Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill

Written evidence submitted by Georgina Stubbings to The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill Committee (CWSB96)

Introduction

I am a home educator of 2 children aged 8 and 6 years. We have been home educating since June 2023. The legislation set out in this bill will directly impact all home educators and those with children in school and as such there are a number of areas of concern within the proposed bill as it is currently written.

Executive Summary 

In this submission I will cover the following:

· Background 

· Areas of Concern 

1. Content and maintenance of registers – unnecessary collection and scrutiny of education providers which is not adequately defined as to what is in the scope of the register.

2. A register under section 436B may also contain any other information the local authority considers appropriate – not adequately defined as a piece of legislation and could lead to serious breaches of parental rights to privacy.

3. Page 59 line 37 – a decline of a "request" should not be presumed as a negative action, only a neutral action of exercising right to privacy.

4. The determination of a child’s best interest should not automatically be placed in the local authority’s remit.

5. Not enough definition of register content and handling of this information

6. Neglect to address the failures within the school system which are currently causing significant, ongoing harm to our school pupils, particularly those with special educational needs.

Background

I am concerned that the clauses and amendments proposed in this bill will negatively impact the relationship between the local authorities and elective home educators and further exacerbate an already adversarial system to the detriment of the children it aims to protect. We began home educating as it became clear that the school environment and level of support available was not sufficient to meet our children’s educational and personal needs. We are currently thriving within our home education journey and have been able to adapt to learning styles and environments that are well suited to our children’s needs. It is vital that our right to educate our children outside of the school system remains in place as changes to this could result in lifelong trauma for mine and many thousands of other children who cannot thrive in the current school system.

Areas of concern

1. Page 39 line 14 ‘436C Content and maintenance of registers (1) (d) the amount of time that the child spends receiving education from each parent of the child,

(e) if the child receives education from a person other than their parent-

(i) the names and addresses of any individuals and organisations involved in providing that education, (ii) a description of the type of each provider named under sub-paragraph (i), (iii) the postal address of each place where that education is provided (where different from the address in sub-paragraph (iv) the total amount of time that the child spends receiving that education and the amount of time the child spends receiving that education without any parent of the child being actively involved in the tuition or supervision of the child.’

This does not reflect the reality of most home educating families, who engage with many varied services at different times. There needs to be further clarification on the definition of education provider and how consent of information sharing regarding these providers is handled. In addition the concept of ‘hours receiving education’ shows that the concept of ‘home education’ is ill-defined in this bill and not accurately represented. Home educators are not required to follow or define specific hours of learning and there would be no other appropriate answer to this question other than ‘all waking hours.’ The collection of this information implies an expectation and as such many local authorities may assume and therefore demand that home educators specify a ‘correct’ number of hours or a ‘correct’ set of subjects as they see fit.

2. Page 50 line 42 ‘(3) A register under section 436B may also contain any other information the local authority considers appropriate.’

This point allows local authorities to hold any data relating to children and families which they see fit, this could potentially lead to discrimination and bias. This is too open ended and invites the potential for privacy and safeguarding concerns depending on the data demanded by the local authorities. This needs to be more specifically defined and bounded.

3. Page 59 line 37 ‘(c) may request the child’s parent on whom the preliminary notice has been served under section 436H to allow the local authority to visit the child inside any of the homes in which the child lives. (3) If a request under subsection (2)(c) is refused by the person to whom it is made, the local authority must consider that to be a relevant factor in deciding whether the child’s parent has failed to satisfy the local authority as mentioned in subsection’

Families have a right to privacy of their homes and this takes away that privacy, invading family rights. A decision to turn down a ‘request’ of any kind made by the local authority should never automatically be taken as anything other than excising of their rights. It should not be seen as ‘non-compliance’ and therefore conflict or a negative behaviour. There are many reasons that a parent may not wish for an unknown person to enter their home and ultimately, the home should remain a protected space outside of police matters.

4. Page 65 42 and 66 32 ‘(b) for the child to receive education, otherwise than at a school, that is in their best interests, …

These sections refer to decisions about a child’s best interests which should not be made by local authorities alone. At the very least in circumstances with social care involvement, these decisions need to be make with a multi-area team of all services involved in care of the child, including the parent(s).

5. There is considerable concerns around data protection and cited uses of the information regarding our children such as special educational needs and where this information will be stored and under what circumstances it may be distributed. Upon placing our children’s names on the proposed ‘register’ what consent will we be giving for the information, and what other sources of information may be attached to our registration that we have not explicitly given at the time of registration. This is not made clear.

6. A significant omission within the bill is the lack of acknowledgement or attempt to begin to rectify the huge failings with the school system, particularly when safeguarding children with special educational needs and the oversight of how many thousands of children are currently in need of mental health support due to failing school systems.

Recommendations for Amendments and Further Action

There should be further consultation with stakeholders within the home education community, as well as experts such as Dr Naomi Fisher, and Jenn Hodge to ensure rights and concerns of home educators are accurately represented. Many points are too open ended and need clarification, appropriate definitions and boundaries in order to be fairly and consistently enacted.

Conclusion 

Whilst as a parent I welcome all attempts to ensure our children live safe and happy lives within our country, I am concerned that this proposed bill in its current form, attempts to undermine many existing parental rights and erodes the fundamental truth that the vast majority of parents are adequately equipped to determine what is in the best interests of their children.

January 2025