Thursday, January 14, 2010

Update on CSF Bill and Public Bill Committee

It is possible to subscribe for updates about the CSF Bill here.

The notices of amendments to the Children, Schools and Families Bill can be found here and continued here. There are several proposed amendments to Schedule 1 in the second link, which could do with scrutiny. At first glance, MPs Mr Loughton, Mr Gibb and Mr Wiggin appear to want to take out scrutiny for a suitable education. This is a very, very good place to start. We heard yesterday of a family providing an apparently very suitable autonomous education, but their provision was deemed unsuitable by the LA. We are set for trouble on this point folks, and these amendments would help a great deal to prevent it.

The news is that the Public Bill Committee will be sitting on 19th and 21st January. Submissions to the Committee can be made by sending an email to scrutiny@parliament.uk, making it clear to which Bill it relates. Further details about submissions to Public Bill Committees here:

UPDATE:

First meeting of the Public Bill Committee:

Meeting date: Tuesday 19th January 2010
Time: 17.15 - 19.00 hours.
Location: Boothroyd Room, Portcullis House, House of Commons, London.

The witnesses giving oral evidence on the panel at this session are:

Graham Badman - author of report 'Review of Elective Home Education in England'.
Fiona Nicholson, Education Otherwise
Chloe Watson, Home Education Youth Council
Sir Paul Ennals, NCB
Beth Reid, National Autistic Society

And with thanks to Jilly UK, we now know who is on the Public Bill Committee:

CHAIRMEN: Mr David Amess, Janet Anderson
CLERKS: Mrs S. Davies, Miss Howe

16 MEMBERS

Conservative:
Nick Gibb, (Bognor Regis and Littlehampton)
Tim Loughton, (East Worthing and Shoreham)
Graham Stuart, (Beverley and Holderness)
Edward Timpson, (Crewe and Nantwich)
Bill Wiggin, (Leominster)

Liberal Democrat:
Annette Brooke, (Mid Dorset and North Poole)
David Laws, (Yeovil)

Labour:
Vernon Coaker, (Gedling)
Ann Cryer (Keighley)
Andrew Gwynne, (Denton and Reddish)
Diana Johnson, (Kingston upon Hull North)
Martin Linton, (Battersea)
Kerry McCarthy, (Bristol East)
Bridget Prentice, (Lewisham East)
Ken Purchase, (Wolverhampton North East)
Lynda Waltho, (Stourbridge)

Liberal Democrat:
Annette Brooke, (Mid Dorset and North Poole)
David Laws, (Yeovil)

8 comments:

jilly_uk said...

I emailed the scrutiny committee and got this..
The committee is due to meet for the last time on 4th Feb. I suggest you send submissions to us by 3rd Feb at the latest.

jilly_uk said...

The committee is....
HAIRMEN: Mr DAVID AMESS, JANET ANDERSON CLERKS: Mrs S DAVIES, Miss HOWE
16 MEMBERS
Brooke, Annette
(Mid Dorset and North Poole)
Coaker, Mr Vernon
(Gedling)
Cryer, Mrs Ann
(Keighley)
Gibb, Mr Nick
(Bognor Regis and Littlehampton)
Gwynne, Andrew
(Denton and Reddish)
Johnson, Ms Diana R.
(Kingston upon Hull North)
Laws, Mr David
(Yeovil)
Linton, Martin
(Battersea)
Loughton, Tim
(East Worthing and Shoreham)
McCarthy, Kerry
(Bristol East)
Prentice, Bridget
(Lewisham East)
Purchase, Mr Ken
(Wolverhampton North East)
Stuart, Mr Graham
(Beverley and Holderness)
Timpson, Mr Edward
(Crewe and Nantwich)
Waltho, Lynda
(Stourbridge)
Wiggin, Bill
(Leominster)

Carlotta said...

Many thanks Jilly. Will add that to post.

Anonymous said...

Do we know what each of the committee members views are? Obviously, Graham S and "that Coaker man" we know about....

Barry the Jackal said...

Nick Gibb is against in the current form, but I think hasn't quite grasped the case against to the extent that Graham Stuart has.

David Laws, my impression was that the Lib Dems are sort of against (they voted against) but seem to be quibbling over detail rather than fully understanding the ramifications of it all.

Graham Stuart, as we all know, understands full well our side, and is one of the only people in the HoC I would give the time of day to.

Vernon Coaker, we know.

Diana Johnson, has been key in the slurs against HE families, doesn't seem to have engaged with our points, and repeats the mantras of 'ensuring balance' and 'think of the chiiiildren' without seeming to question why we, the very people they suddenly seem so keen to, ahem, support, don't want it.

Winter Lightning said...

Party affiliations below.
Totals: Labour 10, Con 6, Lib 2
(including the Labour and Conservative chairs)

CHAIRMEN:
Con - Mr David Amess
Lab - Janet Anderson

16 MEMBERS:
Lib - Brooke, Annette
Lab - Coaker, Mr Vernon
Lab - Cryer, Mrs Ann
Con - Gibb, Mr Nick
Lab - Gwynne, Andrew
Lab - Johnson, Ms Diana R.
Lib - Laws, Mr David
Lab - Linton, Martin
Con - Loughton, Tim
Lab - McCarthy, Kerry
Lab - Prentice, Bridget
Lab - Purchase, Mr Ken
Con - Stuart, Mr Graham
Con - Timpson, Mr Edward
Lab - Waltho, Lynda
Con - Wiggin, Bill

Carlotta said...

Thank you Winter Lightening. Have just uploaded info to page!

John said...

Carlotta, you wrote:

We heard yesterday of a family providing an apparently very suitable autonomous education, but their provision was deemed unsuitable by the LA.

this seems to me, as a non-home educator with reservations about autonomous home-education, exactly the sort of thing which you should be advertising (perhaps suitably anonymised). Badman, Balls and Johnson statistics might well be shoddy, the truth may be very different, but if you don't personalise the publicity campaign, most people will continue to see home-educators as just 'the other'.

To misquote Stalin - one [case of abuse] is a tragedy, a million [well educated children] merely a statistic.

As long as the Government can shout out 'Victoria Climbie, Eunice Spry', the largely uninformed general public will follow. What you need are names and faces, stories of success with whom, crucially, joe public can empathise. Only when the average person sees someone they empathise with being trodden on by the state do they take an interest. Otherwise, its just numbers and a few 'shrill wierdos'.