The home ed. recommendations are HERE and Graham Badman and Ed Balls have royally stitched us up.
Here they are in full:
Recommendation 1
That the DCSF establishes a compulsory national registration scheme, locally administered, for all
children of statutory school age, who are, or become, electively home educated.
■■ This scheme should be common to all local authorities.
■■ Registration should be renewed annually.
■■ Those who are registering for the first time should be visited by the appropriate local
authority officer within one month of registration.
■■ Local authorities should ensure that all home educated children and young people already
known to them are registered on the new scheme within one month of its inception and
visited over the following twelve months, following the commencement of any new
legislation.
■■ Provision should be made to allow registration at a local school, children’s centre or other
public building as determined by the local authority.
■■ When parents are thinking of deregistering their child/children from school to home
educate, schools should retain such pupils on roll for a period of 20 school days so that
should there be a change in circumstances, the child could be readmitted to the school.
This period would also allow for the resolution of such difficulties that may have prompted
the decision to remove the child from school.
■■ National guidance should be issued on the requirements of registration and be made
available online and at appropriate public buildings. Such guidance must include a
clear statement of the statutory basis of elective home education and the rights and
responsibilities of parents.
■■ At the time of registration parents/carers/guardians must provide a clear statement of
their educational approach, intent and desired/planned outcomes for the child over the
following twelve months.
■■ Guidance should be issued to support parents in this task with an opportunity to meet
local authority officers to discuss the planned approach to home education and develop
the plan before it is finalised. The plan should be finalised within eight weeks of first
registration.
■■ As well as written guidance, support should encompass advice from a range of advisers
and organisations, including schools. Schools should regard this support as a part of their
commitment to extended schooling■■ Where a child is removed from a school roll to be home educated, the school must provide
to the appropriate officer of the local authority a record of the child’s achievement to date
and expected achievement, within 20 school days of the registration, together with any
other school records.
■■ Local authorities must ensure that there are mechanisms/systems in place to record and
review registrations annually.
Recommendation 2
That the DCSF review the current statutory definition of what constitutes a “suitable” and “efficient”
education in the light of the Rose review of the primary curriculum, and other changes to curriculum
assessment and definition throughout statutory school age. Such a review should take account of
the five Every Child Matters outcomes determined by the 2004 Children Act, should not be overly
prescriptive but be sufficiently defined to secure a broad, balanced, relevant and differentiated
curriculum that would allow children and young people educated at home to have sufficient
information to enable them to expand their talents and make choices about likely careers. The
outcome of this review should further inform guidance on registration.
Home educators should be engaged in this process.
Recommendation 3
That all local authorities analyse the reasons why parents or carers chose elective home education
and report those findings to the Children’s Trust Board, ensuring that this analysis contributes to the
debate that determines the Children and Young People’s Plan.
Recommendation 4
That the local authority should establish a Consultative Forum for home educating parents to secure
their views and representative opinion. Such a body could be constituted as a sub-group of the
Children’s Trust with a role in supporting the development of the Children’s Trust, and the intentions
of the local authority with regard to elective home education.
Recommendation 5
That the DCSF should bring forward proposals requiring all local authorities to report to the
Children’s Trust Board making clear how it intends to monitor and support children and young people
being educated at home, in accord with Recommendation 1
Recommendation 6
That local authorities should where appropriate commission the monitoring and support of home
education through the local Children’s Trust Board, thereby securing a multidisciplinary approach and
the likely use of expertise from other agencies and organisations including the voluntary sector.
Recommendation 7
The DCSF should bring forward proposals to change the current regulatory and statutory basis to
ensure that in monitoring the efficiency and suitability of elective home education:
■■ That designated local authority officers should:
– have the right of access to the home;
– have the right to speak with each child alone if deemed appropriate or, if a child is
particularly vulnerable or has particular communication needs, in the company of a
trusted person who is not the home educator or the parent/carer.
In so doing, officers will be able to satisfy themselves that the child is safe and well.
■■ That a requirement is placed upon local authorities to secure the monitoring of the
effectiveness of elective home education as determined in Recommendation 1.
■■ That parents be required to allow the child through exhibition or other means to
demonstrate both attainment and progress in accord with the statement of intent lodged at
the time of registration.
Recommendation 8
That reasonable warning of intended visit and invitation to exhibit should be given to home
educators, parents and carers, not less than two weeks in advance. A written report of each visit must
be filed within 21 days and copied to the home educating parent and child. A suitable process for
factual correction and challenge to the content must be in place and made known to all parties.
Recommendation 9
That all local authority officers and others engaged in the monitoring and support of elective home
education must be suitably trained. This training must include awareness of safeguarding issues
and a full understanding of the essential difference, variation and diversity in home education
practice, as compared to schools. Wherever possible and appropriate, representatives of the home
educating community should be involved in the development and/or provision of such training. It is
recommended that all officers be trained in the use of the Common Assessment Framework.
Recommendation 10
That all local authorities should offer a menu of support to home educating families in accord with
the requirements placed upon them by the power of wellbeing, extended schools and community
engagement and other legislation. To that end local authorities must provide support for home
educating children and young people to find appropriate examination centres and provide entries
free to all home educated candidates who have demonstrated sufficiently their preparedness through
routine monitoring, for aII DCSF funded qualifications.
