The argument has arisen in various places now about the benefits or otherwise of going to the LA to try to sort out a friendly relationship.
Some of these arguments have sometimes gone along the lines of: since your LA is responsible for pursuing home visits, issuing SAOs, etc it is better to talk to them than not to talk to them as you stand a better chance of sorting the situation out and therefore not being subject to unwarranted intrusion, threats of SAOs etc. The argument here has also been that since HE inspectors are close to the ground and have face-to-face contact with HEors they are likely to be more approachable and more likely to change their minds.
Also, in choosing not to talk to LAs, you are morally deficient since in neglecting to sort out LAs, you have failed schooled children in other families who may be suffering terribly in school.
Hm. I think this kind of argument suffers from false logic in a number of different ways.
One of these mistakes could be the problem of hasty generalisation, ie: the problem of generalising from an oversmall sample. eg: because the above approach worked with one particular LA, it will necessarily work with all LAs.
Other problems: the first argument also neglects to address all possible premises...eg: it could be the case that you are unknown to the LA, and that your LA is generally pretty good, doesn't intervene unduly with most HE families and even advises parents of schooled children pretty well, and in sacrificing anonymity, your own family is suddenly subject to state scrutiny, which though it may be minimal, is more than it was previously, in addition to which you have put in significant time and effort which could be used for working with your own family and all this for no substantial personal gain whatsoever and a few losses, then it would definitely look as if it were not worth the effort.
(This may seem an unlikely scenario, I agree, particularly since we have a habit of talking about the heavy-handed LAs all the time, but actually I don't think it is far removed from the experience of many HEors, certainly in rural and poor counties).
The first argument also neglects the very real possibility that some LA officers are very unlikely to change their minds about how they treat HEors, eg; Mr Mooney, Mr Iball by way of a few examples which immediately spring to mind. I would say that this is a very big area of neglect in the first argument, as people who have absolutely rigid and firmly entrenched opinions that are almost impossible to shift, even in the situation of talking with someone for years and years, well, these sorts of people are two-a-penny.
From this last, it follows that the first scenario obviously neglects all possible outcomes, the most obvious (according to Doncaster and Scottish experience) being that in approaching the LA you do not manage to improve upon a bad situation, or you many improve the situation temporarily whereupon another LA officer takes over and re-installs an appalling situation. Or you many improve the situation in face-to-face contact, and find that this doesn't bear out in practice, or you may find that some HEors get off very lightly and others are treated appallingly by the same LA. With any of these outcomes, you will have wasted an awful lot of time which you may not have to spare, in the attempt.
In other words, far from berating HEors who in the past have chosen to keep their heads down and just got on with it, I think we should accept that there may have been some considerable wisdom in their choice.
I think the only difference now is that the premise of being unknown to the LA should, in principle at least, be being removed, with the establishment of ContactPoint. I think this could change the situation dramatically, since those people who were likely to have kept their heads down, are actually also the people who are most likely to resist state intervention and are also very likely to be genned up on the law, clear about their rights, and generally likely to give the LAs a run for their money. Given that people are (in principle at least though am still to hear of anyone actually having been directly discovered as a result of the children's database, ) are going to be known to LAs, we are likely to see a far stronger movement to resist heavy-handed LA practices.
The problem at the moment is that unknown HEors are still holding back and perhaps they have good reason. They know that Goverment databases when they are rolled out are likely to be grossly inefficient, and that they may remain unknown. eg: we personally know of several families in our area who weren't even sent a census form, despite the fact that they are on the electoral register. This sort of situation could go on for quite a while, but as more and more HEors experience the de facto registration which will be Contactpoint, the more the LAs had better watch out.
In the meantime, there is plenty that these unknown HEors could be doing. It may well be wrong to assume that everyone in the DfES is immune to reason. We have it on good authority from at least 2 sources now that senior ministers in this department have described the schooling system as a dinosaur. It may be possible for unknown HEors to apply considerable pressure to the DfES to minimise the damage that LAs are allowed to do.
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Odd Bits on Cognitive Development
I have very frequently been bowled over by the apparent emotional maturity of autonomously educated teens and the absence of problems reported by parents of these teens. Perhaps this article goes some way to explain this.
For example,
(from US, but probably applicable here),
"Laws restricting the behaviour of young people (under age 18) have grown rapidly in the past century, according to a survey by the author. He found that US teens have 10 times as many restrictions as adults, twice as many as active-duty U.S. marines and twice as many as incarcerated felons."
"As we learn in elementary statistics courses, correlation does not even imply causation. In that sense, no imaging study could possibly identify the brain as a causal agent, no matter what areas of the brain were being observed. "
The other recent relevation (courtesy of gentle prompting by DLD - so many profound thank yous are due), is that taking children seriously doesn't necessarily mean that one should immediately wade in with the most rational-seeming explanation at the earliest possible opportunity (a mistake that it is rather easy to make, I think). It can mean just listening, just reflecting back. This non-directive Rogerian-style support, rather than the more cognitive behavioural approach that would very obviously to fit with TCS theory, is not only frequently patently uncoercive, for example in the situation that a child simply wants to be listened to rather than advised, but can also lead to huge incremental, uncoerced learning on the part of the child as they are given the space to discover information in safety and in precisely their own time. (The reading that prompted this particular relevation: Dibs, In Search of Self by Virginia Axline.)
For example,
(from US, but probably applicable here),
"Laws restricting the behaviour of young people (under age 18) have grown rapidly in the past century, according to a survey by the author. He found that US teens have 10 times as many restrictions as adults, twice as many as active-duty U.S. marines and twice as many as incarcerated felons."
"As we learn in elementary statistics courses, correlation does not even imply causation. In that sense, no imaging study could possibly identify the brain as a causal agent, no matter what areas of the brain were being observed. "
The other recent relevation (courtesy of gentle prompting by DLD - so many profound thank yous are due), is that taking children seriously doesn't necessarily mean that one should immediately wade in with the most rational-seeming explanation at the earliest possible opportunity (a mistake that it is rather easy to make, I think). It can mean just listening, just reflecting back. This non-directive Rogerian-style support, rather than the more cognitive behavioural approach that would very obviously to fit with TCS theory, is not only frequently patently uncoercive, for example in the situation that a child simply wants to be listened to rather than advised, but can also lead to huge incremental, uncoerced learning on the part of the child as they are given the space to discover information in safety and in precisely their own time. (The reading that prompted this particular relevation: Dibs, In Search of Self by Virginia Axline.)
More on the Nanny State
From this article in the Independent:
"Professor Furedi, who will also be speaking at the Kent conference, says he has identified a worrying shift over the past five years in how parents are treated by the state. "I thought things were bad enough in terms of pressures but these trends have really intensified," said the sociologist and author of Paranoid Parenting. "Even your most intimate gestures become subject to someone else's expertise. This leads to anxiety and disorientation. You need a PhD in developmental psychology to be a parent these days."
Author and Sociologist, Ellie Lee, who organised the conference said elsewhere:
"By all accounts, it seems as though mothering has become seen as too important to be left to mothers."
All you need do is think about the inter-agency duty to co-operate to improve the well-being of children to know just how much more true the above is likely to be.
"Professor Furedi, who will also be speaking at the Kent conference, says he has identified a worrying shift over the past five years in how parents are treated by the state. "I thought things were bad enough in terms of pressures but these trends have really intensified," said the sociologist and author of Paranoid Parenting. "Even your most intimate gestures become subject to someone else's expertise. This leads to anxiety and disorientation. You need a PhD in developmental psychology to be a parent these days."
Author and Sociologist, Ellie Lee, who organised the conference said elsewhere:
"By all accounts, it seems as though mothering has become seen as too important to be left to mothers."
All you need do is think about the inter-agency duty to co-operate to improve the well-being of children to know just how much more true the above is likely to be.
Monday, May 28, 2007
UPDATE on Draft Response to Consultation on EHE Guidelines
Below, with many thanks to HEors elsewhere for providing considerable amounts of inspiration for these answers, is an updated draft of a response to the DfES Consultation on Guidelines for Elective Home Education.
Criticisms of this response are very likely to be gratefully received, and help needed with the SEN section!
Please feel very free to use any answers below as inspiration for your responses: the more responses the DfES receive from HEors the better, whether these be from individual home educators or local groups to national organisations. We cannot let this process be co-opted by the LAs. The DfES need to know just how strongly we feel about the way we are approached by the authorities and that we do demand decent treatment. If we do manage a sufficient number of responses from HEors and the DfES simply choose to ignore us, we will go to the press and complain like fury. We will go back to the Better Regulation Executive and start shouting all over again, but first we must make sure that our voice is heard. Please do put in a response!
Many points in the draft guidelines are not covered in questions in the consultation. Important criticisms of the neglected points are required. When this is the case, these criticisms have been included in the consultation question that most closely covers the section in the guidelines.
Before you look down, and panic at the screeds below, I can summarise by saying that I think there are two main areas that HEors need to tackle in their responses. These are:
1. that the guidelines do not make reference to any possible consequences of the Children Act 2004. We need to make it explicit in the guidelines that the Act should not change the way in which the LAs would be best to approach us. For example, we might do well to say that although people like the Children's Commissioner have been tasked with asking our children for their views, that the views of these children is most often that they want as little interference from the authorities as possible and furthermore, that they don't want to be solicited by the authorities for their views. The guidelines also need to be clear that parents remain principally responsible for meeting the five desired outcomes for children as stipulated in the act. The LA and community only have a role to play when parents fail to try to meet these objectives.
2. We also need to require the guidelines to be explicit and precise about how LAs are best to approach us. At the moment, the guidelines are not clear on the principle and practice. My feeling is that LAs should adopt the principle of minimal proportionate intervention, starting from the point that if, on balance of probabilities, it appears that a suitable education is being provided, that it is completely acceptable for an LA to leave a family completely alone. They can move through the policy of one-off written communications, through to more extended written communications, through to requests for meetings, but all of this should only be done in the situation that it is deemed that there is cause for concern and that further communication is therefore necessary. We do not want to "HAVE" to have a relationship with the LA, a requirement that in itself would seem to preclude the possibility of it being a good one.
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Consultation Questions
1 Do you agree that it is helpful for the DfES to issue guidelines to local authorities?
Yes
No
Not Sure
No Response
Comments:
It would rather depend on the final nature of the guidelines. If the guidelines accurately interpret the law and demonstrate an understanding of the nature of home education, they are likely to be helpful.
As it stands, some parts of the guidelines are repetitive and/or require tightening to reduce ambiguity. For example, the current draft does little to reassure local authorities about the limits of their duties and the limits of the expectations upon them, particularly with regard to the appropriate way to implement the Children Act 2004. The guidelines should be explicit that the act should not change the way in which LAs should best approach home educators.
More specifically, given that section 1.7 of the Guidance that accompanies the Children Act states that "the voice of children, young people and their families should be heard at all levels in order to inform local design and delivery of the arrangements ", these guidelines should clarify that since many home educating families expressly prefer to be left alone by the authorities and given that there is no reason to believe that these families are neglecting their duties towards their children, that this position should inform guidance and practice and further, that refusal to meet with the LA should not be taken as an indication of risk since it most often represents nothing other than the desire to maintain privacy and to get on with the business of education.
To expand, home educators' reasons for prefering to educate their children without interference from the state vary from respecting the preferences of the child to be educated without the intervention of outside forces who know little of their educational needs, to a desire to focus upon the educational needs of the child without having to deal with the bureaucracy caused by LA interference, to a political and/or philosophical preference for a culture of self-sufficiency, personal and civic responsibility and personal initiative, to a combination of these factors. The state should recognise in the guidelines that an insistence upon intrusion into the lives of home educators will destroy these valuable characteristics that can benefit society as a whole.
Further, the guidelines should be explicit that the act should not change the way in which LAs should best approach Home Educators. For example, although the Children's Commissioner have been tasked with asking children for their views, that the views of HE children often are that they want as little interference from the authorities as is humanely possible and indeed that they do not want to be solicited by the authorities for their views
The guidelines also need to be clear that parents remain principally responsible for meeting the five desired outcomes for children as stipulated in the Act. The LA and community only have a role to play when parents fail to try to meet these objectives.
The guidelines could also benefit from greater clarity over the matter of the best policy for LAs when approaching home educating families, the principle for which should be that of minimal proportionate intervention. The processes involved in this need to be laid out explicitly and sequentially. For example, it should be clear that an LA does not have a duty to have any contact with a family when it appears on balance of probabilities that an education is taking place. LAs are best to go through a gradual process of establishing contact and that they should only do so on the basis that there appears to be some need to do so. So for example, if there is a need to establish that on balance of probabilites that a suitable education is taking place, then the LA should communicate with the family in writing. Again, there need not necessarily be any necessity for further action at this point, see below, in response to Question 6.
An alternative draft which eliminates these problems could be produced by home educating organisations.
However, even in the situation of achieving a satisfactory set of guidelines, there appears to be no intention on the part of the DfES to enforce these guidelines, so whatever the outcome, we envisage that at least some local authorities are likely to continue to apply heavy-handed and inappropriate measures to home educators, and we would appreciate a standard procedure for addressing complaints raised by home educators.
In Scotland there has been Guidance for three years but home educators still suffer unacceptable treatment from local authorities who have no regard for the Guidance, (see Schoolhouse's response to the Scottish consultation here. This rightfully causes us to question the value of guidelines given that there are to be no sanctions. How can the English guidelines avoid the same fate?
re: section 1.1. The second use of the word "home" in the first sentence should be replaced with "other than at school."
re: section 1.2. The word "broad" should be replaced by "suitable".
re: section 1.4 "various" should read "any number of different". The sentence "the authority's primary interest should lie in the suitability of parents' educational provision" should be altered to make it clear that the authority does not have a duty to check for suitability, and only need to do so when there is good cause to suspect that a suitable education is not taking place. The list of reasons to home educate is not exhaustive and serves no useful purpose, given that the reason is irrelevant unless a parent is asking for help to stay in/return to school.
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2 Do you agree that the description of the law (paragraphs 2.1-2.3) relating to elective home education is accurate and clear?
Yes
No
Not Sure
No Response
Comments:
The overall tenor of this section is accurate.
re: section 2.4. It might be helpful for LAs if the word "full-time" was appended here with "(see section 3.11)". Also, there is no reason to emphasise "full" financial responsibility, since there is no reason in statute why LAs could not assist home educators financially, and indeed some already do so, through the provision of various services.
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3 Do you agree that the description of local authorities’ responsibilities (paragraphs 2.5-2.11) is accurate and helpful?
Yes
No
Not Sure
No Response
Comments:
At some point in this section, it would be helpful to remind LAs of their responsibilities under the ECHR legislation, with particular regard here to Article 8:
"Everyone has the right to respect for his private and family life, his home and his correspondence. There shall be no interference by a public authority with the exercise of this right except such as is in accordance with the law and is necessary in a democratic society in the interests of national security, public safety or the economic well-being of the country, for the prevention of disorder or crime, for the protection of health or morals, or for the protection of the rights and freedoms of others."
