Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill

Written evidence submitted by Charlotte Freeston-Clough to The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill Committee (CWSB83)

Executive Summary

I have a number of concerns regarding this Bill and how it will affect children and families who choose to home educate. I also believe that the regulatory burden in this Bill could severely impair the opportunities our children currently enjoy.

Areas of Concern

● Section 436C the proposed volume of information to be held on a register and the notion that any information can be asked for that the Secretary of State deems relevant

● Section 436D the short timeframe for updating the local authority on any changes

● Section 436E the burden on education providers to provide information and potential financial penalties

● Section 436G support or lack thereof

● Section 436P failure to comply with a SAO could result in imprisonment for a parent.

Introduction

1. I have been involved in the Home Education space for over a decade. This is due to my youngest sister (who is 19 years my junior) suffering enormous school distress and being removed from school to be home educated aged eight, and through home educating my own two children.

Background

2. I came to Home Education, like many others, through serious problems with my local primary school attended by my sister. She was a very happy child who got on well at school until age 8 when things started to go downhill fast. The school labeled her as ‘naughty’ and ‘disruptive’ and they used common punishments such as losing golden time, issuing official warnings, which made the situation spiral quickly. She was quickly on the brink of being suspended.

3. From a home point of view she was extremely distressed, she would do everything in her power to get out of going to school, hiding her books and kit, and on leaving the house clinging to every lamp post down the street. On arrival she would refuse to go in and would have to be taken by the headmistress to class where teachers reported that she ‘completely refused to do anything she was told’. There was absolutely no help or problem solving, my sister was seen as the problem, end of story. My parents did everything they could to help her with the demands of school and ease her anxiety but when my sister stopped eating, they started to look at other options and after careful consideration removed her from the school roll to home educate.

4. We now know that she is Autistic with Selective Mutism (an anxiety disorder which means you completely lose the ability to use your voice and sometimes facial expressions in demanding or stressful environments) and was being bullied but felt unable to tell anyone about her distress. The trauma she endured took a long, long time to recover from but with the support of the community, family, friends and the wider network of Home Education families I am happy to report she is now doing extremely well, having secured her first choice university and after her first term is top of the class.

5. From being involved in this truly wonderful, supportive Home Education environment, my husband and I decided to home educate our own two daughters, this was before we knew that my eldest is autistic and dyslexic. My children are involved in many different groups and activities throughout the week and we have been involved in a Home Education co-operative for the past five years where the children are involved in a number of activities with 20 or so other families. I have also thoroughly enjoyed learning alongside my children and am a paid up member of Education Otherwise, the Home Education charity and Brave Learner, an online-based global organisation that provides training to home educators every month on different topics, led by experts in their field.

6. Sadly the way my sister left school is in no way unique but on the flip side, having found Home Education, she along with many others I have met have been able to thrive and go on to achieve their academic and career goals.

Areas of Concern Surrounding the Bill

7. I have a grave concern regarding the amount of mis-conception around Home Education which comes from the standpoint that children are always better off in school. A lot of information in the media is completely unfounded and untrue and the Bill, set against this backdrop, could harm the very children it sets out to protect.

8. If the Bill goes ahead as is, it will create an enormous amount of work for parents and the local authority alike. The beauty of Home Education is that it is completely engineered to suit the child and it changes from year to year, season to season. Due to this the number of hours of education my children have with me or my husband or an external provider can vary even week to week.

9. To give an example, my children have enjoyed numerous different activities from external providers but this Bill would mean I need to be in constant contact with the local authority to update them on the changes within the 15 days specified. For example, my daughter started with an English tutor, she had her for a few weeks before she went on maternity leave, she got another one who she didn’t like so we then moved to another one. This is just for one child, in one subject, in the space of two months. They have also, over the years, attended various activities and clubs that are for all kids - schooled and home educated - such as ballet. I remember one week, the ballet teacher was ill and a colleague took the class, I consider ballet to be part of her education and as this Bill reads I would need to inform the local authority. As you can see potentially replicating this across every home educated child for every subject and club they attend would be a gargantuan task, not only would this be incredible intrusion into our private lives and a means of tracking my child’s every movement, which is over and above what the parents of schooled children are asked to provide, it would likely be at least one person’s full time job in each local authority just to administer this element of the register.

10. It is also of great concern that the Secretary of State would be able to ask for any information she deems relevant to the promotion of safeguarding the education or welfare of children. This is both very broad and vague and unduly invasive of family privacy.

11. I am also very concerned about the potential for misuse of this vast quantity of information, who would be administering it, using it, how will it be stored? As I have mentioned it could be the means of tracking on an almost hour by hour basis where a child is, throughout the school day and outside of it (as Home Education doesn’t always take place during school hours).

