go missing from education; each presenting various degrees of risk; which could include those, who:

• Never enter the education system because they fail to start appropriate provision at the start of compulsory school age (there is no requirement for parents to inform the local authority of the fact that they intend to educate at home if the child has never attended school)

• Are withdrawn by their parents who elect to educate at home and both parents and the school fail to notify the local authority.’

 

Home educated children are not failing to ‘engage in’ or ‘missing from’ education. They are receiving education at home in accordance with s7 of The Education Act 1996.

 

There is no evidence to suggest that home educated children ‘fail to start appropriate provision at the start of compulsory school age’, they receive appropriate provision at home. 

 

There is no legal requirement for parents to notify their local authority if they decide to home educate their child, when the child attains statutory school age or if they withdraw the child from a school to home educate that child, other than where the child is at a special school.

 

There is no evidence to suggest that home education is a risk factor for safeguarding purposes, the opposite is true. Data provided by local authorities in Wales establishes that whilst home educated children are more likely to be referred to social services for safeguarding reasons, they are approximately 1/7th to 1/3rd as likely to be on an at risk register1.

 

Paragraph 3.121 should therefore be amended to remove references to Home educated children. Alternatively, it should be removed and an additional paragraph should be inserted to state the following:

‘There is a wide variety of reasons why local authorities may not be aware of the educational provisions for individual children and young people which could include those who:

•            Never enter the education system because their parents or carers elect to home educate them at the start of compulsory school age (there is no requirement for parents to inform the local authority of the fact that they intend to educate at home if the child has never attended school)

•            Are withdrawn by their parents who elect to educate at home and the school fails to notify the local authority.’

 

Para 3.124:

‘Section 436A of the Education Act 1996 (inserted by section 4 of the Education and Inspections Act 2006) requires all local authorities to make arrangements to enable them to establish (so far as it is possible to do so) the 'identities of children in their area who are not registered at school and are not receiving a suitable education'. The purpose of the duty is to make sure that children and young people who are not registered pupils are identified and that effective monitoring systems are put in place to ensure that those children or young people are provided with 'suitable education', which may also involve support arrangements.’

 

Para. 3.124 implies a duty to monitor home educated children where no such duty exists. Although para. 3.125 clarifies to whom the duty applie, para 3.124 requires amendment by insertion of the following words:

‘The purpose of the duty is to make sure that children and young people who are not registered pupils, or who are not receiving a suitable education otherwise than at school, are identified…’

 

Para 3.133

Paragraph 3.133 paraphrases para 2.1 of ‘Statutory guidance to help prevent children and young people from missing education 20102’ which lists ‘risk factors’. In doing so, it inappropriately introduces an assumption that these groups are ‘recognised as being at greater risk’, whereas only a minority of individuals from such groups are likely to be at risk.  Para 3.133 should be amended to delete the words:

            ‘Vulnerable groups and’

 

Para 3.149:

Paragraph 3.149 states:

There is a range of proactive approaches that local authorities and their partner agencies can take to reduce the risk of children and young people not receiving a suitable education. Existing good practice falls broadly into the following categories where the local authority introduces measures to:

 

• ‘ensure ongoing monitoring and tracking of vulnerable groups including those who have been excluded from school; looked after children and those registered as receiving education otherwise than at school’

 

Chapter 2 of the draft guidance specifically states:

‘All work to safeguard and promote the welfare of children should be

informed by Evidence: Effective practice with children and families requires sound professional judgements which are underpinned by a rigorous evidence base and draw on the practitioner’s knowledge and experience;’

 

Data provided by local authorities indicates that home educated children are statistically less likely to require safeguarding intervention than all other groups of chidren1. This paragraph seeks to introduce routine monitoring of home educated children.

 

There is no duty upon a local authority to monitor home education provision. Guidelines pertaining to Elective Home Education in Wales were last updated in 2008 and comprise section 6 of the document ‘Inclusion and Pupil Support Guidance National Assembly for Wales Circular No: 47/2006.3’ These guidelines provide information for local authorities on how to carry out their statutory duties under the Education Act 1996.  

 

There is no legal framework for the local authority to monitor provision of home education.  Further, there is an assumption within the guidelines that education is suitable unless there is existing evidence to the contrary. No provision is made, and no requirement stated, to investigate whether parents are complying with their duties under s(7) of the Act.

