Issue - meetings

Report of Cabinet Member for Education (and SEND)

The Committee considered a report of the Cabinet Member for Education and SEND (Schedule 3 to the signed minutes) giving details of the Elective Home Education Service in the County during 2020/21.

Members were informed that under the Education Act 1996 all parents had a duty to secure appropriate full-time education for their children which could include ‘Elective Home Education’ (EHE).  However, the current legal framework did not provide a system for either regulating home education or enforcing education by a particular method. Instead, it specified a system for identifying and dealing with children who were not receiving a suitable full-time education. If a child was not attending school fulltime, the law required the Local Authority to ascertain what education was being provided and to take further action, if required. In addition, Local Authorities’ safeguarding responsibilities were the same for all children whether educated in school or not.

In line with national trends, the number of children in EHE in Staffordshire had been increasing year on year. This had given rise to concerns by the Corporate Parenting Panel over the potential vulnerability of EHE pupils. In response, a joint review had been undertaken by the Committee and Prosperous Staffordshire Select Committee in 2018 following which it was recommended that:-

“(i) the Cabinet Member supports representation being made to Ofsted with regard to the mechanism in place to take account of the reasons for deregistration and, where there is a disproportionately high number de-registering for EHE, consider more closely the reasons behind this;

(ii) the Cabinet Member consider how staffing can be increased in recognition of the significant increase in the numbers of EHE and the consequent implications to workload and resources;

(iii) the Cabinet Member consider how this event (development of an annual event to celebrate the achievements of the EHE community) can be supported and facilitated and;

(iv) supporting the introduction of a registration scheme for all children of statutory school age who are or become electively home educated and ask the Cabinet Member to make representations and lobby in support of the current Private Members Bill introduced by Lord Soley on Home Education”.

The Cabinet Member highlighted that total number of children in EHE had increased by 1296 during the current year. This represented an increase of 537 over the same period in 2019/20 and whilst in-line with national trends was directly attributed to the effects of the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic. Also, the proportion of children with an Education Health and Care Plan (EHCP) had decreased from 82 during 2019/20 to 54 in the current year to date. Whilst the majority of children in EHE identified as British/English, 11% had chosen not to express their ethnicity, with the third largest group being Gypsy/Roma at 8%. Furthermore, according to EHE Population Vulnerability Indicators, there were currently 315 children categorised as a concern (educational or welfare) compared to only 29 cases at the start of the Educational Year.

During their full and detailed scrutiny of the Authority, the Committee sought  ...  view the full minutes text for item 58