In other words, LAs do not have the right of access to the home without their being cause for belief that a child is at risk.
re: section 2.5. The second main point in this paragraph does not follow from the first. I would suggest that the sentence starting "Local authorities should recognise that there are many approaches..." contains a point of such significance that it merits a paragraph of its own.
re: section 2.5. It would be helpful to remove the phrase "all children should make reasonable progress" from a paragraph dealing with local authority responsibilities, since this appears to imply that it is the duty of LAs to monitor for progress. This is not in fact the case, since monitoring of progress is the responsibility of parents. Upon hearing of a HE child, the LEA need to ask themselves only if it is likely on balance that s/he is in receipt of a suitable education. This is not a monitoring or progress-reporting role. It is a snapshot glance and a judgement-call based on that snapshot. If that glance would suggest to a reasonable person that all is likely to be well with the educational provision and the parent appears to be law-abiding and aware of their legal S7 duty, it naturally extends from that the parent is appropriately attentive to the educational needs of their child according to his/her age, ability and aptitude and therefore progress *will* be suitable to that child. It is most certainly not for the LEA to monitor progress and nothing in the guidelines must even hint at that.
re: section 2.6. This could be worded more helpfully, since from the first part of the paragraph which states that LAs have a new duty to identify children missing from education, it would not necessarily be clear to an LA officer how this duty does not apply to children who are being educated at home, as stated in the last sentence. Perhaps the following could be included by way of further elucidation for LAs: "If a child comes to the notice of a local authority as not being registered at a school, the LA may ask the family about educational provision and upon receipt of information that a child is being educated at home, the LEA should assume, in the absense of evidence to the contrary, that this is indeed the case."
re: section 2.7. From the first sentence - "the quality of" and "on a routine basis" need removing. There is no statutory duty at all, routine or otherwise, to "monitor" quality or anything else about EHE.
re: section 2.8. It would be helpful if the order of 2.7 and 2.8 made it clearer that the enquiries mentioned in 2.8 should precede the process in 2.7.
It would also be helpful to make it clear that these enquiries are not bound by a 15 day minimum, and that conversely, there is no requirement for LAs to do as they frequently do, which is to require a response in a 15 day maximum time-span.
It would also be helpful if it were made clear that the enquiries mentioned in 2.8 may well never lead to the formal process in 437(1) of the Education Act 1996.
re: section 2.9. More emphasis could be made of the (b) part of 437(3). The LA should ask themselves whether, in the presence of a failure stated in 437(3)(a), they really believe that the only useful course of action is to put the child into school, ie: (b). Could the child receive a suitable education out of school with some more help, input, resources etc? The DfES should make it clear to the LAs that they have it within their legal and financial scope to assist the parent in their preferred choice of eduacational provision, and that they must use their funds and resources in non-discriminatory ways to benefit all children in their area. EHEers are not to be discriminated against because of their choice any more than persons choosing a particular religious education. After all, every child matters!
It would be helpful to add the information that the LA must notify the parent of their intention to issue an SAO before they actually do so and they must also let the parents know the school to be named in the notice.
re: section 2.11. We are pleased to note that Section 175(1) of the Education Act 2002 does not extend local authorities' functions. It might also be useful to clarify here that the Children Act 2004 also does not confer duties upon LAs to seek out problems (be they educational or other welfare issues) where there is no reason to believe that there are any and that home education, in itself, is not a reason to suspect that child welfare problems exist. There should be sufficient grounds for anxiety whether it be over the issue of educational provision or welfare, before the privacy of families is invaded.
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4 Do you agree that the section on contact with the local authority (paragraphs 3.4-3.7) is accurate and helpful?
Yes
No
Not Sure
No Response
Comments:
There is no room in the consultation to provide critique on sections 3.1 to 3.3. However, we feel that Section 3.1 should say that policy reviews must always be mindful of the law because it is at those times that documents may stray away from legislation and guidance. We also feel that it would be helpful to include HEors (both local and national) in these reviews.
Section 3.4. The first word in this section, ie: "many" should read "some" as this choice of word is unlikely to misrepresent the situation. Rather there is good reason to believe that the many HEors do not welcome contact with LAs, often because they believe that contact rarely benefits them substantially, and contains the possibility that their way of life may be profoundly affected in an non-consensual fashion.
It is inappropriate to single out a specific group of children, ie here: Gypsy, Roma and Traveller children. All children in England will come under the same legislation and guidelines and whilst it could be helpful when trying to ascertain whether an appropriate education is taking place to contact various organisations such as the Traveller Education Service, I do not feel that it is necessary or desirable to single out target groups in this manner, as it risks creating prejudice and ill-informed judgements.
It would be preferable instead to make it clear that an LA should not act in a prejudicial fashion. Somewhere in paragraphs 3.4 to 3.6, it should be clarified that income, housing, race, religion, sexual orientation, profession and educational qualifications are not in themselves grounds for reasonable concerns about ability to provide a suitable education.
re: section 3.5. The word "judgement" should read "decision on a balance of probabilities".
There is no legislation that allows LAs to directly approach the child so they have to accept that the parent will have respected their child and offered them whatever freedoms the parent sees fit to have with regard to access to the LA. It is necessary to realise that if LAs really do want to take the views of children seriously, that the child may not want to be approached by the LA in order to gather his views on whether or not he wants to meet with them. To insist on a meeting to gain consent for a meeting is to disregard the spirit of the Children Act 2004, which proposed that the views of children be taken seriously. If the LEA has good reason to think a child is not being heard and as a consequence of this, their welfare, educational or otherwise, is at risk, they may take action in the form of SAOs or referral to social services, but direct communication with the child cannot be required routinely.
re: section 3.6. "Ongoing" needs deleting - the "snapshot" is all that is required.
re: section 3.7. Replace the first word "many" with "some" (see explanation above) and remove a comma after "they may, " in second sentence.
This paragraph would need to be re-written in order to make it clear that the manner of presentation of evidence should not prejudice the decision about whether or not an appropriate education is taking place. As it stands, it could read as if parents who permit a home visit are likely to be viewed favorably. For example, the phrase "" if they choose not to meet" implies that they have chosen to present evidence in the way preferred by the LA, when all they have actually done is choose to present evidence in a perfectly legitimate fashion.
There are no consultation questions about sections 3.8 to 3.10.
re section 3.8 Citing this particular deregistration scenario is misleading because it suggests that parents need or should seek "guidance" from the school or LA about deregisration from school, whereas it is equally valid for there to be no first contact between parent and LA. In other words, the parent sends a letter of deregistration to the school, the school deregisters the child and informs LA, the LA assume (in the absence of reason to think otherwise) that the family are providing a suitable education. At the very least, it should be clear here that it is legitimate for the LA to take no further action at this point.
re: section 3.9 - wrong regulations. The second sentence "wish" should read "decide" as the former makes it look like they need permission and "intention" may more usefully read "decision". Returns from school to LA must be immediate. The last sentence should not be included, since there is no reason why an HE family will benefit from contact with their LA, and could create a situation where LAs assume that if a parent chooses not to inform them, that there are likely to be problems with educational provision, when it is much more likely that the family feel that they would benefit from being left alone for a while, without the heavy hand of a system that may have already failed them, bearing down on them.
re: section 3.10. This is nothing to do with deregistration so is under the wrong heading - it is about LEAs making initial contact with a parent. "Proposals" is not a useful word as it suggests the parent is putting something forward for approval before going ahead. Parents are not required, even when they are settled, to demonstrate all the characteristics of a suitable education. Parents are only expected (by Donaldson) though are not required by statute, to respond to an LA enquiry with enough information to satisfy them that there is no appearance of a S7 failure. Saying a reasonable timescale should be agreed is risky - agreed with and by whom and what is reasonable?
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5 Do you agree that the section on providing a full-time education (paragraphs 3.11-3.14) – and in particular, the characteristics of provision (paragraph 3.13) – is accurate and helpful?
Yes
No
Not Sure
No Response
Comments:
re section 3.11. It would be preferable to explain that full-time is not defined and that it is for a parent to judge whether the amount of time their child spends in education is sufficient to provide them with an education suitable to age, ability and aptitude. ie full-time is a personal measurement. The idea of so much one-to-one contact risks creating the impression that home educated children must be hot-housed and/or personally tutored.
There should be clarification accompanying the list of that which HE parents are not required to provide, that LAs must make all of this information clear to parents when they first establish contact with one another. This is important since LAs often take advantage of those who are new to HE, and for example, do not let these families know that they are not required to teach the National Curriculum.
re: section 3.12. LAs MUST consider ANY info from parents in ANY format, not just a "wide" range. The last sentence is too limited/prescriptive and needs dumping.
re: section 3.13. It appears here that the LA they are trying to write a definition of "suitable". A list of criteria as can be found at this point is likely to become a requirement which will be cited in case law some time in the future. Therefore any list has a significant potential to alter the legal situation for HEors and raises expectations for certain inclusions that are neither legally required or educationally necessary.
re: section 3.14. The header, for 3.11 to 3.14 is "Providing a full-time education". However it is mostly about the content of that education and 3.14 is about sanctions when their list in 3.13 is not seen to be completely adhered to. It is all about much more scrutiny than is legally required. It assumes that one unfulfilled bullet point is good reason to suspect a section 7 failure, so those bullet points would need to be VERY tight.
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6 Do you agree that the section on developing relationships (section 4) is useful?
Yes
No
Not Sure
No Response
Comments:
re: sections 4.1. Assisting the development of relationships between LAs and HEors should not be the central purpose of the guidelines, since these are by no means necessarily essential to the successful education of a child. The main purpose of the document should be to ensure legal compliance and proper treatment by LAs in the service of the provision of a suitable education to home educated children.
Whilst section 10 of the Children Act 2004 states that each children's services authority must make arrangements to promote co-operation between the authority, each of the authority's relevant partners and such other persons or bodies as the authority consider appropriate, being persons or bodies of any nature who exercise functions or are engaged in activities in relation to children in the authority's area, there is no clear duty that LAs should make arrangements to promote relationships between themselves and HEors, nor is there an equivalent duty placed upon home educators to make arrangements to build effective relationships with LAs, nor could it be stipulated that there is a duty to have these "co-operative" relationships and although this much is stated in section 4.2, section 4.1 could easily be taken to imply the opposite and should therefore be re-written so as to make it clear that HEors and LAs do not have to develop a relationship.
This is important to stress at this point because it is the case that many home educators do not want any relationship with the LA, but would not want to be judged negatively for this. They simply prefer to maintain the privacy of their families in the knowledge that they are sufficiently well-supported without the assistance of the state, they are not doing anything illegal and therefore do not warrant any investigation by authorities. LAs need to realise that they act as public servants and respond only in situations of need. They should not insist upon establishing relationships as to do so (even if very politely), is to destroy the genuine possibility of an equal, co-operative and trusting relationship.
re: section 4.3. I would suggest removing the phrase "especially those who have other children attending school", as it is very likely to lead to false assumptions about the style of education provided. For example, many parents provide a very structured form of education without ever having sent any of their children to school. Other parents with some schooling children provide a more child-centred form of education where the parent responds to the enquiries of the child.
re: section 4.4. It states: "(see paragraphs 3.12 to 3.15)." These section numbers probably refer to 3.12 and 3.13 which contains the list (see critique re: 3.13 above).
re: section 4.6. Given that the header here is "Providing information for parents", only the first sentence is required here. The rest has nothing to do with providing information and should be included in the following section 4.7 which deals with "Contact with parents and children". It would be helpful to make it clear that it is appropriate for LAs either to leave HE families alone or to be in occasional or if needed regular written contact with HE families and that they only need invite HE parents and children to a meeting in the situation that they have due cause to do so, and that this may be a one-off meeting, if that is all that is required.
After "future contact", insert "if any" to highlight the fact that ongoing contact is not a legal requirement. In addition, it needs to be clear that it is the parent's prerogative to offer the child access to the LA if they wish, not the LAs.
Further, how are the authorities going to satisfy themselves that the child has been given this opportunity to attend the meeting, other than by meeting with the child themselves? If this is the intention here, it should be clear that many children have no desire to meet with the LA whether it be to discuss their education, or to discuss whether they want to meet with the LA to discuss their education.
re: section 4.7. Singling out home visits and using weighted words like "strong indication" gives undue preference to the HV option. This weighting should be changed to show clearly how the LA can act in appropriate and proportionate fashion. It is actually the case that many children will not respond at all well to the knowledge that a stranger will come into their homes to judge them on their whole way of life, with that stranger having the power to remove in it's entirety. To think that a home visit is necessarily the best way to judge the educational provision is to fail to understand the way in which these visits are often perceived by HEors, who frequently find them traumatic and undermining. In addition, many children who HE have also suffered considerably as a result of over-zealous officials in schools, and intrusion into the home of such children is likely to be more damaging than helpful. LA officials need to be made aware of this problem in these guidelines. It is the case that despite the guidelines, but with no power to enforce them, HEors will still remain on tenterhooks to find out whether or not their LA official will behave appropriately and whether or not their lives are to be altered profoundly, in a way which they are likely to believe is not in the best interests their children. Therefore, as a principle of good practice, it would be preferable if LAs practiced the principle of proportionate minimal intervention or only provided services when they are requested to do so by HEors.
re: section 4.8. Together with section 4.7, this paragraph appears to be approaching the problem of LA contact from the wrong angle. It would be better to state the principle of proportionate minimal intervention at the beginning, stating that LAs do not have a duty to do anything in the situation that it appears on balance of probabilities that an education is being provided and that in order to establish this, written communication is an appropriate measure and that more or ongoing communication is only necessitated should there be concerns of one sort or another, and that meetings with HE parents and children are only necessitated as a last resort, when there is some basis for concern.
There should be clarity about 'audi alteram partem' and no weight or preference allowed. Then there should be a section that says that LEAs MUST NOT state, request or insist upon any preferred method of providing info and that to do so in particular for HVs is a violation of a family's human rights. They should be reassured that in those exceptional circumstances when there is genuine concern that a child is at risk there are already SS procedures available and if there is real warranted concern that the child's education is not suitable, they have section 437 Education Act to call upon.
re: section 4.9. Whilst the welfare and protection of all children is unquestionably paramount, it is not necessarily clear that it is the automatic responsibility of "the whole community". It is only clear that morally it is the parents who have automatic and primary responsibility for the welfare and protection of children. It is only in the situation that a parent fails to meet this responsibility that the wider community assumes some responsibilities in these areas. There should be a clear statement that LEAs should not try and do not need to manipulate education law as a means of addressing welfare concerns, as social services already have adequate tools at their disposal.
re: section 4.9. The first sentence needs to be more clearly stated in order to avoid some potentially erroneous inferences. So whilst it is clear that the welfare of children is of paramount concern to the whole community, it should be clearly stated that welfare of children is not primarily the responsibility of community. Instead it should be clear here that parents have the primary responsibility for ensuring the welfare of children. The state only has a duty to deal with the welfare of children when the parents failed to meet this responsibility.
It would be helpful to make it clear that elective home education is not, of itself, a reason for welfare concerns and that the duties conferred upon LAs in the Children Act 2004 do not extend their rights to intrude upon the privacy of families. It would also be helpful to stipulate that upon receipt of information that a child is educated at home, an LA would be wise to make written enquiries about the nature of that education, and only pursue the matter further if there are other reasons to think that there may be a problem.
The Children Act gives much credence to the idea that the views of children should be listened to, taken into account, and as far as possible, acted upon. It is the case that many home educated children (see Hands up 4 Home Ed, by way of an example), expressly do not want to see LA personnel, and this would in all probability include an interview to talk about whether or not they wanted to see such people.) LAs should try to respect the spirit of the Children Act when it comes to taking the point of view of children seriously, and ask themselves at what point they perpetuate rather than solve the problem of abuse.
re: section 4.10. It should not be made to seem as if it is a requirement for HE parents to take up references, although this may be suggested as good practice.
re: section 4.11. "Will wish to" should read "should". Delete "further develop relationships" .
re: section 4.12. Ofsted does not always appear to understand the legislative framework as it relates to LAs and home educators. For example, Ofsted has been known to make suggestions for LA action that is not in accordance with the legal position. It would therefore be helpful to clarify that Ofsted will be required to act in accordance with the guidelines.
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7 a) Are the suggested resources in section 5 and appendix 2 useful?
