Children's services leaders renew calls for EHE register
Emily Harle
Monday, May 22, 2023
Local authority leaders are calling for an elective home education (EHE) register, after latest Department for Education figures revealed that more than 100,000 children were estimated to be home schooled during the last academic year.
The publication of the DfE data, which estimates that 116,300 children were in home education at any point during the 2021/22 academic year, was welcomed by council leaders as a vital first step, but many are continuing to push for the creation of a national register of all children in home education.
Heather Sandy, chair of the Association of Directors of Children’s Services’ (ADCS) education policy committee, said: “The number of children who are known to be electively home educated has been increasing significantly, year-on-year, even before the pandemic struck. We need more than just an estimate of how many children are being educated in this way to keep them safe and to ensure they receive the education they deserve.
“Whilst a register in and of itself will not keep children safe, it will help to establish exactly how many children are being educated other than at school and to identify which children are vulnerable to harm.
“The government must work at pace to introduce such a register. We can only safeguard and support the education of children who are known to us.”
Councillor Luise Gittins, chair of the Local Government Association’s (LGA) children and young people board, added: “Under the current arrangements, children not in school are invisible to councils and the services that keep them safe. This is why it is vital the government legislates for a register of children who are not in school, combined with powers for councils to meet face-to-face with children.”
Robin Walker MP, chair of the education select committee, said the committee has recently heard evidence from experts that a "significant number" of parents are removing their children from state education due to lack of resources to support children with mental health problems or special educatonal needs and disabilities (SEND).
"This raises the question of whether what we have heard described as ‘non-elective home education’ is contributing to these figures, where parents are having to try to home educate because they don’t feel their children’s needs are being met," he said.
"We continue to call on government to establish a statutory, confidential register of children in home education and to improve data collection so that families who choose EHE can be supported in the decisions they make."
The data from DfE shows that there were an estimated 80,900 children in home education on the designated census day in the autumn term last year, and an estimated 86,200 in home education on the spring 2023 census date.
The primary reason for children being in EHE during the autumn term was philosophical or preferential, with 16 per cent of pupils’ parents recording this as their reason for home schooling. This was followed by mental health, which was cited by nine per cent of parents as the reason for their child being in EHE.
However, almost half of the primary reasons for EHE were either unknown to the local authority, not provided, or recorded under “other”.
These statistics come shortly after the DfE published plans to improve attendance rates in schools, which includes the expansion of its attendance hubs programme.
Nine new attendance hubs will be created to share practice and resources with up to 600 primary, secondary and alternative provision schools in England, including the roll out of automatic text messaging to parents whose children have not been attending school.
An attendance mentors programme, delivered by children’s charity Barnardo’s, will also be expanded in areas of the country with the highest levels of pupil absence.
Gittens said that whilst good attendance plays a “vital role in children’s development”, the LGA has “long raised with the government that councils lack the powers to ensure that children who are missing school don’t slip through the net.”
“Despite having a legal duty to ensure a school place for every child, councils do not have the ability to direct academies to accept pupils, even if they are the most appropriate school for a pupil,” she said.
