To be moved by Councillor David Ward

Seconded by Councillor Jeanette Sunderland

This Council notes the call by the Children’s Commissioner for a compulsory home education register in response to the rapid growth in home education and growing evidence of “off-rolling” by schools as a way of seeking to improve the school’s league table position. This immoral behaviour is known to disproportionately affect children from disadvantaged backgrounds and those with Special Educational Needs.

This Council resolves to:

1.         Write to the Secretary of State for Education urging him to:

a.         introduce legislation requiring all those who exercise their legitimate right to home educate their children, to register with their Local Authority.

b.         Give Local authorities the Statutory right to enter the homes of all those on the register to carry out inspections.

2.         Take measures to identify any schools in Bradford who are guilty of “off-rolling” and to report those schools to OFSTED.

A motion was moved by Councillor Ward.

An amendment moved by Councillor Imran Khan, as set out in the resolution below, was carried.

An amendment was also moved by Councillor Davies.

Resolved –

Nationally all Local Authorities (LAs) have seen a rise in Electively Home Educated (EHE) pupils. Bradford’s approach is considered proactive, respecting the right of parents to home educate if they wish to whilst at the same time, seeking to make informal enquiries with all registered families as opposed to only taking action in respect of concerns raised.

This Council notes the call by the Children’s Commissioner for a compulsory home education register in response to the rapid growth in home education and growing evidence of “off-rolling” by schools as a way of seeking to improve the school’s league table position. This immoral behaviour is known to disproportionately affect children from disadvantaged backgrounds and those with Special Educational Needs.

This Council also notes in July 2018 the LA responded to the Department for Education’s call for evidence stating the following in respect of registration: “Parents/carers can opt out and avoid scrutiny by a Local Authority. An advantage of mandatory registration is that LAs would have knowledge of all children in their area whose parents/carers have opted to home educate.”

Currently the EHE team adopts a supportive approach to encourage parents/carers to register. Protocol determines schools cannot remove a pupil from their roll to EHE without confirmation from the Local Authority.

In respect of entering homes, the Local Authority responded with: “Monitoring is not currently permitted. Giving LAs power to monitor and visit the home at least annually to meet with the child would help the process of effective monitoring.”

The current EHE team offers home visits to all families who are registered as EHE. We also offer to meet families in a neutral venue if they are not agreeable to officers entering their homes which presently they do not have to permit.

The Leader and Portfolio Holder wrote to the previous Secretary of State (SoS) when in power, highlighting the issues raised above and asked whether the SoS had any appetite for additional powers for LAs to enable more effective monitoring of EHE.

This Council further notes the resistance to the Badman Report in 2009 by other parties, who rejected the recommendations and effectively opposed the compulsory registration and monitoring of home educated children.

In 2017 data collected evidenced that some schools were ‘off-rolling’ pupils to EHE. The team has addressed this with schools, offering challenge to leadership teams where patterns of off-rolling are identified. The team interrogates each registration to EHE from a school to reassure that it is parental choice to Electively Home Educate. The locally agreed fair access protocol means that where a parent reapplies for a school place following a period of EHE they will be admitted to the previous school’s roll.

This Council:

1.    Respects the right of parents to choose to educate their children at home.

2.    Resolves to share the letter and response between the Council and SoS with all elected members

3.    Notes the consultation and ‘call for evidence’ and awaits the outcome of the consultation and its intended next steps.

4.    Resolves to continue the good work currently being undertaken locally within the current legal parameters.

5.   Will challenge schools including academies if evidence is found that they are off-rolling and take action accordingly.

ACTION:        Interim Strategic Director Children’s Services