Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill

 Written evidence submitted by Grace Leese to The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill Committee (CWSB15). 

Concerns regarding the proposals of the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill

Dear Sirs,

Whilst I fully understand the need to improve Safeguarding for children, I can’t help but feel that the focus has been somewhat directed at the Home Education community. Evidence suggests that in 78% of HE children who were subject to Local Authority investigations, after initial enquiries, no child in need plans or child protection plans were actioned. Further evidence suggests that most referrals for safeguarding are made for children already in school and already known to the local authority.

The extremely sad and upsetting case of Sara Sharif has been used and banded about in the media as the focus for safeguarding measures to be increased and whilst I fully understand this, the focus should be placed on the fact that Sara was on a child protection plan since before birth, had been seen and failed by 15 different social workers, was in school for the majority of the child protection and safeguarding concerns, but still opportunities were repeatedly missed and this little girl was failed by a broken social care and family court system. Yet the later withdrawal from school by her Father and Home Education before her death has been very much the focus of this case.

By placing more scrutiny on home educating families, my fear is that parental rights and family freedoms will be eroded. The suggestion that home educating parents may now have the additional responsibility of providing details of every education group, resource, facility and person in which a HE child has contact on a weekly basis, will not only pose a huge amount of data protection risk, but take valuable time away from home education if parents are required to provide such a vast amount of information on a frequent basis. And to then face the threat of fines or imprisonment if the information provided is inaccurate, only serves to further marginalise and intimidate HE parents. Furthermore, the threat of school attendance orders for parents who do not provide the information, does not punish the parent. This only serves to punish a child who has been thriving in HE and will put additional pressure on schools to accommodate where there are already long waiting lists and not enough school places as it stands currently.

Information on educational provision, resources and how home education is carried out, is required as part of providing information to the local authority by way of written annual response, which is already in the current EHE guidelines. I see no reason why additional information, extra admin burdens and additional monitoring needs to be place.

I currently have 2 children, 1 who is in mainstream high school and 1 who is has been home educated since the beginning of year 7. Both children are happy, well adjusted and bright. Home education works extremely well for my youngest child, whilst my eldest is happy in school and as a family we provide a competent and full education. The local authority have been extremely happy with the education reports provided by myself and there have never been any concerns raised for my children. Evidence also shows that HE children are on average 1 year ahead of their in-school peers. I, myself was HE from the age of 11 and I am the only child from a family of 4 children (3 siblings all attended mainstream school) who went onto obtain a first-class degree and master’s degree also achieving a distinction. Home education works and is an invaluable and crucial option for many families whose children experience a variety of difficulties in a school setting. Such rigid, invasive and admin heavy policies proposed in the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools bill on HE families will be detrimental to the opportunities and freedoms which HE permits.

Many families choose to home educate due to special educational needs, bullying in schools, schools not always having the children’s best interests at heart, concerns over a broken education system, children’s anxiety and mental health concerns…all of the above are areas which currently schools are failing to meet for our children. The proposed bill would see some of the most vulnerable children forced to stay in a school environment due to consent not being given to home educate children with additional needs. This will only lead to more pressure on families, anxieties and mental health being exacerbated. Mental health and suicide in children have increased due to issues around anxiety, bullying and needs not being met in schools. Children do not learn and achieve their best in environments which are not equipped to deal with their needs.

I ask as a committee reviewing the bill, to please consider my concerns, as I am sure that you will be receiving hundreds of responses like mine. Safeguarding is and should always be the main priority for all children, however the proposals and guidelines put forward need to be scrutinised and considered carefully so not to create far more damage than they would try to prevent.

Kind regards,

Mrs G.E.Leese

 

January 2025.