Wednesday, August 01, 2007

What Can We Expect?

The Consultation on Elective Home Education Guidelines closed pretty promptly last night - at 23.55 hours according to at least three exasperated responders who just missed the deadline.

So what can we expect from all this?

Well, there were 858 responses or thereabouts. Given the complexity of responding and the commitment required by individuals to do it, the DfCSF would be right to conclude that home educators are serious about protecting home education and their families and that they are widely networked and well-informed. Don't mess lightly or otherwise with us!

This should mean that the DfCSF will produce guidelines along the lines of the current draft. Better still and with a greater degree of legal accuracy, they would do well to adopt the version produced by Education Otherwise with what appears to be Ian Dowty's help. If that link doesn't work, try here (EO's entire response to the consultation) and scroll down to the section on EO guidelines. This does some great work eg:

It debunks the "broad and balanced" myth explaining that this is only relevant in the maintained sector. Home education has to be suitable TO THE CHILD, not necessarily broad and balanced, (whatever that means exactly).

It addresses the issue of the Children Missing from Education Legislation and guidance, and at least partially explains how this would work when coupled with ContactPoint. There seems to be a key bit of this missing - there is a reference to flowcharts, but no page as far as I can see - (will ask Fiona N for this) but whatever these propose, and I suspect it will be a formalisation of the principle of minimal and proportionate intervention, I suspect that the reality of it is that all of us will be checked out for our provision, as a result of the convergence of CME legislation and Donaldson, but at least, with our responses, we will have limited the intrusiveness and prescriptiveness of these interventions.

Here's hoping, anyhow.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Carlotta the link to the eo response isn't working

Anonymous said...

Carlotta, it's been extended - see
here

Anonymous said...

Whatever the result of this process, it will produce a set of guidelines not new law.

You are free to ignore these guidelines if you feel that they should not apply to you, and you can challenge any Local Authority trying to implement these new guidelines as if they are a set of new laws.

If the guidelines are what everyone wants (how likely is that in this control freak infested government) then fine, 'democracy at work' and all of that.

Everyone should be braced however for a set of guidelines that are bad news. Keeping in mind that one man's bad news is another man's 'it all seems alright to me'.

Carlotta said...

Ergh...don't know what is happening with adobe links at the moment. The one above is working just fine on two of our comps and not working on a third. I can't explain it as now have the updated version of PDF on all comps...

Explanations gratefully received.

Carlotta said...

And thanks for the extension notice, Jax. Have been off line for a couple of days, and have only just seen it - 10 mins before new deadline. Hope everyone got the responses in that they needed too.

33, 452 said...

I was about to ask if the second deadline had passed yet, but you answered me before I'd even managed to battle the word verification thingy to verablise the question! :D

It seems the number of responses really shot up during the last few days!

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Anonymous said...

Last but (hopefully) not least:

http://criticiseimprove.blogspot.com/2007/08/response-to-consultation-on-elective.html