Supplementary memorandum submitted by
Graham Badman CBE
At the Select Committee hearing on 12 October
2009 I offered to write to Graham Stuart about our child
protection plan figures.
Graham suggested that there were a large number
of home educated children who were not known to local authorities
(LAs). He was confident that none of these unidentified home educated
children would be subject to a child protection plan (CPP) if
they came to the attention of LAs, and he told the Committee that
he believed that the number of unidentified home educators could
equal the number of home educated children known to LAs. He thought
that the combined effect of these estimates was that the number
of home educated children with a CPP could be half my figure (0.4%),
and therefore approximately equal to the proportion for the wider
school-aged population (0.2%).
I think it is misleading to produce figures
based on speculation rather than firm evidence, and I disagree
with Graham's assumption that everything is in order in every
family who is not known to a local authority: I believe that we
simply don't known enough to make any assumptions about these
unknown children and their families. One could equally well assume
(in the absence of evidence) that unregistered home educated children
are more likely to be in need of additional safeguarding
support. I think it is safer to stick to hard evidence, so I have
based my conclusions on data supplied by a substantial sample
of local authorities.
I am grateful for the opportunity to clarify
this issue for the Select Committee, and I attach further information
about the data collected both during my review and subsequently.
Finally, I wish to reiterate that I am not suggesting
that there is a causal or determining relationship between home
education and increased safeguarding risks. The numbers of children
with child protection plans who are both school and home educated
are very small. What is important is that children at risk are
identified, and this needs local authorities to deploy appropriately
trained and knowledgeable personnel across the range of their
work with children and families.
October 2009
REVIEW OF ELECTIVE HOME EDUCATION IN ENGLAND
COLLECTION AND USE OF LOCAL AUTHORITY DATA
ON CHILD PROTECTION PLANS (CPPS) AND "CHILDREN KNOWN TO SOCIAL
CARE"
INITIAL QUESTIONNAIRES
1. Two questionnaires were sent to local
authorities (LAs) during the course of the Review (January-June
2009). The first questionnaire was sent in January 2009 to
all 150 LAs and covered a wide range of issues relating to
home education. The second of these (May 2009, see Annex A) collected
safeguarding evidence including "known to social care"
data and the number of children having a child protection plan.
The second questionnaire was sent to the 90 LAs who responded
to the first questionnaire. 25 LAs responded.
1.1 LAs were asked to provide information
on the number of home educated children who were "known to
social care" as a result of safeguarding concerns in the
following categories:
— Section 17 enquiry (provision of
services for children in need, their families and others);
— Section 37 (care or supervision
orders); and
— Section 47 enquiry (reasonable cause
to suspect that a child is suffering, or is likely to suffer,
significant harm); and
— Number of home educated children with
CPPs.
1.2 LAs were asked not to include children
who were known to social care for any other reason, for example
where the child was disabled and where there was no concern about
parenting or quality of home education, nor cases that did not
lead to further action (ie when an enquiry was closed without
further intervention).
1.3 The data showed that:
— There was a large variation between LAs
regarding the proportion of their home educated child population
who were known to social care;
— Some had no children while some had significant
proportions, with an average of 7% across all the 25 LAs
that responded to the survey;
— This data underpinned my conclusion in
section 8.12 of the report that "the number of children
known to children's social care in some local authorities is disproportionately
high relative to the size of their home educating population";
— The proportion of 5-16 year olds
"known to social care" in the general population[77]
is around 3% (this figure includes disabled children so we can
assume the comparative figure for children known to social care
in the categories we looked at, is lower than 3%). From this information
we concluded that, in the basis of the limited sample available,
the proportion of children "known to social care" in
the home educating population is double that in the general population.
SEPTEMBER QUESTIONNAIRES
2. The initial data collection was drawn
from a small sample of LAs, which is why I was cautious in drawing
inferences from this sample for my report. Given the level of
interest in the findings from the initial data collection, in
September 2009 I invited all 152 local authorities[78]
to provide further information on safeguarding and quality of
education[79]
(see Annex B) relating to their home educating and general child
population. I asked them to provide information on CPPs, as these
are put in place following a rigorous inter-agency assessment
process. 74 local authorities responded.
2.2 This data showed that:
— 54 LAs reported that no registered
home educated children were subject to a CPP. 20 LAs reported
they had one or more children on a CPP, which amounted to 51 CPPs
in total in these twenty local authorities. This equates to 0.4%
of home educated children;
— The percentage of children subject to
a CPP in the wider school-aged population is 0.2%;
|
| Data from 74 sample authorities
| Number of child
protection plans
| Population | Children with child
protection plans
|
|
| EHE children | 51
| 11,700 | 0.4%
|
| All children | 10,025
| 4,712,200[80]
| 0.2% |
|
— Therefore, we can say that the proportion of home
educated children subject to a CPP is double that in the general
population in the 74 LAs who provided information.
77
DCSF children in need census http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/rsgateway/DB/VOL/v000647/index.shtml Back
78
Following Local Government restructuring in April 2009. Back
79
Two new local authorities had been created since the original
survey in January 2009. Back
80
Mid Year Population 2009-The Office for National Statistics (ONS),
includes 17 year olds as some CPPs cover 17 year olds Back
| 
