EO and Government Consultations

England

RESPONSES MADE BY EDUCATION OTHERWISE TO GOVERNMENT CONSULTATIONS 2007

• Definition of Full Time Education - In February 2007 EO responded to the consultation on the definition of full time education in independent schools. This consultation attracted a great many responses from the home education community.
• Entitlement to Positive Leisure Activities - In March 2007 EO responded to the consultation on entitlement to positive leisure activities, which resulted from the section 6 of the Education and Inspections Act 2006.
• Skills Strategy Equality Impact Assessment - In April EO responded to the Skills Strategy Equality Impact Assessment consultation. There is a statutory duty for the department to carry out impact assessments which analyse the financial impact of implementing the proposed course of action. The focus of the EO response was on the lack of attention paid to disability and SEN in the impact assessments. The skills strategy concerned proposals to move to demand-led education and training in the wake of the Leitch Report on the skills needed for the workforce.
• Guidance for the revised policy on exclusions from schools and pupil referral units - In May 2007 EO responded to the consultation on written guidance for the revised policy on exclusions from schools and pupil referral units. The changes were brought about by the Education and Inspections Act 2006 and they will come into force in September 2007.
• Review of the regulations on attendance targets - In May EO responded to a consultation on a review of the regulations on attendance targets.The Department proposed that schools should be required to impose individual attendance targets on pupils with a poor attendance record. EO raised a number of concerns about this proposal.
• Consultation on schools, early years and 14-16 funding - In June 2007 EO responded to a consultation on education funding. At present the local authority has very limited central funding for education and this funding is decided by the Schools Forum at local authority level. This consultation covered a great many local authority funding issues from 0-16.
• Consultation on raising expectations (school leaving age) - In June 2007 Education Otherwise responded to the consultation on raising the compulsory education/training leaving age from 16 to 18. The original proposal from the department took no account of home education as a valid legal option, instead stipulating full time mandatory attendance at school or college post 16. This errror was highlighted in EO's consultation response. We have subsequently received confirmation from the 14 -19 unit that home education will continue to be accepted as a valid form of education/training, irrespective of whether or not the school leaving age is raised.
• Consultation on community cohesion - In July 2007 EO responded to a consultation on community cohesion. The main focus of EO's consultation response was that the duty to bring the facilities of extended schools to the wider community must also include making such facilities available to home educated children and young people. We wanted to see more family-based learning opportunities. We also reminded the department that at present home-educated young people are frequently denied access to local examination centres.
• Consultation on on draft guidance for contactpoint - In July 2007 EO responded to the consultation on draft guidance for ContactPoint, which is the national database or Information Sharing Index permitted by section 12 of the Children Act 2004. We also referred back to the major EO response on the database submitted in December 2006
• EO Response to Consultation on Home Education Guidelines - EO Response July 2007
• "Suitable" and "Efficient" Education Consultation Spring 2007

"SUITABLE" AND"EFFICIENT" EDUCATION CONSULTATION SPRING 2007
on possible changes to the statutory framework for home education.

Jan 31st. Letter to Alan Johnson, Secretary of State for Education protesting the lack of consultation with the home education community on home education policy development and Guidelines here.

Jan 2007 Briefing Paper on the planned consultation here

DEC 19th EO GPG meeting with Peter Walsh of DfES. Notes from the meeting: here

NOV 2006 DfES Public Communications Unit reveals in replies to home educators that a consultation is imminent to look at possible changes to legislation to introduce statutory standards and monitoring for home education.

DRAFT GUIDELINES FOR LEAs ON HOME EDUCATION

July 31 2007 EO response to Consultation on Home Education Guidelines submitted: here.

May 8 2007 DfES launched public consultation into written guidelines for Local Authorities on Home Education. These can be found here.

Jan 29th 2007 Letter to Elaine Haste asking for a meeting and protesting the lack of contact with home educators over the guidelines here

Dec 2006 See consultation meeting description and briefing paper above. The pre consultation meeting revealed that implementation of the long awaited guidelines is planned in parallel with the new consultation.

Feb 2006 Penny Jones reply to EO here

Jan 2006 EO letter to Penny Jones, DfES Divisional Manager responsible for Home Education here

LATEST:
DEC 2005 Home Educators excluded from later stages of the consultation.

LEAs are known to be in ongoing discussions with DfES about the contents of the guidelines, but home educators have been told that they will have no further input into the development of the guidelines. Guidelines are expected to be published “around the end of the year”. This seems discriminatory against the home education community in view of the government’s good practice guidelines on consultations which state that feedback from consultations should be published within 3 months, and that where a consultation may have significant impact on a community, they should be kept informed and their input sensitively handled.

MARCH 2006 In the absence of further information from DfES, consultation responses from the LEAs have been obtained by FOI request. See here.

MAY 2005 EO issued their response to these guidelines.
It is in three parts and it is advisable to read the commentary first. All three parts are available in Word and pdf format.

