Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill

Written evidence submitted by Camilla Jones to The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill Committee (CWSB84)

Introduction

I am a home educating parent of two children, one of whom is diagnosed as Autistic. We have been home educating since October 2021. Neither of our children were happy or thriving in school, and our Autistic child has suffered trauma from his time at school. Both children are now thriving with home education.

Executive Summary

In this submission I will cover the following:

· Background – How we came to home education

· Areas of Concern - a look at the chief areas of concern in this Bill from the perspective of a home educator. These concerns include:

· Uninformed judgement by LA’s of what constitutes a suitable education.

· The extensive amount of extra information required from home educators

· The potential for prejudice and ignorance to impact outcomes for children

· Failure to address the fundamental problems with the current school system

· The weaponisation of the Sara Sharif case

· The lack of justification for a register and concern about underlying motivations

· Recommendations – consult experts and make LA’s accountable

Background

Our eldest child found school difficult from the start. The use of behaviour boards and forced changes of activity (being made to leave something you are deeply engrossed in to sit on the carpet), sitting still and accepting rules that didn’t make any sense to him made him start to believe that he was a ‘bad’ child in his Reception year.

During the lockdowns I found many ways to engage with him that were a lot more effective than those used at school. Following the lockdowns he was unable to attend full time. He became increasingly distressed, anxious and angry. He was physically restrained twice by teachers in order to force compliance- not for safety reasons. His mental health was deteriorating at the age of 7. We made the decision to home educate him and embrace autonomous learning, and he is now thriving.

I have become disillusioned with the education system. One study found that 92.1% of children who experience school distress are Neurodivergent. I do not think schools are inclusive and feel they can be very unsafe places for many children.

Children are also set up to fail in the current system. Due to grade boundaries, no matter how hard they work, around 30% will always ‘fail’ their GCSE’s. I think all children deserve better than this, and that education should be about finding their strengths instead of pitting children against each other.

My children cannot learn effectively in the current school environment. My Autistic child was in a constant state of high anxiety, a brain that is constantly in fight or flight cannot retain or process information.

Areas of Concern Surrounding the Bill

· Uninformed judgement by the LA of what constitutes a ‘suitable’ education

Ref: Section 26

This is very much open to interpretation by the individual officer. These officers are not required to have SEN training or have any training on the different approaches of home education. They do not know or have a relationship with the child. If they decide a visit is necessary, they may cause distress and trauma to children.

Learning is everywhere, it does not only happen in workbooks. It can look like cooking, gaming, conversations, watching programs, playing games, going to the shops, getting a bus, being around animals, smashing ice, learning self-care, or travelling. It can happen at any time of the day or night, during the weekends or during school holidays. To many people, witnessing one of these activities in isolation may give the incorrect impression that a suitable education is not taking place.

If a child is distressed by a stranger coming into their home, they may hide or become visibly anxious. It would be easy in cases like this for an incorrect judgement to be made and parents given a School Attendance Order which could be extremely detrimental and potentially harmful to the child.

· The extensive amount of extra documentation required from home educators

Currently home educators are asked about their child’s progress annually, and can submit a written response. The EHE officer decides on the suitability of the education received as appropriate to the age, ability and aptitude of the child. The education must also meet any SEN requirements.

The new bill will require any person who delivers education to the child beyond a currently unspecified ‘prescribed amount of time’ to submit data including their personal details, the childs details and the amount of time spent teaching them. This extra paperwork is very likely to discourage tutors and businesses from running groups for home educated children. Parents will also need to submit this information, as well as potentially having to document every single resource used by their child. Sending lists of every website, book, magazine, game etc. will require huge amounts of time, which could be spent facilitating their child’s education. If parents have multiple children this could become simply untenable.

There is also the question of who is reading and monitoring this information. How will, already overstretched, Local Authorities manage this extra workload?

· The potential for prejudice and ignorance to impact the outcomes for children

Without any clear guidelines, which should be uniform across all LA’s, on what constitutes a suitable education, there is potential for personal prejudice to impact children. An LA officer who does not understand a home educating family’s culture, home education methodology or a child’s SEN needs could easily order an SAO which could negatively impact the child.

· Failure to address the fundamental problems with the current school system

The bill does not acknowledge that the wellbeing of children is being negatively impacted by the current school system. Children are being removed from school to be home educated in higher numbers than every before. Anecdotally (from hundreds of conversations with local parents and facebook support groups with upwards of 60,000 members) the vast majority of these children are either diagnosed, in the process of being diagnosed or suspected to be Autistic. A study* found that 92.1% of children who experience ‘School Distress’ would be classed as Neurodivergent, with 83.4% of them being Autistic.

This indicates that mainstream schools are not providing an environment where Autistic children can thrive. There are not enough places in Specialist schools for all the children who need them, so parents are stepping in because the system is failing their children. Teachers are leaving the profession in ever increasing numbers and teacher vacancies are at an all-time high with many being unable to tolerate the system. At what point will the government stop blaming children and parents and admit that the system is no longer fit for purpose?

· The Weaponisation of the Sara Sharif Case

The incredibly tragic case of Sara Sharifs death was due to failures by Social Services and the Judge who granted her abusive father custody. It was nothing to do with home education- obviously this should never have been an option in Sara’s case, but the fact that she was removed from the school roll for the last weeks of her life did not contribute to her death. She was murdered during the school holidays, when she would have been at home regardless of her educational status. She was also known by Social Servcies to be at risk before she was born, and was repeatedly failed by them throughout her life. This case should be highlighting their faliures, not used as an excuse to scrutinise home educators.

· The lack of justification for a register and concern about underlying motivations

Children born in the UK have birth certificates and NHS numbers. Children who move here from a different country have similar documentation. There is no reason to create a register for home educated children as this information already exists. I am concerned that there are other motivations behind the creation of this register, ie ID numbers by stealth. The creation of a register does nothing to identify children missing education.

Recommendations for Amendments and Further Action

· To consult experts in child psychology and education such as Dr. Naomi Fisher, Michael Charles and Jenn Hodge

· To give parents a clear and fair process with which to challenge malicious referrals and incorrectly issued SAO’s

· To scrap the register for children not in school as it is not necessary

· To make the amount information required from home educators reasonable and achievable, as it currently is

· To not implement home visits unless there is a serious safeguarding concern

· To introduce mandatory SEN training and Methodologies of Home Education training for EHE officers- ideally in collaboration with experts such as those mentioned above

· To introduce, in collaboration with experts and home educators, a uniform policy to establish what is meant by a suitable education which must be followed by all EHE departments.

· To re-examine what the education system needs to deliver in a world where information is readily accessible to all with an internet connection, and to update the Victorian school system we currently use to make it relevant to todays world.

Conclusion

I believe that the part of the Bill that relates to home educated children has more to do with the high numbers of children being deregistered than any safeguarding concerns. I do not believe that the proposed Bill will safeguard any children, and I believe it will cause significant harm to many children by forcing them back into an unsuitable school environment and penalising their parents.

*https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37810599/

January 2025