MPs call for 'essential' register of home-educated children

The Education Select Committee says that a national register of home-schooled children is ‘essential’ as there is an ‘astonishing’ lack of data.

Last month, the education secretary Gavin Williamson said he was ‘absolutely committed’ to a register of home-educated children, and its introduction was ‘imminent’.

Nursery World has contacted the Department for Education for further information.

It comes as reports suggest the number of children being home-schooled has risen since the coronavirus pandemic.

In its new report, ‘Strengthening Home Education’, the Committee argues that despite ‘the law stating parents have a duty to ensure their children receive a suitable education whether in school or otherwise, a lack of data means the Government is unable to say ‘with confidence that a suitable education is being provided to every child.’

It also warns how some families are being forced into home-schooling due to a lack of support for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and the practice of ‘off-rolling’ [the practice of removing a child from the school roll without using permanent exclusion]. For these families, the Committee recommends more support be provided and for local authorities to have greater powers of oversight.

The report makes a number of recommendations, including:

• The creation of a statutory register for children out of school (home-schooled).
• The collection of more data about children receiving a home education.
• For local authorities to make contact with parents who are home-schooling at least once a year and provide more consistent support.
• Providing better data on home-schooled children’s outcomes.

The chair of the Education Select Committee, MP Robert Halfon, said, ‘For too long now, an unacceptable level of opaqueness has clouded elective home education, meaning we know little about either the number of children learning away from school or the type of education they are receiving.

‘Getting a grip on the number of young people not being taught in school with a national register for children outside of school must just be the first step in shaking up the status quo.

‘Teaching at home must also never be a fall-back option for parents forced into it as a last resort after exhausting all attempts to access they support they need for their children, particularly those with special educational needs and disabilities.’

However, the Committee's recommendations have been met with disappointment by Dr Harriet Pattison, a senior lecturer in early childhood at Liverpool Hope University and home education specialist, because they 'do not take the views of home educators into account.'

She said, 'These are the same tired old ideas which were suggested and then dismissed over a decade ago as unworkable and inappropriate. It is incredibly disappointing that the Select Committee has failed to engage with stakeholders.

‘They are narrow-minded policies that lack forward-thinking and which apparently do not consider the collateral damage they will cause to children.’

• The report, 'Strengthening Home Education' is available here