Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill

Written evidence submitted by Mrs H Irish to The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill Committee (CWSB 52)

Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill 2024 (the "Bill"): Written evidence submitted by Mrs H Irish , home educator

1. I have been a full-time home educator to my two children, aged 10 and 8, for nearly four years. I wish to make two submissions as set out below, both of which relate to Part 2 of the Bill (Children not in school).

Summary

2. My first submission concerns the drafting of Section 436C(1)(e) at page 49 from line 22. This subsection requires parents to provide to the relevant local authority full contact details of any person (other than the parent) from whom the child receives education. In my view, this provision is overbearing, administratively untenable and wholly disproportionate to the mischief the Bill is seeking to prevent. I submit that it should be amended such that the reporting obligation does not apply where either:

a. the parent is themselves actively involved in the tuition or supervision of the child (for example, physically present with the child in the lesson), or

b. the educational provision takes place outside of customary UK school hours.

3. My second submission concerns Section 436C(2)(f) at page 50 from line 20. This indicates that home educating parents must disclose their reasons for home educating their child, or else have their non-disclosure noted on the register. No explanation is given as to how this information will be used. This seems to me to dangerously overstep the stated purposes of the register and I submit that this subsection be satisfactorily clarified or deleted in its entirety.

Current reporting obligations on parents of children on a register of children not in school

4. On deregistering my children from school, the school immediately notified my local authority, as I understand is always the case, and my children were promptly placed on the register of home educated children held by my local authority.

5. My local authority has in each year asked that I submit one written annual report per child. I have done so in a way that is meaningful to my family and it includes samples of my children’s academic work, a list of the subjects they study and the approach and/ or curricula we use for each subject, certificates and other awards they have received, and an outline of the extracurricular and other social activities they engage in together with photographs. My reports typically run to around 60 pages. The local authority’s responses show me that, notwithstanding their stretched resources, they have always engaged fully with my reports. Their feedback has been overwhelmingly positive.

Reporting obligations under the Bill

6. Section 436D(1)(b) of the Bill requires that a parent provide the local authority with the information referred to in Section 436C(1), which includes (at subsection (e)), full details of any person – other than the parent – from whom the child "receives education". This is not something my local authority currently requests and I infer that it does not feel this information is necessary in order to be assured of the standards of education, and safety in education, that my children receive.

7. Section 436E sets out the circumstances in which a local authority may make requests for information from an educational provider. In contrast to Section 436C(1)(e), this applies where the education is "for more than the prescribed amount of time" (such time period not specified in the Bill) and "without any parent of the child being actively involved in the tuition or supervision of the child" (emphasis mine). This wording makes clear that the local authority’s right to formally act on the information provided by the parent under Section 436C(1)(e) is – as it should be – limited to circumstances where the parent is not themselves closely involved in the educational provision.

8. To contextualise the impact of Section 436C(1)(e), I would note that in the last 12 months, my children have attended a performing arts school, LAMDA examinations, home educator days at London museums, piano lessons, a private piano recital, athletics lessons, trampolining lessons, gymnastics lessons, a parkour camp, tennis lessons, theatre performances, live orchestra, a chess club, a cross-stitch class, an origami class, online classes, as well as numerous social activities, including with extended family members, all of which took place with different educational providers across numerous local authorities, and all of which should reasonably be classed as "education" and accordingly fall within the remit of Section 436C(1)(e). As the legislation stands, I would be obliged to notify each relevant local authority of the particulars of each of these educational providers within a period of 15 days (or, ultimately, face the threat of a School Attendance Order), notwithstanding that I was physically in attendance with my children at each of these activities and assuming the primary supervisory responsibility for my children throughout. What is more, I would be required to make this notification even when these activities took place outside of school hours and indeed alongside children who attend schools and whose parents face no equivalent obligation.

9. I further note that the requirement would subsist even when a home educating parent and child are participating in an online lecture in their own home, side by side, or indeed when a home educated child is, say, attending a crib service on Christmas Day with their parent and so being educated on the story of the nativity.

10. This very high compliance threshold seems to me, at best, to indicate an impoverished understanding of the way home educators run their day. At worst, it seems to malign home educating parents as of unsound judgement, as if unable to safeguard their child even when attending an educational activity in person directly alongside their child. The life of a home educated child is rich and varied and certainly not limited to educational provision directly from their parent; indeed, it is in my experience highly atypical for home educated children not to be extensively involved in community offerings. Monitoring the choices made by home educating parents outside of school hours is not only encroaching but prejudicial. It is of no interest to the local authority, nor the taxpayer funding them, for time to be wasted collating the every move of a home educating family in this manner.

11. I am concerned that if left in its present form, Section 436C(1)(e) will leave home educated parents reluctant to engage in the many opportunities home education offers, and that education providers will limit offerings to home educated clients in view of the disclosure of their personal details that carries with it a threat of extra reporting obligations. What makes home education successful is the freedom to lay a feast of activities before a child from which to pick and choose, to try, to move on, to return and try again, and the attendant willingness of select professional educators to be involved. This should be embraced and celebrated, not obstructed by red tape and paperwork.

12. It is my view that Section 436C(1)(e) should be amended to align with the limitation stipulated in Section 436E such that parents are required to provide details of a person from whom their child receives education (a) for more than the prescribed amount of time and (b) only in circumstances where the parent is not themselves actively involved in the tuition or supervision of the child. It should further be limited to education that is received within school hours.

Reasons for choosing home education

13. I note the provision in Section 436C(2)(f) at page 50 from line 20, the effect of which is that a local authority register must state the reasons given by a parent as to why their child is home educated, or, where a parent has failed to provide that information, the fact that the parent has not done so.

14. The reasons for pursuing home education are many and various. For some, it may be ideologically driven, for others, it is a style that works for their family at a given time in light of their personal circumstances, whilst for others, it might be a reaction to a school system that has left their child suffering. In my own case, I saw in myself an ability to deliver an exceptional education experience uniquely optimised for my children and I ran with it.

15. The intention behind the provision in Section 436C(2)(f), and how the information will be used, is unclear. Are we to surmise that some reasons will be more acceptable to a local authority than others? Might our right to educate our child at home be curtailed should our reason for so doing not be satisfactory to the local authority? Of course, parents whose children attend school are not required to divulge their reasons choosing the school system – is a home educating family to be especially scrutinised simply for being unconventional? As drafted, I can see no compelling reason why a parent should be required to elucidate their personal choice.

16. In a similar vein, I note the worrying trend in Government discourse to conflate children whose parents have pursued home education as a positive choice with those children (often with special educational needs and/ or disabilities ("SEND")) whose parents have felt they have no option but to deregister their child from school. I note in particular Ofsted’s publication of 14 January 2025 entitled New visits to understand how children with SEND who are not in school are supported which states that inspectors will consider what is being done to support children SEND children "to attend school". I ask that the Bill be clarified to give parents a legal right not to contribute to this element of proposed inspections.

Closing thoughts

17. In closing, I would highlight the good rapport and mutual respect I have built with my local authority over the years. It is understood that they are interested and will ask such questions of me as are reasonably necessary for their internal processes, but I too have a job to do and will not have my time wasted by the officious and the prying. Every parent comes to home education with their own reasons and methods and every home education journey is different; I urge you to move away from cookie cutter reporting standards and consider the spirit of the education being provided.

January 2025.