How will the Children’s wellbeing bill affect your right to home educate?

What are the current rules of home education? 

The current situation in the UK is that every family has the right to electively home educate their child. If your child is not registered with a school there is no requirement to do so. If your child is registered with a school, you can legally deregister them simply by sending written confirmation to the school and requesting your child be removed from the school roll. 

A family must provide an education suitable to the needs of their child, which is a pretty broad and all encompassing statement. It allows for many interpretations and as a result home education takes many forms.

All families currently have the right to choose home education for their children

What are the key points of the Wellbeing and Schools bill?

The bill is broad in its planned changes for school and education. Its main focus is on improving safeguarding processes and streamlining communication processes but also reducing the power of academies. 

 The government is concerned that the quality of education being provided through home education is not sufficient for some students. The suggested changes for families choosing to home educate are summarised below:

Mandatory registration with their local authority.

The government plans to introduce a “children not in education” register to be held by each local authority. What this means in practice is that all home educating families will need to register their children on that register to continue. Currently a number of home educated children are invisible to the local authority.

Removal of automatic right to home educate.

This is the point of the bill that has concerned so many home educating families. Currently all families have the right to choose home education for their children. The bill seeks to remove that right for any families who have been subject to a child protection investigation or plan. The purpose of the suggested change is to ensure the safeguarding of the most vulnerable children where the home environment might be considered unsuitable. 

families may lose their right to choose home education if the quality of their learning is not considered suitable

Increased focus on the curriculum being delivered.

The current requirements for home education is that the education be suitable for the age, aptitude and ability of the child and there is no requirement that a family should provide evidence of the curriculum being followed. The new bill suggests the local authority will have powers to remove the right to home educate if the quality of the education being provided is considered to be unsuitable and require school attendance.

The suggested changes have caused concern in the home educating community, some seeing it as a removal of rights over how they choose to raise their children. The government sees it as a measure to safeguard the most vulnerable children in society and raise standards of education in all its forms. 

What are your thoughts on the suggested changes in the bill? A step towards increasing the safety and support for vulnerable children or a removal of family rights?

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