Yes
No
Not Sure
No Response
Comments:
re: paragraph 5.1. The Home Education leaflet in the Parent Centre link would need to be updated to bring it in line with the proposed guidelines, since there would otherwise be some contradictions between the two documents which could result in confusion for home educating parents who are not familiar with legal requirements and best practice.
re: paragraph 5.5. We would like to suggest that LAs should provide information about Connexions to elective home educators, rather than providing information about EHEors to Connexions, since this would allow the families to choose whether or not to use the service, and would minimise unnecessary waste of public money when Connexions chase up HE teens who would rather not have contact with them.
The information at the Advisory Centre for Education, www.ace-ed.org.uk is inaccurate and needs correcting.
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7 b) Should any other contacts be included?
Yes
No
Not Sure
No Response
Comments:
Open University
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8 Please use this space for any other comments you wish to make about the guidelines
Answer:
re: paragraph 2.4. This accurately describes the current situation in saying that parents "must assume full financial responsibility, including bearing the cost of any public examinations", but it could be helpful if LAs were to consider assisting EHEors with courses and funding for public examinations, as has been happening in some authorities. It would also be helpful if LAs could designate a local school or college as an examination centre that would routinely accept external candidates.
re: paragraph 3.15. It is not the case that a statement of Special Educational Need must (SEN) must remain in force in the situation that a child is EHE. The statement asserting that it should, must be removed. Instead the guidelines should elaborate that parents may choose to ask for the statement to be ceased, and that LAs should not unreasonably refuse to do this.
There should also be a clear explanation that parents should not be required to make the provision specified in the statement, since these provisions were specified for a school environment and may well be inappropriate for the home setting.
Also and in relation to the above paragragh, section 3.15 should be make it clear that a statement of SEN does not override paragraph 3.11.
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Criticisms of this response are very likely to be gratefully received, and help needed with the SEN section!
Please feel very free to use any answers below as inspiration for your responses: the more responses the DfES receive from HEors the better, whether these be from individual home educators or local groups to national organisations. We cannot let this process be co-opted by the LAs. The DfES need to know just how strongly we feel about the way we are approached by the authorities and that we do demand decent treatment. If we do manage a sufficient number of responses from HEors and the DfES simply choose to ignore us, we will go to the press and complain like fury. We will go back to the Better Regulation Executive and start shouting all over again, but first we must make sure that our voice is heard. Please do put in a response!
Many points in the draft guidelines are not covered in questions in the consultation. Important criticisms of the neglected points are required. When this is the case, these criticisms have been included in the consultation question that most closely covers the section in the guidelines.
Before you look down, and panic at the screeds below, I can summarise by saying that I think there are two main areas that HEors need to tackle in their responses. These are:
1. that the guidelines do not make reference to any possible consequences of the Children Act 2004. We need to make it explicit in the guidelines that the Act should not change the way in which the LAs would be best to approach us. For example, we might do well to say that although people like the Children's Commissioner have been tasked with asking our children for their views, that the views of these children is most often that they want as little interference from the authorities as possible and furthermore, that they don't want to be solicited by the authorities for their views. The guidelines also need to be clear that parents remain principally responsible for meeting the five desired outcomes for children as stipulated in the act. The LA and community only have a role to play when parents fail to try to meet these objectives.
2. We also need to require the guidelines to be explicit and precise about how LAs are best to approach us. At the moment, the guidelines are not clear on the principle and practice. My feeling is that LAs should adopt the principle of minimal proportionate intervention, starting from the point that if, on balance of probabilities, it appears that a suitable education is being provided, that it is completely acceptable for an LA to leave a family completely alone. They can move through the policy of one-off written communications, through to more extended written communications, through to requests for meetings, but all of this should only be done in the situation that it is deemed that there is cause for concern and that further communication is therefore necessary. We do not want to "HAVE" to have a relationship with the LA, a requirement that in itself would seem to preclude the possibility of it being a good one.
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Consultation Questions
1 Do you agree that it is helpful for the DfES to issue guidelines to local authorities?
Yes
No
Not Sure
No Response
Comments:
It would rather depend on the final nature of the guidelines. If the guidelines accurately interpret the law and demonstrate an understanding of the nature of home education, they are likely to be helpful.
As it stands, some parts of the guidelines are repetitive and/or require tightening to reduce ambiguity. For example, the current draft does little to reassure local authorities about the limits of their duties and the limits of the expectations upon them, particularly with regard to the appropriate way to implement the Children Act 2004. The guidelines should be explicit that the act should not change the way in which LAs should best approach home educators.
More specifically, given that section 1.7 of the Guidance that accompanies the Children Act states that "the voice of children, young people and their families should be heard at all levels in order to inform local design and delivery of the arrangements ", these guidelines should clarify that since many home educating families expressly prefer to be left alone by the authorities and given that there is no reason to believe that these families are neglecting their duties towards their children, that this position should inform guidance and practice and further, that refusal to meet with the LA should not be taken as an indication of risk since it most often represents nothing other than the desire to maintain privacy and to get on with the business of education.
To expand, home educators' reasons for prefering to educate their children without interference from the state vary from respecting the preferences of the child to be educated without the intervention of outside forces who know little of their educational needs, to a desire to focus upon the educational needs of the child without having to deal with the bureaucracy caused by LA interference, to a political and/or philosophical preference for a culture of self-sufficiency, personal and civic responsibility and personal initiative, to a combination of these factors. The state should recognise in the guidelines that an insistence upon intrusion into the lives of home educators will destroy these valuable characteristics that can benefit society as a whole.
Further, the guidelines should be explicit that the act should not change the way in which LAs should best approach Home Educators. For example, although the Children's Commissioner have been tasked with asking children for their views, that the views of HE children often are that they want as little interference from the authorities as is humanely possible and indeed that they do not want to be solicited by the authorities for their views
The guidelines also need to be clear that parents remain principally responsible for meeting the five desired outcomes for children as stipulated in the Act. The LA and community only have a role to play when parents fail to try to meet these objectives.
The guidelines could also benefit from greater clarity over the matter of the best policy for LAs when approaching home educating families, the principle for which should be that of minimal proportionate intervention. The processes involved in this need to be laid out explicitly and sequentially. For example, it should be clear that an LA does not have a duty to have any contact with a family when it appears on balance of probabilities that an education is taking place. LAs are best to go through a gradual process of establishing contact and that they should only do so on the basis that there appears to be some need to do so. So for example, if there is a need to establish that on balance of probabilites that a suitable education is taking place, then the LA should communicate with the family in writing. Again, there need not necessarily be any necessity for further action at this point, see below, in response to Question 6.
An alternative draft which eliminates these problems could be produced by home educating organisations.
However, even in the situation of achieving a satisfactory set of guidelines, there appears to be no intention on the part of the DfES to enforce these guidelines, so whatever the outcome, we envisage that at least some local authorities are likely to continue to apply heavy-handed and inappropriate measures to home educators, and we would appreciate a standard procedure for addressing complaints raised by home educators.
In Scotland there has been Guidance for three years but home educators still suffer unacceptable treatment from local authorities who have no regard for the Guidance, (see Schoolhouse's response to the Scottish consultation here. This rightfully causes us to question the value of guidelines given that there are to be no sanctions. How can the English guidelines avoid the same fate?
re: section 1.1. The second use of the word "home" in the first sentence should be replaced with "other than at school."
re: section 1.2. The word "broad" should be replaced by "suitable".
re: section 1.4 "various" should read "any number of different". The sentence "the authority's primary interest should lie in the suitability of parents' educational provision" should be altered to make it clear that the authority does not have a duty to check for suitability, and only need to do so when there is good cause to suspect that a suitable education is not taking place. The list of reasons to home educate is not exhaustive and serves no useful purpose, given that the reason is irrelevant unless a parent is asking for help to stay in/return to school.
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2 Do you agree that the description of the law (paragraphs 2.1-2.3) relating to elective home education is accurate and clear?
Yes
No
Not Sure
No Response
Comments:
The overall tenor of this section is accurate.
re: section 2.4. It might be helpful for LAs if the word "full-time" was appended here with "(see section 3.11)". Also, there is no reason to emphasise "full" financial responsibility, since there is no reason in statute why LAs could not assist home educators financially, and indeed some already do so, through the provision of various services.
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3 Do you agree that the description of local authorities’ responsibilities (paragraphs 2.5-2.11) is accurate and helpful?
Yes
No
Not Sure
No Response
Comments:
At some point in this section, it would be helpful to remind LAs of their responsibilities under the ECHR legislation, with particular regard here to Article 8:
"Everyone has the right to respect for his private and family life, his home and his correspondence. There shall be no interference by a public authority with the exercise of this right except such as is in accordance with the law and is necessary in a democratic society in the interests of national security, public safety or the economic well-being of the country, for the prevention of disorder or crime, for the protection of health or morals, or for the protection of the rights and freedoms of others."
In other words, LAs do not have the right of access to the home without their being cause for belief that a child is at risk.
re: section 2.5. The second main point in this paragraph does not follow from the first. I would suggest that the sentence starting "Local authorities should recognise that there are many approaches..." contains a point of such significance that it merits a paragraph of its own.
re: section 2.5. It would be helpful to remove the phrase "all children should make reasonable progress" from a paragraph dealing with local authority responsibilities, since this appears to imply that it is the duty of LAs to monitor for progress. This is not in fact the case, since monitoring of progress is the responsibility of parents. Upon hearing of a HE child, the LEA need to ask themselves only if it is likely on balance that s/he is in receipt of a suitable education. This is not a monitoring or progress-reporting role. It is a snapshot glance and a judgement-call based on that snapshot. If that glance would suggest to a reasonable person that all is likely to be well with the educational provision and the parent appears to be law-abiding and aware of their legal S7 duty, it naturally extends from that the parent is appropriately attentive to the educational needs of their child according to his/her age, ability and aptitude and therefore progress *will* be suitable to that child. It is most certainly not for the LEA to monitor progress and nothing in the guidelines must even hint at that.
re: section 2.6. This could be worded more helpfully, since from the first part of the paragraph which states that LAs have a new duty to identify children missing from education, it would not necessarily be clear to an LA officer how this duty does not apply to children who are being educated at home, as stated in the last sentence. Perhaps the following could be included by way of further elucidation for LAs: "If a child comes to the notice of a local authority as not being registered at a school, the LA may ask the family about educational provision and upon receipt of information that a child is being educated at home, the LEA should assume, in the absense of evidence to the contrary, that this is indeed the case."
re: section 2.7. From the first sentence - "the quality of" and "on a routine basis" need removing. There is no statutory duty at all, routine or otherwise, to "monitor" quality or anything else about EHE.
re: section 2.8. It would be helpful if the order of 2.7 and 2.8 made it clearer that the enquiries mentioned in 2.8 should precede the process in 2.7.
It would also be helpful to make it clear that these enquiries are not bound by a 15 day minimum, and that conversely, there is no requirement for LAs to do as they frequently do, which is to require a response in a 15 day maximum time-span.
It would also be helpful if it were made clear that the enquiries mentioned in 2.8 may well never lead to the formal process in 437(1) of the Education Act 1996.
re: section 2.9. More emphasis could be made of the (b) part of 437(3). The LA should ask themselves whether, in the presence of a failure stated in 437(3)(a), they really believe that the only useful course of action is to put the child into school, ie: (b). Could the child receive a suitable education out of school with some more help, input, resources etc? The DfES should make it clear to the LAs that they have it within their legal and financial scope to assist the parent in their preferred choice of eduacational provision, and that they must use their funds and resources in non-discriminatory ways to benefit all children in their area. EHEers are not to be discriminated against because of their choice any more than persons choosing a particular religious education. After all, every child matters!
It would be helpful to add the information that the LA must notify the parent of their intention to issue an SAO before they actually do so and they must also let the parents know the school to be named in the notice.
re: section 2.11. We are pleased to note that Section 175(1) of the Education Act 2002 does not extend local authorities' functions. It might also be useful to clarify here that the Children Act 2004 also does not confer duties upon LAs to seek out problems (be they educational or other welfare issues) where there is no reason to believe that there are any and that home education, in itself, is not a reason to suspect that child welfare problems exist. There should be sufficient grounds for anxiety whether it be over the issue of educational provision or welfare, before the privacy of families is invaded.
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4 Do you agree that the section on contact with the local authority (paragraphs 3.4-3.7) is accurate and helpful?
Yes
No
Not Sure
No Response
Comments:
There is no room in the consultation to provide critique on sections 3.1 to 3.3. However, we feel that Section 3.1 should say that policy reviews must always be mindful of the law because it is at those times that documents may stray away from legislation and guidance. We also feel that it would be helpful to include HEors (both local and national) in these reviews.
Section 3.4. The first word in this section, ie: "many" should read "some" as this choice of word is unlikely to misrepresent the situation. Rather there is good reason to believe that the many HEors do not welcome contact with LAs, often because they believe that contact rarely benefits them substantially, and contains the possibility that their way of life may be profoundly affected in an non-consensual fashion.
It is inappropriate to single out a specific group of children, ie here: Gypsy, Roma and Traveller children. All children in England will come under the same legislation and guidelines and whilst it could be helpful when trying to ascertain whether an appropriate education is taking place to contact various organisations such as the Traveller Education Service, I do not feel that it is necessary or desirable to single out target groups in this manner, as it risks creating prejudice and ill-informed judgements.
It would be preferable instead to make it clear that an LA should not act in a prejudicial fashion. Somewhere in paragraphs 3.4 to 3.6, it should be clarified that income, housing, race, religion, sexual orientation, profession and educational qualifications are not in themselves grounds for reasonable concerns about ability to provide a suitable education.
re: section 3.5. The word "judgement" should read "decision on a balance of probabilities".
There is no legislation that allows LAs to directly approach the child so they have to accept that the parent will have respected their child and offered them whatever freedoms the parent sees fit to have with regard to access to the LA. It is necessary to realise that if LAs really do want to take the views of children seriously, that the child may not want to be approached by the LA in order to gather his views on whether or not he wants to meet with them. To insist on a meeting to gain consent for a meeting is to disregard the spirit of the Children Act 2004, which proposed that the views of children be taken seriously. If the LEA has good reason to think a child is not being heard and as a consequence of this, their welfare, educational or otherwise, is at risk, they may take action in the form of SAOs or referral to social services, but direct communication with the child cannot be required routinely.
re: section 3.6. "Ongoing" needs deleting - the "snapshot" is all that is required.
re: section 3.7. Replace the first word "many" with "some" (see explanation above) and remove a comma after "they may, " in second sentence.
This paragraph would need to be re-written in order to make it clear that the manner of presentation of evidence should not prejudice the decision about whether or not an appropriate education is taking place. As it stands, it could read as if parents who permit a home visit are likely to be viewed favorably. For example, the phrase "" if they choose not to meet" implies that they have chosen to present evidence in the way preferred by the LA, when all they have actually done is choose to present evidence in a perfectly legitimate fashion.
There are no consultation questions about sections 3.8 to 3.10.
re section 3.8 Citing this particular deregistration scenario is misleading because it suggests that parents need or should seek "guidance" from the school or LA about deregisration from school, whereas it is equally valid for there to be no first contact between parent and LA. In other words, the parent sends a letter of deregistration to the school, the school deregisters the child and informs LA, the LA assume (in the absence of reason to think otherwise) that the family are providing a suitable education. At the very least, it should be clear here that it is legitimate for the LA to take no further action at this point.
re: section 3.9 - wrong regulations. The second sentence "wish" should read "decide" as the former makes it look like they need permission and "intention" may more usefully read "decision". Returns from school to LA must be immediate. The last sentence should not be included, since there is no reason why an HE family will benefit from contact with their LA, and could create a situation where LAs assume that if a parent chooses not to inform them, that there are likely to be problems with educational provision, when it is much more likely that the family feel that they would benefit from being left alone for a while, without the heavy hand of a system that may have already failed them, bearing down on them.
re: section 3.10. This is nothing to do with deregistration so is under the wrong heading - it is about LEAs making initial contact with a parent. "Proposals" is not a useful word as it suggests the parent is putting something forward for approval before going ahead. Parents are not required, even when they are settled, to demonstrate all the characteristics of a suitable education. Parents are only expected (by Donaldson) though are not required by statute, to respond to an LA enquiry with enough information to satisfy them that there is no appearance of a S7 failure. Saying a reasonable timescale should be agreed is risky - agreed with and by whom and what is reasonable?
