10 November 2016 weekly update

Dear Colleagues,

Elective Home Education

Elective Home Education is growing in popularity both nationally and here in Kent. Where families approach this in an informed way and understand the time commitment, dedication and resource required there is often a suitable education being provided for the children concerned. In these cases there are not significant concerns for the LA.

However, there has been an alarming rise in the number of children and young people being home educated, including a significant number who are off rolled by schools where parents are clearly ill equipped to educate their children at home. Some of these children are very vulnerable already and the step to home educate may present significant additional risks to their educational progress, well-being and welfare. The KCC Elective Home Education Policy now makes it very clear that where children belong to vulnerable groups and have had a history of exclusion, poor attendance and other concerns before a move to home education, the Local Authority will take action. In some cases these will be safeguarding concerns.

There are emerging patterns from the data that we report to the DfE that demonstrates clearly that vulnerable learners are falling out of education under the guise of elective home education. Kent currently has 1660 children and young people registered to Elective Home Education. Those of particular concern are the high numbers that move out of Years 7 and 11. These learners often find the transition to Secondary school difficult and many Year 11 pupils are those for whom participation and achievement are a challenge as they approach the age of 16. In the last two months alone 36 Year 11 pupils have moved out of schools into home education, where they are very unlikely to be following an adequate learning programme that would help them to move on to a post 16 destination. We are failing these young people.

During September 2016 there were 108 new registrations for elective home education, 18 of these were Year 7 and 14 of these were Year 11. And during October 2016 there were 122 new registrations, and 16 of these were Year 7 and 22 were Year 11.

This level of growth in numbers is a great concern. More work is required to support those who are not managing the transition from Primary to Secondary school and those pupils moving out of Secondary schools at a critical time in their education. We need to do more to ensure they stay in school and complete GCSE exams, as most of these young people who leave school in Year 11 become NEETS in Year 12. This is significantly adding to their difficulties.

Elective Home Education should not be promoted as a satisfactory alternative, when we should be relying on properly resourced alternative provision through the PRUs and additional support through Early Help. If the issue is non-attendance we must address this through the existing channels. Where some of these young people are already known to Social Services, Youth Offending or Troubled Families moving them out of school to be home educated inadequately makes it even harder to support them to a better life and a better destination for learning.

As professionals we all agree that the safest place for a vulnerable child or young person is in school, where learners can access appropriate services and support. This current situation can only be resolved by Schools and KCC officers working collaboratively, making the most of the expertise available to schools at LIFT and through Early Help. Where you anticipate a parent may remove their child to Elective Home Education and you have any reservations about their capacity to home educate effectively, please ensure that they have read the Elective Home Education Information Sheet (DOCX, 68.5 KB) and have spoken with the Elective Home Education Support Advice Officer for your locality.

I would ask that we all make more concerted effort to address this issue, and work towards more positive solutions. The numbers of children and young people that are being let down and excluded from education through this route is a blot on the education landscape in Kent and I am sure we can work together to improve it.

For any questions relating to Elective Home Education please contact the team on 03000 41 69 69. The EHE Support and Advice Officers are available to work with schools and support families. They are:

North West Kent: Rebecca Tuffield -  03000 41 63 94

Swale: Debbie Barton -  03000 41 32 54

Ashford, Dover and Shepway: Kay Hayes -  03000 41 50 39

Canterbury and Thanet: Wanda Herd -  03000 41 28 83

Tunbridge, Tunbridge Wells and Maidstone: Stacy Rodgers -  03000 41 70 97

Patrick Leeson, Corporate Director Education and Young People’s Services