As Balls, Badman, Birmingham Council and the BBC shamefully continue to breach the bounds of decency in the wake of Khyra Ishaq’s tragic death by cynically seeeking to shift the blame from serial failures on the part of social services on to home education (because the child had stopped going to school when she was already giving profound cause for concern), we thought it was time to pronounce our own verdict: professionals cannot be trusted.

 

Following publication today of a censorious report  by a cross party group of MPs which strongly urges the government to learn lessons from its "unfortunate" handling of the elective home education review in England, Action for Home Education (AHEd) has reiterated its condemnation of Graham Badman's controversial proposals for the licensing of law abiding parents.  

Flaws in the UK Government’s proposals on home based parenting must be tackled, concludes the Children, Schools and Families Committee in a report published today. It urges the Government to learn lessons from the Balls up it has made in relation to elective home based parenting in England and pushes for more precise monitoring of parents by local authorities.

 

In an open letter to the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Elective Home Education, which was recently established at Westminster to promote better understanding of elective home education, the home education action group AHEd has  affirmed its non negotiable commitment to protecting essential family freedoms in education.

 

The UK Government formally declared war on home education in England today with its inclusion in the Queen's speech of a stated intention to introduce a licensing scheme for parents. It is almost inevitable that any such scheme, if it ever managed to reach the statue books, would lead to mass non-co-operation by home educating families, with  catastrophic consequences for council budgets and state/family relationships.

 

“Like living in Vichy France" is how one home educator described  the latest betrayal of home educators by Education Otherwise and its collaborators on one of our forum threads.  It is  difficult to disagree, which is probably why a new rainbow Resistance movement is emerging among the home ed Allies

 

Responses to the government’s latest consultation on registration and monitoring proposals for home educating families in England now look certain to exceed 5000 in number by tonight’s deadline. It can also be confidently assumed that the vast majority of these will have articulated strong opposition to all the recommendations in the Badman report on elective home education.

 

“Stitch up” has been the overwhelming reaction of home educators to the Children, Schools and Families Committee’s announcement of its oral evidence schedule for the allegedly “independent” inquiry into the Badman review of elective home education in England, due to be held next week.

 

It has been reported that  the current guidelines on Elective Home Education have  gone missing from the DCSF website, calling into question once again the Government’s ability to prevent data losses and leaks from its own systems.  Unless, of course, there is some other explanation?

 

Home educators have reacted angrily to news that the DCSF has granted Graham Badman extra time to gather 'evidence' for the Select Committee Inquiry into his report on Elective Home Education in England, in which he controversially claimed that home educated children are at greater risk of abuse than schooled children.

In January 2009, the UK Government tasked former science teacher Graham Badman to assess whether the current system of "supporting and monitoring home education" in England was effective. His subsequent report was published on 11 June.

 

HMRC staff are routinely failing to follow relevant guidance when dealing with child benefit claims in respect of young people aged 16 and over who are continuing in home education, according to concerned parents and support organisations.

 

Action for Home Education (AHEd) has invited supporters of freedom in education to sign up to its newly published Declaration reaffirming parental responsibility for the upbringing and education of  children "in accordance with lawful rights and natural justice".

 

Reaction has been both swift and hostile to a newly published document which purports to come from Education Otherwise and contains 'recommendations' on the future of home education in England.