Memorandum submitted by Debra Dunstan-Sewell

 

 

Please accept this e-mail as my submission to the sub-committee on the Badman Review into Home Education.

 

I home educate my daughter aged 13. She is about to take her first O level next month, which will be 2 and a half years ahead of when a school child takes their GCSEs.

 

These are my concerns with the Badman Report 

 

 

-    Have the costings envisioned been carried out? When will this be done? Will the Report be 'adjourned' until this has been done?

 

-    Why did the Report not set out the existing (workable and acceptable) present legislative framework)? Where is the evidence that it is unworkable?

 

-    Will the Report be amended in the light of LEA evidence that the level of abuse in HE families is currently running at 25% of the general population?

 

-    Why did the Committee have only one member with HE experience?

 

-    Was it fair to appoint Mr Badman with his LA/LEA background?

 

-    Who is to decide what is 'appropriate' education if there is a divergence of views between a LEA and parents?

 

-    Why cannot parents appeal LEA decisions to a Tribunal?

 

-    Why was no HE positive evidence quoted in the report?

 

-    Why did Mr Badman tell HE parents in the first (early 2009 stage) that there would be changes, even before all the evidence was assembled?

 

-    Why did Ed Balls wholeheartedly approve the Report without it being costed or the second consultation being started, let alone completed?

 

-    Why should the LEA be able to force entry in our homes without any reason to suspect there is a problem?

 

-          Why should children have to be cross-examined by the LEA without a parent being present?

 

September 2009