 

2.6 Where parents have notified the LEA or the LEA is otherwise made aware of a child’s withdrawal from school with the intention of being home educated, the LEA should acknowledge the receipt of this notification and consider quickly whether there is any existing evidence, either in an authority’s own records or from other services or agencies, indicating whether there may be cause for concern over the withdrawal. Previous irregular attendance at school is not of itself a sufficient cause for concern. In many cases, parents and their children have reached a crisis point, for example, with bullying, so advice should be sought from education welfare services where there is any doubt. Specific instances where they may be concerns are included in Part 6 of this Section. In these cases the LEA should immediately refer these concerns to the appropriate statutory authorities using established protocols.

2.7 Otherwise, the LEA should assume that efficient educational provision is taking place, which is suitable for the child, unless there is evidence to the contrary. There is no express requirement in the 1996 Act for LEAs to investigate actively whether parents are complying with their duties under Section 7.

 

However, under Section 437(1) of the Education Act 1996, local authorities shall intervene if it appears that parents are not providing a suitable education:

 

‘If it appears to a local education authority that a child of compulsory school age in their area is not receiving suitable education, either by regular attendance at school or otherwise, they shall serve a notice in writing on the parent requiring him to satisfy them within the period specified in the notice that the child is receiving such education.’

 

The local authority only has a duty to intervene if it appears that a child of compulsory school age is not receiving a suitable education. Thus, if there is no existing evidence that there is cause for concern the local authority need take no further steps once they have discovered that a child is being educated at home, indeed it does not have the power to take such steps. Only if that first condition is satisfied (i.e. it appears to a local education authority that a child of compulsory school age in their area is not receiving suitable education) does the local authority have the power to serve a notice upon the parent requiring him to satisfy them that the child is receiving a suitable education. There is no provision within the Act to monitor provision of home education on a routine basis or otherwise.

 

The issue of safeguarding is commonly cited by local authorities in order to justify the monitoring or investigation of home educated children and young people, however, as the above demonstrates this is not a function which pertains to home education (i.e. it is not a prescribed or statutory procedure) other than where there is existing evidence for concern, in which circumstances referrals should be made to the relevant department concerned. The Elective Home Education guidelines do cover this adequately:

 

3.1 Education authorities should seek to build effective relationships with home educators that function to safeguard the educational interests and welfare of children and young people. Doing so will provide parents with access to any support that is available and allow authorities to understand the parents’ educational provision. A positive relationship will also provide a sound basis if the child, at some point in the future, returns to mainstream education or if the authority is required to investigate assertions from any source that an efficient education is not being provided.

 

Section 3.1 provision is not a duty to monitor neither does it provide any new powers to local authorities. This is made very clear in section 3.8 which provides:

 

3.8 There is no legal framework for the LEA to regularly monitor provision of home education, however such an arrangement is likely to help the LEA to fulfil their duties and can help provide new information and support to parents.

 

Consequently, paragraph 3.149 should be amended as follows:

‘ensure ongoing monitoring and tracking of vulnerable individuals including those who have been excluded from school; looked after children and those not receiving suitable education.’

 

 

Comment not to go on a response form but to point it out to others as some advice has been circulated by others that suggests challenging this and replacing it:

Para 3.137

Paragraph 3.137 is excellent for home educators as it specifically relates moinitoring to cases where (my emphasis):

‘..the local authority has significant grounds for believing that satisfactory home education is not being provided by the parents’

 

 

 

1. Charles-Warner, W. (2012) Briefing Document On Proposals by the Welsh Assembly Government To Introduce Compulsory Registration and Monitoring for Electively Home Educated Children [Online] Available from:

www.home-education.org.uk/articles/wc/wc-wa-brief.pdf‎   

 

1. Welsh Assembly Government (2010) Statutory guidance to help prevent children and young people from missing [Online] Available from:  educationhttp://wales.gov.uk/topics/educationandskills/publications/guidance/missingeducation/?lang=en

 

1. Welsh Assembly Government (2006) Welsh Government Circular 47/2006: Inclusion and Pupil Support: Chapter 6 Elective Home Education [On;line] available from:

http://wales.gov.uk/dcells/publications/policy_strategy_and_planning/schools/inclusionandpupilsupport/guidance/section6/section6inclusionpupilsup1.pdf?lang=en