Home Education: Safety

(asked on 11th May 2021) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what safeguarding measures are in place to protect the wellbeing of children receiving an elective home education.


Answered by
Nick Gibb Portrait
Nick Gibb
This question was answered on 19th May 2021

The safeguarding of children who are electively home educated sits within a local authority’s safeguarding duties, as set out in the Children Act 1989. The provision of home education itself does not constitute a safeguarding risk, although a failure to provide suitable home education can impair a child’s intellectual, emotional, social, or behavioural development.

The Government has substantially strengthened its guidance to local authorities on exercising their powers in relation to elective home education. The revised guidance, which was published in April 2019, sets out the steps that local authorities should take to satisfy themselves that the education provided by parents at home is suitable, and the actions that they can take if they are not satisfied. This guidance will be reviewed again in due course.

The Government remains committed to a registration system for children not in school. A consultation was held in spring 2019 on proposals for: a mandatory register of children not attending state or registered independent schools to help local authorities carry out their responsibilities in relation to children not in school; a duty on parents to register their child with their local authority if not registered at specified types of schools; a duty on proprietors of certain education settings to respond to enquiries from local authorities; and a duty on local authorities to provide support to parents who educate children at home.

The consultation closed on 24 June 2019, with nearly 5,000 responses. Further details on a proposed registration system for children not in school will be in the Government’s response to the consultation, which we intend to publish in due course.

The Department does not collect data on attainment of home educated children.

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