• Commentary in Word. Commentary in pdf.
• Amended Draft Guidelines in Word. Amended Draft Guidelines in pdf.
• Draft LEA Guidelines showing changes in Word. Draft LEA Guidelines showing changes in pdf.
• Another home education community response with additional input from a home education lawyer can be found here.
• The response of the HE-consult-UK forum can be found here. HEAS, Home Service and Family Education Trust responses are amongst the FOI documents, see MARCH 2006 entry above.

FEB 2005 DfES have issued the draft guidelines for LEAs on elective home education.
They are available to view in pdf format here and Word format here

FEB 2005 Meeting with DfES to discuss early draft of guidelines for LEAs on elective home education.

• Notes from the meeting are available here

Two sources of examples of home education were left with DfES for use as background reading and possible inclusion in guidelines or support information:

• Home Education Case Studies here
• Home Education Experiences Links here

JUL 2004 Meeting with DfES to discuss possible draft guidelines for LEAs on home education.
Notes from the meeting are available here

SAFEGUARDING CHILDREN / s175 Education Act 2002

AUTUMN 2004 EO LEA Bulletin stating the Limits of s175 for Home Education

MAR 2004 Response to the Safeguarding Children Consultation.
EO’s response is available at here

JAN 2004 Safeguarding Children Consultation announced

EVERY CHILD MATTERS Green Paper / CHILDREN ACT 2004 / INFORMATION SHARING INDEX / EDUCATION AND INSPECTION ACT 2006

NOV 2006 EO Consultation Response on Draft Statutory Guidance to Support the new Duty can be found here

NOV 2006 Education and Inspections Act 2006 receives Royal Assent here
The act creates a duty requiring local authorities to "identify children not receiving an education".

Children Missing Education and Information Sharing Index
Dec 2006 EO Response to section 12 regulations consultation here

The Education And Inspection Act 2006 received royal assent on 8th November 2006 here

Sep 2006 DfES Consultation on draft regulations
made under section 12 of the Children Act 2004 here

NOV 2005 DfES publishes Schools White Paper
The paper includes plans for a statutory power to require LEAs to identify children missing from education, and for fines for parents of excluded pupils in public places during school hours. Both could have negative impacts for home educators.

• 'Higher Standards, Better Schools for All - More Choice for Parents and Pupils'
• EO initial response to DfES on the White Paper
• Epolotix page on the White Paper with stakeholder responses here
• Notes from a meeting with DfES about the proposed bill on 30th November 2005 here

JAN 2005 EO reply to database consultation
Database Consultation Response

NOV 2004 Children Act Enacted

OCT 2004 DfES issued a consultation on records on children databases

AUG 2004 Meeting with DfES Information Sharing Team to discuss Database Plans

• Press Release and pre-meeting submission to DfES here
• Home Education Experiences Links here

JUL 2004 DfES Issues Good Practice on Identifying Children Missing from Education

NOV 2003 EO Response to Every Child Matters Consultation 'Every Child Matters'

SEPT 2003 Government Publishes Children Green Paper Every Child Matters

PUPIL REGISTRATION REGULATIONS

APR 2006 Follow Up EO Response to the Consultation here

DEC 2005 EO Response to the Consultation here

SEP 2005 DfES Consultation on new regulations

1995 Pupil Registration Regulations

After long lobbying the home education community won recognition in the regulations that deregistration from schools did not require the consent of the LEA, but was “on demand” by the parent writing to the school, except for special schools. See here.

EDUCATION MAINTENANCE ALLOWANCE

In England home educators are not eligible for EMA, although they are in Scotland. This is the case despite the fact that child benefit may be claimed between the ages of 16 and 18 for home education in both England and Scotland. EMA is intended to increase access for children from low income families to educational options, and the lack of availability of EMA is discriminatory against children who wish to choose home education as their study option in this age group, and who are unable to do so due the lack of EMA.

OCT 2004 Meeting with DfES here

OCT 2004 Letter to DfES requesting a meeting about EMA here

TRUANCY PATROL GUIDANCE

Truancy Patrol Guidance is issued to the police and education welfare officers by the Home Office and DfES jointly. This guidance makes clear that home educators are not the targets of the powers, and should be allowed to pass on their way. However it fails to adequately protect home educators from interference by giving confused instructions about what officials should do when they meet home educators.

Truancy Patrols cause considerable irritation and there is sometimes threatening behaviour from officials towards home educators. Police officers and education welfare officers are often not sufficiently aware that parents and children who state they home educate should not be questioned and are not required to identify themselves to the patrol.

EO supports the views of ARCH that truancy patrols are prejudicial to the interests of home educators and are also an ineffective use of public money. ARCH website

SEP 2005 New DfES / Home Office guidance replaces the previous guidances and the confused section 46 gives advice to officials which is much less clear than before. EO will be taking this further.

MAR 2005 EO response to consultation on new truancy patrol guidance here.

NOV 2002 EO issues Information for Home Educators about Truancy Patrols here.