Recommendation 11
That in addition to Recommendation 10 above, local authorities should, in collaboration with schools
and colleges:
■■ Extend and make available the opportunities of flexi-schooling.
■■ Extend access to school libraries, sports facilities, school visits, specialist facilities and key
stage assessment.
■■ Provide access to specialist music tuition on the same cost basis.
■■ Provide access to work experience.
■■ Provide access to post 14 vocational opportunities.
■■ Signpost to third sector support where they have specialist experience and knowledge, for
example, provision for bullied children.
Recommendation 12
■■ BECTA considers the needs of the home educating community in the national roll out of
the home access initiative
■■ That local authorities consider what support and access to ICT facilities could be given to
home educating children and young people through the existing school networks and the
use of school based materials
■■ That the QCA should consider the use of ICT in the testing and exam process with regard
to its impact on home educated children and young
Recommendation 13
That local authority provision in regard to elective home education is brought into the scope of
Ofsted’s assessment of children’s services within the Comprehensive Area Assessment through
information included in the National Indicator Set (Recommendation 25), the annual LSCB report
(Recommendation 21) and any other relevant information available to inspectors.
Recommendation 14
That the DCSF require all local authorities to make an annual return to the Children’s Trust Board
regarding the number of electively home educated children and young people and the number of
School Attendance Orders and Education Supervision Orders as defined in the 1996 Education Act,
issued to home educated children and young people.
Recommendation 15
That the DCSF take such action as necessary to prevent schools or local authorities advising parents
to consider home education to prevent permanent exclusion or using such a mechanism to deal with
educational or behavioural issues.
Recommendation 16
That the DCSF bring forward proposals to give local authorities power of direction with regard to
school places for children and young people returning to school from home education above planned
admission limits in circumstances where it is quite clear that the needs of the child or young person
could not be met without this direction.
Recommendation 17
That the Ofsted review of SEN provision give due consideration to home educated children with
special educational needs and make specific reference to the support of those children.
Recommendation 18
That the DCSF should reinforce in guidance to local authorities the requirement to exercise
their statutory duty to assure themselves that education is suitable and meets the child’s special
educational needs. They should regard the move to home education as a trigger to conduct a review
and satisfy themselves that the potentially changed complexity of education provided at home, stillconstitutes a suitable education. The statement should then be revised accordingly to set out that the
parent has made their own arrangements under section 7 of the Education Act 1996.
In the wake of the Ofsted review, changes to the SEN framework and legislation may be required.
Recommendation 19
That the statutory review of statements of SEN in accord with Recommendation 18 above be
considered as fulfilling the function of mandatory annual review of elective home education
recommended previously.
Recommendation 20
When a child or young person without a statement of special educational needs has been in receipt
of School Action Plus support, local authorities and other agencies should give due consideration to
whether that support should continue once the child is educated at home – irrespective of whether
or not such consideration requires a new commissioning of service.
Recommendation 21
That the Children’s Trust Board ensures that the Local Safeguarding Children Board (LSCB) reports
to them on an annual basis with regard to the safeguarding provision and actions taken in relation
to home educated children. This report shall also be sent to the National Safeguarding Delivery
Unit. Such information should be categorised thereby avoiding current speculation with regard to
the prevalence of child protection concerns amongst home educated children which may well be
exaggerated. This information should contribute to and be contained within the National Annual
Report.
Recommendation 22
That those responsible for monitoring and supporting home education, or commissioned so to
do, are suitably qualified and experienced to discharge their duties and responsibilities set out in
Working Together to Safeguard Children to refer to social care services children who they believe
to be in need of services or where there is reasonable cause to suspect that a child is suffering, or is
likely to suffer, significant harm.
Recommendation 23
That local authority adult services and other agencies be required to inform those charged with
the monitoring and support of home education of any properly evidenced concerns that they have
of parents’ or carers’ ability to provide a suitable education irrespective of whether or not they are
known to children’s social care, on such grounds as
■■ alcohol or drug abuse
■■ incidents of domestic violence
■■ previous offences against children
And in addition:
■■ anything else which may affect their ability to provide a suitable and efficient education
This requirement should be considered in the Government’s revision of Working Together to
Safeguard Children Guidance.
Recommendation 24
That the DCSF make such change as is necessary to the legislative framework to enable local
authorities to refuse registration on safeguarding grounds. In addition local authorities should have
the right to revoke registration should safeguarding concerns become apparent.
Recommendation 25
That the DCSF, in its revision of the National Indicator Set indicated in its response to the recent
Laming Review, should incorporate an appropriate target relating to the safeguarding of children in
elective home education.
Recommendation 26
DCSF should explore the potential for Centre for Excellence and Outcomes in Children and Young
People’s Services (C4EO) and other organisations, to identify and disseminate good practice
regarding support for home education.
Recommendation 27
It is recommended that the Children’s Workforce Development Council and the National
Safeguarding Delivery Unit include the needs of this group of officers in their consideration of
national training needs.
Recommendation 28
That the DCSF and the Local Government Association determine within three months how to provide
to local authorities sufficient resources to secure the recommendations in this report.
No comments:
Post a Comment