Agenda item

14.00

The Education Inclusion manager will present the annual report on elective home education (EHE) in Oxfordshire.

The report provides an overview of the home educated children in 2016-17, the trends in EHE and the County Council’s responsibilities, challenges and opportunities in respect of EHE.

The Committee is RECOMMENDED to consider and comment on the report.

At its programme setting meeting in July, the Committee had identified Elective Home Education as a top priority for scrutiny and agreed to give further consideration as to whether the Committee should undertake an investigation into this area.

Accordingly, Rachael Etheridge, Education Inclusion Manager and Joanna Goodey, Senior County Attendance Officer attended the meeting to present an overview to the Committee on the causes of the rise in the number of children being Electively home educated and the challenges this may present for the Local Authority

In introducing the report, Ms Etheridge outlined team changes including a new rag-rating system which had been developed to ensure the limited resources within the team were utilised effectively, and that those children and families identified receive the appropriate support quickly.

The team consisted of 3 officers, equalling 2 full-time equivalent posts.  2 of those officers were qualified teachers, and visited the EHE families at home to support and offer advice as well as assess the level of education taking place.

There were 558 recorded cases of EHE within the last academic year, an increase of 21%.   70 children returned to school, compared with 90 the previous year (see Annex 1).

The main reason given for removing from school roll to home educate was ‘other/unknown’; where parents had, either been unable to identify the reason from those offered or had refused to let the Local Authority know.

The second most common reason was ‘dissatisfaction with the system’.  This also applies nationally. There had been a drop in the number of students who were EHE and had a statement or Education Health Care Plan. 43.88% of EHE children had school attendance of 90% or less and 8.67% of students had exclusions, either fixed term or permanent.

The number of EHE children in the various key stages were as follows:

There were 9 children known to the Local Authority who were EHE and of non-statutory school age.

There were spikes in years 5, 7 and 9.  Information from secondary schools may suggest there is inadequate information being shared between schools at transition stages to ensure the child’s needs are being met.

A school exit form was required by the Local Authority.  In completing this, schools are asked to provide information that may question the child’s safety, and indicate any known risks to them, that may be associated with being educated at home. The form also asked for information regarding any agencies that were involved with the child. If there was any known social care activity around the child, EHE officers would follow this up with the social worker, and attend any Team Around the Family or Child Protection meetings.  If the child has an EHCP, the Annual Review may be brought forward.  If the child attends a special school, he/she cannot be removed from roll until an Annual Review has been held and the SEN team are satisfied that appropriate provision will be made.

It has been acknowledged that if the family chooses not to engage with the Local Authority, health professionals may be the only professionals to see the child. Only 6 families in Oxfordshire has refused to engage. Work with the School Health Nursing Service was being developed, to promote and address the health issues of the children within the EHE community. 

Only if the Local Authority had been made aware of the parent’s decision to home educate prior to coming off roll, were officers able to challenge their decision.  If the school were made aware of the parent’s intention, the Local Authority may have an opportunity to discuss this with parents and address any issues which may be affecting their decision.  Ideally, parents should be able to have a ‘cooling off’ period prior to their child being removed from roll, to allow time for discussion.  However, legislation prevented this and schools could remove immediately. Too often parents decided to home educate without a full understanding of what it involved, and in some circumstances, schools had been proactive in the encouragement of EHE.

Plans were being discussed to enable EHE families to receive generalist safeguarding training, delivered by the Local Authority.

It is worth noting that Elective Home Education was not a risk in itself.

Local authorities had no statutory duties in relation to monitoring the quality of home education on a routine basis. However, under Section 437(1) of the Education Act 1996, local authorities should intervene if it appeared that parents were not providing a suitable education. Local authorities also had a duty under section 175(1) of the Education Act 2002 to safeguard and promote the welfare of children.

During discussion the following points were raised:

-           There were concerns that there was a feeling that officers were portraying a negative attitude towards EHE families.  Rachel Etheridge undertook to investigate;

-           Education rights remained with the parent in law & “efficient education” not defined in law;

-           Particularly at KS4, members were concerned about the voice of the child, what could the Local Authority?

-           Much of ‘off-rolling’ was taken at key exam stage.  Members had grave concerns regarding the impacts on life chances of the pupil.

-           Practical work going on with health (SHN and HV)

-           What were the rights of the child in this area?

-           Were there any strategies in place where parents were not happy with the provision? School-by-school based approach

-           What were we doing in Oxfordshire to sign-up post families to support?  Officers confirmed that a pack of information was sent to families and they had access to colleges

-           Could members lobby for the exams to be funded nationally?

-           Scope for Oxfordshire to explore requirements for enforcing an educational plan – officers confirmed that legislation meant they didn’t have to provide one.

-           Was there any feedback on services provided?

-           There was a lack of clarity over ‘unknown’ reasons for EHE;

-           There was a strong EHE lobby group that gave a lot of advice

-           Was there a trend / view on whether schools were pushing parents to off-roll their children instead of permanently excluding

-           Based on reasons for taking children out of school – could we tailor the support provided?

-           How could we foster the relationships between EHE – what networks were in place?

-           Members found it deeply worrying that there were families that we were unaware of – need to close the gap

-           What the pack sent out to parents contained

-           What tools were available to parents to help them challenge schools?

Following discussion the Chairman proposed and it was AGREED: :

(a)          that a small sub-group of 2 to 3 members (to include Councillor Emily Smith) meet with officers to delve into the questions raised today and report back to the Committee;

(b)          to invite someone from the EHE Community, preferably a parent who had been home schooling from an early age to come and speak to the group.