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5 Do you agree that the section on providing a full-time education (paragraphs 3.11-3.14) – and in particular, the characteristics of provision (paragraph 3.13) – is accurate and helpful?
Yes
No
Not Sure
No Response
Comments:
re section 3.11. It would be preferable to explain that full-time is not defined and that it is for a parent to judge whether the amount of time their child spends in education is sufficient to provide them with an education suitable to age, ability and aptitude. ie full-time is a personal measurement. The idea of so much one-to-one contact risks creating the impression that home educated children must be hot-housed and/or personally tutored.
There should be clarification accompanying the list of that which HE parents are not required to provide, that LAs must make all of this information clear to parents when they first establish contact with one another. This is important since LAs often take advantage of those who are new to HE, and for example, do not let these families know that they are not required to teach the National Curriculum.
re: section 3.12. LAs MUST consider ANY info from parents in ANY format, not just a "wide" range. The last sentence is too limited/prescriptive and needs dumping.
re: section 3.13. It appears here that the LA they are trying to write a definition of "suitable". A list of criteria as can be found at this point is likely to become a requirement which will be cited in case law some time in the future. Therefore any list has a significant potential to alter the legal situation for HEors and raises expectations for certain inclusions that are neither legally required or educationally necessary.
re: section 3.14. The header, for 3.11 to 3.14 is "Providing a full-time education". However it is mostly about the content of that education and 3.14 is about sanctions when their list in 3.13 is not seen to be completely adhered to. It is all about much more scrutiny than is legally required. It assumes that one unfulfilled bullet point is good reason to suspect a section 7 failure, so those bullet points would need to be VERY tight.
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6 Do you agree that the section on developing relationships (section 4) is useful?
Yes
No
Not Sure
No Response
Comments:
re: sections 4.1. Assisting the development of relationships between LAs and HEors should not be the central purpose of the guidelines, since these are by no means necessarily essential to the successful education of a child. The main purpose of the document should be to ensure legal compliance and proper treatment by LAs in the service of the provision of a suitable education to home educated children.
Whilst section 10 of the Children Act 2004 states that each children's services authority must make arrangements to promote co-operation between the authority, each of the authority's relevant partners and such other persons or bodies as the authority consider appropriate, being persons or bodies of any nature who exercise functions or are engaged in activities in relation to children in the authority's area, there is no clear duty that LAs should make arrangements to promote relationships between themselves and HEors, nor is there an equivalent duty placed upon home educators to make arrangements to build effective relationships with LAs, nor could it be stipulated that there is a duty to have these "co-operative" relationships and although this much is stated in section 4.2, section 4.1 could easily be taken to imply the opposite and should therefore be re-written so as to make it clear that HEors and LAs do not have to develop a relationship.
This is important to stress at this point because it is the case that many home educators do not want any relationship with the LA, but would not want to be judged negatively for this. They simply prefer to maintain the privacy of their families in the knowledge that they are sufficiently well-supported without the assistance of the state, they are not doing anything illegal and therefore do not warrant any investigation by authorities. LAs need to realise that they act as public servants and respond only in situations of need. They should not insist upon establishing relationships as to do so (even if very politely), is to destroy the genuine possibility of an equal, co-operative and trusting relationship.
re: section 4.3. I would suggest removing the phrase "especially those who have other children attending school", as it is very likely to lead to false assumptions about the style of education provided. For example, many parents provide a very structured form of education without ever having sent any of their children to school. Other parents with some schooling children provide a more child-centred form of education where the parent responds to the enquiries of the child.
re: section 4.4. It states: "(see paragraphs 3.12 to 3.15)." These section numbers probably refer to 3.12 and 3.13 which contains the list (see critique re: 3.13 above).
re: section 4.6. Given that the header here is "Providing information for parents", only the first sentence is required here. The rest has nothing to do with providing information and should be included in the following section 4.7 which deals with "Contact with parents and children". It would be helpful to make it clear that it is appropriate for LAs either to leave HE families alone or to be in occasional or if needed regular written contact with HE families and that they only need invite HE parents and children to a meeting in the situation that they have due cause to do so, and that this may be a one-off meeting, if that is all that is required.
After "future contact", insert "if any" to highlight the fact that ongoing contact is not a legal requirement. In addition, it needs to be clear that it is the parent's prerogative to offer the child access to the LA if they wish, not the LAs.
Further, how are the authorities going to satisfy themselves that the child has been given this opportunity to attend the meeting, other than by meeting with the child themselves? If this is the intention here, it should be clear that many children have no desire to meet with the LA whether it be to discuss their education, or to discuss whether they want to meet with the LA to discuss their education.
re: section 4.7. Singling out home visits and using weighted words like "strong indication" gives undue preference to the HV option. This weighting should be changed to show clearly how the LA can act in appropriate and proportionate fashion. It is actually the case that many children will not respond at all well to the knowledge that a stranger will come into their homes to judge them on their whole way of life, with that stranger having the power to remove in it's entirety. To think that a home visit is necessarily the best way to judge the educational provision is to fail to understand the way in which these visits are often perceived by HEors, who frequently find them traumatic and undermining. In addition, many children who HE have also suffered considerably as a result of over-zealous officials in schools, and intrusion into the home of such children is likely to be more damaging than helpful. LA officials need to be made aware of this problem in these guidelines. It is the case that despite the guidelines, but with no power to enforce them, HEors will still remain on tenterhooks to find out whether or not their LA official will behave appropriately and whether or not their lives are to be altered profoundly, in a way which they are likely to believe is not in the best interests their children. Therefore, as a principle of good practice, it would be preferable if LAs practiced the principle of proportionate minimal intervention or only provided services when they are requested to do so by HEors.
re: section 4.8. Together with section 4.7, this paragraph appears to be approaching the problem of LA contact from the wrong angle. It would be better to state the principle of proportionate minimal intervention at the beginning, stating that LAs do not have a duty to do anything in the situation that it appears on balance of probabilities that an education is being provided and that in order to establish this, written communication is an appropriate measure and that more or ongoing communication is only necessitated should there be concerns of one sort or another, and that meetings with HE parents and children are only necessitated as a last resort, when there is some basis for concern.
There should be clarity about 'audi alteram partem' and no weight or preference allowed. Then there should be a section that says that LEAs MUST NOT state, request or insist upon any preferred method of providing info and that to do so in particular for HVs is a violation of a family's human rights. They should be reassured that in those exceptional circumstances when there is genuine concern that a child is at risk there are already SS procedures available and if there is real warranted concern that the child's education is not suitable, they have section 437 Education Act to call upon.
re: section 4.9. Whilst the welfare and protection of all children is unquestionably paramount, it is not necessarily clear that it is the automatic responsibility of "the whole community". It is only clear that morally it is the parents who have automatic and primary responsibility for the welfare and protection of children. It is only in the situation that a parent fails to meet this responsibility that the wider community assumes some responsibilities in these areas. There should be a clear statement that LEAs should not try and do not need to manipulate education law as a means of addressing welfare concerns, as social services already have adequate tools at their disposal.
re: section 4.9. The first sentence needs to be more clearly stated in order to avoid some potentially erroneous inferences. So whilst it is clear that the welfare of children is of paramount concern to the whole community, it should be clearly stated that welfare of children is not primarily the responsibility of community. Instead it should be clear here that parents have the primary responsibility for ensuring the welfare of children. The state only has a duty to deal with the welfare of children when the parents failed to meet this responsibility.
It would be helpful to make it clear that elective home education is not, of itself, a reason for welfare concerns and that the duties conferred upon LAs in the Children Act 2004 do not extend their rights to intrude upon the privacy of families. It would also be helpful to stipulate that upon receipt of information that a child is educated at home, an LA would be wise to make written enquiries about the nature of that education, and only pursue the matter further if there are other reasons to think that there may be a problem.
The Children Act gives much credence to the idea that the views of children should be listened to, taken into account, and as far as possible, acted upon. It is the case that many home educated children (see Hands up 4 Home Ed, by way of an example), expressly do not want to see LA personnel, and this would in all probability include an interview to talk about whether or not they wanted to see such people.) LAs should try to respect the spirit of the Children Act when it comes to taking the point of view of children seriously, and ask themselves at what point they perpetuate rather than solve the problem of abuse.
re: section 4.10. It should not be made to seem as if it is a requirement for HE parents to take up references, although this may be suggested as good practice.
re: section 4.11. "Will wish to" should read "should". Delete "further develop relationships" .
re: section 4.12. Ofsted does not always appear to understand the legislative framework as it relates to LAs and home educators. For example, Ofsted has been known to make suggestions for LA action that is not in accordance with the legal position. It would therefore be helpful to clarify that Ofsted will be required to act in accordance with the guidelines.
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7 a) Are the suggested resources in section 5 and appendix 2 useful?
Yes
No
Not Sure
No Response
Comments:
re: paragraph 5.1. The Home Education leaflet in the Parent Centre link would need to be updated to bring it in line with the proposed guidelines, since there would otherwise be some contradictions between the two documents which could result in confusion for home educating parents who are not familiar with legal requirements and best practice.
re: paragraph 5.5. We would like to suggest that LAs should provide information about Connexions to elective home educators, rather than providing information about EHEors to Connexions, since this would allow the families to choose whether or not to use the service, and would minimise unnecessary waste of public money when Connexions chase up HE teens who would rather not have contact with them.
The information at the Advisory Centre for Education, www.ace-ed.org.uk is inaccurate and needs correcting.
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7 b) Should any other contacts be included?
Yes
No
Not Sure
No Response
Comments:
Open University
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8 Please use this space for any other comments you wish to make about the guidelines
Answer:
re: paragraph 2.4. This accurately describes the current situation in saying that parents "must assume full financial responsibility, including bearing the cost of any public examinations", but it could be helpful if LAs were to consider assisting EHEors with courses and funding for public examinations, as has been happening in some authorities. It would also be helpful if LAs could designate a local school or college as an examination centre that would routinely accept external candidates.
re: paragraph 3.15. It is not the case that a statement of Special Educational Need must (SEN) must remain in force in the situation that a child is EHE. The statement asserting that it should, must be removed. Instead the guidelines should elaborate that parents may choose to ask for the statement to be ceased, and that LAs should not unreasonably refuse to do this.
There should also be a clear explanation that parents should not be required to make the provision specified in the statement, since these provisions were specified for a school environment and may well be inappropriate for the home setting.
Also and in relation to the above paragragh, section 3.15 should be make it clear that a statement of SEN does not override paragraph 3.11.
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Sunday, May 27, 2007
Mike's Home Education Journal
Mike Fortune Wood's Home Education Journal arrived in the post yesterday. I cannot recommend it highly enough. One article alone, "Can children's rights be a bad thing?" by Mike himself would make it worth the cover price and will certainly be informing my response to the DfES consultation on Elective Home Education - (further draft responses added here.)
Fiona Nicholson gives us an EO local contact insider's view of deregistration from school, revealing the motivations underpinning the school's actions - which of course has next to nothing to do with the welfare or educational needs of a child. (So much for taking children's views into account!)
Fiona Nicholson gives us an EO local contact insider's view of deregistration from school, revealing the motivations underpinning the school's actions - which of course has next to nothing to do with the welfare or educational needs of a child. (So much for taking children's views into account!)
Saturday, May 26, 2007
Free Training for Under 25s
Via Freedom for Children to Grow, we hear that there will be free training for the under 25s.
"The entitlement will encourage young adults to continue studying until they achieve the equivalent of 2 A levels and make sure they can get the qualifications to improve their life chances, social mobility and contribute to the economy.
"We need to recognise that many young people continue their initial education into their early twenties. It is important that we support them and help them succeed and progress on to higher education where they can. "
The new entitlement will be available from August through colleges of further education and other providers of high quality education and training who have satisfied the Learning and Skills Council quality assurance process.
"The entitlement will encourage young adults to continue studying until they achieve the equivalent of 2 A levels and make sure they can get the qualifications to improve their life chances, social mobility and contribute to the economy.
"We need to recognise that many young people continue their initial education into their early twenties. It is important that we support them and help them succeed and progress on to higher education where they can. "
The new entitlement will be available from August through colleges of further education and other providers of high quality education and training who have satisfied the Learning and Skills Council quality assurance process.
Where the Power Lies
This is what the Spectator has to say about entrenched attitudes in Local Education Authorites, though with regard to introducing diversity on the school front.
"One may wonder why, if school choice is so simple to introcude, Tony Blair has achieved so little. After seven years he has notched up just 48 City Academies out of England's 3,300 secondary schools. The truth is that he has met his match in the local authorities, which dislike opening new schools if there are vacancies to fill in bad ones. Eduation is their domain, and they fight new entrants to the death (remember their brutal propoganda campaigns against grant-maintained schools under the Tories). When Lambeth LEA hired a QC to try to kill off a City Academy, it spoke volumes about where power truly lies in English education.
and later:
"Labour...regard LEAs as among the last bastions of socialist egalitarianism. This is why his (Blair's) last education bill, establishing trust schools, was perforated with concessions, and even then needed Tory support to be passed."
"One may wonder why, if school choice is so simple to introcude, Tony Blair has achieved so little. After seven years he has notched up just 48 City Academies out of England's 3,300 secondary schools. The truth is that he has met his match in the local authorities, which dislike opening new schools if there are vacancies to fill in bad ones. Eduation is their domain, and they fight new entrants to the death (remember their brutal propoganda campaigns against grant-maintained schools under the Tories). When Lambeth LEA hired a QC to try to kill off a City Academy, it spoke volumes about where power truly lies in English education.
and later:
"Labour...regard LEAs as among the last bastions of socialist egalitarianism. This is why his (Blair's) last education bill, establishing trust schools, was perforated with concessions, and even then needed Tory support to be passed."
Friday, May 25, 2007
Consultation on ContactPoint Guidelines
Just in case you aren't pushed enough for time already, what with the the consultation on proposed guidelines for home education, which of course we really have to do (possible answers here), there's also the consultation on the children's database to get round to as well.
Good luck everyone.
Good luck everyone.
Thursday, May 24, 2007
School is Not Education
It is possible to get really quite down reading this article from the Manchester Evening News, but you can cheer yourself up again if you go to the comment section.
Dd Showed No Fear
Well, Ok, she did eventually, but she'd gone much further up than I would have done.
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
AHEd on Consultation on Full-Time Education
MEDIA INFORMATION FROM ACTION FOR HOME EDUCATION: For immediate release, Tuesday 22nd May 2007
For further information please contact email: enquiries@ahed.org.uk
PROPOSALS WERE “UNWORKABLE AND UNACCEPTABLE” SAYS ACTION FOR HOME EDUCATION (AHEd), AS CONSULTATION REPORT COMES IN.
The DfES has published a summary of responses to the consultation on defining full-time education in independent schools. [1] The consultation drew damning comments from AHEd [2] in February as "fundamentally flawed, highly misleading and risks adversely affecting home educators by inadvertently or intentionally redefining a school". [3]
AHEd's consultation response [4] declared that AHEd members and the wider home education community would powerfully challenge any efforts by government to threaten the traditional rights and freedoms of all parents to choose the where, when and how of their children's education. The summary of responses from the DfES shows stiff opposition with at least ninety four percent of respondents not able to agree to any part of the government's proposals.
