Government rejects calls to clamp down on home education

The Education Committee has today published the Government’s response to its report on elective home education.

The Committee’s report “Strengthening Home Education”, which was published in July, called for the establishment of a statutory register of all children out of school, following an acknowledgement from the Department for Education (DfE) that there is “considerable evidence” that many home-educated children are missing out on a proper education.

While the Government says in its response that it is committed to “a form of” statutory registration of children not in school, it fails to give a timetable for a register and instead says that details will be published “in the coming months.”

The Committee’s report also made a number of recommendations relating to more support for families who home educate children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and greater powers of oversight for local authorities.

The Government rejects the Committee’s call for the creation of an independent role to help families with children with SEND through the process when applying for an assessment of their child’s needs and where a choice about home education is being made. Furthermore, there is still no firm date for the publication of the Government’s SEND Review.

The recommendation to issue new guidance to local authorities on assessing the suitability of home educated children’s education is also rejected – although the responses notes that the Government will revisit its guidance on elective home education ‘in due course,’ taking into account recent developments.

Rt Hon Robert Halfon MP, Chair of the Education Committee, said: “I welcome the Government’s response to our report. One of our key recommendations was to establish a register so that the Government know and are able to assess the outcomes of home-educated students. The Secretary of State confirmed that further details on this will be set out by the end of the year, but we urge the Government to go further in the meantime, by issuing guidance to local authorities to ensure that home-educated pupils are annually assessed in Maths and English.

“It is our hope that with the SEND Review due to be published in the first quarter of next year, the Government will take up our recommendation that pupils with special educational needs should be provided with an advocate to ensure that they and their families can access the help they need and avoid having to wade through a treacle of unkind bureaucracy.

“We are pleased that the Government has adopted our recommendations and look forward to working with the Department for Education in the coming months.”