Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill

Lindsay Kerton, Education Welfare Officer, Children and Young People’s Service, Wakefield Council (CWSB239)

Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill Call For Evidence

· I am an Education Welfare Officer from Wakefield Local Authority who has worked with EHE families for many years.

· In Wakefield we have maintained a voluntary register of EHE children. When schools make a referral, notifying us that a child has been removed from the register because the parents have decided to educate them at home, we have routinely undergone a check of the social care database. Thus, allowing us to prioritise the children who have current or recent social care input.

· There has been a significant increase of children becoming EHE who are known to social services, many having a long history of several referrals to social services, indicating that the children have experienced significant neglect, yet at the point of them being withdrawn from school there is no current involvement from social care. This can include children who have previously been on a child protection plan, CIN plan or received support from Early Help or have been the subject of several section 47 investigations. Often these children do not receive a suitable education after they are removed from the school roll.

· The LA has received an increased number of EHE referrals where the school have concerns about the parent’s ability to provide a suitable education. Often the parent’s letter sent instructing the headteacher to remove their child from the register, indicates that the parent has very limited literacy skills. Sometimes the parent is unable to read and write and the school have drafted a letter which the parent has signed.

· We also have received referrals for vulnerable children, where the school appears to have encouraged the parent to withdraw the child to be EHE, so that they can avoid prosecution for irregular attendance. Often in these cases the parent is not aware of their responsibilities, i.e that they will need to provide work and deliver the teaching themselves.

· There has been a sharp increase in children being withdraw from school in Years 10 and 11. For those children who are withdrawn late in Year 11 and are found not to receive a suitable education, there is not time to complete the School Attendance Order Process. Many of these young people do not take GCSE examinations and go on to become NEET.

· Many parents circumvent the DFE recommendation (EHE Your Duties Our Expectations 2019) of the LA holding a meeting to discuss EHE and help the parent understand what EHE means, by wring the letter of withdrawal before letting the school or LA know that they are considering home education.

Whilst it is a welcome change that children undergoing a section 47 investigation or have been found to be at risk of significant harm will require consent before they can be removed from the school roll; in its current form the bill does not go far enough to protect vulnerable children from being withdrawn from school. Many children may continue to be withdrawn from school in a hasty fashion without proper arrangements being made to ensure that they will receive a suitable education. It can take several months for the LA to make an assessment of whether the education is suitable and when it is not, going through the School Attendance Order Process takes time and there is a lengthy period that the child does not receive a suitable education.

To prevent this from happening, could the bill give additional powers to the Local Authority, to require parents to meet with an LA representative or provide a written report, giving details of their plans for their child’s education, within a specified registration period (Perhaps 15 school days). This will enable the LA to be satisfied that the parent understands their responsibilities and have made suitable plans. Where parents fail to provide details of their plans or the LA judges them to be inadequate the child could be required to return to school.

This would mean that schools would be required to keep the school place available until the end of the registration period.

During the registration period the Local Authority could make safeguarding checks and seek the views of any relevant professionals to see if there are concerns about the child being educated at home.

If Schools and Academies are required to keep the school place available, it would likely reduce the bad practice of encouraging parents to home educate when it is clear that their circumstances mean they are not able to provide a suitable education.

February 2025