4. Responsibilities
a) Parents/ Carers
Parents may elect to home educate their child(ren) at any point of their compulsory school age. They must ensure that their children receive suitable and efficient full-time education, for as long as they have elected to educate them at home. This applies equally where a child has Special Education Needs, although permission must be sought from the Local Authority if a child attends a special school arranged by the Local Authority.
There are many reasons why a family may consider EHE for their children. Although not an exhaustive list, one or more of the following reasons may be a contributing factor in a parent’s decision making:
- Dissatisfaction with the school system.
- A desire to ensure that a child’s education aligns with the family religious or cultural beliefs.
- As a short-term intervention if a child is unwilling or unable to attend school temporarily.
- A desire for the child to be educated outside of the standard curriculum.
- Concerns relating to a child’s wellbeing and ability to learn in a school environment.
- Special educational needs or concerns over lack of provision at the current school.
- Concerns for a child’s physical or mental health.
Rotherham Council strongly recommends that parents consider all available advice in considering whether EHE is appropriate for their individual child and family circumstances before deciding whether to withdraw their child from the school’s school admissions register. Rotherham Council recommend arranging a meeting with the child’s school as part of this process of consideration.
Parents seeking to remove a child from school to home educate should notify the Head Teacher of the school in writing of the decision and to request that the child’s name is removed from the school admissions register. A letter signed and dated by all adults with parental responsibility is recommended. The date is then used as the date the child should be removed from the school’s admissions register and indicates the date EHE commenced.
In line with 2019 Government guidance, where a child has never attended a school, parents are encouraged to notify the LA of the EHE status of a child. EHE support will be offered, depending on the child’s age, ability, aptitude and needs of the family.
Parents electing to educate their child at home should be prepared to assume full responsibility for planning and financing education delivery.
Parental Disputes
In some cases, a dispute may occur between two parents who are divorced or separated and disagree as to whether EHE is suitable or is being provided sufficiently. In such cases, Rotherham Council will work to obtain full details of parental responsibility. Control over a child’s education will normally fall to the parent with whom the child resides. However, if both parents have parental responsibility, both will be kept informed of any concerns relating to the child’s education.
b) Rotherham Council
Rotherham Council takes responsibilities in relation to EHE very seriously, from advice and guidance where parents are considering EHE, support and assurance of suitable education where children are known to be EHE, through to taking required action where EHE is not thought to be suitable. The EHE team is comprised a skilled group of staff who aim to build effective working relationships with families to promote the best possible outcomes for all of Rotherham’s children and young people. RMBC will ensure that EHE Officers access relevant training and networking opportunities regarding EHE statutory duties, practice, safeguarding, health and safety and any other relevant procedures and practices relevant to their EHE duties. EHE Officers will always seek to ensure that the voice of the child is heard in all decisions that are made.
Rotherham Council records all children known to be EHE within the Borough, and follows advice set out in the DfE 2019 guidance and this EHE Policy. This includes making at least annual contact with home educated parents so the authority may reasonably inform itself of the current suitability of the education provided. This is usually through the offer of a home visit to meet with home educators to discuss the education being received by the child(ren) and offer advice and guidance about any issues raised by them. Where parents decline a visit, this preference is respected, and contact is made in writing or via the offer of a virtual visit as part of the Local Authority’s informal enquiries. The EHE team exhaust all routes of informal enquiry where the Local Authority cannot be satisfied that suitable education is being received by the child(ren) before proceeding to formal enquiries.
The EHE team ensure that post 16 advice is offered to all year 11 students in order to support them in attaining a positive destination in employment, education or training.
c) Schools
Information is regularly provided to schools to support conversations with parents who are considering EHE. Schools should provide impartial information but must not present EHE to parents as an alternative to school-based education or seek to encourage a withdrawal to EHE. This would constitute ‘off rolling’ and is always challenged by the EHE team where suspected. We strongly recommend that any parent considering EHE requests a meeting with school staff to discuss this decision in depth. If parents or young people are dissatisfied with some aspect of the school provision, this can often be resolved.
All schools or other education providers must, on receipt of a parental withdrawal letter, remove the child from the school admissions register in-line with the parental notification as well as notifying the LA by the relevant means set out in the Rotherham Council EHE protocol. The only exception to this is where a child attends a special school, in which case permission must be sought from the Local Authority to remove the child from the admission register. These notifications must be sent through to the EHE team in the same way, but the child must remain on roll until instructed to remove.
d) Other partners
Partners, other than schools, may become aware of children who are EHE and may not be known to the LA. Partners are required to refer this information to the LA in order that the education status of the child can be confirmed, and support offered.