Asked by
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have to create a
register of all home-educated children.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for
Education and Department for International Trade () (Con)
My Lords, parents have the right to educate their children at
home and many do so very well, sometimes in very difficult
circumstances. However, there are some cases in which children
are not provided with a suitable education. We remain committed
to a form of registration for children not in school. Further
details on this will be in the government response to the
Children Not in School consultation, which we will publish in the
coming months.
(Lab)
The Minister and her predecessor, the noble Lord, , have been
supportive of the underlying principles of my Bill, and I welcome
that. The whole House has given it its support. It was also
welcomed throughout the country in the government consultation,
so I really ask: when are we going to act on this? It is urgent.
(Con)
My Lords, unfortunately, I can give the noble Lord no further
details on the time. He will be aware that when we launched the
consultation on the register in April 2019, we also issued
significantly strengthened guidance to local authorities,
outlining the current powers and duties they have in relation to
children who might not be in school in their local area.
[V]
My Lords, parents often choose home schooling to escape the
rigidity, values and standardisations of public education. Some
people are deeply fearful that a register might seek to reimpose
this. Will Her Majesty’s Government assure us that this register
is for safety and quality purposes only and that parents will be
able to continue to exercise their discretion and freedom of
conscience over what and how best to educate their children?
(Con)
My Lords, obviously within our public schools system there are
different ethoses, including, of course, many Church of England
schools. The statutory duty on parents is that they have to
ensure that their children are receiving a suitable education.
Obviously, that can be at home. In the consultation there was an
obligation on parents to notify the local authority, because a
register without any duty to notify would not be a register at
all.
(Con)
My Lords, is it not important to recognise the high quality that
sometimes can be reached by home schooling? It is a great tribute
to parents who are able to devote so much time and skill to
carrying it out.
(Con)
My Lords, the Government are clear that many parents provide
elective home education and do it extremely well. The outcomes
for their children are excellent, including for many children
with special educational needs and disabilities. However, in the
consultation it was clear that we need the data to find out where
certain children are being electively home educated.
(CB)
[V]
My Lords, I am disappointed that the Minister was unable to give
a timeframe for the register. In the meantime, is any work being
done to assess the extent to which fundamentalist religious
parents, in particular, are preventing their children receiving
appropriate education and, indeed, teaching in English?
(Con)
My Lords, as I have outlined, every parent, regardless of their
religious persuasion, has a duty to ensure that their child
receives a suitable education. If a parent removes their child
from school—and obviously during Covid we have seen a lot of
movement of people and removal from the school roll—we have
strengthened the regulations so that head teachers have to inform
the local authority and have a specific ground for removing a
child from a school roll.
(Lab)
My Lords, while a few parents educate their children at home well
and have nothing to fear from a register, a very large number of
children who are not educated in mainstream schools are in real
trouble. Two groups cause particular concern: those who are
taught the narrow and often anti-social curriculum of
unregistered or illegal schools, which are often also unsafe and
unhygienic, and the significant proportion of Gypsy, Traveller
and Roma children who drop out of secondary school, usually
through bullying, and whose parents are not equipped to teach
them. How can we leave such children at the mercy of gangs and
county lines any longer?
(Con)
My Lords, the noble Baroness is correct in relation to
unregistered schools. We have been aware of this issue and Ofsted
has been resourced to do this. Between 1 January 2016 and 31
March this year, 494 inspections of suspected unregistered
schools took place. Some 166 warning notices were given and 91
settings have been closed, so we are alert to this issue. We are
aware that it is important that children are on a school roll or
being electively home educated because they are exposed to
certain risks if they are not in either of those settings.
(LD)
My Lords, I welcome that answer, which kind of precludes what I
was going to ask. Ofsted has spoken recently about sham home
education being used as a cover for illegal schools with extreme
methods promoting extreme radical views. The Government have
committed to cracking down on illegal schools and I welcome the
comments the Minister has already made. Do the Government have a
schedule of progress? We know that a number of schools have
already been identified. Does the Minister have an idea of how
many schools have been closed so far? What is the Government’s
estimate of how many of these illegal schools exist?
(Con)
My Lords, as I have said, 91 of these settings have been closed
or ceased to operate when they were inspected. We are looking at
whether Ofsted needs additional powers when it goes into these
settings. Every parent who sends their child to that setting has
a duty to ensure that they are receiving a suitable education. We
reminded local authorities in the guidance from April 2019, which
I mentioned, of the suite of powers and duties they currently
have, whether that is prosecution or school attendance orders, to
ensure that young people are getting the education they have a
right to.
(Con) [V]
My Lords, as my noble friend the Minister has said, the
Government have introduced a voluntary code of practice for
out-of-school settings. While this is a start, it is unlikely
that the villains who operate unsafe, part-time settings and
illegal schools, such as those we have heard about from the noble
Baroness, Lady Burt, and others, will take note of this. What
steps are the Government taking to protect children in these
settings from threats such as unsafe conditions and religious
extremism?
(Con)
My Lords, many out-of-school settings offer a very valuable
service, particularly to those who electively home educate,
because they offer services to groups of children that parents
alone potentially cannot offer. We have issued that voluntary
code of practice. Many of those settings are charities so they
have responsibilities to the Charity Commission as regulated
bodies. We also have given £3 million to local authorities to
examine ways in which they can boost local capacity to intervene
when there is a safeguarding issue. Local authorities have a duty
to safeguard every child in their area.
(Lab)
My Lords, I agree with noble Lords who have said that many
parents are able to—and indeed do—successfully home educate their
children. However, with respect, that is not the issue here. Is
it not a scandal that an accurate figure for school-age children
not being educated in school is not available? Local authorities
are not required to keep a register and they cannot visit
children at home against the wishes of the parents. The latest
figure, published by the Office of the Schools Adjudicator in
February last year, put it at around 60,000. That was before
Covid closures, since when thousands of children have failed to
return to school. I hear what the Minister says about the
consultation but is it not now time for a compulsory register of
home-schooled children, maintained by local authorities as a
safeguarding measure? If she will not bring forward government
legislation, will the Government commit to supporting a Private
Member’s Bill such as the one introduced in 2017 by my noble
friend ?
(Con)
My Lords, in relation to the register, that is precisely the
reason we are committed to a system of registration so that there
is an accurate dataset. We have made it clear that if a child has
been in school, the head teacher must have a specified reason for
removing that child from the roll. In addition to the two groups
of children—those on the roll and those who are being electively
home educated—it is important to remember that when a head
teacher does not have one of the specified grounds, it may relate
to a child missing from education, which is a third group. Local
authorities have specific, named people who co-ordinate. A lot of
children will have dropped off the school roll in one area during
Covid and we have a system to make sure that when they, we hope,
appear on the school roll in another local authority that data is
connected. Let us not forget that third group of particularly
vulnerable children—those who are missing from education.
(LD)
My Lords, I thank the noble Baroness for the tone of her reply so
far. Will she take this opportunity to give us an assurance that
an assessment of the education provided for a child will be taken
in each case and that that assessment will have knowledge of
things such as special educational needs so that something
accurate can be said about what is happening to that child’s
education? Ultimately, the child is entitled to an education.
(Con)
The noble Lord is correct that “suitable” takes into account
different developmental and other characteristics of the child.
Any special educational needs that a child has are included in
the current statutory definition of a suitable education. What
detail the register will or will not include are matters to be
determined and will be in the response to the consultation.
