Yorkshire Coast Home Schooling Concerns Raised in Parliament

Scarborough and Whitby MP, Alison Hume, has raised concerns about changes to the rules around home education, in parliament.

Scarborough and Whitby MP, Alison Hume, has expressed concerns about the government's proposal to introduce a register for home-educated children.

The MP worries that the register may negatively impact families with children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).

Ms Hume, who spoke in the House of Commons this week, acknowledged the government's efforts in addressing the crisis in SEND education. However, she highlighted the struggles parents face in ensuring their children's needs are met.

Alison Hume said that there was a 40% increase in requests for Education and Health Care Plans (EHCPs) in Scarborough and Whitby last year and said she fears that the register may lead to increased pressure from local authorities for SEND children to attend school without adequate support.

She pointed out that parents often find themselves fighting for their children's needs to be met and shared the experience of constituents who have struggled with the SEND system. One constituent faced unaffordable fines for their son's non-attendance at school due to lack of support. Another constituent, Karen, had to put her career on hold to care for her son due to the lack of appropriate support.

Alison Hume says she believes that most parents would prefer their children to be educated in mainstream schools with proper support. She urged the Secretary of State to assure parents that the register would not be detrimental to their children's well-being.

She also suggested that the register could differentiate between families who homeschool by choice and those who do so due to a lack of support for their SEND children.

The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill includes a number of major reforms which aim to to protect "thousands of vulnerable children hidden from sight".

According to the latest government data, around 111,000 children and young people are home educated, up from an estimated 55,000 before the pandemic. This is alongside the 150,000 children missing education all together at some point during the last year.

The bill will bring in unprecedented safeguards for home educated children, ratchet up powers for councils and compel local authorities to establish dedicated, multi-agency safeguarding teams to keep track of children.

Measures to reform children’s social care and help reduce the number of children missing education that are being introduced in the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill include:

• all councils will be required to hold a register of children who are not in school. Councils will be able to require parents and providers of out of school education to share information like name, address and the nature of the education children are being provided
• a unique number for every child – in the same way every adult has their own national insurance number – to join up systems and make sure no child falls through the cracks. A consistent identifier will allow those responsible for the safeguarding and welfare of children to better join relevant data and identify children who will benefit from additional support
• the removal of the automatic right for parents to educate children at home if their child is subject to a child protection investigation or under a child protection plan. Schools will need to check with the local authority where a parent asks to remove a child from school to home educate, to establish whether the local authority’s consent should be obtained.
• if any child’s home environment is assessed as unsuitable or unsafe, local authorities will have the power to intervene and require school attendance
• making sure every council operates best practice ‘multi-agency’ safeguarding panels, that bring together all the professionals that can best make sure children are kept safe both inside and outside the home

Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said: 

Keeping children safe will always be my first duty as education secretary, but we can only truly do that if we know where our children are. The sad reality is that at the moment there are thousands of children hidden from sight.

This government will make no apologies for doing whatever is necessary to keep children out of harm’s way, and I will not stand by while some young people fall through the cracks, left without a good education and vulnerable to exploitation and abuse.

This landmark bill is a crucial step forward in our mission to protect all children, while also supporting parents by putting more money in their pockets as we deliver our Plan for Change and give all children the best start in life.