The effectiveness of a proposed Government move to ensure fewer young people being home educated slip under the radar has been questioned by an education boss responsible for an area which is continuing to see significant rises in the number of families opting out of the school system.
North Yorkshire Council’s director of children’s services Stuart Carlton said he believed fundamental reform of statutory duties surrounding home education was needed rather than the creation of a mandatory register of children not attending school.
Mr Carlton was responding at a meeting of the council’s executive to concerns over the authority’s lack of powers to monitor either the effectiveness or quality of education being provided to the 1,267 children being taught at home.
The meeting heard the figure represented a 35 per cent rise on the number of home-educated children the previous year, marking a further substantial rise since the pandemic saw the number of children being home-educated soar.
The most common reasons given by parents in North Yorkshire for opting to home-educate were mental health and anxiety, philosophical and religious reasons and dissatisfaction with schools over issues such as bullying.
Questioning what was behind the continuing increase in the number if children being home-educated, the meeting heard the authority’s young people’s champion, Councillor Alyson Baker had concerns they would become adults who were incapable of getting reasonable jobs if no one checked up on them.
Councillor Annabel Wilkinson, executive member for education, said while the authority was investigating why there had been further increases it had no formal duties of power to monitor the provision of education at home.
The meeting heard how the national Child Safeguarding Practice Review in May had recommended the introduction of a register of children not in school.
Mr Carlton said while the Government had set out plans for a Children’s Wellbeing Bill in its first King’s Speech, which includes creating a legal duty on councils to maintain “Children Not in School” registers, the authority already had such a list, adding: “I’m not sure how that’s going to help”.
The move has also been questioned by many proponents of home education who fear it may lead to greater interference.
Under the new duty, local authorities would also be required to provide support to parents who home-school their children.
Mr Carlton said under existing legislation all parents needed to show was that they were “providing a suitable education”, which was not the same set of factors that would be considered “suitable” in a school environment.
He said the council was powerless to question the quality or effectiveness of home education.
He said: “We do try to encourage parents not to do this and to get in front of it.”
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