Secretary of State continues to live up to his name
Observations from the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families , received 26 January :
DCSF commissioned the Badman review of home education in January 2009 and the report was published on 11 June 2009. As part of the review, Graham Badman took written and oral evidence from a range of individuals and organisations who responded to his public call for evidence, including home educators and local authorities. Alongside this he also considered published literature, the current legal position and guidance and the approaches taken in other countries. He was also assisted by an expert reference group. I am confident that his report draws from a wide and heterogeneous evidence base.
I am confident that Badman dismissed any published literature that didn’t fit your predetermined outcomes, misrepresented the current legal position and ignored the opinions of home educators and those experts[sic] who did not agree with him. Unlike you Mr Balls, my confidence is genuine and based on observable facts.
The recent Children, Schools and Families Select Committee report also considered the Badman report and was supportive of most of the recommendations. It agreed that a short statement of educational approach would be helpful in establishing dialogue between home educating families and local authorities; that an annual meeting between local authorities and home educators was needed; and that better support for home educators and better training for local authorities would together lead to an improvement on the current arrangements.
That a Labour dominated committee didn’t give Badman’s report the total trashing that it deserved is no great surprise but even they can hardly be said to have given it a glowing recommendation. Not that any of this has much to do with the measures suggested in the CSF Bill.
Home Education registration and monitoring proposals are included in the Children, Schools and Families Bill which has now had second reading in the House of Commons. They will put in place light touch regulation and monitoring arrangements and our guidance will make it clear that this will be proportionate and focused on support and encouragement for home educating families. We have also committed around £21 million in the first year to additional support for home educating families, which has a focus on children with SEN and home educated children who would like to attend FE College courses.
I don’t care how many times you and your minions say that the proposed licensing scheme in the CSF Bill are ‘light touch’ it is and will remain A LIE. It is NOT proportionate. It provides NO support. Your financial commitments in the bill are NOT for support they are for licensing and monitoring ONLY, as Lord Lucas put it, £1,000 per child to audit them.
Home education is an established part of the British education system and the vast majority of home educators who do a good job will find monitoring supportive and-for the first time-backed by real resources. Our reforms will not require home educators to adopt a particular approach, to teach a specific curriculum, or for their children to take SATs tests or specific public examinations. After these reforms are implemented, England will remain one of the most liberal countries in the developed world for home educators to live in.
Home Education is NOT part of your system and that is one of its greatest attractions. *I* do a damned good job of educating my child and would NOT find your licensing and monitoring scheme in the least bit supportive. Again you LIE when you claim that there will be ‘real resources’ made available, there will not. The CSF Bill does NOT provide ANY funding for resources. What your reforms[sic] will require of home educators is at this time totally unknown as the CSF Bill contains no details, simply granting you the power to demand anything you choose, without any Parliamentary oversight at all. *IF* these measures are implemented England will move from being a liberal place for home educators to live into one of the most draconian.
Your ‘observations’ are lies and spin.