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Freedom for Children to Grow |
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The Law Relating to
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Duties of the Local AuthorityThe legal duties of a Local Authority, with regards to home educators, is covered in our "The Law and the Local Authority" page. However, your Local Authority also has a duty to consult stakeholders and partners before implementing any new policies with regard to children and young people. This follows the 2004 Children Act. See particularly Children Act Part 2/General/Children's Services in England/Co-operation to Improve Wellbeing (3). In making arrangements under this section "a children's services authority in England must have regard to the importance of parents and other persons caring for children in improving the well-being of children."
In England, "Local authorities" are now part of "children's services" within "children's trusts." Obviously parents and families should be key figures in any discussions about children's education and welfare.You may only be aware of your local Home Education Advisor or "Inspector" but there is a whole tier of Children's Services which you can find out about quite easily. These people are opinion formers and executive decision makers and it is mutually beneficial for local home educators to make contact with them and to set up good channels of communication between the LA and the local home education community.
More about Children's Trusts can be found here. Statutory Guidance on the co-operation arrangements for Children's Trusts and Children's Trust Boards was published in March 2010. The measures in the Apprenticeships Act 2009 in relation to Children's Trust Boards came into force on April 1st 2010. "The Act will strengthen Children’s trusts by putting Children’s trust boards on a statutory footing. The Act will extend the existing duty to cooperate to promote children’s well-being to include all maintained schools, academies, SFCs, FE colleges and Jobcentre Plus. It will also place a duty on the members of the Children’s trust board to prepare, publish and monitor a strategic Children and Young People’s Plan for the local area." Read more here. Positive relations between local authorities and the home education community were put in serious jeopardy by the Government's plans for a compulsory registration and inspection scheme. The proposals were widely criticised and ultimately were not included in the new Children Schools and Families Act 2010. We will post further on this page after the General Election and local elections on May 6th. For more information on the current legal position please read the following pages http://www.education-otherwise.org/legal.htmhttp://www.freedomforchildrentogrow.org/csfbill.htm http://www.freedomforchildrentogrow.org/pr080410.pdf
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