Information For LEAs

Frequently Asked Questions

It is also worth noting that even if the level of education might be described as low, being in your family and being loved are likely to be more effective in opening a child to learning than being in a scholastic environment but feeling unvalued. The record of achievement of the school system gives plenty of cause for concern about the level of education being offered. The system fails some children and worse, confirms them as failures. It also provides an increasingly narrow definition of ‘success’ and only values certain outcomes. Home Educators, generally, see education in broader terms, have different criteria for success, and children have a much more positive view of themselves and their ability to learn throughout life.

If the LA has educational concerns it is important that they inform the family what their concerns are and consider carefully on what basis they are going to judge any replies. Of course if the concerns continue after exploring all avenues, the law would support the right of a local authority to invoke an SAO under such circumstances. This would then allow the parent the opportunity to make a case before a properly qualified court that will then examine the evidence and judge the matter. The problem we have frequently encountered is that many LAs take it upon themselves to act as judge, jury and executioner when in fact they have no legal right to do this. The right of judgement is reserved to courts of law under the constitution of the state: it is not right for local authorities to attempt to usurp this.

Quite a few home educators have had contact with Government agencies and the experience is often not entirely positive. Home Educators have had to fight for and defend the right to educate their children in a natural and effective way and are still viewed by some LAs with suspicion. This is one of the reasons why many of our members are cautious about the current child-welfare initiatives.

The experience of our members and others in the home education community is that some LAs do indeed have a negative view of home education. They often fail to provide information, or provide inaccurate information. They frequently mis-quote the law, make up their own interpretation, insist on visits or examples of work, and show through their words and deeds little understanding of other methods than a school-approach. We hope that if all sides keep communicating their experience, we will all grow to a better understanding.

Many LA personnel recognise the rights of home educators and are willing to accept information in any format and clearly state this fact. It would be wonderful if all LAs were so educated. But this is often not the case. As one of many examples, we have recently encountered instances of an LA where one officer has demanded access to parents’ homes. Where this has been denied he has demanded that he be provided with the child’s written work and has been unable to explain what standards he would apply to judge this work. In addition, he has bullied and frightened children in their own homes. Of course as you are aware, all of this is blatantly illegal, but that has not stopped him making, and indeed continuing to make, outright threats against families who exercise their legal right to educate their children as they wish. It is the abuses of this nature that concern us.

Families may mistakenly believe that all LAs are bullies and their concerns may be unfounded, but unfortunately such opinions are constantly reinforced by the unconstitutional actions of a few LAs, and the fact that the stories of such abuses are often passed around the entire home education community. It is as much a concern to us as it is to you. We try to encourage our members to enter into a constructive relationship with their LAs and we ourselves try to lead by example by trying to maintain open and honest communication with LAs. It is encouraging and refreshing to us to have a constructive dialogue with enlightened LAs. It is however very unfortunate that all too often we are automatically perceived as an enemy by some LAs - much as some LAs are automatically perceived as an enemy by some home educators.

We also believe that if more LAs were better informed about home education and the many different methods of learning, as well as approaching parents with more respect and less distrust, then their role would be easier.

We would welcome any feedback or dialogue on the specific advice we issue, in fact we would be delighted, because as is mentioned we genuinely want to have proper communication with LAs and are always keen to find practical ways to alleviate specific concerns or address specific issues.

If it is in the area of child abuse it should be noted that there have been no recorded cases of serious abuse occurring in a home educating family. The Professional Association of Teachers had to withdraw an accusation made at their national conference this year when the actual facts of the quoted case were pointed out to them. Indeed, it would seem less likely both logically and in practice. A negligent, non-caring parent seems unlikely to want the trouble of keeping their child at home, or of drawing attention to themselves, and the fact that there have been no serious cases would appear to bear this out. Friends and neighbours soon know if a family is home educating and failure to socialise or odd behaviour would only attract further attention.

With regard to the issue of safeguarding the child, we at EO also recognise that there will be rare exceptions where there will be real cause for concern. We would specifically draw attention to the fact that whilst some parents may commit abuses and/or fail in their duties to educate, the mere fact that a family chooses to home educate is not, and should not, be considered a prima facie cause for concern, nor should it be considered any sort of indicator of abuse or wrong-doing in and of itself. EO and the wider HE community have always been clear that the welfare of children is vital, and no one should embark upon Home Education without their child’s best interests at heart. The law supports the LA to make reasonable enquiries if it wishes, and there are plenty of ways to follow up real concerns in the rare cases where this appears to be the case.

We in home education often see the other side of the coin with respect to welfare issues. To be specific, we frequently see instances where LAs misuse alleged "welfare issues" to actively discriminate against, and in some cases intimidate, legitimate home educators where there are no genuine grounds for any concern and the action is initiated solely because a family chooses to home educate. I emphasise the word "frequent", because unfortunately it is not a rare occurrence, unlike the case of abusers masquerading as home educators. We have seen some extreme cases of blatant intimidation by agents of local authorities disguised as "concern" over home education when there has been absolutely no reasonable evidence of any default (educational or otherwise) by the parents concerned.

We are also concerned with the conflation of the separate issues of home education and child welfare in general. There are many legal measures in place to ensure that a local authority can act on genuine welfare concerns. It is perfectly clear under law that a family cannot use an excuse of home education to avoid all contact with an authority seeking to approach them on the grounds of a separate welfare issue - which also works both ways - an authority cannot use the mere fact of home education as an excuse to initiate welfare procedures.

If the local authority has a genuine welfare concern for the children based on evidence of default then social services can intervene under existing legislation. If on the other hand, the authority has no evidence that would lead to such a concern, and in fact if the only evidence of anything is the fact that family chooses to home educate, then of course the authority has no right to any intervention at all – which is only correct and proper under law as we are sure you would agree. We believe any of us, home educators and authority personnel alike would not like the law supplanted with a presumption of "guilty until proven innocent". Personnel of local authorities would not like people insisting on access to their homes and accusing them of wrong-doing just because they chose to exercise one of their legal rights, neither do home educators, but unfortunately we see this happening all the time.

However, we agree that where there are genuine welfare concerns based on actual evidence, the local authority should act by alerting social services. Social service personnel seeking to help a home educating family also need to be aware of the different approaches to education that families may take. If social services personnel are inexperienced with home education it is our experience that they may come to inaccurate conclusions regarding issues such as socialisation and educational welfare.

The problem of course is that there are always grey areas and there is a delicate balance between ensuring that an authority can intervene where required and preserving the fundamental human, social and legal rights of everyone not to suffer undue interference from external agencies. This is why we at EO try to help as best we can to ensure that all parties know where they stand legally, and why we rely upon the law to act as a protection for all who comply with it, and an aid for all who genuinely seek to enforce it, as it has always traditionally done.