Q1 Name of LA
Dudley
Q2. Tel Number of main contact
01384 818019
Q3. Email of main contact
Q4. Would you be willing to take part in the next phase of the research in Feb / March (including in-depth interviews with key personnel in your organisation?)
Yes
Q5. Which team(s) have the main responsibility for supporting and monitoring home educated children within the local authority and other agencies?
Education Improvement Advisers
Education Welfare Service
GRT Advisers
Q6. List all teams / professionals involved in supporting home educating families
Admissions
Autism Outreach
Children’s Health Department
Children Missing Education
Education Improvement Advisers
Education Welfare Service
GRT Advisers
Parent Partnership
Safeguarding Board
Speech and Language Therapy
Special Educational Needs
Q7. List all teams / professionals involved in monitoring home educating families
Education Improvement Advisers
Q8. Describe how you ensure collaboration and communication between these teams / individuals
Monthly updated list circulated
Secretarial support to ensure reports / notes are filed securely and action points completed. Email, telephone and face-to-face communication between colleagues re: individual children / young people. GRT casework meetings.
Q9. How many children are currently home educated in your local authority of primary age (Registered with LA)
38
Q10. How many children are currently home educated in your local authority of primary age (Non-registered with LA)
Unknown. However, due to contact with Education Otherwise and health records, believed to be none.
Q11. How many children are currently home educated in your local authority of secondary age (Registered with LA)
77
Q12. How many children are currently home educated in your local authority of secondary age (Non-registered with LA)
Two pupils, as informed by Education Otherwise.
Q13. Total (Registered with LA)
115
Q14. Total (Non-registered with LA)
Two to our knowledge.
Q15. Are these figures accurate or based on estimates
Accurate, re: database held and monthly updates.
Q16. If accurate, where do you get this data from?
Updated monthly lists.
Q17. If accurate, how do you know the data is accurate?
Liaison with departments and local Education Otherwise Area Co-ordinator.
Q18. If estimated, what data have you used to arrive at this figure? (List all the sources)
-
Q19. How confident is the local authority in the accuracy of this data?
Very confident
Q20. How often does the local authority get updated data? (List frequency for each source separately)
Monthly
Q21. What proportion (as a percentage) of your home educated population is statemented for SEN (please state whether accurate or estimate)
6.1% - Accurate
Q22. What proportion (as a percentage) of your home educated population is non-statemented for SEN (please state whether accurate or estimate)
9.6% - Accurate
Q23. What proportion (as a percentage) of your home educated population is Gypsy, Roma & Traveller heritage (please state whether accurate or estimate)
4.3% - Accurate
Q24. What proportion (as a percentage) of your home educated population is made up of other Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) groups.
10.4%
Q25. Please list which BME groups
Caribbean
Pakistani
White and Asian
White and Black Caribbean
Q26. Do you believe the local authority knows about all the home educated children in your area?
We think we know about the vast majority of home educated children in the area.
Q27. Do you think that you will be better able to track children in your area in the near future? e.g. planned changes to your own systems, ContactPoint, other system improvements?
Yes
Q28. Please use this space to add detail to the answer you have just given
Presently, we have the Education Management System, EHE database and Centris, CME and S2S in place. With the implementation of ContactPoint, this should help with the tracking and sharing of information of children who move from one area to another.
Q29. How does the local authority ensure families know about their rights and responsibilities in relation to home education? (List all approaches used)
Website
Parent information leaflet
Initial meeting with EWS
Education Improvement Adviser meetings
Parent Partnership Team
Q30. What support does your local authority provide to home educating families? (List all forms of support offered)
GCSE classes in English, English Literature and Mathematics
Connexions Service
Education Business Partnership team for work experience
Advice, guidance and support on home visits re: teaching and learning and re-admission to school or alternative provision
Annual review of SEN statements
Dudley Grid for Learning for e-learning materials.
Q31. How does the local authority let families know about the services provided to support them in home educating their children? (List all approaches used)
Website
Initial meeting with EWS
Education Improvement Adviser communication within the home or neutral venue
Q32. Following the initial assessment visit, are further monitoring visits made to a home educated child?
Yes
Q33. If yes, how often, on average, are these carried out?
Twice a year
Q34. Please use this space to add detail to the answer you have just given
The frequency of monitoring is directly in proportion to individual needs and concerns, e.g. SEN,ChildProtection and Welfare.
Q35. On average, how often is the child seen when a visit is made?
Always, at each visit, unless the parent opts to submit a report.
Q36. Please use this space to add detail to the answer you have just given
Parents are aware that a home visit with the child present is the LA’s preferred option. However, parents have the choice of a meeting out of the home or sending in a written report.
Q37. If the child is seen, where is s/he usually seen?
In the home.
Q38. Please use this space to add detail to the answer you have just given
Relationships with parents and Education Otherwise have been developed so that a home visit is the norm for all but five families.
Q39. If you are not permitted access to a child, is any further action taken?
Yes
Q40. If yes, what further steps are taken?
Further liaison with parents to encourage a home visit. If suitability of education or child protection are a concern then involvement of other agencies, i.e. Education Welfare Service, Safeguarding Board, Social Services or Common Assessment Framework, is initiated.
Q41. How is the suitability of the education provided to the child assessed (Please describe)
Assessment by Education Improvement Adviser with responsibility for elective home education.
Q42. Is the local authority clear about what the definition of a ‘suitable education’ is?
