Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill

 Written evidence submitted by Hannah Whitehead to The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill Committee (CWSB05).

Why do we Home Educate?

We are a Home Educating family with five Children. We first came to Home Education when our eldest child was bullied in her first term of F2 along with contracting scarlet fever and the near death of our third child. We decided that her health both physically and mentally was important to us. We thought this would be a temporary measure and she would be returned to school around a year later. In the meantime, our second child was selective mute at nursery. We eventually had someone come out to us at home and they said that any support they could give her would stop when she got to school and the best thing we could do was Home Educate her along with her sister. At this point we decided to Home Educate both children for the foreseeable future, the children were told they could return to school at any point they only needed to ask. We are now in our eleventh year of Home Education; our three youngest children have never been to nursery or school although they know they have the choice to try it if they should wish to do so.

For us Home Education was taken as an option to help support the physical and mental health of our children, if this bill is put in place as it is now, we will not be ale to support our children to the best of our abilities. For example, when our father died two years ago, the children were able to take time out of their formal learning to grieve. They were given support to understand and process their loss in their own way and time. Had they been at school they would not have had the same opportunity.

Are our children hidden away?

We live in a semirural area in close proximity to a city centre. In a ten-mile radius of our family home, there are around five hundred home educating families. This allows us ample opportunity to mix with families from many different backgrounds, ethnicities, abilities and religions. The Home Education community is one of the most diverse communities that we know of.

Each and every day we have opportunities to join local families at Home Education groups, in fact there are so many opportunities to socialise that we have to turn meet ups down in order to complete any formal learning we wish to do. This has allowed our children to make many friends, not only with children their own ages but also with children they would not normally have been in contact with due to age restrictions within a school setting. It is a wonderful sight to see a mixed age group of Home Educated children where the children aged two to sixteen are engaged in play, with the older children helping and encouraging the younger children. Home Education encourages inclusion not segregation.

Our children are also seen in the local and wider community on a daily basis. This has allowed them to make friendships with many different people. An elderly gentleman who loves to share his allotment and knowledge about all things World War II, an elderly lady who loves to come out and chat when she sees them walk past her house, the local shop keepers, an ex-schoolteacher, many children at the local park.

Our children have also been able to build deep and meaningful relationships with their grandparents, great grandparents and great great uncle. This has allowed them to get real first-hand accounts of recent historical events and has bought their love of history alive.

What are our concerns regarding the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill?

We have issues with the whole of the Bill but have listed a few of the issues that we are more concerned about.

We have concerns regarding the amount of data you wish to receive, what you will do with it and how you will protect that data. There are already numerous reports of data being shared with the wrong people on a daily basis. How will you protect families who are fleeing domestic violence from their data getting into the hands of the abusive parent?

Many families will no longer be able to utilise the knowledge of friends and family for their children’s education. It is not reasonable to expect Grandma or a neighbour to give their personal details for teaching a child how to sew or helping with maths. Similarly, many tutors and Home Education groups will no longer operate because the paperwork will be too much for them. This will affect the education of thousands of children.

The Mother and Father or those who have guardianship over a child should have the final say over what type of education their child receives; the state does not have the best interest of each individual child. This bill proposes that families should seek permission to home educate, no permission should need to be sought. Home Education is the default option for education in England, school is a choice that we opt in to if we want to.

The local authorities have enough power at the moment to protect the welfare of children, it is their failings alone that are causing children to be harmed. No changes need to be made to the law, professionals should be held responsible for their failings starting at the top.

The local authority currently has the power to place a child in school if their education is deemed unsuitable, why are children in schools being failed on a daily basis? This Bill proposes that once a child has been issues with a school attendance order, and the education has been deemed suitable, the local authority can still make the child attend school, this is not acceptable. Many children are Home Educated because there are not enough school places as it is, this is not going to be enforceable with the current school system.

We do not agree to this bill and will not be willing to comply with it as it stands in its entirety. Our children are our responsibility, and we will do anything in our power as their Mother and Father to protect their health both physically and mentally.

January 2025