The Welsh Proposals for Home Education: What to do next.

(Posted with permission:)

What the Welsh Government is proposing and if you are living in Wales, what you can do now the consultation has closed: 

The Welsh Government proposes:

*Changing the law in Wales to permit compulsory registration and routine annual monitoring of home educated children.

*Using existing powers to develop statutory guidance on best practice for LAs working with home educating families.

*Future consultation on definition of "suitable education" in context of variety of educational approaches used in home education, to be "covered in statutory guidance and consulted on separately."

*Qualified expert assessment of suitable education in cases where home educated child has special/additional needs.

WHAT TO DO.

*Constituency Meetings are held on Mondays and Fridays. Get appointment booked before the Christmas Holiday.   Welsh Assembly members are in Cardiff mid-week and tend to be available in their constituency offices on Monday and Friday.

The Assembly Member website gives full contact details here .http://www.senedd.assemblywales.org/mgMemberIndex.aspx?FN=WARD

Go and see your Assembly Member: The Senedd in Cardiff is closed for a month from Thursday December 6th. Try for a meeting in the constituency on Friday 7th December or the following week, when your AM might be catching up with constituency business before the holidays. Otherwise you can book now for an appointment in the early New Year.

It should be possible to email all five AMs (constituency and regional) to ask for an appointment for a small group from your local area. Note that a full postal address within the AM's constituency is required, even in email as they'll only deal with their own constituents.

Opening your conversation with Assembly member.

1. Our children are home educated because...

2, We have been home educating since...

3. In our home education we have had support from...

4  Our experience of the council has been...[if not known, can say what friends' experience has been]

5  We feel very strongly about the Government's plans for home education because...

6  Our family would be affected by the proposals in the following ways...

7 Current Government Guidelines already cover welfare/safegarding/standards/diversity 

This can be sent to your Assembly Member as a web link and as an email attachment. You can also copy and paste from the web page here http://edyourself.org/articles/walesbriefing.php into the body of your email.