AHEd members are glad to see that the proposals received overwhelming rejection and claim that this result highlights the strength of feeling against over-regulation of provision where parents have elected to take full responsibility for their children's education. However, the DfES overview states that they are now exploring the best way to proceed to achieve the Government’s objective of ensuring clarity as to what kind of provision should be regulated. Home educators, including those who use tutorial services or meet to share educational activities, hope this means the DfES will now stop trying to regulate their private arrangements.
AHEd Chair Mrs Barbara Stark, said, "Home education is very different from school education and it is simply not fitting to try to impose school regulation upon home educating families. Home educating parents are well informed about their responsibilities and are already well regulated by the requirements of the Education Act 1996 which provides for local authorities to challenge them where a child is at risk of not receiving a suitable education. The consultation has born out what our members knew all along, that the proposals are unworkable and unacceptable, and we hope the Department now also recognises this "
ENDS
Notes for Editors.
[1] http://www.dfes.gov.uk/consultations/conResults.cfm?consultationId=1442
[2] www.ahed.org.uk
[3] http://tinyurl.com/yryxqb
[4] http://ahed.pbwiki.com/Consultation-on-Def-of-full-time-education
For further information please contact email: enquiries@ahed.org.uk
PROPOSALS WERE “UNWORKABLE AND UNACCEPTABLE” SAYS ACTION FOR HOME EDUCATION (AHEd), AS CONSULTATION REPORT COMES IN.
The DfES has published a summary of responses to the consultation on defining full-time education in independent schools. [1] The consultation drew damning comments from AHEd [2] in February as "fundamentally flawed, highly misleading and risks adversely affecting home educators by inadvertently or intentionally redefining a school". [3]
AHEd's consultation response [4] declared that AHEd members and the wider home education community would powerfully challenge any efforts by government to threaten the traditional rights and freedoms of all parents to choose the where, when and how of their children's education. The summary of responses from the DfES shows stiff opposition with at least ninety four percent of respondents not able to agree to any part of the government's proposals.
AHEd members are glad to see that the proposals received overwhelming rejection and claim that this result highlights the strength of feeling against over-regulation of provision where parents have elected to take full responsibility for their children's education. However, the DfES overview states that they are now exploring the best way to proceed to achieve the Government’s objective of ensuring clarity as to what kind of provision should be regulated. Home educators, including those who use tutorial services or meet to share educational activities, hope this means the DfES will now stop trying to regulate their private arrangements.
AHEd Chair Mrs Barbara Stark, said, "Home education is very different from school education and it is simply not fitting to try to impose school regulation upon home educating families. Home educating parents are well informed about their responsibilities and are already well regulated by the requirements of the Education Act 1996 which provides for local authorities to challenge them where a child is at risk of not receiving a suitable education. The consultation has born out what our members knew all along, that the proposals are unworkable and unacceptable, and we hope the Department now also recognises this "
ENDS
Notes for Editors.
[1] http://www.dfes.gov.uk/consultations/conResults.cfm?consultationId=1442
[2] www.ahed.org.uk
[3] http://tinyurl.com/yryxqb
[4] http://ahed.pbwiki.com/Consultation-on-Def-of-full-time-education
Sunday, May 20, 2007
More on the Spry Case
...from a social work perspective, containing a critique of the skills of the social workers involved, as well as a swipe at electronic registers.
Saturday, May 19, 2007
Message to the MSM: Try to Get it Right
This "How to HE" appeared in a local paper: generally useful, though (through gritted teeth), home educating parents say that there isn't a problem with opportunities for social interaction because IT ISN'T A PROBLEM. Cripes, we have not been alone in the house and elsewhere as a family for over three months now - not for a single day. (I've just checked back through the diary). But the important thing about all this opportunity to mix is that because we don't defer to any authority such as a teacher or headmaster to sort out our socialising issues, we as parents and children have to sort it out for ourselves. This actually means that huge numbers of HE kids are BETTER socialised than their schooling peers because they don't just have to obey orders, they have to THINK about how best to behave. It means that HE families become adept at handling the politics of big groups, and of dealing with a huge numbers of different people because they cannot just let someone else do it for them. And because they are used to taking responsibility for themselves, they are courageous and clear thinking.
I have to admit, I often learn from these children. I spent a week with a brewing migraine, being up to the point of diagnosis, unaccountably crabby with people, and coming down unnecessarily hard on HE children for small infringements. On one of these occasions, when some HE teens found out that I was cross about something, they didn't run from their responsibilities in this situation, but chose to come and apologise in a way which left me close to tears as I inwardly compared their behaviour to what I would have done at their age.
And as for there being a limited opportunity for trips....oh PLEEEEAZE. There is hardly a museum, castle, stately home or art gallery within a 75 mile radius of here that we haven't visited at least once, and some of them, such as our local castle and science museum, we have visited over ten times within the last seven years. What more do you want? I honestly defy any schooled child to equal this with their school trips.
MSM, do your research. PLEASE.
I have to admit, I often learn from these children. I spent a week with a brewing migraine, being up to the point of diagnosis, unaccountably crabby with people, and coming down unnecessarily hard on HE children for small infringements. On one of these occasions, when some HE teens found out that I was cross about something, they didn't run from their responsibilities in this situation, but chose to come and apologise in a way which left me close to tears as I inwardly compared their behaviour to what I would have done at their age.
And as for there being a limited opportunity for trips....oh PLEEEEAZE. There is hardly a museum, castle, stately home or art gallery within a 75 mile radius of here that we haven't visited at least once, and some of them, such as our local castle and science museum, we have visited over ten times within the last seven years. What more do you want? I honestly defy any schooled child to equal this with their school trips.
MSM, do your research. PLEASE.
Look, Mr Brown, HE is the Answer
Great letter from Home Educator Helen McNulty in the Guardian in response to Jenni Russell's excellent critique of the current school system with it's tick box mentality. Just in case the link to the letter gets lost, Helen wrote:
"Jenni Russell encapsulates what is wrong with our education system, state and private: education, in the true sense, no longer exists; only coaching for exams. Increasingly, parents who want their children to have a real, meaningful education, equipping them with the "motivation, flexibility, communication skills...[and] confidence" which employers find so lacking, are turning to home education. They know that being able to think and learn outside the constraints of a narrow syllabus are more valuable than a list of GCSEs. Colleges and universities are now prepared to accept "non-standard" applicants, and indeed value their independent and mature outlook."
"Jenni Russell encapsulates what is wrong with our education system, state and private: education, in the true sense, no longer exists; only coaching for exams. Increasingly, parents who want their children to have a real, meaningful education, equipping them with the "motivation, flexibility, communication skills...[and] confidence" which employers find so lacking, are turning to home education. They know that being able to think and learn outside the constraints of a narrow syllabus are more valuable than a list of GCSEs. Colleges and universities are now prepared to accept "non-standard" applicants, and indeed value their independent and mature outlook."
Godwin's "Enquiry Concerning Political Justice"
Well, whaddya know. A friend and I have spent a not inconsiderable amount of time looking for this book, and Elliot has gone and created a free PDF copy here. Thanks ET.
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Consultation on Elective Home Education Guidelines
Below, with many thanks to HEors elsewhere for providing considerable amounts of inspiration for these answers, is an updated draft of a response to the DfES Consultation on Guidelines for Elective Home Education.
Criticisms of this response are very likely to be gratefully received, and help needed with the SEN section!
Please feel very free to use any answers below as inspiration for your responses: the more responses the DfES receive from HEors the better, whether these be from individual home educators or local groups to national organisations. We cannot let this process be co-opted by the LAs. The DfES need to know just how strongly we feel about the way we are approached by the authorities and that we do demand decent treatment. If we do manage a sufficient number of responses from HEors and the DfES simply choose to ignore us, we will go to the press and complain like fury. We will go back to the Better Regulation Executive and start shouting all over again, but first we must make sure that our voice is heard. Please do put in a response!
Many points in the draft guidelines are not covered in questions in the consultation. Important criticisms of the neglected points are required. When this is the case, these criticisms have been included in the consultation question that most closely covers the section in the guidelines.
Before you look down, and panic at the screeds below, I can summarise by saying that I think there are two main areas that HEors need to tackle in their responses. These are:
1. that the guidelines do not make reference to any possible consequences of the Children Act 2004. We need to make it explicit in the guidelines that the Act should not change the way in which the LAs would be best to approach us. For example, we might do well to say that although people like the Children's Commissioner have been tasked with asking our children for their views, that the views of these children is most often that they want as little interference from the authorities as possible and furthermore, that they don't want to be solicited by the authorities for their views. The guidelines also need to be clear that parents remain principally responsible for meeting the five desired outcomes for children as stipulated in the act. The LA and community only have a role to play when parents fail to try to meet these objectives.
2. Rather than using the Children Act to seek to intrude upon the lives of HEors, we would find it far more constructive to use it to facilitate various aspects of HEors lives which are currently difficult to manage. We would perhaps like to see a named contact in LAs who is specifically trained in all kinds of HE, whose remit is not principally to check up on HEors but is there to facilitate HE. This person would have responsibility for helping HEors access courses and examinations, arranging work experience and sorting out volunteering placements, and any other resources.
3. We also need to require the guidelines to be explicit and precise about how LAs are best to approach us. At the moment, the guidelines are not clear on the principle and practice. My feeling is that LAs should adopt the principle of minimal proportionate intervention, starting from the point that if, on balance of probabilities, it appears that a suitable education is being provided, that it is completely acceptable for an LA to leave a family completely alone. They can move through the policy of one-off written communications, through to more extended written communications, through to requests for meetings, but all of this should only be done in the situation that it is deemed that there is cause for concern and that further communication is therefore necessary. We do not want to "HAVE" to have a relationship with the LA, a requirement that in itself would seem to preclude the possibility of it being a good one.
= = = = = = = = = =
Consultation Questions
1 Do you agree that it is helpful for the DfES to issue guidelines to local authorities?
Yes
No
Not Sure
No Response
Comments:
It would rather depend on the final nature of the guidelines. If the guidelines accurately interpret the law and demonstrate an understanding of the nature of home education, they are likely to be helpful.
As it stands, some parts of the guidelines are repetitive and/or require tightening to reduce ambiguity. For example, the current draft does little to reassure local authorities about the limits of their duties and the limits of the expectations upon them, particularly with regard to the appropriate way to implement the Children Act 2004. The guidelines should be explicit that the act should not change the way in which LAs should best approach home educators.
More specifically, given that section 1.7 of the Guidance that accompanies the Children Act states that "the voice of children, young people and their families should be heard at all levels in order to inform local design and delivery of the arrangements ", these guidelines should clarify that since many home educating families expressly prefer to be left alone by the authorities and given that there is no reason to believe that these families are neglecting their duties towards their children, that this position should inform guidance and practice and further, that refusal to meet with the LA should not be taken as an indication of risk since it most often represents nothing other than the desire to maintain privacy and to get on with the business of education.
To expand, home educators' reasons for prefering to educate their children without interference from the state vary from respecting the preferences of the child to be educated without the intervention of outside forces who know little of their educational needs, to a desire to focus upon the educational needs of the child without having to deal with the bureaucracy caused by LA interference, to a political and/or philosophical preference for a culture of self-sufficiency, personal and civic responsibility and personal initiative, to a combination of these factors. The state should recognise in the guidelines that an insistence upon intrusion into the lives of home educators will destroy these valuable characteristics that can benefit society as a whole.
Further, the guidelines should be explicit that the act should not change the way in which LAs should best approach Home Educators. For example, although the Children's Commissioner have been tasked with asking children for their views, that the views of HE children often are that they want as little interference from the authorities as is humanely possible and indeed that they do not want to be solicited by the authorities for their views
The guidelines also need to be clear that parents remain principally responsible for meeting the five desired outcomes for children as stipulated in the Act. The LA and community only have a role to play when parents fail to try to meet these objectives.
Rather than using the Children Act to seek to intrude upon the lives of HEors, we would find it far more constructive to use it to facilitate various aspects of HEors lives which can currently be difficult to manage. We would perhaps like to see a named contact in LAs who is specifically trained in all kinds of HE, whose remit is not principally to check up on HEors but rather to facilitate HE. This person would have responsibility for helping HEors access courses and examinations, arranging work experience and sorting out volunteering placements, and any other resources.
The guidelines could also benefit from greater clarity over the matter of the best policy for LAs when approaching home educating families, the principle for which should be that of minimal proportionate intervention. The processes involved in this need to be laid out explicitly and sequentially. For example, it should be clear that an LA does not have a duty to have any contact with a family when it appears on balance of probabilities that an education is taking place. LAs are best to go through a gradual process of establishing contact and that they should only do so on the basis that there appears to be some need to do so. So for example, if there is a need to establish that on balance of probabilites that a suitable education is taking place, then the LA should communicate with the family in writing. Again, there need not necessarily be any necessity for further action at this point, see below, in response to Question 6.
An alternative draft which eliminates these problems could be produced by home educating organisations.
However, even in the situation of achieving a satisfactory set of guidelines, there appears to be no intention on the part of the DfES to enforce these guidelines, so whatever the outcome, we envisage that at least some local authorities are likely to continue to apply heavy-handed and inappropriate measures to home educators, and we would appreciate a standard procedure for addressing complaints raised by home educators.
In Scotland there has been Guidance for three years but home educators still suffer unacceptable treatment from local authorities who have no regard for the Guidance, (see Schoolhouse's response to the Scottish consultation here. This rightfully causes us to question the value of guidelines given that there are to be no sanctions. How can the English guidelines avoid the same fate?
re: section 1.1. The second use of the word "home" in the first sentence should be replaced with "other than at school."
re: section 1.2. The word "broad" should be replaced by "suitable".
re: section 1.4 "various" should read "any number of different". The sentence "the authority's primary interest should lie in the suitability of parents' educational provision" should be altered to make it clear that the authority does not have a duty to check for suitability, and only need to do so when there is good cause to suspect that a suitable education is not taking place. The list of reasons to home educate is not exhaustive and serves no useful purpose, given that the reason is irrelevant unless a parent is asking for help to stay in/return to school.
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2 Do you agree that the description of the law (paragraphs 2.1-2.3) relating to elective home education is accurate and clear?
Yes
No
Not Sure
No Response
Comments:
The overall tenor of this section is accurate.
re: section 2.4. It might be helpful for LAs if the word "full-time" was appended here with "(see section 3.11)". Also, there is no reason to emphasise "full" financial responsibility, since there is no reason in statute why LAs could not assist home educators financially, and indeed some already do so, through the provision of various services.
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3 Do you agree that the description of local authorities’ responsibilities (paragraphs 2.5-2.11) is accurate and helpful?
Yes
No
Not Sure
No Response
Comments:
At some point in this section, it would be helpful to remind LAs of their responsibilities under the ECHR legislation, with particular regard here to Article 8:
"Everyone has the right to respect for his private and family life, his home and his correspondence. There shall be no interference by a public authority with the exercise of this right except such as is in accordance with the law and is necessary in a democratic society in the interests of national security, public safety or the economic well-being of the country, for the prevention of disorder or crime, for the protection of health or morals, or for the protection of the rights and freedoms of others."