12. I am also very worried that the burden on external providers will be so great they will withdraw services to home educated children thus affecting their education. We are already hearing from providers who have said they will be unable to manage this regulatory burden. The threat of a financial penalty could also see suppliers withdrawing services and stigmatising home educated children.

13. The briefest section in this Bill seems to be regarding support. This Bill offers nothing that isn’t already available. Home Educators for a long time have been asking for financial support for exams and an easier way to access them. Currently every exam undertaken by a Home Educated student has to be paid for and organised by their parents and I think this support would greatly help Home Educated students.

14. I fear that this Bill is being rushed through due to fear perpetuated by the Government and the media. Stories of hundreds of thousands of missing children after Covid, (whilst knowing if those missing students had been at school and not returned their details will be still be held by the school and if they had been taken off roll, by the local authority) and the terrible death of Sara Sharif (whose local authority she was well known to and did not take the steps to protect her with the legal means they had available to them) mean on the whole we are not recognising one major problem - that there is simply not a place in many schools for neurodivergent children. I would like to point to a study undertaken by Newcastle University: School Distress and the School Attendance Crisis; a story dominated by neurodivergence and unmet need .

15. "involving 947 parents across the UK, the researchers found that a staggering 92.1% of children with school attendance problems were neurodivergent, with 83.4% autistic. ADHD, sensory processing difficulties, and anxiety were also common companions, creating complex profiles that amplified school distress. The parents’ accounts of that distress were harrowing, often referring to their children’s chronic physical displays of intense anxiety, including vomiting and bed-wetting, and attempts at self-harm at the prospect of going to school." Quote from article on the Research Features website.

16. From our experience, neurodivergent children are seen by too many schools to cause too much trouble, especially in light of attendance targets. Children’s misunderstood and diverse needs are disruptive and traditional methods of punishment have no effect on a child who isn’t naughty but is actually severely distressed. Rather than really looking at systemic change, this Bill seeks to put an enormous burden on parents, families and children who have potentially already gone through too much in pursuit of a safe environment and a suitable education.

17. My next concern regards the people who would be looking at a family’s education provision. Employees from the local authority would need an enhanced DBS check of course, but also should have some knowledge or background in alternative education, neurodivergence and be trauma informed.

18. My absolute greatest fear is that an uninformed local authority could deem an education unsuitable and place a SAO on a child, perhaps even forcing a child to return to a school that has done tremendous damage. What would happen as in my sister’s case? Under the current legislation her details were passed to the local authority and an Elective Home Education Officer met her and my mother, went through the education provision provided by my parents and found everything to be satisfactory. Subsequent reports on her progress to the local authority were also always satisfactory.

19. I know from being involved in this space that not all local authorities are created equal and some really are anti-Home Education as a concept. If my sister had received a SAO, would we have had to continue to drag her to a place she knew would cause terrible distress, and be in a situation where she couldn’t keep herself physically or mentally safe. What happens if the child starts self harming or like my sister stops eating? These are questions to do with the safety of the child, as obviously no education can take place with a child who is so distressed.

20. The parent will have no option but to keep attempting to take that child to school for fear of being sent to prison. What if a parent physically can’t get a child to school as they are too strong or the child becomes violent? If this Bill goes ahead as written, families would be torn apart and parents sent to prison for trying to protect their children and refusing an SAO or even trying to get their child to school and failing. This would be an absolutely devastating outcome for all involved.

Recommendations for Amendments and Further Action

21. I would really want to see punitive punishment removed from this Bill. Financial penalties and the threat of prison if the local authority deems your provision unsuitable could have severe consequences for children and families.

22. The amount of data requested and the timeframes that data needs to be passed onto the local authority really need scrutiny to avoid undue intrusion into a child’s life and an unworkable volume of admin for parents and local authorities.

23. I would really like to see exam support for Home Educated children included in this Bill to ease the financial and administrative burden on parents.

24. To enable this Bill to truly serve the children it purports I would urge you not to rush ahead but to engage with the Home Education community and experts such as Jenn Hodge and Dr Naomi Fisher.

Conclusion

25. I would hope that everyone involved in this Bill has the same goal, to keep children safe and ensure each child has an opportunity to learn, grow, and become the best version of themselves. However, as I have pointed out, there are a number of misunderstandings and assumptions which could well lead to unintended consequences. Home Education offers a wonderful, well rounded education based in the community, that is perfectly suited to the individual child. It is sometimes the only option available to keep a child mentally and physically safe and we shouldn’t lose sight of that.

January 2025