Another Consultation

Consultations, consultations....at the risk of causing confusion, Blogzilla has news of another one from the DfES, this time on the implementation of the "Information Sharing Index, which will hold a range of data on the UK's young people."

ARCH Blog reports that they

" are going to run a short workshop at UCL on the regulations so that interested organisations can discuss the details in order to help formulate their own consultation responses. I'll announce the speakers shortly once they have confirmed, but if you would like to put the details in your diary now the meeting will be 2-5pm in Drayton B19, Gordon Street, UCL on Wednesday 5 December. "

The index of course has implications for home educators, since not only will we all become known to the authorities as a result of it's implementation, but the "Every Child Matters" agenda, which provides the nominal impetus for it's development, includes a remit to ensure excellence in education for all children. Whilst this sounds like a laudable aim, it is possible (see post below), that the ECM agenda will be used to monitor and dictate to HEors in a way that could set strong constraints upon the degree to which we can actually be considered responsible for the education of our children.

We do have to keep an eye in several different directions at once, it seems.