In other words, LAs do not have the right of access to the home without their being cause for belief that a child is at risk.
re: section 2.5. The second main point in this paragraph does not follow from the first. I would suggest that the sentence starting "Local authorities should recognise that there are many approaches..." contains a point of such significance that it merits a paragraph of its own.
re: section 2.5. It would be helpful to remove the phrase "all children should make reasonable progress" from a paragraph dealing with local authority responsibilities, since this appears to imply that it is the duty of LAs to monitor for progress. This is not in fact the case, since monitoring of progress is the responsibility of parents. Upon hearing of a HE child, the LEA need to ask themselves only if it is likely on balance that s/he is in receipt of a suitable education. This is not a monitoring or progress-reporting role. It is a snapshot glance and a judgement-call based on that snapshot. If that glance would suggest to a reasonable person that all is likely to be well with the educational provision and the parent appears to be law-abiding and aware of their legal S7 duty, it naturally extends from that the parent is appropriately attentive to the educational needs of their child according to his/her age, ability and aptitude and therefore progress *will* be suitable to that child. It is most certainly not for the LEA to monitor progress and nothing in the guidelines must even hint at that.
re: section 2.6. This could be worded more helpfully, since from the first part of the paragraph which states that LAs have a new duty to identify children missing from education, it would not necessarily be clear to an LA officer how this duty does not apply to children who are being educated at home, as stated in the last sentence. Perhaps the following could be included by way of further elucidation for LAs: "If a child comes to the notice of a local authority as not being registered at a school, the LA may ask the family about educational provision and upon receipt of information that a child is being educated at home, the LEA should assume, in the absense of evidence to the contrary, that this is indeed the case."
re: section 2.7. From the first sentence - "the quality of" and "on a routine basis" need removing. There is no statutory duty at all, routine or otherwise, to "monitor" quality or anything else about EHE.
re: section 2.8. It would be helpful if the order of 2.7 and 2.8 made it clearer that the enquiries mentioned in 2.8 should precede the process in 2.7.
It would also be helpful to make it clear that these enquiries are not bound by a 15 day minimum, and that conversely, there is no requirement for LAs to do as they frequently do, which is to require a response in a 15 day maximum time-span.
It would also be helpful if it were made clear that the enquiries mentioned in 2.8 may well never lead to the formal process in 437(1) of the Education Act 1996.
re: section 2.9. More emphasis could be made of the (b) part of 437(3). The LA should ask themselves whether, in the presence of a failure stated in 437(3)(a), they really believe that the only useful course of action is to put the child into school, ie: (b). Could the child receive a suitable education out of school with some more help, input, resources etc? The DfES should make it clear to the LAs that they have it within their legal and financial scope to assist the parent in their preferred choice of eduacational provision, and that they must use their funds and resources in non-discriminatory ways to benefit all children in their area. EHEers are not to be discriminated against because of their choice any more than persons choosing a particular religious education. After all, every child matters!
It would be helpful to add the information that the LA must notify the parent of their intention to issue an SAO before they actually do so and they must also let the parents know the school to be named in the notice.
re: section 2.11. We are pleased to note that Section 175(1) of the Education Act 2002 does not extend local authorities' functions. It might also be useful to clarify here that the Children Act 2004 also does not confer duties upon LAs to seek out problems (be they educational or other welfare issues) where there is no reason to believe that there are any and that home education, in itself, is not a reason to suspect that child welfare problems exist. There should be sufficient grounds for anxiety whether it be over the issue of educational provision or welfare, before the privacy of families is invaded.
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4 Do you agree that the section on contact with the local authority (paragraphs 3.4-3.7) is accurate and helpful?
Yes
No
Not Sure
No Response
Comments:
There is no room in the consultation to provide critique on sections 3.1 to 3.3. However, we feel that Section 3.1 should say that policy reviews must always be mindful of the law because it is at those times that documents may stray away from legislation and guidance. We also feel that it would be helpful to include HEors (both local and national) in these reviews.
Section 3.4. The first word in this section, ie: "many" should read "some" as this choice of word is unlikely to misrepresent the situation. Rather there is good reason to believe that the many HEors do not welcome contact with LAs, often because they believe that contact rarely benefits them substantially, and contains the possibility that their way of life may be profoundly affected in an non-consensual fashion.
It is inappropriate to single out a specific group of children, ie here: Gypsy, Roma and Traveller children. All children in England will come under the same legislation and guidelines and whilst it could be helpful when trying to ascertain whether an appropriate education is taking place to contact various organisations such as the Traveller Education Service, I do not feel that it is necessary or desirable to single out target groups in this manner, as it risks creating prejudice and ill-informed judgements.
It would be preferable instead to make it clear that an LA should not act in a prejudicial fashion. Somewhere in paragraphs 3.4 to 3.6, it should be clarified that income, housing, race, religion, sexual orientation, profession and educational qualifications are not in themselves grounds for reasonable concerns about ability to provide a suitable education.
re: section 3.5. The word "judgement" should read "decision on a balance of probabilities".
There is no legislation that allows LAs to directly approach the child so they have to accept that the parent will have respected their child and offered them whatever freedoms the parent sees fit to have with regard to access to the LA. It is necessary to realise that if LAs really do want to take the views of children seriously, that the child may not want to be approached by the LA in order to gather his views on whether or not he wants to meet with them. To insist on a meeting to gain consent for a meeting is to disregard the spirit of the Children Act 2004, which proposed that the views of children be taken seriously. If the LEA has good reason to think a child is not being heard and as a consequence of this, their welfare, educational or otherwise, is at risk, they may take action in the form of SAOs or referral to social services, but direct communication with the child cannot be required routinely.
re: section 3.6. "Ongoing" needs deleting - the "snapshot" is all that is required.
re: section 3.7. Replace the first word "many" with "some" (see explanation above) and remove a comma after "they may, " in second sentence.
This paragraph would need to be re-written in order to make it clear that the manner of presentation of evidence should not prejudice the decision about whether or not an appropriate education is taking place. As it stands, it could read as if parents who permit a home visit are likely to be viewed favorably. For example, the phrase "" if they choose not to meet" implies that they have chosen to present evidence in the way preferred by the LA, when all they have actually done is choose to present evidence in a perfectly legitimate fashion.
There are no consultation questions about sections 3.8 to 3.10.
re section 3.8 Citing this particular deregistration scenario is misleading because it suggests that parents need or should seek "guidance" from the school or LA about deregisration from school, whereas it is equally valid for there to be no first contact between parent and LA. In other words, the parent sends a letter of deregistration to the school, the school deregisters the child and informs LA, the LA assume (in the absence of reason to think otherwise) that the family are providing a suitable education. At the very least, it should be clear here that it is legitimate for the LA to take no further action at this point.
re: section 3.9 - wrong regulations. The second sentence "wish" should read "decide" as the former makes it look like they need permission and "intention" may more usefully read "decision". Returns from school to LA must be immediate. The last sentence should not be included, since there is no reason why an HE family will benefit from contact with their LA, and could create a situation where LAs assume that if a parent chooses not to inform them, that there are likely to be problems with educational provision, when it is much more likely that the family feel that they would benefit from being left alone for a while, without the heavy hand of a system that may have already failed them, bearing down on them.
re: section 3.10. This is nothing to do with deregistration so is under the wrong heading - it is about LEAs making initial contact with a parent. "Proposals" is not a useful word as it suggests the parent is putting something forward for approval before going ahead. Parents are not required, even when they are settled, to demonstrate all the characteristics of a suitable education. Parents are only expected (by Donaldson) though are not required by statute, to respond to an LA enquiry with enough information to satisfy them that there is no appearance of a S7 failure. Saying a reasonable timescale should be agreed is risky - agreed with and by whom and what is reasonable?
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5 Do you agree that the section on providing a full-time education (paragraphs 3.11-3.14) – and in particular, the characteristics of provision (paragraph 3.13) – is accurate and helpful?
Yes
No
Not Sure
No Response
Comments:
re section 3.11. It would be preferable to explain that full-time is not defined and that it is for a parent to judge whether the amount of time their child spends in education is sufficient to provide them with an education suitable to age, ability and aptitude. ie full-time is a personal measurement. The idea of so much one-to-one contact risks creating the impression that home educated children must be hot-housed and/or personally tutored.
There should be clarification accompanying the list of that which HE parents are not required to provide, that LAs must make all of this information clear to parents when they first establish contact with one another. This is important since LAs often take advantage of those who are new to HE, and for example, do not let these families know that they are not required to teach the National Curriculum.
re: section 3.12. LAs MUST consider ANY info from parents in ANY format, not just a "wide" range. The last sentence is too limited/prescriptive and needs dumping.
re: section 3.13. It appears here that the LA they are trying to write a definition of "suitable". A list of criteria as can be found at this point is likely to become a requirement which will be cited in case law some time in the future. Therefore any list has a significant potential to alter the legal situation for HEors and raises expectations for certain inclusions that are neither legally required or educationally necessary.
re: section 3.14. The header, for 3.11 to 3.14 is "Providing a full-time education". However it is mostly about the content of that education and 3.14 is about sanctions when their list in 3.13 is not seen to be completely adhered to. It is all about much more scrutiny than is legally required. It assumes that one unfulfilled bullet point is good reason to suspect a section 7 failure, so those bullet points would need to be VERY tight.
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6 Do you agree that the section on developing relationships (section 4) is useful?
Yes
No
Not Sure
No Response
Comments:
re: sections 4.1. Assisting the development of relationships between LAs and HEors should not be the central purpose of the guidelines, since these are by no means necessarily essential to the successful education of a child. The main purpose of the document should be to ensure legal compliance and proper treatment by LAs in the service of the provision of a suitable education to home educated children.
Whilst section 10 of the Children Act 2004 states that each children's services authority must make arrangements to promote co-operation between the authority, each of the authority's relevant partners and such other persons or bodies as the authority consider appropriate, being persons or bodies of any nature who exercise functions or are engaged in activities in relation to children in the authority's area, there is no clear duty that LAs should make arrangements to promote relationships between themselves and HEors, nor is there an equivalent duty placed upon home educators to make arrangements to build effective relationships with LAs, nor could it be stipulated that there is a duty to have these "co-operative" relationships and although this much is stated in section 4.2, section 4.1 could easily be taken to imply the opposite and should therefore be re-written so as to make it clear that HEors and LAs do not have to develop a relationship.
This is important to stress at this point because it is the case that many home educators do not want any relationship with the LA, but would not want to be judged negatively for this. They simply prefer to maintain the privacy of their families in the knowledge that they are sufficiently well-supported without the assistance of the state, they are not doing anything illegal and therefore do not warrant any investigation by authorities. LAs need to realise that they act as public servants and respond only in situations of need. They should not insist upon establishing relationships as to do so (even if very politely), is to destroy the genuine possibility of an equal, co-operative and trusting relationship.
re: section 4.3. I would suggest removing the phrase "especially those who have other children attending school", as it is very likely to lead to false assumptions about the style of education provided. For example, many parents provide a very structured form of education without ever having sent any of their children to school. Other parents with some schooling children provide a more child-centred form of education where the parent responds to the enquiries of the child.
re: section 4.4. It states: "(see paragraphs 3.12 to 3.15)." These section numbers probably refer to 3.12 and 3.13 which contains the list (see critique re: 3.13 above).
re: section 4.6. Given that the header here is "Providing information for parents", only the first sentence is required here. The rest has nothing to do with providing information and should be included in the following section 4.7 which deals with "Contact with parents and children". It would be helpful to make it clear that it is appropriate for LAs either to leave HE families alone or to be in occasional or if needed regular written contact with HE families and that they only need invite HE parents and children to a meeting in the situation that they have due cause to do so, and that this may be a one-off meeting, if that is all that is required.
After "future contact", insert "if any" to highlight the fact that ongoing contact is not a legal requirement. In addition, it needs to be clear that it is the parent's prerogative to offer the child access to the LA if they wish, not the LAs.
Further, how are the authorities going to satisfy themselves that the child has been given this opportunity to attend the meeting, other than by meeting with the child themselves? If this is the intention here, it should be clear that many children have no desire to meet with the LA whether it be to discuss their education, or to discuss whether they want to meet with the LA to discuss their education.
re: section 4.7. Singling out home visits and using weighted words like "strong indication" gives undue preference to the HV option. This weighting should be changed to show clearly how the LA can act in appropriate and proportionate fashion. It is actually the case that many children will not respond at all well to the knowledge that a stranger will come into their homes to judge them on their whole way of life, with that stranger having the power to remove in it's entirety. To think that a home visit is necessarily the best way to judge the educational provision is to fail to understand the way in which these visits are often perceived by HEors, who frequently find them traumatic and undermining. In addition, many children who HE have also suffered considerably as a result of over-zealous officials in schools, and intrusion into the home of such children is likely to be more damaging than helpful. LA officials need to be made aware of this problem in these guidelines. It is the case that despite the guidelines, but with no power to enforce them, HEors will still remain on tenterhooks to find out whether or not their LA official will behave appropriately and whether or not their lives are to be altered profoundly, in a way which they are likely to believe is not in the best interests their children. Therefore, as a principle of good practice, it would be preferable if LAs practiced the principle of proportionate minimal intervention or only provided services when they are requested to do so by HEors.
re: section 4.8. Together with section 4.7, this paragraph appears to be approaching the problem of LA contact from the wrong angle. It would be better to state the principle of proportionate minimal intervention at the beginning, stating that LAs do not have a duty to do anything in the situation that it appears on balance of probabilities that an education is being provided and that in order to establish this, written communication is an appropriate measure and that more or ongoing communication is only necessitated should there be concerns of one sort or another, and that meetings with HE parents and children are only necessitated as a last resort, when there is some basis for concern.
There should be clarity about 'audi alteram partem' and no weight or preference allowed. Then there should be a section that says that LEAs MUST NOT state, request or insist upon any preferred method of providing info and that to do so in particular for HVs is a violation of a family's human rights. They should be reassured that in those exceptional circumstances when there is genuine concern that a child is at risk there are already SS procedures available and if there is real warranted concern that the child's education is not suitable, they have section 437 Education Act to call upon.
re: section 4.9. Whilst the welfare and protection of all children is unquestionably paramount, it is not necessarily clear that it is the automatic responsibility of "the whole community". It is only clear that morally it is the parents who have automatic and primary responsibility for the welfare and protection of children. It is only in the situation that a parent fails to meet this responsibility that the wider community assumes some responsibilities in these areas. There should be a clear statement that LEAs should not try and do not need to manipulate education law as a means of addressing welfare concerns, as social services already have adequate tools at their disposal.
re: section 4.9. The first sentence needs to be more clearly stated in order to avoid some potentially erroneous inferences. So whilst it is clear that the welfare of children is of paramount concern to the whole community, it should be clearly stated that welfare of children is not primarily the responsibility of community. Instead it should be clear here that parents have the primary responsibility for ensuring the welfare of children. The state only has a duty to deal with the welfare of children when the parents failed to meet this responsibility.
It would be helpful to make it clear that elective home education is not, of itself, a reason for welfare concerns and that the duties conferred upon LAs in the Children Act 2004 do not extend their rights to intrude upon the privacy of families. It would also be helpful to stipulate that upon receipt of information that a child is educated at home, an LA would be wise to make written enquiries about the nature of that education, and only pursue the matter further if there are other reasons to think that there may be a problem.
The Children Act gives much credence to the idea that the views of children should be listened to, taken into account, and as far as possible, acted upon. It is the case that many home educated children (see Hands up 4 Home Ed, by way of an example), expressly do not want to see LA personnel, and this would in all probability include an interview to talk about whether or not they wanted to see such people.) LAs should try to respect the spirit of the Children Act when it comes to taking the point of view of children seriously, and ask themselves at what point they perpetuate rather than solve the problem of abuse.
re: section 4.10. It should not be made to seem as if it is a requirement for HE parents to take up references, although this may be suggested as good practice.
re: section 4.11. "Will wish to" should read "should". Delete "further develop relationships" .
re: section 4.12. Ofsted does not always appear to understand the legislative framework as it relates to LAs and home educators. For example, Ofsted has been known to make suggestions for LA action that is not in accordance with the legal position. It would therefore be helpful to clarify that Ofsted will be required to act in accordance with the guidelines.
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7 a) Are the suggested resources in section 5 and appendix 2 useful?
