The Committee invites written submissions on:Read more here.The Committee asks for written submissions in accordance with the guidelines below by noon on Tuesday 22 September 2009.
- the conduct of the review and related consultations (e.g. the constitution of the review team; the scope of the terms of reference for the review; and the nature of the consultation documents).
- the recommendations made by the review on elective home education.
The terms of reference for the Badman Review can be found here.
"There are a number of questions around the rushed nature of the review and the sweeping recommendations, which are disproportionate to any evidence for change put forward by Mr Badman."
Education Otherwise Press Release July 2009 welcoming the announcement of the Select Committee investigation
What does the Badman Review say about interviewing children alone?
Under the new proposals, home educated children may be inspected individually and required to exhibit what they have learned. The Badman Review also proposes to give powers for local authority officers to enter the family home, which is called "the premises." The Badman Review also appears to be recommending that local authority officers should wherever possible speak to the child without a parent present.
That designated local authority officers should:Commenting on this proposals, the civil rights organisation Liberty has said "Any power of access to the home must be tightly regulated and a full explanation as to the power's necessity should be given."- have the right of access to the home;
- have the right to speak with each child alone if deemed appropriate or, if a child is particularly vulnerable or has particular communication needs, in the company of a trusted person who is not the home educator or the parent/carer.In so doing, officers will be able to satisfy themselves that the child is safe and well.
Will home educators get more support because of the Badman Review?
Home educators were quick to spot that there was no extra funding announced for "support" and no mention of targets or criteria against which a Children's Trust could be inspected and deemed to have failed in providing support to home educating families. As one parent has said "they want all the oppressive intrusive inspection recommendations to be legally enforceable but all the warm fuzzy support recommendations are just going to be voluntary."
That the DCSF and the Local Government Association determine within three months how to provide to local authorities sufficient resources to secure the recommendations in this report.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Children, Schools and Families (Baroness Morgan of Drefelin):Why is compulsory registration such an issue? Surely the government needs to know the whereabouts of all children so it can keep them safe?
An impact assessment is not required for the consultation at this stage as the proposals are still at an early stage of development. We do not expect them to place any significant additional burdens on local authorities as most already monitor home education, and our proposals will provide additional powers that will assist local authorities in dealing more efficiently with the small number of cases where home education does not come up to scratch. If we decide to proceed with legislation we will publish an impact assessment and will place a copy in the Library of the House.
The law already stipulates that schools must notify the local authority when a child is removed from the school in order to be home educated. The national database, ContactPoint, also has a field on the form for details of the educational setting, which includes home education. Many home educators have pointed out that when the state knows where children are, and when professionals become involved with a family, this does not suffice to keep children safe.
The particular form of registration proposed by the Badman Review is not simply a method of notifying the authority, it is more akin to applying for a licence to be a home educator for the year. Since education is the parents' responsibility in law, perhaps we should logically apply to be parents of our own children for the year, as though we were going through the process of adoption?
What's the problem with home educators being required to have a plan?
The Badman Report has said that the child's education will be assessed annually and measured against the parent's plan. The Report has also said that parents need to come up with a plan within a very short time of beginning home education, implying that if this is not forthcoming or not judged adequate, that the home education would not be registered.
"At the time of registration parents/carers/guardians must provide a clear statement of their educational approach, intent and desired/planned outcomes for the child over the following twelve months."At the same time the Badman Report says that the school must pass on the child's school record which will include an estimate of future achievements and measurement of the child against developmental milestones. The parent's plan may conflict with the school's judgements. The family may also wish to change direction if a particular approach or field of study is not productive and it is feared that this would result in the home education being judged as defective by the yardstick of the plan. In addition the Badman Review recommends that a suitable and efficient education should be redefined in light of the Rose Review of the Primary Curriculum. If this recommendation were implemented then home educators' freedom would be greatly restricted since their planned outcomes would in fact be prescribed by the state.
Why is it a problem for a child's name to be kept on the school roll for 20 days?
The Badman Review proposes that children should be kept on a school roll for 20 days after their parents have written to the school asking for the name to be removed from the roll. This will be controversial in schools as it is detrimental to the school's persistent absence targets which form part of their Ofsted report. It is likely that the family could come under pressure to make the child continue to attend school while the family is being investigated before the child is allowed to cease being a pupil at the school. This would be a fundamental change to the law in England.
Will the Badman Review Recommendations help children with Special Educational Needs?
Graham Badman has heard from a number of home educating families where the child has special needs. He has also taken evidence from several autism support charities. The Badman Review recommends:That the Ofsted review of SEN provision give due consideration to home educated children with special educational needs and make specific reference to the support of those children.Yet it is children with special needs who may be among those most threatened and distressed by the temporary conditional nature of the proposed registration regime, couple with the requirement to exhibit and perform, entry to the family home and other measures proposed in the Review.