Asked by
To ask His Majesty’s Government whether there has been a rise in
home schooling and online schooling, and what action they are
taking to strengthen child safeguarding in this context.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for
Education () (Con)
My Lords, we are aware that the number of home-educated children
has been rising for several years. While the rise in itself is
not an inherent safeguarding concern, the view of many local
authorities is that the increase is driven by reasons other than
commitment to home education. That is why we remain committed to
introducing local authority statutory registers, are consulting
on revised elective home education guidance, and have launched an
accreditation scheme for full-time online education
providers.
(CB)
My Lords, it is important to try to understand the reasons for
the rise in home education. Can the Minister provide a
demographic breakdown of home-schooled children by sex, age,
ethnicity, location—there may be hotspots—special educational
needs and reasons for home schooling? I do not expect that
information to be provided now; I can have it in writing. If that
information is not readily available through local authorities,
could mechanisms be implemented to collect it? I am worried about
children with special educational needs. Are their needs being
met? I am worried about the content and quality of online
education, although I acknowledge that it removes barriers to
learning. I am very worried about the increased risk of children
being subjected to sexual violence and domestic abuse—Sara Sharif
is an example. Some girls will be at increased risk of FGM and
forced marriage. What will the Government do about these things?
I do not think the register is the only solution.
(Con)
I share many of the noble Baroness’s concerns. On her first
point, we believe there are three main reasons why parents might
decide to educate their children at home. The first is that they
want to do it and it is a positive choice. The second is that
they feel that the school their child is at is not meeting their
child’s needs, particularly where special educational needs come
in, as the noble Baroness suggests. The third group is where we
have genuine safeguarding concerns. The Government are working on
all three aspects, and part of the consultation will aim to
address them.
(Lab)
My Lords, there is surely another key element in the increase in
home tuition: the aftermath of Covid and home working. Is it not
true that we need a rapid increase in the availability of child
and adolescent mental health services and direct support for
parents who need help to get their children back into school?
(Con)
I do not disagree that the aftermath of Covid has impacted not
just home education but perhaps more particularly the wider
issues that we have debated in your Lordships’ House related to
attendance at school. The noble Lord is aware that we are
expanding mental health support teams across schools and
recruiting additional educational psychologists to support
children.
(LD)
My Lords, the Minister will be aware that literally hundreds of
thousands of children are missing from our schools—potentially an
educationally lost generation. The charity School-Home Support
has found that, particularly in poor communities, where children
do not want to go to school they pretend to home educate and it
is not happening. Is the answer not for the Government to bring a
simple Bill which would make it lawful for parents to have to
register if they are home educating?
(Con)
I think we have to be slightly careful about the use of the
numbers. The noble Lord talked about “literally hundreds of
thousands of children” missing their education. That is
conflating a number of different things, and I do not want to
give the impression that there are hundreds of thousands of
children missing all their education. There were 86,200 children
identified as being home educated in the spring of this year,
24,700 children were classified as children missing education on
the census day, and 94,900 missed education for a period at some
point in the academic year. On bringing legislation, I think the
noble Lord will have seen that a Private Member’s Bill has been
introduced in the other place, and he may have heard my right
honourable friend the Secretary of State speak warmly about
it.
(Con)
My Lords, a large number of children went missing from the
educational roll as the pandemic ended and we lifted lockdown.
What is being done specifically to identify those children and
return them to the roll?
(Con)
The department is working closely with schools, particularly
around persistent absence and severe absence. Persistent absence
is when a child is missing 10% or more of their school time, and
severe absence is where a child misses 50% or more. We have an
Attendance Action Alliance which the Secretary of State chairs,
and we are expanding that to a number of other regional advice
areas. We have expert attendance hubs and advisers working with
schools to help identify and support these children back into
school.
(Lab)
My Lords, there has been a 50% increase in home schooling since
2018-19. There is currently no inspection regime to check quality
and I understand that the lack of inspection extends to home
education hubs or online provision. Also, the only sanction
currently applied on parents by councils where there are concerns
is a school attendance order. How soon will the register
mentioned by the Minister be in place, and what more will the
Government do to ensure that both quality and safeguarding are
front and centre of policy on home schooling?
(Con)
Obviously I cannot comment on the timing of a Private Member’s
Bill. On the very valid points raised by the noble Baroness about
the inspection regime, that is one of the things that we are
looking at in the consultation, which closes on 18 January. In
particular, we are looking at how to judge the suitability of
education. Importantly, much of the work that has gone into
preparing that consultation has been done with parents and local
authorities together so that we can build trust in both
communities going forward.
(CB)
My Lords, the noble Baroness has set out very helpfully the
figures relating to children who are not in school on a regular
basis. This is such an important matter at a formative stage in
their development. Can the House assume from these figures that
each of these children has a named place in school? If so, can
the Minister say, in particular, what is happening to enforce the
law of the land so that these children have a proper
education?
(Con)
I do not want to say that every single child has a named place,
as children can move around and there can be a time lag, but
obviously it is the right of every child in this country to have
a named place. On enforcement, the noble Lord understands very
well that there is a balance to be struck. We need first to
understand why the child is not in school and aim to address
that; then, if enforcement is appropriate, that should be
followed through.
(Con)
My Lords, the introduction of registers, to which the noble Lord,
, and others have referred, is
accepted universally to be hugely urgent. Can we not have
government legislation rather than waiting for a Private Member’s
Bill?
(Con)
My noble friend will be aware that government legislation was not
in the King’s Speech, but the Government remain committed to
introducing statutory local authority registers for children not
in school as well as a duty for local authorities to provide
support to home-educating families.
(LD)
My Lords, the Minister mentioned that we are dealing with special
educational needs here. When will we have a structure where every
school has at least some expertise in how to teach for the most
commonly occurring special educational needs without going to an
education and health plan? When is that going to come in?
(Con)
The noble Lord will be aware that we are introducing an NPQ—a
national professional qualification—for SENCOs in schools. We are
also introducing support and training for SENCOs in early years
to encourage early identification.
