New Foundations Home Education is now Home Education Wales

·         The proposals give powers of entry to LA officers that even the police do not have

·         The proposals punish the child rather than the parent for non-compliance

·         Welsh Local Authorities (LAs) are not good at complying with current legislation regarding home education, thus not instilling confidence that they would be able to comply with additional duties

·         LAs are already facing considerable criticism by Estyn for multiple failures. Two are already in special measures

·         LAs are already under financial pressure – more duties would merely add to that pressure thus depriving more needy areas of duty to become neglected

The Welsh Assembly government (WAG) is proposing that families who choose to electively home educate (EHE) their children should be required to register with their Local Authority (LA). In effect the proposed register would be a licensing system, as the provisions would require the EHE family to re-apply annually and to submit to inspection which could result in their registration being either refused or accepted. If a registration were refused the LA would serve a School Attendance Order (SAO) on the family requiring that they send their child to a designated school.

The proposals give the LA the right to enter the home, if that is the main place of education, and to interview the child. Even Police officers do not have the right to enter a private home without a warrant and they are never allowed to interview a child without a parent or other responsible adult present. If parents refuse to comply with this inspection and monitoring process the LA will serve a SAO on them in respect to their child.  The child has no control over the compliance of the parent yet it is the child who will bear the penalty of non-compliance.

Why should a family wish to decline such an inspection? There are many reasons, including the following: 

·         Under primary legislation the duty to ensure a child receives a suitable education lies with the parent, not the LA.

·         Children consider their home to be a place of safety and security. Being inspected in the home could damage this feeling of security.

·         For the child, being interviewed by an unknown adult could be a frightening and intimidating experience, particularly if the parent is not present.

·         Families may worry that the inspector would be able to attribute opinion to the child that the child does not hold and to cause the child stress and worry.

·         The LA would be responsible for interviewing the child and deciding whether the child was receiving a suitable education. Worryingly, many children in Wales have been withdrawn from school to be EHE precisely because they have already been failed by their LA. This failure can take the form of failing to provide a suitable education or failing to support a child who is harmed by other pupils or by school staff. Whatever form the failure takes it is crucial that we do not allow those children to be further failed.

LAs in Wales are responsible for providing education to all school children in Wales.  School children in Wales have consistently worse academic results than their counterparts in the English regions.  In 2011, the proportion of pupils in Wales achieving the expected level was lower than England for all subjects. (see note i)

Yet EHE families are expected to allow failing LAs into their homes to judge educational provision Additionally, WAG acknowledges in its report that LAs find it difficult to understand the complexities of EHE as it differs markedly in most cases from school based education.

Current EHE guidelines allow LAs to make informal enquiries of EHE families to establish whether an education is being provided. Those guidelines clearly state that unless there is a cause for concern no further action should be taken. (see note ii)

Anecdotal evidence from EHE families indicates that LAs are currently acting outside the law. For example, LA staff have told   families that they are legally obliged to follow the national curriculum, have a timetable or work a set number of hours at school style lessons. None of these “obligations” exists in law. An assessment of the websites of all 22 LAs reveals that 14 contain legal and procedural errors in relation to EHE, the remaining 8 offer no information about EHE at all.  It is understandable that EHE families are alarmed by the prospect of further power being given to the LA in these circumstances (see note iii).

Welsh LA education departments are not providing a service that is up to the standard that families, and taxpayers, should expect to receive. They repeatedly fail to treat EHE families fairly and within the law. EHE families on the contrary are clearly fulfilling their duties to their children. A considerable body of research indicates that EHE children have higher academic outcomes on average than do school children, higher levels of social skill, lower levels of abuse and lower levels of criminality. More crucially research in Countries where registration and monitoring exists has found that there is no difference in outcomes for children who are registered than for those who are not. In New Zealand monitoring ceased for precisely that reason: the cost of continuing to monitor was not justified because the number of families found to provide an inadequate education was no different to the number found prior to monitoring commencing. Registration was continued in New Zealand as it is popular given that it comes with significant payments to parents for providing the education.

In summary, these proposals are targeting the children who are least in need of WAG intervention. Of all children in Wales, on all measurements, EHE children are faring better than their schooled peers. The proposals are to be carried out by LAs who are currently unable to deliver the required standard in areas where they have a duty to do so. The cost of implementing the proposals would be enormous and clearly better allocated to improving the performance of LAs’ current duties with regard to education, rather than in an ill advised and discriminatory attack on EHE families.  

References:

SB 52/2012 Statistical bulletin. Assessment Performance in Wales: Comparison with England and its Regions, 2011. Statistics for Wales.

WG16133. Welsh Government: Consultation Document Registering and monitoring home-based education. Welsh Assembly Government September 2012.

Notes

i

KEY STAGE 3

The difference in performance was greatest in English, where there was a 6 percentage point difference between England     and Wales in 2011. This difference has decreased by 1 percentage point since 2010.

England has outperformed Wales in most years in the last decade, the exception being in Science in 2004 and 2005.

Results for pupils in Wales were lower than all GORs in England for English and for Mathematics. The results for Science put Wales above one English GOR, London. (Wales Stats).

Further, the proposals state:

            17. In addition to statutory guidance a key priority will be to develop training materials for use by LAs and those working with home educators to support a balanced, fair and consistent approach to the assessment of the suitability of home education provision. The training will seek to ensure that those undertaking it gain a full understanding that home education can be significantly different from school-based education and depending on the circumstances, it may be equally effective if not more effective in meeting the learning needs of the child. (EHE consultation document).

Thus, LAs are being asked to judge the suitability of EHE provision whilst having received no training on how to assess such suitability. It is only suggested that after introduction of such registration and monitoring will training be provided. LAs have extensive access to training and facilities that assist them with carrying out their duties and are regularly assessed on their education department performance by ESTYN. Following ESTYN assessment the LA education department (who would be responsible for monitoring EHE families) is subject to report on their performance which is then made public. Performance is graded at Excellent, Good, Adequate or Unsatisfactory. A study of the most recent available reports by ESTYN on LAs in Wales found the following results:

S= standards                       SS= support school improvement                                  L = Leadership

W = wellbeing                    ALN = Additional learning needs                                 IQ = improving quality

                                                I = inclusion and wellbeing                                             Pt = partnership working                                                               

P = school places                                                                 R = Resource management

U = UNSATISFACTORY,      A = ADEQUATE,       G = GOOD,     E  = EXCELLENT

Grade 1 good with outstanding features       (equated to E)

Grade 2 good features and no important shortcomings   (equated to G)

Grade 3 good features outweigh shortcomings (equated to A)

Grade 4 shortcomings in important areas (equated to U)

(2) Will the local authority’s performance improve?

5 The prospects of improvement are rated on a four-point scale as follows:

Grade 1 improvement prospects are good, with significant improvements already in place   (equated to E)

Grade 2 improvement prospects are good, with no major barriers (equated to G)

Grade 3 some good prospects, but barriers in important areas     (equated to A)

Grade 4 many important barriers to improvement (equated to U)

Inspection reports changed after 2009 so those reports for 2009 have been equated to the more recent categorisation in order to facilitate comparison Where categories have not been assessed in the report, figures provided of position relative to other LAs in Wales are used to provide an indication 22 LAs so 1-5 = E, 6- 10 = G, 11- 16 = A and 17 -22 = U). In category wellbeing, schools position in attendance taken.

*Includes 4 categories where information not available                                              ** Totals may not be 100 due to rounding