Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill

Written evidence submitted by Anna Whitehead to The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill Committee (CWSB236). 

I home educate a 6 year old child and I am sharing my personal concerns about one aspect of this bill.

RE: Clause 25 proposes a register of children not registered at school. Inserted section 436C(1)(e) [page 49 lines 23-36] requires the register, where those children receive education from a person other than their parent, to specify the names and addresses of any person or organisation involved in providing that education, a description of the organisation, the postal address and the total time spent receiving that education. Parents must provide that information [page 51 line 25]. And a local authority may require a person it thinks is providing education for more than a prescribed time to provide details [page 52 lines 30ff] on pain of a financial penalty [page 53 line 30]. That applies to "any programme or course of education, or any other kind of structured education" [page 52 lines 30-34].

1.1 I am a home educator, we do not follow a curriculum, instead we base education on our child’s interests. We do outsource maths and English to tutors. Currently we are spending a lot of time learning about fossils. He wants to take Geology as a GSCE when the time comes. Last year his big interest was Vikings so we flew him to Stockholm to go to the Viking museum. He also loves chess with his home educated piers, and golf with Grandad, not to mention lots of extra curricular activities with school educated piers such as swimming and martial arts. He has a wide range of interests and friends of all ages.

1.2 The proposed register would require the name and address of anyone providing structured learning to be put on the register. People who operate classes for children have already started saying they would no longer accept home educated children in their sessions if this bill were to pass. People offering a Friday night yoga class to children don’t want their details on a government register or any extra paper work. Home educated children would be discriminated against, and under surveillance. It would be terribly sad for our home educated children to have to miss out on classes with their school educated piers, home education would be driven more underground and become more insular. How is that protecting children? This bill would be damaging to children.

1.3 Many home educated children do not have structured time tables. If my son wakes up on a Monday morning wanting to see a dinosaur, we have the freedom to take a train into London and go to the National History Museum. That is what home education is all about. We want our children to enjoy education so much that they do not even realise they are learning. This bill would mean that we would literally need to update the register with our movements, continuously. It is not realistic or workable. Plus, no human being should have to register their movements with the government. Its creepy! I completely agree that we must protect children. This bill does not do that.

1.4 I have a fantastic relationship with my contact at our Local Authority to whom I provide a yearly report. Currently it is not a legal requirement to register with the Local Authority. I recommend that the government instead concentrate on getting every home educator registered with their L.A, submitting a yearly report like many of us are currently doing. This system works well and is not too time consuming for myself or the L.A, and is not unreasonably intrusive upon our lives and does not discriminate against home educated children.

February 2025.