Increased support for SEND pupils needed to improve home education, MPs say
Fiona Simpson
Monday, July 26, 2021
Greater support for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and tougher measures to tackle off-rolling have been recommended by MPs to improve home education in England.
Strengthening Home Education, a new report by the House of Commons Education Select Committee, warns that some families face being forced into home-schooling due to a lack of support for children with SEND and the practice of off-rolling”.
Off-rolling has previously been described by Ofsted as “removing a pupil from the school roll without using a permanent exclusion, when the removal is primarily in the best interests of the school, rather than the best interests of the pupil”.
The new report by MPs warns that “an ‘astonishing’ lack of data means the government is unable to say with confidence that a suitable education is being provided to every child”.
It comes following an “acknowledgement” by the Department for Education that “there is ‘considerable evidence’ that many home-educated children are missing out on a proper education”.
MPs are calling for a number of measures to be put in place to improve home education including a national register of children who are being home-schooled.
Such a document is “absolutely necessary”, the report states, adding: “It would not remove freedoms from those providing an effective education but would allow support to be better targeted to those who need it. Children who may be at risk cannot be reached by authorities there to support them if there is not a consistent and accurate method of knowing who they are.”
A register would also give a clearer picture of SEND resources needed by local authorities, MPs add.
They are also calling for the introduction of independent advocates for home-schooled children with SEND and those who have been off-rolled.
People in such roles would “have the responsibility for co-ordinating all statutory SEND processes including the annual review, similar to the role of the Independent Reviewing Officer for looked-after children,” the report states.
“Independent advocates should also be available to families of pupils excluded for more than five non-consecutive days in a school year. They could guard against the practice of off-rolling and give guidance to families considering elective home education.”
Increased contact for families choosing elective home education from local authorities and training for local authority officers with responsibility for elective home education should also be introduced, the report states, as well as equal access to exam centres for home-schooled children.
“The DfE must properly and with speed examine the life chances and social outcomes of elective home-educated children, compared with those who have received a formal schooled education,” it adds.
Robert Halfon, chair of the education committee, said: “Teaching at home must never be a fall-back option for parents forced into it as a last resort after exhausting all attempts to access the support they need for their children, particularly those with special educational needs and disabilities.
“Every parent or carer should have an allocated person to help them through the process when applying for an assessment of their child’s needs and where a choice about home education is being made. The DfE also needs to bear down on coercive off-rolling, to ensure excluded pupils do not slip into education away from school by default. There should be no forced choices when it comes to home education.”