Yes
No
Not Sure
No Response
Comments:
re: paragraph 5.1. The Home Education leaflet in the Parent Centre link would need to be updated to bring it in line with the proposed guidelines, since there would otherwise be some contradictions between the two documents which could result in confusion for home educating parents who are not familiar with legal requirements and best practice.
re: paragraph 5.5. We would like to suggest that LAs should provide information about Connexions to elective home educators, rather than providing information about EHEors to Connexions, since this would allow the families to choose whether or not to use the service, and would minimise unnecessary waste of public money when Connexions chase up HE teens who would rather not have contact with them.
The information at the Advisory Centre for Education, www.ace-ed.org.uk is inaccurate and needs correcting.
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7 b) Should any other contacts be included?
Yes
No
Not Sure
No Response
Comments:
Open University
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8 Please use this space for any other comments you wish to make about the guidelines
Answer:
re: paragraph 2.4. This accurately describes the current situation in saying that parents "must assume full financial responsibility, including bearing the cost of any public examinations", but it could be helpful if LAs were to consider assisting EHEors with courses and funding for public examinations, as has been happening in some authorities. It would also be helpful if LAs could designate a local school or college as an examination centre that would routinely accept external candidates.
re: paragraph 3.15. It is not the case that a statement of Special Educational Need must (SEN) must remain in force in the situation that a child is EHE. The statement asserting that it should, must be removed. Instead the guidelines should elaborate that parents may choose to ask for the statement to be ceased, and that LAs should not unreasonably refuse to do this.
There should also be a clear explanation that parents should not be required to make the provision specified in the statement, since these provisions were specified for a school environment and may well be inappropriate for the home setting.
Also and in relation to the above paragragh, section 3.15 should be make it clear that a statement of SEN does not override paragraph 3.11.
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Criticisms of this response are very likely to be gratefully received, and help needed with the SEN section!
Please feel very free to use any answers below as inspiration for your responses: the more responses the DfES receive from HEors the better, whether these be from individual home educators or local groups to national organisations. We cannot let this process be co-opted by the LAs. The DfES need to know just how strongly we feel about the way we are approached by the authorities and that we do demand decent treatment. If we do manage a sufficient number of responses from HEors and the DfES simply choose to ignore us, we will go to the press and complain like fury. We will go back to the Better Regulation Executive and start shouting all over again, but first we must make sure that our voice is heard. Please do put in a response!
Many points in the draft guidelines are not covered in questions in the consultation. Important criticisms of the neglected points are required. When this is the case, these criticisms have been included in the consultation question that most closely covers the section in the guidelines.
Before you look down, and panic at the screeds below, I can summarise by saying that I think there are two main areas that HEors need to tackle in their responses. These are:
1. that the guidelines do not make reference to any possible consequences of the Children Act 2004. We need to make it explicit in the guidelines that the Act should not change the way in which the LAs would be best to approach us. For example, we might do well to say that although people like the Children's Commissioner have been tasked with asking our children for their views, that the views of these children is most often that they want as little interference from the authorities as possible and furthermore, that they don't want to be solicited by the authorities for their views. The guidelines also need to be clear that parents remain principally responsible for meeting the five desired outcomes for children as stipulated in the act. The LA and community only have a role to play when parents fail to try to meet these objectives.
2. Rather than using the Children Act to seek to intrude upon the lives of HEors, we would find it far more constructive to use it to facilitate various aspects of HEors lives which are currently difficult to manage. We would perhaps like to see a named contact in LAs who is specifically trained in all kinds of HE, whose remit is not principally to check up on HEors but is there to facilitate HE. This person would have responsibility for helping HEors access courses and examinations, arranging work experience and sorting out volunteering placements, and any other resources.
3. We also need to require the guidelines to be explicit and precise about how LAs are best to approach us. At the moment, the guidelines are not clear on the principle and practice. My feeling is that LAs should adopt the principle of minimal proportionate intervention, starting from the point that if, on balance of probabilities, it appears that a suitable education is being provided, that it is completely acceptable for an LA to leave a family completely alone. They can move through the policy of one-off written communications, through to more extended written communications, through to requests for meetings, but all of this should only be done in the situation that it is deemed that there is cause for concern and that further communication is therefore necessary. We do not want to "HAVE" to have a relationship with the LA, a requirement that in itself would seem to preclude the possibility of it being a good one.
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Consultation Questions
1 Do you agree that it is helpful for the DfES to issue guidelines to local authorities?
Yes
No
Not Sure
No Response
Comments:
It would rather depend on the final nature of the guidelines. If the guidelines accurately interpret the law and demonstrate an understanding of the nature of home education, they are likely to be helpful.
As it stands, some parts of the guidelines are repetitive and/or require tightening to reduce ambiguity. For example, the current draft does little to reassure local authorities about the limits of their duties and the limits of the expectations upon them, particularly with regard to the appropriate way to implement the Children Act 2004. The guidelines should be explicit that the act should not change the way in which LAs should best approach home educators.
More specifically, given that section 1.7 of the Guidance that accompanies the Children Act states that "the voice of children, young people and their families should be heard at all levels in order to inform local design and delivery of the arrangements ", these guidelines should clarify that since many home educating families expressly prefer to be left alone by the authorities and given that there is no reason to believe that these families are neglecting their duties towards their children, that this position should inform guidance and practice and further, that refusal to meet with the LA should not be taken as an indication of risk since it most often represents nothing other than the desire to maintain privacy and to get on with the business of education.
To expand, home educators' reasons for prefering to educate their children without interference from the state vary from respecting the preferences of the child to be educated without the intervention of outside forces who know little of their educational needs, to a desire to focus upon the educational needs of the child without having to deal with the bureaucracy caused by LA interference, to a political and/or philosophical preference for a culture of self-sufficiency, personal and civic responsibility and personal initiative, to a combination of these factors. The state should recognise in the guidelines that an insistence upon intrusion into the lives of home educators will destroy these valuable characteristics that can benefit society as a whole.
Further, the guidelines should be explicit that the act should not change the way in which LAs should best approach Home Educators. For example, although the Children's Commissioner have been tasked with asking children for their views, that the views of HE children often are that they want as little interference from the authorities as is humanely possible and indeed that they do not want to be solicited by the authorities for their views
The guidelines also need to be clear that parents remain principally responsible for meeting the five desired outcomes for children as stipulated in the Act. The LA and community only have a role to play when parents fail to try to meet these objectives.
Rather than using the Children Act to seek to intrude upon the lives of HEors, we would find it far more constructive to use it to facilitate various aspects of HEors lives which can currently be difficult to manage. We would perhaps like to see a named contact in LAs who is specifically trained in all kinds of HE, whose remit is not principally to check up on HEors but rather to facilitate HE. This person would have responsibility for helping HEors access courses and examinations, arranging work experience and sorting out volunteering placements, and any other resources.
The guidelines could also benefit from greater clarity over the matter of the best policy for LAs when approaching home educating families, the principle for which should be that of minimal proportionate intervention. The processes involved in this need to be laid out explicitly and sequentially. For example, it should be clear that an LA does not have a duty to have any contact with a family when it appears on balance of probabilities that an education is taking place. LAs are best to go through a gradual process of establishing contact and that they should only do so on the basis that there appears to be some need to do so. So for example, if there is a need to establish that on balance of probabilites that a suitable education is taking place, then the LA should communicate with the family in writing. Again, there need not necessarily be any necessity for further action at this point, see below, in response to Question 6.
An alternative draft which eliminates these problems could be produced by home educating organisations.
However, even in the situation of achieving a satisfactory set of guidelines, there appears to be no intention on the part of the DfES to enforce these guidelines, so whatever the outcome, we envisage that at least some local authorities are likely to continue to apply heavy-handed and inappropriate measures to home educators, and we would appreciate a standard procedure for addressing complaints raised by home educators.
In Scotland there has been Guidance for three years but home educators still suffer unacceptable treatment from local authorities who have no regard for the Guidance, (see Schoolhouse's response to the Scottish consultation here. This rightfully causes us to question the value of guidelines given that there are to be no sanctions. How can the English guidelines avoid the same fate?
re: section 1.1. The second use of the word "home" in the first sentence should be replaced with "other than at school."
re: section 1.2. The word "broad" should be replaced by "suitable".
re: section 1.4 "various" should read "any number of different". The sentence "the authority's primary interest should lie in the suitability of parents' educational provision" should be altered to make it clear that the authority does not have a duty to check for suitability, and only need to do so when there is good cause to suspect that a suitable education is not taking place. The list of reasons to home educate is not exhaustive and serves no useful purpose, given that the reason is irrelevant unless a parent is asking for help to stay in/return to school.
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2 Do you agree that the description of the law (paragraphs 2.1-2.3) relating to elective home education is accurate and clear?
Yes
No
Not Sure
No Response
Comments:
The overall tenor of this section is accurate.
re: section 2.4. It might be helpful for LAs if the word "full-time" was appended here with "(see section 3.11)". Also, there is no reason to emphasise "full" financial responsibility, since there is no reason in statute why LAs could not assist home educators financially, and indeed some already do so, through the provision of various services.
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3 Do you agree that the description of local authorities’ responsibilities (paragraphs 2.5-2.11) is accurate and helpful?
Yes
No
Not Sure
No Response
Comments:
At some point in this section, it would be helpful to remind LAs of their responsibilities under the ECHR legislation, with particular regard here to Article 8:
"Everyone has the right to respect for his private and family life, his home and his correspondence. There shall be no interference by a public authority with the exercise of this right except such as is in accordance with the law and is necessary in a democratic society in the interests of national security, public safety or the economic well-being of the country, for the prevention of disorder or crime, for the protection of health or morals, or for the protection of the rights and freedoms of others."
In other words, LAs do not have the right of access to the home without their being cause for belief that a child is at risk.
re: section 2.5. The second main point in this paragraph does not follow from the first. I would suggest that the sentence starting "Local authorities should recognise that there are many approaches..." contains a point of such significance that it merits a paragraph of its own.
re: section 2.5. It would be helpful to remove the phrase "all children should make reasonable progress" from a paragraph dealing with local authority responsibilities, since this appears to imply that it is the duty of LAs to monitor for progress. This is not in fact the case, since monitoring of progress is the responsibility of parents. Upon hearing of a HE child, the LEA need to ask themselves only if it is likely on balance that s/he is in receipt of a suitable education. This is not a monitoring or progress-reporting role. It is a snapshot glance and a judgement-call based on that snapshot. If that glance would suggest to a reasonable person that all is likely to be well with the educational provision and the parent appears to be law-abiding and aware of their legal S7 duty, it naturally extends from that the parent is appropriately attentive to the educational needs of their child according to his/her age, ability and aptitude and therefore progress *will* be suitable to that child. It is most certainly not for the LEA to monitor progress and nothing in the guidelines must even hint at that.
re: section 2.6. This could be worded more helpfully, since from the first part of the paragraph which states that LAs have a new duty to identify children missing from education, it would not necessarily be clear to an LA officer how this duty does not apply to children who are being educated at home, as stated in the last sentence. Perhaps the following could be included by way of further elucidation for LAs: "If a child comes to the notice of a local authority as not being registered at a school, the LA may ask the family about educational provision and upon receipt of information that a child is being educated at home, the LEA should assume, in the absense of evidence to the contrary, that this is indeed the case."
re: section 2.7. From the first sentence - "the quality of" and "on a routine basis" need removing. There is no statutory duty at all, routine or otherwise, to "monitor" quality or anything else about EHE.
re: section 2.8. It would be helpful if the order of 2.7 and 2.8 made it clearer that the enquiries mentioned in 2.8 should precede the process in 2.7.
It would also be helpful to make it clear that these enquiries are not bound by a 15 day minimum, and that conversely, there is no requirement for LAs to do as they frequently do, which is to require a response in a 15 day maximum time-span.
It would also be helpful if it were made clear that the enquiries mentioned in 2.8 may well never lead to the formal process in 437(1) of the Education Act 1996.
re: section 2.9. More emphasis could be made of the (b) part of 437(3). The LA should ask themselves whether, in the presence of a failure stated in 437(3)(a), they really believe that the only useful course of action is to put the child into school, ie: (b). Could the child receive a suitable education out of school with some more help, input, resources etc? The DfES should make it clear to the LAs that they have it within their legal and financial scope to assist the parent in their preferred choice of eduacational provision, and that they must use their funds and resources in non-discriminatory ways to benefit all children in their area. EHEers are not to be discriminated against because of their choice any more than persons choosing a particular religious education. After all, every child matters!
It would be helpful to add the information that the LA must notify the parent of their intention to issue an SAO before they actually do so and they must also let the parents know the school to be named in the notice.
re: section 2.11. We are pleased to note that Section 175(1) of the Education Act 2002 does not extend local authorities' functions. It might also be useful to clarify here that the Children Act 2004 also does not confer duties upon LAs to seek out problems (be they educational or other welfare issues) where there is no reason to believe that there are any and that home education, in itself, is not a reason to suspect that child welfare problems exist. There should be sufficient grounds for anxiety whether it be over the issue of educational provision or welfare, before the privacy of families is invaded.
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4 Do you agree that the section on contact with the local authority (paragraphs 3.4-3.7) is accurate and helpful?
Yes
No
Not Sure
No Response
Comments:
There is no room in the consultation to provide critique on sections 3.1 to 3.3. However, we feel that Section 3.1 should say that policy reviews must always be mindful of the law because it is at those times that documents may stray away from legislation and guidance. We also feel that it would be helpful to include HEors (both local and national) in these reviews.
Section 3.4. The first word in this section, ie: "many" should read "some" as this choice of word is unlikely to misrepresent the situation. Rather there is good reason to believe that the many HEors do not welcome contact with LAs, often because they believe that contact rarely benefits them substantially, and contains the possibility that their way of life may be profoundly affected in an non-consensual fashion.
It is inappropriate to single out a specific group of children, ie here: Gypsy, Roma and Traveller children. All children in England will come under the same legislation and guidelines and whilst it could be helpful when trying to ascertain whether an appropriate education is taking place to contact various organisations such as the Traveller Education Service, I do not feel that it is necessary or desirable to single out target groups in this manner, as it risks creating prejudice and ill-informed judgements.
It would be preferable instead to make it clear that an LA should not act in a prejudicial fashion. Somewhere in paragraphs 3.4 to 3.6, it should be clarified that income, housing, race, religion, sexual orientation, profession and educational qualifications are not in themselves grounds for reasonable concerns about ability to provide a suitable education.
re: section 3.5. The word "judgement" should read "decision on a balance of probabilities".
There is no legislation that allows LAs to directly approach the child so they have to accept that the parent will have respected their child and offered them whatever freedoms the parent sees fit to have with regard to access to the LA. It is necessary to realise that if LAs really do want to take the views of children seriously, that the child may not want to be approached by the LA in order to gather his views on whether or not he wants to meet with them. To insist on a meeting to gain consent for a meeting is to disregard the spirit of the Children Act 2004, which proposed that the views of children be taken seriously. If the LEA has good reason to think a child is not being heard and as a consequence of this, their welfare, educational or otherwise, is at risk, they may take action in the form of SAOs or referral to social services, but direct communication with the child cannot be required routinely.
re: section 3.6. "Ongoing" needs deleting - the "snapshot" is all that is required.
re: section 3.7. Replace the first word "many" with "some" (see explanation above) and remove a comma after "they may, " in second sentence.
This paragraph would need to be re-written in order to make it clear that the manner of presentation of evidence should not prejudice the decision about whether or not an appropriate education is taking place. As it stands, it could read as if parents who permit a home visit are likely to be viewed favorably. For example, the phrase "" if they choose not to meet" implies that they have chosen to present evidence in the way preferred by the LA, when all they have actually done is choose to present evidence in a perfectly legitimate fashion.
