We recognise that most children who are home educated do not present any risk factors in terms of vulnerability, such as safeguarding or radicalisation. However, the current lack oversight makes it difficult to ensure that vulnerable children being home-educated are identified and protected.
We therefore welcome the government’s proposal for local authorities to maintain a register of home educated children and duty for parents and carers to supply information to the local authority about the education children in their care are receiving. We would urge the government to also include mandatory monitoring as part of any proposed legislation.
Current efforts by local authorities to monitor home educated children are only effective when parents are willing to engage with them. Some parents do not want local authorities to carry out any monitoring visits. This makes it difficult to know whether children are receiving a good quality education or suffering harm.
We believe that legislative change is required to ensure mandatory annual monitoring visits alongside mandatory registration. Without this, the current arrangements for elective home education will never be fully effective at preventing harm to children and ensuring they receive a good education.
It is important that local authorities are fully funded to meet any additional duties around elective home education, as local authority budgets are already significantly constrained.
Read our full response to the Department for educations consultation.