3 Do you think that Government and local authorities have an obligation to ensure that all children in this country are able to achieve the five outcomes? If you answered yes, how do you think Government should ensure this?
No
This suggestion is frankly ludicrous as ‘outcomes’ cannot and should never be prescribed by Government for individuals. It is insulting and reminiscent of one home educator’s comment that we can soon expect to be seeing “men up trees with binoculars” checking up on us all. The law is clear: parents are responsible for the care and education of their children and the state should only intervene in individual circumstances where there is
evidence that these responsibilities are not being met.
As a UK wide resource, Home Education Forums would draw the UK Government’s attention to the more sensible approach currently adopted in Scotland. Rather than listen to unevidenced claims about the ‘dangers’ of home education by Scottish LAs, many of whom do not have even a basic understanding of the law, the Scottish Government consulted widely and paid regard to research findings from the Scottish Consumer Council (now Consumer Focus Scotland) who investigated the treatment of home educating families by LAs and found
evidence of widespread ignorance, prejudice and protectionism. The Scottish Government also took account of
evidenced case studies provided by the national home education organisation Schoolhouse when formulating its revised statutory guidance for LAs, in which it is clearly stated that
home educated children are at no greater risk of abuse and are not defined as children missing from education. The UK Government would be well advised to follow suit if it is not to alienate every home educator in England.
At the risk of repeating ourselves, if the government were to task LAs with meeting such an obligation, what legal redress will be available to those children who fail to achieve the stated outcomes?
4 Do you think there should be any changes made to the current system for supporting home educating families? If you answered yes, what should they be? If you answered no, why do you think that?
Not Sure
Although we are unaware of any ‘system’ to support home educating families, there is perhaps a misconception among LAs that their interference and ‘advice’ equate to support.
Home educators often enjoy the support of others within the various home educating communities across the country. Rarely do home educators want, need or welcome so-called support from LAs, but are willing to provide information about their children’s education when requested to do so. Equally rarely do LAs have anything useful to offer home educating families, but even when this is the case (exams access, resources and materials) such concessions are likely to become severely restricted due to increasing constraints on local government budgets due to the economic climate. LA personnel are expensive to run in terms of publicly funded salaries and pensions and should be deployed more appropriately in positions for which they are properly qualified.
5 Do you think there should be any changes made to the current system for monitoring home educating families? If you answered yes, what should they be? If you answered no, why do you think that?
Not Sure
There is no such system and no legal basis for creating one since parents are presumed in law to be fulfilling their duties to their children unless there is
evidence to suggest otherwise. If home educating families are to be monitored, why not Muslim families, vegetarians or members of the SNP?
Parents who send their children to state schools have the right to expect these schools to meet minimum standards as they are delegating their parental responsibility to strangers whose interest in their children is purely for payment (sometimes know as ‘professional’).
In Scotland, section 2(1) of the Standards in Scotland’s Schools Act 2000 requires: “Where school education is provided to a child or young person by, or by virtue of arrangements made, or entered into, by, an education authority it shall be the duty of the authority to secure that the education is directed to the development of the personality, talents and mental and physical abilities of the child or young person to their fullest potential.”
It is our understanding that the placing of such a legal requirement on English LAs in respect of each schooled child was rejected by UK Ministers who feared litigation by parents and young people whose school education failed to meet their needs. Why, therefore, should those who are demonstrably failing to ensure that schooled children are kept safe from harm, never mind achieve functional literacy and numeracy, be handed an ultra vires remit for monitoring parents who are fulfilling their legal responsibility to educate their own children when parents who send their children to failing schools are blanketly assumed to be doing so?
6 Some people have expressed concern that home education could be used as a cover for child abuse, forced marriage, domestic servitude or other forms of child neglect. What do you think Government should do to ensure this does not happen?
The somewhat ambiguous phrasing of this question suggests that the Government might actually be contemplating decisive action to prevent the incitement of hatred against home educators by ‘some people’ who have expressed ‘concerns’ based on prejudice and lack of capacity to understand the law. Home Education Forums would welcome the introduction of stringent new measures to tackle the unacceptable discrimination, prejudice and ongoing persecution of home educators perpetrated by unqualified commentators whose objective appears to be to smear a minority group without offering any supporting
evidence.
However, it is apparent to many that the Government itself may be perpetuating these fairy stories by allowing them to go unchallenged, even using public funds to promote vile and unsubstantiated allegations made by vested interest 'rent seekers'.
What would be the Government’s reaction to equally unevidenced and wholly prejudiced ‘concerns’ which have also been expressed by ‘some people’, including the mass media, including the following contentions:
- being a Muslim could be used as a cover for terrorism
- being a teacher or social worker could be used a cover for ‘grooming’
- being a politician could be used as a cover for fraudulently claiming allowances.
Although there is no
evidence whatsoever to substantiate any of the above statements, might we now expect reviews to be commissioned at great public expense to investigate these ‘concerns’? If so, we would respectfully suggest starting with the politicians.