Home education

More duties? Some councils have no home education staff

Labour’s schools bill will give councils new duties to check family homes are a 'suitable learning environment'

Labour’s schools bill will give councils new duties to check family homes are a 'suitable learning environment'

24 Jan 2025, 5:00

More from this author

Exclusive

Proposals to give councils more power to check on pupils not in school will be “significantly insufficient” unless they get funding to build capacity – with some “hollowed-out” authorities having no dedicated home education officers.

Labour’s schools bill will give councils new duties to check family homes are a “suitable learning environment” for children not in school and provide support. They will also have to keep a register of these pupils.

But Andy Smith, president of the Association of Directors of Children’s Services (ADCS), said home education services had been “hollowed-out”.

The measures in themselves are not going to protect children or keep children safe

In Derby, where he works, there is just one full-time elective home education officer who “goes out and knocks on doors and tries to talk to parents”.

He said the proposed changes would be “significantly insufficient. We need to be really…clear that the measures in themselves are not going to protect children or keep children safe.

“The child protection powers are welcome, but we also need to think about the capacity and the resources going to be required to visit children in their homes [and] the training that will be required.”

More than 150,000 home educated

Schools Week approached a number of councils and asked for staff numbers.

York had none. Instead the home education duties were shared by a school inclusion and an attendance adviser. Havering had none, but was recruiting two.

Waltham Forest had just one home education officer, while Kensington and Chelsea had one who worked across two boroughs. Brighton and Bexley had 1.5 full-time equivalents, and Newcastle had two.

According to data published by the Department for Education, more than 150,000 children were home-educated at some point last year, up from 126,000 in 2023.

Meanwhile, another 150,000 were estimated as missing education last year.

Julie McCulloch
Julie McCulloch

Attempts to change legislation around home education come after the death of Sara Sharif, who was murdered by her father and stepmother after she was pulled out of mainstream education in April 2023. 

But Julie McCulloch, policy director at the Association of School and College Leaders, said it had “concerns” over whether the “capacity and expertise still exists in local authorities” to take on more duties.

“The education system in England is increasingly fragmented and lacks coherence, and we see the role of a local authority essentially eroded, even though our duties essentially haven’t changed that much.”

Schools must focus on inclusion

Kent County Council employs eight home education officers. Sarah Hammond, its corporate director children, young people and education, welcomed the legislation, but said schools must focus more on inclusion.

“If schools could get to that holy grail of full inclusion for the community of children that they are serving, I think you would naturally see elective home-education drop off.”

She said the legislation would create “quite a big remit” for councils.

Councillor John Howson, an education cabinet member in Oxfordshire, said councils should also be allowed to create their own schools for children missing education.

“Such a new school along the lines of the online academies the DfE already permits should be able to ensure that ‘no child is left behind’.”

Stephen Morgan
Stephen Morgan

The schools bill also beefs up councils’ powers to intervene and demand school attendance, and compel them to check whether a child’s home learning environment is suitable when making such orders.

It will also remove the automatic right for parents to home-school their child if they are subject to a protection investigation or are under a protection plan – meaning they are suspected of being at risk of significant harm.

In a written question in parliament this month Stephen Morgan, the minister for early education, confirmed the proposed legislation would create “additional burdens for local authorities”. 

But he said: “Additional funding will therefore be provided to support local authorities to carry out these new duties. As part of our implementation strategy, we will conduct a new burdens assessment to determine the level of funding.”

Ruth Stanier, assistant director of policy at the Local Government Association (LGA), added discussions were underway, but full cost estimates had yet to be drawn up.

Latest education roles from

IT Technician

IT Technician

Harris Academy Morden

Teacher of Geography

Teacher of Geography

Harris Academy Orpington

Lecturer/Assessor in Electrical

Lecturer/Assessor in Electrical

South Gloucestershire and Stroud College

Director of Management Information Systems (MIS)

Director of Management Information Systems (MIS)

South Gloucestershire and Stroud College

Exams Assistant

Exams Assistant

Richmond and Hillcroft Adult & Community College

Lecturer Electrical Installation

Lecturer Electrical Installation

Solihull College and University Centre

Sponsored posts

Sponsored post

It’s Education’s Time to Shine: Celebrate your Education Community in 2025!

The deadline is approaching to nominate a colleague, team, whole school or college for the 2025 Pearson National Teaching...

SWAdvertorial
Sponsored post

Navigating NPQ Funding Cuts: An Apprenticeship Success Story

Last year’s NPQ funding cuts meant that half of England’s teachers faced costs of up to £4,000 to complete...

SWAdvertorial
Sponsored post

Embedding Formative Assessment: not just a box-ticking exercise but something long-term and meaningful for all

Our EFA programme has been proven to help schools achieve better GCSE results, as evidenced by the EEF. Find...

SWAdvertorial
Sponsored post

Building capacity in family support to tackle low school attendance 

Persistent and severe school absence impacts children, families, and communities—especially in disadvantaged areas. School-Home Support’s Attendance Support and Development Programme...

SWAdvertorial

More from this theme

Home education

Home education soars by 21% in a year

And the number 'missing' education entirely has risen by 28 per cent

Freddie Whittaker
Home education

Parents will need council permission to home educate children with protection enquiries or plans

Councils will also have to include schools in 'multi-agency safeguarding teams'

Freddie Whittaker
Home education

Support services: ‘Rebuild it all around schools’

Variation in support for home educated children shows Labour's uphill battle to rebuild services around schools

Freddie Whittaker
Home education

Home education abuse review: ‘Protective’ school factor ‘missing from lives’

Review into deaths and abuse of 41 children finds they were 'less visible to agencies than those who attend...

Freddie Whittaker

Your thoughts

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

3 Comments

  1. cbettles

    When you get into the details of the bill, you can tell that they haven’t thought this through at all. The admin requirements of parents, local authorities and people running groups is ludicrous: parents reporting changes every 15 days! Someone with some common sense and knowledge of how home education works needs to sit down actually think about it. Maybe consult Education Otherwise?

  2. As a community outreach worker it’s hard to see what is going to happen to those families where home education is being forced on them because schools are not equipped to manage children’s needs. In my experience in an area of high deprivation there is a significant crossover between the most vulnerable families and those with no school place because the vulnerability of the family impacts the child’s behaviour.

  3. But the poor child in question who’s name has been used to get this all pushed though was let down by school and local authorities in the first place, her death is like many that happens and all of them the child is still in school in the system (the so called safe place) can we fix that system first ? No because we don’t have enough people doing that job either, all I can see happening is more children being missed who are right there in front of people.