HomeSchooler.org.uk

Exactly a year ago the Department for Children Schools and Families launched the Badman Review of Home Education. Last October we wrote that home educators had been subject to nine months of policy based evidence making. The tide began to turn with the publication of the Select Committee Report, which reprimanded the Department for relying on unsound evidence and for rushing to legislate on home education without publishing feedback from the recent public consultation.
Two months after the Secretary of State reassured parliament that right of access to the home and private interviews with children would be both voluntary and optional, the Department finally published feedback from the consultation which set out the real position.

"We have decided that local authorities should visit the place where education is taking place, which will usually be the family home, as part of their monitoring work. If families choose not to cooperate, and as a result are not on the register, local authorities will be able to use a school attendance order to require the home educated child or children to attend school."
MPs and Lords are being asked at every stage to accept without evidence that there is no alternative and also to accept that most questions about the future will remain unanswered since the Department has either not yet had time to make any decisions or chooses not to share any information before the Bill becomes law. A simple indication of how much the legal skeleton will be fleshed out later may be seen in the extensive regulation-making powers in six new sections of the 1996 Education Act, namely 19A, 19B, 19C, 19F, I9G and 19H.

Classic 'we hear what you say and we're going ahead anyway' stuff...

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1. Introduction

Why the consultation took place

On 11 June, the Secretary of State placed Graham Badman’s report entitled, Review of Elective Home Education in England, in the House of Commons Library. The report set out an analysis of evidence about the standard of education received by home educated children, and the extent to which local authorities were able to satisfy themselves that a suitable, full time education was being provided in a safe environment. It contained 28 interrelated recommendations which, together, mapped out how improved relationships between local authorities and home educators could lead to better support for home education, particularly where home educated children have special educational needs (SEN), want to take formal qualifications, or access education in further education colleges.

The Secretary of State’s initial response warmly welcomed the report and recognised that the review made a compelling case for immediate and urgent reforms to ensure that all home educated children are known to, and monitored by, local authorities. The government announced it was launching a public consultation on the proposals for registration and monitoring. The consultation was launched on 11 June 2009 and closed on 19 October 2009. Replies were invited by letter, e-mail or interactive web-site.

2. Overview and next steps for the policy

No great surprise there then, but let's make the depth of government duplicity quite clear for anyone not yet fully in the picture.

Back in June 09, the DCSF announced a consultation on the registration and monitoring of home educators. 5000 individuals and groups had responded by the closing date in October, the large majority of which were home educators who oppose the draconian, disproportionate and utterly wasteful proposals as detailed in the consultation documents.

...

"Thank you for your email of 18 November, in which you asked about the publication of the report on the consultation about registration and monitoring proposals relating to home education and the announcement of the Children, Schools and Families Bill.The consultation ran from 11 June to 19 October and we received over 5000 replies.

We have always said that we would consider the consultation responses carefully before proceeding with legislation because they would help us to make arrangements that support parents to provide quality home education while allowing local authorities (LAs) to take action where arrangements have serious shortcomings. We introduced proposals for a home education registration scheme as part of the Children, Schools and Families Bill which had its first reading in Parliament on 19 November. The consultation replies were analysed by our Consultation
Unit prior to introduction of the Bill and we were able to use the key themes arising from the responses and other correspondence we had received to help us to shape the primary legislation.

We will continue to use the replies to help develop any regulations and statutory guidance. For example, we have listened to the views made in respect of LAs interviewing a child alone; and about whether it should be a criminal offence to fail to register a home educated child
and we have tailored the content of the Bill accordingly. We anticipate that the report will be published shortly.

Yours sincerely

Word on the grapevine is there will be no opportunity for MPs to debate Badman's proposals.

What a surprise! The internal review has decided that the DCSF made
the right decision not to release B'ham's response to Badman. What a
pile of garbage. The only reason I can see to keep it secret is
because B'ham told a load of bare-faced lies and don't want to be
caught out:

http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/ehe_review_by_graham_badman#incomi...

"The Department has now completed its internal review process and has
carried out a thorough review of the case, chaired by a senior officer
who was not involved with the original request. The review
reconsidered carefully the public interest balance but decided to
uphold the original decision not to disclose the information
concerned, the reasons set out in the email reply of 1 May 2009
remaining valid. In particular the following points were noted:

Local authorities, including Birmingham, were under no obligation to
provide us with responses to the questionnaire. Were we to release
they might not be willing to provide us with the information in the
future and our ability to understand the real picture as experienced
by home-educated children and the parents and professionals supporting
them would be greatly reduced. Future policy-making would be based on
an incomplete understanding of actual practice, and its effectiveness
would be greatly reduced.

The relationship between the Department and local authorities is based
on trust and the ability to have a frank dialogue about important
issues. These voluntary responses are part of that dialogue and whilst
the majority of them are positive in nature, we believe that releasing
them could result in local authorities, including Birmingham, feeling
that this had broken the trust that they have with the department.

This response is one of a number of pieces of information which may
inform the development of policy proposals. The release of the