Badman seeks to prove vulnerability of home educated children

He has given councils two weeks to get back to him with a range of statistics on home educated children, because the Children, Schools and Families Select Committee want to scrutinise his review in early October.

In a letter sent out to directors of children's services last week, Badman said: "I would like to strengthen my statistical evidence in advance of the select committee hearing so that it is more extensive and statistically robust."

He now wants councils to tell him how many home educated children are subject to child protection plans, how many are receiving inadequate education, how many are missing and how many former home educated children are not in education, employment or training.

He said he needs the extra evidence because some home educators refuse to accept that "the number of children known to children's social care in some local authorities is disproportionately high relative to the size of the home educating population".

Fiona Nicholson, chair of the Education Otherwise Government Policy Group, said Badman's letter was a "surprising admission" that his report was not "statistically rigorous".

She said: "He seemed to have enough evidence to produce a report, but perhaps he didn't. It seems a bit desperate to now ask local authorities to provide extra evidence."

She added that results from Freedom of Information requests made by home educators show that only 25 out of 152 local authorities responded to Badman's initial call for evidence.

She said: "The Badman Review was not given sufficient time to consider the issues so reached hasty and disproportionate conclusions. We're just very glad the select committee are looking into this."