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Home Education in Croydon

The Children & Young People Sub-Committee is asked to note the content of the report and consider whether there are any areas of concern that need further investigation as part of the work programme for 2022-23.

 

(Report to follow)

Minutes:

The Scrutiny Children & Young People Sub-Committee considered the Home Education in Croydon report, which had previously been highlighted by the Sub-Committee as a potential area of concern in need of further scrutiny.

 

The Sub-Committee received an overview from the Director of Education, Shelley Davies, who highlighted the following:

 

-                  There were currently 635 children registered as elected education with reasons as provided within the report.

-                  The covid-19 pandemic had impacted family’s decision in education and sending children to school, though parents are legally within their rights to elected education at home.

-                  Safeguarding and staffing had also been addressed within the report.

 

In response to queries raised by the Sub-Committee, the Director of Education, clarified the following:

 

-                  In relation to the safeguarding of children that were home schooled, there were no inherent safeguarding risks for families planning to home educate their child, though if a school was to identify that a decision for home education was not appropriate for a specific individual, this would be followed up on a case-by-case basis in particular where there were safeguarding issues. There was also a safeguarding process in getting the child back to school which included notifying Children Missing Education, and Children’s Services [if significant concerns were identified]. The Elected Home Education Team also worked closely with the safeguarding officer, where children would be visited every 6 months, or regularly if known to Children’s Services.

 

-                  In relation to data and the 635 children registered for Elected Home Education, it was unknown of the breakdown of children in primary and secondary schools, though it was shared that anecdotally parent’s decision to home school their child may often relate to a transition from primary school to secondary school, GCSE preparations or other factors. Additionally, elected home education may not be the right choice for families who may very well return their child back to school.

 

-                  In relation to the challenge of schools encouraging families to home educate their children, the service reviewed on the number of situations this had happened - an example which resulted in advice given to families to avoid exclusion. The service had addressed schools and families who needed to be supported in decision making instead of having been encouraged change that was not required for their children. It was important that education was not encouraged to be channelled at home other than what was right for the family.

 

-                  In relation to the high turnover of children moving from one local authority to another and whether there was a tracking process in place, the service acknowledged their liaison with the admission authorities in the neighbouring boroughs to ensure safeguarding is maintained. This meant that a child would remain enrolled at a school in one local authority until acknowledgement was verified by another local authority admission team. Where a child was not attending school or enrolled in another school this would alert that a child was missing from education and with safeguarding protocols in place the specialised teams would be notified.

 

-                  In relation to the suitability of elected home education and its performance, this was proven challenging to record as children were often visited once or twice yearly, where the determination of suitability would be made by professionally qualified teachers. It was noted that as there was no legislation for families to follow a specific framework or curriculum, the term suitable would not necessarily mean the same curriculum and framework children would receive in schools, and thus the word suitability was to be used widely.

 

At 7pm Councillor Bernadette Khan attended the meeting.

 

-                  In relation to what indicators qualified educational provision, it was addressed that traditional schooling and the concept of education in public or at home was what constituted the ideology of education. The services were unable to determine choice on style of education for families and focused on reasons Elected Home Education was the chosen style to educate their child. It was recognised that the number of children being home schooled was increasing and the service focused on managing those families, by way of visiting, to ensure provision was good. This was accomplished by the elected home education staff worker who was a qualified teacher.

 

-                  In relation to tracking children who were taken out of mainstream and being home schooled, it was highlighted that a notification must be provided to the department by the family of their choice to home school. The service would then be able to keep a track record on the EHE register of all children and contact families to provide documents and other material to use.

 

 

In Conclusion, the Sub-Committee discussed the following:

 

Though it was recognised that the covid-19 pandemic had given families choice to home educate their children, there needed to be more data on Elected Home Education which was to include longitudinal study or case studies of success, the schools affected, ages of children, length of being home educated; additionally, the performance indicators on visits and lack of visits to children home educated.

 

The Chair further noted from the discussion that though there was the ability for parents to follow their own educational path, it would be interesting to review how many families follow the curriculum and framework, children completing exams and other data. Further, it was put forward that the Sub-Committee was to be clear on information required in the return to the Sub-Committee in the future.

 

The Chair thanks officers for their report.

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