Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill

Written evidence submitted by Willow Martin to The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill Committee (CWSB233). 

1. As a homeschool student, I am writing express concern about the proposed Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill in relation to its infringement of my human rights and freedoms, and its impact on my wellbeing as a homeschool student.

2. Executive Summary

· The Bill removes my freedom to choose to be home educated.

· It allows the Local Authority (LA) to inspect my personal home environment, against my consent. My friends who go to school will not be subject to LA inspections of their home environment.

· It allows the LA the power to decide whether my ‘education and/or home environment’ are ‘suitable’ and allows the LA to define what ‘suitable’ looks like for me. Should the LA decide my home education or environment is ‘unsuitable’, it will force me into school, against my wishes.

· The Bill assumes I may need protecting from my own home environment and my own family and actively exposes me to strangers who would have the power to force me into a stressful and potentially damaging school environment against my will.

3. The Bill removes my freedom to choose to be home educated. I have been home educated all my life and I’m confident that it has been the best choice of education for me. At home, I have more of a voice in which subjects I study and when. I’m treated as an individual and can study at my own pace, meaning that I am not forced to spend extra time on areas I find easier or to move on from an area without having fully understood it, as might be the case in a school setting due to the different skill levels in school classes. I have many friends who are home educated, and I really enjoy the freedom it gives me to study some subjects alongside them, whilst also pursuing other subjects I enjoy at my own pace. I wouldn’t want to be in school during my GCSEs due to the stress and pressure it would put me under, and I would hate to be forced into a school. Having already sat 7 GCSEs and gained a Grade 9 in all of them, I am convinced that being homeschooled has been in no way a barrier to my education but rather a huge part of the reason I love learning. I will sit 4 more GCSEs this summer and am also predicted Grade 9s. If I was forced into school I wouldn’t necessarily be able to do the GCSEs of my choice which I would find very stressful.

4. The Bill gives the Local Authority the power to inspect my personal home environment, against my consent. My friends who go to school will not be subject to LA inspections of their home environment to decide if it is ‘suitable’ or not. Social Services already has the right to inspect anyone’s home where questions of safety are raised. Therefore to require all home schoolers, no matter whether a concern has been raised or not, to have their homes inspected, is discriminatory and an infringement the Human Rights Act which requires public authorities to treat everyone equally, with dignity, respect, and fairness. 

5. The Bill allows the LA to decide whether my ‘education and/or home environment’ are ‘suitable’ and allows the LA to define what ‘suitable’ for me looks like for me. This means that a stranger who doesn’t know me will be free to decide what is ‘suitable’, removing my and my parents’ voice and freedom to choose where and how I wish to study and means I could be forced to study in an environment that is, in fact, unsuitable for me. My education is my parents’ responsibility, and I think that they are best placed to decide whether or not school is ‘suitable’ for me. While some parents choose to delegate the education of their children to the state mine have chosen to educate me at home, which is also a valid decision.

6. The Bill assumes I may need protecting from my own home environment and my own family, who love and know me and with whom I feel safe; it also actively exposes me to strangers from the LA who don’t know or love me, but who would have the power to force me into stressful and potentially damaging school environment against my will. This negative impact of the Bill on my health and wellbeing due to the stress caused by being forced into a school against my will are huge and must be taken into account by the government.

February 2025.