The Petition of persons resident in the Sunderland North parliamentary constituency,
Declares that they are concerned about the recommendations of the Badman Report, which suggests closer monitoring of home educators, including a compulsory annual registration scheme and right of access to people’s homes for local authority officials; further declares that the Petitioners believe the recommendations are based on a review that was extremely rushed, failed to give due consideration to the evidence, failed to ensure that the data it collected were sufficiently robust, and failed to take proper account of the existing legislative framework.
The Petitioners therefore request that the House of Commons urges the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families either not to bring forward, or to withdraw, proposed legislative measures providing for tighter registration and monitoring of children educated at home in the absence of a thorough independent inquiry into the condition and future of elective home education in England; but instead to take the steps necessary to ensure that the existing Elective Home Education Guidelines for Local Authorities are properly implemented, learning from current best practice, in all local authorities in England.
And the Petitioners remain, etc.—[Presented to the House on 8 April 2010, Official Report, Vol. 508, c. 47P.]
[P000828]
Observations from the Secretary of State for Education:
You have petitioned that proposed legislative measures providing for tighter registration and monitoring of children educated at home be withdrawn and instead, that the necessary steps be taken to ensure that existing Elective Home Education Guidelines for Local Authorities be properly implemented.
The proposals to legislate for a registration and monitoring scheme for home educating families were removed from the Children, Schools and Families Bill prior to the General Election. We have not yet been able to consider in detail our approach to home education and whether or not any changes to the existing arrangements are required.
The previous Government issued non-statutory guidelines for local authorities in November 2007. These guidelines set out the current legislative position and the roles and responsibilities of local authorities and parents in relation to home educated children and are available at: http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/everychildmatters/publications/elective/