There are no consultation questions about sections 3.8 to 3.10.
re section 3.8 Citing this particular deregistration scenario is misleading because it suggests that parents need or should seek "guidance" from the school or LA about deregisration from school, whereas it is equally valid for there to be no first contact between parent and LA. In other words, the parent sends a letter of deregistration to the school, the school deregisters the child and informs LA, the LA assume (in the absence of reason to think otherwise) that the family are providing a suitable education. At the very least, it should be clear here that it is legitimate for the LA to take no further action at this point.
re: section 3.9 - wrong regulations. The second sentence "wish" should read "decide" as the former makes it look like they need permission and "intention" may more usefully read "decision". Returns from school to LA must be immediate. The last sentence should not be included, since there is no reason why an HE family will benefit from contact with their LA, and could create a situation where LAs assume that if a parent chooses not to inform them, that there are likely to be problems with educational provision, when it is much more likely that the family feel that they would benefit from being left alone for a while, without the heavy hand of a system that may have already failed them, bearing down on them.
re: section 3.10. This is nothing to do with deregistration so is under the wrong heading - it is about LEAs making initial contact with a parent. "Proposals" is not a useful word as it suggests the parent is putting something forward for approval before going ahead. Parents are not required, even when they are settled, to demonstrate all the characteristics of a suitable education. Parents are only expected (by Donaldson) though are not required by statute, to respond to an LA enquiry with enough information to satisfy them that there is no appearance of a S7 failure. Saying a reasonable timescale should be agreed is risky - agreed with and by whom and what is reasonable?
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5 Do you agree that the section on providing a full-time education (paragraphs 3.11-3.14) – and in particular, the characteristics of provision (paragraph 3.13) – is accurate and helpful?
Yes
No
Not Sure
No Response
Comments:
re section 3.11. It would be preferable to explain that full-time is not defined and that it is for a parent to judge whether the amount of time their child spends in education is sufficient to provide them with an education suitable to age, ability and aptitude. ie full-time is a personal measurement. The idea of so much one-to-one contact risks creating the impression that home educated children must be hot-housed and/or personally tutored.
There should be clarification accompanying the list of that which HE parents are not required to provide, that LAs must make all of this information clear to parents when they first establish contact with one another. This is important since LAs often take advantage of those who are new to HE, and for example, do not let these families know that they are not required to teach the National Curriculum.
re: section 3.12. LAs MUST consider ANY info from parents in ANY format, not just a "wide" range. The last sentence is too limited/prescriptive and needs dumping.
re: section 3.13. It appears here that the LA they are trying to write a definition of "suitable". A list of criteria as can be found at this point is likely to become a requirement which will be cited in case law some time in the future. Therefore any list has a significant potential to alter the legal situation for HEors and raises expectations for certain inclusions that are neither legally required or educationally necessary.
re: section 3.14. The header, for 3.11 to 3.14 is "Providing a full-time education". However it is mostly about the content of that education and 3.14 is about sanctions when their list in 3.13 is not seen to be completely adhered to. It is all about much more scrutiny than is legally required. It assumes that one unfulfilled bullet point is good reason to suspect a section 7 failure, so those bullet points would need to be VERY tight.
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6 Do you agree that the section on developing relationships (section 4) is useful?
Yes
No
Not Sure
No Response
Comments:
re: sections 4.1. Assisting the development of relationships between LAs and HEors should not be the central purpose of the guidelines, since these are by no means necessarily essential to the successful education of a child. The main purpose of the document should be to ensure legal compliance and proper treatment by LAs in the service of the provision of a suitable education to home educated children.
Whilst section 10 of the Children Act 2004 states that each children's services authority must make arrangements to promote co-operation between the authority, each of the authority's relevant partners and such other persons or bodies as the authority consider appropriate, being persons or bodies of any nature who exercise functions or are engaged in activities in relation to children in the authority's area, there is no clear duty that LAs should make arrangements to promote relationships between themselves and HEors, nor is there an equivalent duty placed upon home educators to make arrangements to build effective relationships with LAs, nor could it be stipulated that there is a duty to have these "co-operative" relationships and although this much is stated in section 4.2, section 4.1 could easily be taken to imply the opposite and should therefore be re-written so as to make it clear that HEors and LAs do not have to develop a relationship.
This is important to stress at this point because it is the case that many home educators do not want any relationship with the LA, but would not want to be judged negatively for this. They simply prefer to maintain the privacy of their families in the knowledge that they are sufficiently well-supported without the assistance of the state, they are not doing anything illegal and therefore do not warrant any investigation by authorities. LAs need to realise that they act as public servants and respond only in situations of need. They should not insist upon establishing relationships as to do so (even if very politely), is to destroy the genuine possibility of an equal, co-operative and trusting relationship.
re: section 4.3. I would suggest removing the phrase "especially those who have other children attending school", as it is very likely to lead to false assumptions about the style of education provided. For example, many parents provide a very structured form of education without ever having sent any of their children to school. Other parents with some schooling children provide a more child-centred form of education where the parent responds to the enquiries of the child.
re: section 4.4. It states: "(see paragraphs 3.12 to 3.15)." These section numbers probably refer to 3.12 and 3.13 which contains the list (see critique re: 3.13 above).
re: section 4.6. Given that the header here is "Providing information for parents", only the first sentence is required here. The rest has nothing to do with providing information and should be included in the following section 4.7 which deals with "Contact with parents and children". It would be helpful to make it clear that it is appropriate for LAs either to leave HE families alone or to be in occasional or if needed regular written contact with HE families and that they only need invite HE parents and children to a meeting in the situation that they have due cause to do so, and that this may be a one-off meeting, if that is all that is required.
After "future contact", insert "if any" to highlight the fact that ongoing contact is not a legal requirement. In addition, it needs to be clear that it is the parent's prerogative to offer the child access to the LA if they wish, not the LAs.
Further, how are the authorities going to satisfy themselves that the child has been given this opportunity to attend the meeting, other than by meeting with the child themselves? If this is the intention here, it should be clear that many children have no desire to meet with the LA whether it be to discuss their education, or to discuss whether they want to meet with the LA to discuss their education.
re: section 4.7. Singling out home visits and using weighted words like "strong indication" gives undue preference to the HV option. This weighting should be changed to show clearly how the LA can act in appropriate and proportionate fashion. It is actually the case that many children will not respond at all well to the knowledge that a stranger will come into their homes to judge them on their whole way of life, with that stranger having the power to remove in it's entirety. To think that a home visit is necessarily the best way to judge the educational provision is to fail to understand the way in which these visits are often perceived by HEors, who frequently find them traumatic and undermining. In addition, many children who HE have also suffered considerably as a result of over-zealous officials in schools, and intrusion into the home of such children is likely to be more damaging than helpful. LA officials need to be made aware of this problem in these guidelines. It is the case that despite the guidelines, but with no power to enforce them, HEors will still remain on tenterhooks to find out whether or not their LA official will behave appropriately and whether or not their lives are to be altered profoundly, in a way which they are likely to believe is not in the best interests their children. Therefore, as a principle of good practice, it would be preferable if LAs practiced the principle of proportionate minimal intervention or only provided services when they are requested to do so by HEors.
re: section 4.8. Together with section 4.7, this paragraph appears to be approaching the problem of LA contact from the wrong angle. It would be better to state the principle of proportionate minimal intervention at the beginning, stating that LAs do not have a duty to do anything in the situation that it appears on balance of probabilities that an education is being provided and that in order to establish this, written communication is an appropriate measure and that more or ongoing communication is only necessitated should there be concerns of one sort or another, and that meetings with HE parents and children are only necessitated as a last resort, when there is some basis for concern.
There should be clarity about 'audi alteram partem' and no weight or preference allowed. Then there should be a section that says that LEAs MUST NOT state, request or insist upon any preferred method of providing info and that to do so in particular for HVs is a violation of a family's human rights. They should be reassured that in those exceptional circumstances when there is genuine concern that a child is at risk there are already SS procedures available and if there is real warranted concern that the child's education is not suitable, they have section 437 Education Act to call upon.
re: section 4.9. Whilst the welfare and protection of all children is unquestionably paramount, it is not necessarily clear that it is the automatic responsibility of "the whole community". It is only clear that morally it is the parents who have automatic and primary responsibility for the welfare and protection of children. It is only in the situation that a parent fails to meet this responsibility that the wider community assumes some responsibilities in these areas. There should be a clear statement that LEAs should not try and do not need to manipulate education law as a means of addressing welfare concerns, as social services already have adequate tools at their disposal.
re: section 4.9. The first sentence needs to be more clearly stated in order to avoid some potentially erroneous inferences. So whilst it is clear that the welfare of children is of paramount concern to the whole community, it should be clearly stated that welfare of children is not primarily the responsibility of community. Instead it should be clear here that parents have the primary responsibility for ensuring the welfare of children. The state only has a duty to deal with the welfare of children when the parents failed to meet this responsibility.
It would be helpful to make it clear that elective home education is not, of itself, a reason for welfare concerns and that the duties conferred upon LAs in the Children Act 2004 do not extend their rights to intrude upon the privacy of families. It would also be helpful to stipulate that upon receipt of information that a child is educated at home, an LA would be wise to make written enquiries about the nature of that education, and only pursue the matter further if there are other reasons to think that there may be a problem.
The Children Act gives much credence to the idea that the views of children should be listened to, taken into account, and as far as possible, acted upon. It is the case that many home educated children (see Hands up 4 Home Ed, by way of an example), expressly do not want to see LA personnel, and this would in all probability include an interview to talk about whether or not they wanted to see such people.) LAs should try to respect the spirit of the Children Act when it comes to taking the point of view of children seriously, and ask themselves at what point they perpetuate rather than solve the problem of abuse.
re: section 4.10. It should not be made to seem as if it is a requirement for HE parents to take up references, although this may be suggested as good practice.
re: section 4.11. "Will wish to" should read "should". Delete "further develop relationships" .
re: section 4.12. Ofsted does not always appear to understand the legislative framework as it relates to LAs and home educators. For example, Ofsted has been known to make suggestions for LA action that is not in accordance with the legal position. It would therefore be helpful to clarify that Ofsted will be required to act in accordance with the guidelines.
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7 a) Are the suggested resources in section 5 and appendix 2 useful?
Yes
No
Not Sure
No Response
Comments:
re: paragraph 5.1. The Home Education leaflet in the Parent Centre link would need to be updated to bring it in line with the proposed guidelines, since there would otherwise be some contradictions between the two documents which could result in confusion for home educating parents who are not familiar with legal requirements and best practice.
re: paragraph 5.5. We would like to suggest that LAs should provide information about Connexions to elective home educators, rather than providing information about EHEors to Connexions, since this would allow the families to choose whether or not to use the service, and would minimise unnecessary waste of public money when Connexions chase up HE teens who would rather not have contact with them.
The information at the Advisory Centre for Education, www.ace-ed.org.uk is inaccurate and needs correcting.
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7 b) Should any other contacts be included?
Yes
No
Not Sure
No Response
Comments:
Open University
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8 Please use this space for any other comments you wish to make about the guidelines
Answer:
re: paragraph 2.4. This accurately describes the current situation in saying that parents "must assume full financial responsibility, including bearing the cost of any public examinations", but it could be helpful if LAs were to consider assisting EHEors with courses and funding for public examinations, as has been happening in some authorities. It would also be helpful if LAs could designate a local school or college as an examination centre that would routinely accept external candidates.
re: paragraph 3.15. It is not the case that a statement of Special Educational Need must (SEN) must remain in force in the situation that a child is EHE. The statement asserting that it should, must be removed. Instead the guidelines should elaborate that parents may choose to ask for the statement to be ceased, and that LAs should not unreasonably refuse to do this.
There should also be a clear explanation that parents should not be required to make the provision specified in the statement, since these provisions were specified for a school environment and may well be inappropriate for the home setting.
Also and in relation to the above paragragh, section 3.15 should be make it clear that a statement of SEN does not override paragraph 3.11.
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Monday, May 14, 2007
Schools to be Abolished in Favour of Learning Centres
There was an April Fool story doing the rounds this year in HE circles which ran along very similar lines to this report in the Independent. No wonder people are finding it hard to believe a second time. It still seems too good to be true.
Sunday, May 13, 2007
NB: Fiona v. Tony on Radio 5 Today
Around 10.30 am, today - Sunday 13th on Radio 5, Fiona Nicholson (chair of EO's Government Policy Group) will be going "head to head" with LA HE inspector Tony Mooney.
Tony had better watch out!
UPDATE: There is a comment thread on the piece starting up on the BBC message board here.
FURTHER UPDATE: Listen to the interview from 40 mins into the Julian Worricker programme here. A transcript of the interview now available, thanks to Gill.
Tony had better watch out!
UPDATE: There is a comment thread on the piece starting up on the BBC message board here.
FURTHER UPDATE: Listen to the interview from 40 mins into the Julian Worricker programme here. A transcript of the interview now available, thanks to Gill.
Saturday, May 12, 2007
Now the Guardian is Causing Confusion
...which is a shame, given the excellent article by Dave Hill on home education only a month ago. However this article, 10th May, on the current DfES consultation on elective home education generates far more heat than light. Perhaps the journalist, James Meikle, had a tight deadline since it looks as if he could have done with a bit more research.
Take his first paragraph, for example:
"The government has issued its first consultation into the growing practice of home schooling to find out whether rules need to be tightened over how children are taught out of the education system. "
Hm, an ill-informed and confusing sentence, I'd say, the most obvious quibble being over the term "home schooling". Mr Meikle, the term routinely used by home educators themselves and in the consultation and proposed guidelines, is "home education" - not home schooling. (This can be seen to matter).
Secondly, is Mr Meikle completely sure that "home schooling" is a "growing practice"? I thought someone from EO had reported that new memberships were down in the last year or so. Not that EO would know whether this represented anything by way of overall numbers of HEors, so if they are not sure, and recent government-funded research into the subject suggested that no-one could be sure, I am therefore interested to know how Mr Meikle appears confident on this point.
More seriously, it isn't the first consultation about home education, since there was a consultation in 2005. OK, this 2005 consultation wasn't about tightening rules, since it was about the creation of proposed guidelines for LAs in how to deal with elective home educators. However, despite what Mr Meikle goes on to say about the intention behind this current consultation, the purpose behind the 2005 consultation is exactly the same as the current one, since the current one is not, as Mr Meikle would have it, about tightening rules, but about clarifying existing ones and presenting these in the form of guidelines for LA practice.
Confused? Yeah well, just check out the post below for information on what is really happening.
Take his first paragraph, for example:
"The government has issued its first consultation into the growing practice of home schooling to find out whether rules need to be tightened over how children are taught out of the education system. "
Hm, an ill-informed and confusing sentence, I'd say, the most obvious quibble being over the term "home schooling". Mr Meikle, the term routinely used by home educators themselves and in the consultation and proposed guidelines, is "home education" - not home schooling. (This can be seen to matter).
Secondly, is Mr Meikle completely sure that "home schooling" is a "growing practice"? I thought someone from EO had reported that new memberships were down in the last year or so. Not that EO would know whether this represented anything by way of overall numbers of HEors, so if they are not sure, and recent government-funded research into the subject suggested that no-one could be sure, I am therefore interested to know how Mr Meikle appears confident on this point.
More seriously, it isn't the first consultation about home education, since there was a consultation in 2005. OK, this 2005 consultation wasn't about tightening rules, since it was about the creation of proposed guidelines for LAs in how to deal with elective home educators. However, despite what Mr Meikle goes on to say about the intention behind this current consultation, the purpose behind the 2005 consultation is exactly the same as the current one, since the current one is not, as Mr Meikle would have it, about tightening rules, but about clarifying existing ones and presenting these in the form of guidelines for LA practice.
Confused? Yeah well, just check out the post below for information on what is really happening.