NSPCC apologises for home school abuse comment
Lauren Higgs
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
The NSPCC has said sorry to home educators for implying that children schooled at home are at risk of abuse.
In a letter to home education charity, Education Otherwise, Phillip Noyes, director of public policy at NSPCC, apologised for comments made in the Independent newspaper by a spokesman for his charity.
Vijay Patel, policy adviser at the NSPCC, told the paper that some people use home education to hide abuse, and cited the Victoria Climbié case as an example.
But Noyes said the comments were wrong.
He said: "I would like to apologise for the offence this has caused. Clearly there is no connection between home education and Victoria's tragic death, as she was not being educated at home.
"Despite the fact that it was not the intention of the NSPCC's spokesman to suggest such a connection, I recognise, as does he, that it was inappropriate to refer to Victoria in this context."
The NSPCC has also said sorry to the Victoria Climbié Foundation for the comments in the article.
