Information For LEAs

Beyond the relevant law on education, recent years have seen changes in legislation and local authority structures as a result of the Government’s focus on children’s welfare. There is quite a lot of confusion about how all this relates to home education and we would encourage local authorities to consider carefully any policy initiatives to ensure they are appropriate, proportionate and lawful. Education Otherwise has always been clear that the welfare of children is vital, but the best people to look after and raise children are parents. It should be remembered that there is no reason to automatically link home education with welfare concerns. All the children in the headline cases which contribute to the current focus on welfare were attending school, or were well known to a variety of agencies.

There is further information about how things like Section 175 of the 2002 Education Act apply to home education on the Getting It Right page and in EO Bulletin No 3.