Statement of Educational Provision

Guidance will make it clear that the education statement should not be a significant burden on parents

I suspect your definition of ’significant’ and mine are going to be rather different.

and it will not require detailed curriculum or teaching plans. In the current guidelines tolocal authorities on home education we advise them that they may reasonably expect the provision of home education to include the following characteristics: “consistent involvement of parents or other significant carers…; recognition of the child’s needs, attitudes and aspirations; opportunities for the child to be stimulated by their learning experiences; access to resources/materials..”. These guidelines are well regarded by home educators and we would expect an education plan to contain these sorts of characteristics.

OK, so you include a list of ill-defined but unobjectionable characteristics. I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop …

Regulations will set out the information needed in the statement and the form it should take.

… and there it goes. Again we run into some serious trust issues here. I don’t trust you and your unpublished regulations.

We envisage that the statement will contain three types of information. First, it must set out the educational needs of the child, and contain any relevant background information which affects the way education is structured and delivered. This may include information about special educational needs, any particular aptitudes the child has, such as sporting or musical ability, the child’s wishes (particularly for older children who may be preparing for employment), any issues affecting wellbeing, such as bullying, and refer to prior attainment at school or otherwise, and any assessment of potential if available.

And this is not going to be ‘a significant burden’?

The second type of information will be the educational philosophy or approach to be adopted. This might cover the degree of formality of education, any specific curricula that will be followed, or qualifications pursued.

OK I’ll grant that’s easy enough, just two words in fact. Presumably you won’t need me to explain what Autonomous Education means?

The third piece of information will be outline plans for the forthcoming year. We recognise this will be particularly difficult for new home educators who might like to submit provisional plans and update them at a later stage once they have explored the best approach that suits the family. For some families these plans will be well structured but for others adopting an autonomous approach they may be able to do no more than set out the range of opportunities that are available to their children, although – depending on our review of suitability – there may be broad parameters such as those set out by the recent Select Committee report - numeracy, literacy and breadth (see section on monitoring below).

And here we see the planned death of Autonomous Education.

We do not expect families to submit detailed curricula, nor to make detailed commitments in their plans. We anticipate that all plans will be open to change as new opportunities present themselves, and children develop new interests so we would expect local authorities to consider the plans flexibly in monitoring, recognising that home educators will want to fine tune provision to the opportunities available in their locality and the changing needs of their children.

So they’ve listened to us just enough to use our own words against us. Again none of this is actually in the bill and we must take it ALL on trust.

We envisage plans should cover around 2 sides of typewritten A4 paper as a very rough guide to the extent of detail that should be provided.

Envisage again.

Where local authorities have committed to provide support, we would expect this to be detailed in the education plan and for the quality and extent of that support to be part of the monitoring discussion at the end of the year

What support? There is NO FUNDING for support.

Section 19D provides that the registration period is annual beginning with the date on which the application for entry of the child’s details on the register is received by the local authority. There are no regulation making powers in this section. Guidance will make it clear that local authorities should make every effort to make it straightforward for parents to reregister if home education is continuing once the annual period of registration is close to an end. Parents should not be expected to submit a full reapplication if home education is continuing and most details are unchanged. The guidance will recommend that local authorities explore whether reregistration can be effected alongside monitoring if that accords with the wishes of the parents, as for many families that may be the simplest course of action. If this is not feasible, we would expect local authorities to contact home educating families 3-4 weeks before registration expires to confirm whether or not registration is to continue, and whether any details have changed. In particular local authorities should work with parents to see whether the existing education statement can be notated with minimal effort on the part of parents, and local authorities should explore whether this could be incorporated into the monitoring visit if that is the easiest approach for parents.

Whatever, by now most of us will have been refused our licenses anyway. I’ll leave my opinions on the monitoring visit for that section.

Section 19F sets out the specific circumstances in which registration can be revoked. Subsections (5) and (6) enable regulations to make provision about steps to be taken by a local authority in connection with revocation or proposed revocation and to make provision about matters that should or should not be taken into account in determining whether any of the revocation conditions are met or whether to revoke. Our main concern here is through the regulations to make sure that local authorities do not make arbitrary decisions, act reasonably and do not revoke registration if, for example, a parent makes a small administrative mistake, or if there is a misunderstanding about practical arrangements for monitoring.

We envisage that the regulations covering revocation will include the steps that local authorities must take when they are considering revoking registration, for example communicating by letter and telephone with parents at the last known address and giving parents a reasonable length of time to respond (possibly 2-3 weeks for example). Local authorities will need to bear in mind the arrangements of families who are mobile and make appropriate arrangements for these families so that they can maintain contact if the family is likely to return to the area in order to avoid repeated revocations and reregistrations. Guidance will make it clear that local authorities should at the point of registration ascertain whether any particular communication difficulties are likely to arise and how these might be overcome in order to accommodate families without a settled lifestyle, or who may spend extended periods at an address other than that at which they are registered. Parents will also have the right to appeal against a local authority’s decision to revoke registration.

39. We would expect the local authority to make comprehensive enquiries before revoking registration and to give home educating parents ample time to make representations if they believe the grounds for revocation are unreasonable. They should in particular take advice from appropriate experts before concluding education is unsuitable if it is conducted in accordance with a specific philosophy, from those with relevant SEN if that is a factor in any decision and with social services before revoking registration on welfare grounds. The local authority should also consider whether providing support would assist in the particular circumstances.

All this care and consideration, you’d almost want to believe it until you realise that the people they are talking about are the same ultra vires acting bullies who have been over-stepping their duties and making home educators’ lives miserable for years.

Last Modified: Friday, January 22nd, 2010 @ 16:51

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