Elective Home Education Wales

Elective Home Education Wales was part of a group of home educators who met with the Welsh Assembly on 6th May to discuss the way forward with proposed changes to the current guidelines into home education. The Welsh Assembly staff confirmed that they intend to re-write the current guidance in order to improve relationships between home educating families and Local authorities. Staff indicated that they would use an independant body to research current best practice demonstrated in South Wales with the hope of promoting similar practices across Wales in the future.

May 6th 2014

Plans to make the parents of home-schooled children join an official register in Wales have been dropped, following a backlash from parents.

Opponents said the proposals, put on hold in December 2012, amounted to a licensing scheme for home educators.

Under the plans, parents would have needed to apply to join the register and the quality of the environment and education would have been assessed.

Welsh ministers will issue guidance on home schooling to councils instead.

The Conservatives said the decision by Education Minister Huw Lewis was a "welcome U-turn".

Mr Lewis made the announcement in a written answer on Tuesday, following a consultation that had revealed a "clear divide in opinion".

He said most home-educating parents, children and young people and organisations representing the families were "strongly opposed" to any form of legislation

The Welsh Assembly Government has launched a consultation into safeguarding ending 25th October

The consultation details can be found here
http://wales.gov.uk/consultations/education/revised-guidance-on-safeguarding-children-in-education/?lang=en

The consultation itself is very long so we have brought out guidance
 

Points in the consultation that are a problem

 2.7

Responsibility for safeguarding children who are educated at home by their parents or carers, or who are employed, is not solely an education issue. These matters are best dealt with by a multi-agency approach and should be addressed in locally agreed procedures in accordance with the principles set out in Safeguarding Children: Working Together Under the Children Act 2004

The Childrens Act 2004 refers to children missing education not Electively home Educated children. It further refers to vulnerable groups to which EHE children don’t belong. Parents retain responsibility for children and should not suffer interference unless they fail in their responsibilities.

 

2.12

Makes the same error as 2.7 and fails to acknowledge parents are the primary care takers of children under the 2004 act.

 

3.121

never enter the education system because they fail to start appropriate provision at the start of compulsory school age (there is no requirement for parents to inform local authorities of the fact that they intend to educate at home if the child has never attended school);

are withdrawn by their parents who elect to educate at home and both parents and the school fail to notify the local authority;

 

EHE children are fully engaged in education and parents take up their responsibility to educate children from the age of five as required in law, hence no failure to start education occurs just because a child is not in school. Where children are withdrawn to EHE it is the schools responsibility to inform the LEA and no requirement exists in law that applies to home educated children.

 Evidence collected in 2012 from Welsh Local authorities shows that EHE children are less likely to be at risk than school children are.

 

3.124

The purpose of the duty is to make sure that children and young people

who are not registered pupils are identified and that effective monitoring systems are put in place to ensure that those children or young people are provided with ‘suitable education’

 This give the impression that there is a duty to monitor EHE families and no such duty is in existence

 

3.149

ensure ongoing monitoring and tracking of vulnerable groups including those who have been excluded from school; Looked After Children and those registered as receiving education otherwise than at school;

 This needs to be explained clearly many LEA’s’ do not understand the difference between EOTAS and EHE.

 

 A petition has been set up to try and stop this becoming law please share freely

https://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/the-welsh-assembly-government-stop-the-welsh-assembly-government-from-bringing-in-the-monitoring-of-electively-home-educated-children-under-the-guise-of-safeguarding

 

Proposals to Cut Number of Local Education Authorities in Wales by Third

A consultation opened in June 2013 asking for feedback on the proposals contained in Robert Hill's Report on the Future of Education Delivery Services. The quickest way to find out what Robert Hill is proposing is to read the consultation response form which itemises all the recommendations and asks for comments on each. The consultation document is 30 pages long and the recommendations related to local authorities are towards the end

Plans to Change Law on Home Education in Wales Dropped

http://www.senedd.assemblywales.org/mgIssueHistoryHome.aspx?IId=7186 Education (Wales) Bill introduced to the Welsh Assembly by the new Education Minister Huw Lewis on July 1st 2013 (pdf here) No mention of home education.

Feedback from meeting with Welsh Assembly Govermment, March 2013: The consultation closed with 580 responses. Analysis is almost complete and WAG has no plans to include home education in upcoming legislation. Welsh Plans Put On Hold BBC website January 3rd 2013 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-20898475 Leighton Andrews statement backing off change, December 2012 http://edyourself.org/leightonandrewsstatementdec21.pdf Read more about what was proposed here http://edyourself.org/articles/walesbriefing.php