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Please note that this insight was first published in June 2021, and therefore whilst the subject matter is still relevant, it may not represent the most up to date information in this area.
What you need to know in 60 seconds
Through the pandemic more students than ever have been home educated using a range of different packages including Zoom, Teams and Google Classroom.
While we all hope that growing numbers of vaccinations mean we do not go back to lockdown, schools are still using and likely to continue using these new online platforms: growing numbers of students and their parents are now considering home education as a possibility. The Elective Home Education Survey (ADCS, 2020) records a 38% rise to over 75,000 children now home-schooled full time across England in the main driven by health reasons associated with COVID-19 alongside philosophical or lifestyle choices. Ofsted have plans to accredit and inspect the rapidly growing online school sector, where similar issues exist.
There is no evidence to suggest the parenting of children being education at home is riskier than for children and young people in school and college settings (NSPCC, 2014), but they are far more isolated from services. With 9% of home educated children known to children’s social care we must ask how best education settings and parents can ensure that children who are not regularly coming into school can be kept safe.
Supporting the move to Home Education
If a student and their family are looking to move to home education it is vital that there is a discussion about this with the school and that your local authority is fully informed of the situation.
The DSL should make sure they are satisfied there is a positive reason for a move to home education with an open and supportive dialogue with the student and parents about the move. Parents have the right to choose to home educate their children but it is important that schools pass on any concerns that they might have about the move to home education.
Local authorities typically have a home education officer or team, although with only an average of 2.3 FTE staff for an average of almost 500 children per local authority these services are stretched. Schools have a legal duty to inform the council when a student goes off-roll. If there is already a safeguarding file and external agency involvement then the team around that child should be thinking together how best to support them from the outset.
It is therefore even more important to raise concerns if that student does not have external support. Students like this have the potential to drop off the radar once they have left school. In reality there is often a small team overseeing a very large number of home educated children in each area so it is very important that even potential concerns are raised and the school push to ensure there is a plan in place so that there is more likely to be a regular check-in with the family.
Where there are safeguarding concerns the school or college should consider the local threshold tool and to form an ‘early help’ plan with local agencies or, if necessary make a separate referral to children’s social care. There is more guidance on effective referral writing in an earlier Safeguarding Insight.
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