Yes
Q43. Please use this space to add detail to the answer you have just given
DCSF local authority guidelines are followed.
Q44. Does the local authority have systems in place to track the educational progress of home educated children?
Yes
Q45. Please use this space to add further detail to the answer you have just given
Reports and file notes are written following each visit. Although parents do not have to follow the National Curriculum (NC), the core subjects are assessed in terms of NC levels. Progression from one visit to another can therefore be monitored.
Q46. Of the home educated children in your area of whom you have knowledge, what proportion (as a percentage) in your estimation is receiving a suitable, full time (20 hours a week) education? (Please describe)
Present guidelines do not specify a time or specific methodology. If 20 hours relates to direct ‘teaching’ input rather than experiential learning then the estimated number would be 17.4%.
Q47. Does the local authority take any further steps if a home educated child’s education was found to be unsuitable or not full time?
Yes
Q48. Please use this space to add further detail to the answer you have just given
The situation is discussed with parents and advice and guidance given. A future meeting is agreed within half a term to give parents the opportunity to implement action points. If the education is still not suitable, a return to school is discussed. If needed, a School Attendance Order is issued and a school is identified by the LA.
To date, with the exception of two families who would not co-operate, all other families have agreed a return to school is appropriate.
Q49. Does the Local Authority face any challenges in assessing whether home educated children receive a suitable education?
Yes
Q50. If you answered yes to Q49, please describe the challenges and what you think could be done to overcome these
Access to the home and child is not compulsory. Lack of clarity on the legal definition of suitable and what constitutes full-time.
Q51. Thinking about your local area, in the last five years, how many cases have you come across that use the premise of home education as a ‘cover’ for child abuse, forced marriage or other aspects of child neglect?
None of a serious nature.
Q52. Please use this space to add detail to the answer you have just given. Please include the number of Serious Case Reviews you know about that have a home education element.
None
Q53. Do you think the current system for safeguarding children who are educated at home is adequate?
No
Q54. Please use this space to add detail to the answer you have just given.
Most parents who decide to educate their children at home will have good and valid reasons for doing so. Some parents may feel that their child’s needs are not being met within mainstream curriculum. Others may feel that they can better meet the needs of a child who has special educational needs. Others may see home education as an answer to difficulties their child has experienced at school, such as bullying. However, in some cases where parents elect to home educate, there may be a history of concerns regarding the care the child is receiving or the parental commitment to education. Being out of school means the child does not have the routine monitoring of their welfare and day-to-day contact with a range of professionals that is afforded to children at school.
This can be frustrating to the LA where they suspect the parent is failing the child and, due to lack of powers for Local Authority officers, very few checks can be carried out on children re.home education to ensure they are safe and/or receiving suitable education. Where a child has never been on a Local Authority school roll, there is no guarantee that, once the health visitor role is no longer accessed, the child will ever be seen by another professional throughout their childhood. For children who were previously on a school roll and their parent removed them to elective home educate, again, there are very few checks that can be carried out to ensure the safeguarding of the child. Where there are previous or current concerns regarding the child when in the system, there is no way of knowing that the child is at risk once they are taken out, and, due to lack of powers, the authority cannot demand to see the child, at all or on a regular basis. This could result in a child possibly never being seen or having any contact outside of the family home.
Parents do have and should continue to have rights to home educate their child.However, the LA should have the legal right of access to both the home and the child to make an assessment of the home environment, welfare and education being received.
Q55. Do you think that home educated children in your local authority are able to achieve the five Every Child Matters outcomes? Please say why you think that for each of the five outcomes.
The Every Child Matters framework sets out the criteria by which all children’s well-being should be measured, i.e. they should be healthy, stay safe, enjoy and achieve, make a positive contribution and, in due course, experience economic well-being. Attendance at school plays an important part, not just in ensuring that a child achieves academically but it also provides routine health surveillance and opportunities for social interaction that promote greater awareness of safety issues and wider contribution to the community. It is of concern that the LA has no statutory duty in relation to monitoring the quality of home education on a routine basis. LAs can only intervene ‘if it appears’ that the child is not receiving a suitable education. How is this judgement to be made objectively if the parent can choose to send in a written report? The DCSF guidelines are helpful in describing the characteristics LAs may reasonably expect the provision to include, but there is still a lack of clarity on the level of information that can be requested from parents and the need for regular assessments to determine EHE children’s educational standards and progress re: Every Child Matters outcomes.
Q56. Do you think there should be any changes made to the current system for supporting home educating families?
Yes
Q57. Please use this space to add detail to the answer you have just given.
If every child matters, then the LA should receive funding to facilitate effective monitoring and support systems.
Q58. Do you think there should be any changes made to the current system for monitoring home educating families and ensuring that home educated children are able to achieve the five outcomes?
Yes
Q59. Please use this space to add detail to the answer you have just given
It is of concern that the DCSF guidelines do not fully address the tension that exists between local authority responsibility and parental rights, namely:
- Parents are not required to register their intent to home educate.
- There is no clear workable definition of what constitutes an ‘efficient and suitable’ full-time education.
- There is no right of access to the home re: educational provision / working conditions.
- There is no right of access to the child, although LAs are responsible for safeguarding and promoting children’s welfare.
- There are no guidelines in cases where there is a history of condoned absence, unmanaged truancy or ongoing low level concerns that may lead to child protection procedures.
Q60. Has the Director of Children’s Services and the Lead Member for Children and Young People seen and agreed with the answers you have given above?
Yes.