{"id":31618,"date":"2019-02-03T18:06:38","date_gmt":"2019-02-03T18:06:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bcpdt.org.uk\/news\/?p=31618"},"modified":"2023-05-30T23:59:19","modified_gmt":"2023-05-30T22:59:19","slug":"call-for-more-regulation-of-home-schooled-children-in-england","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bcpdt.org.uk\/news\/2019\/02\/03\/call-for-more-regulation-of-home-schooled-children-in-england\/","title":{"rendered":"Call for more regulation of home-schooled children in England"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Children\u2019s commissioner wants stronger measures to stop schools \u2018off-rolling\u2019 pupils<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><!-- GUARDIAN WATERMARK --><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/education\/2019\/feb\/03\/call-for-more-regulation-of-home-schooled-children-in-england\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright\" src=\"http:\/\/image.guardian.co.uk\/sys-images\/Guardian\/Pix\/pictures\/2010\/03\/01\/poweredbyguardian.png\" alt=\"Powered by Guardian.co.uk\" width=\"140\" height=\"45\" \/>This article titled &#8220;Call for more regulation of home-schooled children in England&#8221; was written by Richard Adams, Education editor, for theguardian.com on Sunday 3rd February 2019 11.58 UTC<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The children\u2019s commissioner for England is calling for greater supervision for children being home-educated after their numbers have doubled in the past five years, driven by pupils being \u201coff-rolled\u201d or informally excluded by schools.<\/p>\n<p>Anne Longfield wants the estimated 60,000 home-schooled children in England to be registered with local authorities as well as stronger measures to stop schools illegally pushing pupils off their books, often by persuading parents to home-school them.<\/p>\n<p>In a report to be published on Monday, Longfield says thousands of children are effectively \u201coff the grid\u201d and ignored by being permanently out of school. The report highlights the cluster of schools \u2013 about 10% of those in England \u2013 connected to the increase.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"element element-rich-link element--thumbnail\">\n<p> <span>Related: <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/education\/2019\/jan\/17\/schools-pushing-children-into-home-schooling-say-councils\">Schools pushing children into home schooling, say councils<\/a> <\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p>\u201cThe numbers are rocketing and no one knows how they are doing academically or even if they\u2019re safe. Many are being off-rolled. It also seems that a relatively small number of schools may be responsible for this sharp rise in children leaving school for \u2018home education\u2019 in this way,\u201d Longfield said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe need to know who these children are, where they are, whether they are safe and if they are getting the education they need to succeed in life. There is a clear case for the government to introduce a compulsory register for all home-educated children, without delay.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>According to data gathered by the children\u2019s commissioner\u2019s office, 58,000 children were being home-educated last year \u2013 double the number recorded in 2013. But the precise figure is unknown because parents do not have to register home-educated children, meaning up to 80,000 children may have been home schooled.<\/p>\n<p>Longfield\u2019s figures are similar to the estimate of 52,000 home-schooled children in 2017-18, in the annual report of the Office of the Schools Adjudicator. Shan Scott, the chief schools adjudicator, said councils reported parents being \u201ccoerced\u201d by schools into home-educating their children, often before sitting GCSE exams.<\/p>\n<p>In a Channel 4 Dispatches documentary on Monday night, Longfield is shown visiting families in which children are being home-schooled, with the programme detailing the wide variety of circumstances under which it occurs.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMany parents who make a philosophical decision to home-educate provide their children with a high-quality education. But there are many other families who have ended up home-educating for other reasons, and are struggling to cope,\u201d Longfield said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMany of these children are very vulnerable, have special educational needs, or are unable to cope with a \u2018one size fits all\u2019 school system. Schools should be for all children, including those with complex needs and those who struggle academically.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Nearly all the local authorities surveyed said they did not have enough powers to ensure the safety of home-schooled children, and a large majority said they did not know the exact numbers in their area.<\/p>\n<p>The report suggests \u201coff-rolling\u201d \u2013 excluding a pupil without going through formal proceedings, often for academic reasons \u2013 has played a significant part.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"element element-rich-link element--thumbnail\">\n<p> <span>Related: <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/education\/2018\/aug\/31\/dozens-of-secondary-schools-exclude-at-least-20-of-pupils\">Dozens of secondary schools exclude at least 20% of pupils<\/a> <\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Data from 11 local areas shows a 48% rise in the number of children withdrawn from schools into home education between 2015-16 and 2017-18. In some areas, the number was much higher: Northamptonshire reported a 350% increase in children and young people registered as home-schooled in the last five years.<\/p>\n<p>An increase in formal exclusions may also be contributing: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/education\/2018\/jul\/19\/sharp-rise-in-pupil-exclusions-from-english-state-schools\">Department for Education figures<\/a> show there were more than 40 permanent exclusions a day in 2016-17, a total of 7,700, compared with just over 35 a day the previous year.<\/p>\n<p>Longfield\u2019s call for greater oversight was backed by the Local Government Association, saying it was needed for the minority of cases where children were being taught in dangerous or unsuitable conditions.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPlacing a legal duty on parents to register home-schooled children with their local authority would also help councils to monitor how children are being educated and prevent them from disappearing from the oversight of services designed to keep them safe,\u201d said Anntoinette Bramble, the chair of the LGA\u2019s children and young people board.<\/p>\n<p>The DfE said it was preparing to respond to proposals for a register of home schooled children, after holding a consultation last year.<\/p>\n<p>guardian.co.uk &#169; Guardian News &amp; Media Limited 2010<\/p>\n<p>Published via the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.guardian.co.uk\/open-platform\/news-feed-wordpress-plugin\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Guardian plugin page\" rel=\"noopener\">Guardian News Feed<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/wordpress.org\/extend\/plugins\/the-guardian-news-feed\/\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Wordress plugin page\" rel=\"noopener\">plugin<\/a> for WordPress.<\/p>\n<p><!-- END GUARDIAN WATERMARK --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Children\u2019s commissioner wants stronger measures to stop schools \u2018off-rolling\u2019 pupils<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31619,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10220698900476085_349663338397715":"","twitter_1370559253_1370559253":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[61,150,29,146,579,5,385,149,145,94,422,448,66],"class_list":["post-31618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","tag-article","tag-children","tag-education","tag-education-policy","tag-home-schooling","tag-news","tag-pupil-behaviour","tag-richard-adams","tag-schools","tag-society","tag-teacher-network","tag-teaching","tag-uk-home-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bcpdt.org.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31618","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bcpdt.org.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bcpdt.org.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bcpdt.org.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bcpdt.org.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31618"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bcpdt.org.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31618\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bcpdt.org.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bcpdt.org.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bcpdt.org.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bcpdt.org.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}