Annex D – Questionnaire to local authorities
(from the Home Education Review: )
Independent Review of Home Education in England
Thank you for taking the time to complete this questionnaire about processes for supporting and monitoring home education. You may find it helpful to read through the questionnaire before attempting to complete it. Completion of the questionnaire is entirely voluntary.
Responses will be completely confidential and used only for the purposes of the independent review.
The Government is committed to ensuring that systems for keeping children safe are as robust as possible. As part of this continuing commitment, an independent review of home education will assess whether the right systems are in place for ensuring that home educated children have access to the five Every Child Matters outcomes. This includes whether Government should do more to support local authorities in discharging their duties in relation to home educated children.
The full terms of reference for the review are available on-line at www.everychildmatters.gov.uk/ete/ homeeducation
As organisations responsible for ensuring the safety, wellbeing and education of children and young people in your localities, we very much value your input into this review.
Please note, the Director of Children’s Services and Lead Member for Children and Young People are asked to sign off the response to this questionnaire before submitting it.
Please return your completed questionnaire by Friday 6 February to homeeducation.review@dcsf.gsi.gov.uk
Or by post to: Elizabeth Green Home Education Review DCSF Level 2 Sanctuary Buildings Great Smith Street London SW1P 3BT
Thank you for taking time to respond to these questions.
===============================
About your local authority
Name of LA
Tel.
No of main contact
E-mail of main contact
Would you be willing to take part in the next phase of the research in March (including in-depth interviews with key personnel in your organisation)? Yes/No
=====================================
1. Who is involved in supporting and monitoring home educated children within the local authority and other agencies? Team with main responsibility – List all teams/professionals involved
Support/Monitoring
Describe how you ensure collaboration and communication between these teams/individuals
==============================
Section Two – Data and Tracking
2. How many children are currently home educated in your local authority?
Registered with LA
Non-registered children: Primary age
Secondary age
Total
===============================
3. Are these figures accurate or based on estimates? Accurate/Estimate
Where do you get this data from?
How do you know the data are accurate?
What data have you used to arrive at this figure? (List all sources)
=====================================
4. How confident are you in the accuracy of this data?
Very confident/Fairly confident/Don’t know/Not very confident/Not at all confident
=====================================
5. How often does the local authority get updated data?
List frequency for each source separately
===================================
6. Thinking about your home educated population, what proportions have the following characteristics?
Please say whether these figures are based on estimates or accurate data.
Characteristic Proportion
Delete as appropriate
Statement for SEN Estimate/accurate
Non-statemented SEN Estimate/accurate
Gypsy, Roma, Traveller heritage Estimate/accurate
Other BME Group (please state below) Estimate/accurate
====================================
7. Do you believe the local authority knows about all the home educated children in your area?
Yes, we are confident we know about all home educated children in the area
We think we know about the vast majority of home educated children in the area
We probably do not know about a fair number of home educated children in the area
We probably do not know about a significant proportion of home educated children in the area
=====================================
8. Do you think that you will be better able to track children in your area in the near future?
e.g. planned changes to your own systems, ContactPoint, other system improvements?
Yes/No/Don't Know.
Why do you think that?
========================================
Section Three – Supporting Home Educating Families
9. How does the local authority ensure families know about their rights and responsibilities in relation to home education? List all approaches used
============================
10. What support does your local authority provide to home educating families? List all forms of support offered
============================
11. How does the local authority let families know about the services provided to support them in home educating their children? List all approaches used
=========================
Section Four – Assessment and Monitoring
12. Following the initial assessment visit, are further monitoring visits made to a home educated child?
Yes/No/Don’t know
12a. If yes, how often, on average, are these carried out?
More than twice a year? How often?
Twice a year
Once a year
Less than once a year
Additional comments
==================================
13. On average, how often is the child seen when a visit is made?
Always, at each visit
Usually, but not always
Sometimes
Never
Depends on the child/circumstances
Please describe
==================================================
14. If the child is seen, where is s/he usually seen?
In the home
At the home, but do not go inside
Another venue
Please specifiy _____________________________________
Depends on the child/circumstances Please describe
===================================
15. If you are not permitted access to a child, is any further action taken? Yes/No/Don’t know
15a. If yes, what further steps are taken? Please describe
====================================
16. How is the ‘suitability’ of the education provided to the child assessed? Please describe
====================================
17. Is the local authority clear about what the definition of a ‘suitable education’ is?
Yes/No/Don't Know
Why is that? Why is that?
========================================
18. Does the local authority have systems in place to track the educational progress of home educated children?
Yes/No/Don’t know
If yes, please describe the system
====================================
19. Of the home educated children in your area of whom you have knowledge, what proportion in your estimation are receiving a suitable, full time (20hrs a week) education?
Please describe
=====================================
20. Does the local authority take any further steps if a home educated child’s education was found to be unsuitable or not full time?
Yes/No/Don’t know
20a. If yes, what steps are then taken?
Please describe
=================================
21. Does the local authority face any challenges in assessing whether home educated children receive a suitable education?
Yes/No/Don’t know
If yes, please describe challenges and what you think could be done to overcome these
====================================
22. Thinking about your local area, in the last five years, how many cases have you come across that use the premise of home education as a ‘cover’ for child abuse, forced marriage or other aspects of child neglect? Please specify.
Additional comments
Please include the number of Serious Case Reviews you know about that have a home education element since January 2003.
NB – this data will not be aggregated or used in any other way. This data will provide an overall sense of the scale of this issue
=========================================
23. Do you think the current system for safeguarding children who are educated at home is adequate?
Yes Why do you think that?
No Why do you think that?
Don’t know
=========================================
24. Do you think that home educated children in your local authority are able to achieve the five Every Child Matters outcomes?
Yes/No/Don't Know.
Please say why for each of the five outcomes.
Be healthy
Stay safe
Enjoy and achieve
Make a positive contribution
Achieve economic well-being
====================================
25. Do you think there should be any changes made to the current system for supporting home educated families?
Yes/No/Don't Know
What should they be?
Why do you think that?
=====================================
26. Do you think there should be any changes made to the current system for monitoring home educating families and ensuring that home educated children are able to achieve the five outcomes?
Yes/No/Don't Know
What should they be?
Why do you think that?
===================================
Thank you for taking time to respond to these questions. Please return your completed questionnaire, by Friday 6 February to homeeducation.review@dcsf. gsi.gov.uk or by post to the address on page one. If you are returning the questionnaire electronically, please add the name of the DCS and Lead Member in the signature box.
Declaration
I agree that the information supplied in this questionnaire is a true reflection of practice in this local authority.
Signed_______________________________________________________
Date _____________
Director of Children’s Services
Signed_______________________________________________________
Date _____________
Lead Member for Children
The information you have provided may be subject to the Freedom of Information Act 2000. This does not necessarily mean that your response can be made available to the public as there are exemptions relating to information provided in confidence and information to which the Data Protection Act 1998 applies. You may request confidentiality by ticking the box provided, but you should note that this may not exclude the public right of access. Please tick if you want to keep your response confidential.
No comments:
Post a Comment