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"The Children, Schools and Families Bill is currently in its final stages and is now with a committee of the House of Lords for detailed scrutiny. A part of that bill is attempting to regulate the education of the estimated 20-40,000 children currently learning at home. Are the suggested regulations a necessity to protect potentially vulnerable children kept away from school by their parents or are they actually, as Home Education charities claim, a sledgehammer to crack a nut? Jane Garvey is joined by Fiona Nicholson, Education Otherwise trustee and Graham Badman, ex-director of Children's Services, to discuss."

Jonas is happy for us to share the following comments on this recent article from Lifesite news.

"Homeschooling was not the only issue regarding taking Dominic Johansson in custody by the social services. But having read the court verdict with all the issues, there stills seems to be no reason for this severe action. The young boy has most likely been much more hurt by the custody action than the conditions in his family. One cannot avoid the thought that the prejudices and lack of knowledge about homeschooling, could have been the pivotal reason for the custody action."

Lord Lucas (Conservative)

"To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they will withdraw and reissue their home-educated children with special educational needs (SEN) guidance letter of February 2010 with (a) appropriate annotations to the reference to powers which will come into being if the current Children, Schools and Families Bill is enacted; (b) provision being made for inter-agency consultation on the best interests of the child before a school attendance order is sought; and (c) spelling and grammatical errors and malapropisms corrected."

Baroness Morgan of Drefelin (Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Children, Young People and Families), Department for Children, Schools and Families; Labour)

"The letter will not be withdrawn. Its purpose was to set out local authorities' existing duties for children with special educational needs (SEN) who are educated at home, taking account of the Lamb inquiry report into parental confidence in the SEN system. Following correspondence received from the Education Otherwise Disability Group the department will be sending out a clarification of paragraph 12 of the letter to local authorities.

A copy will be placed in the House Library and on the department's website."

"the suggestion in paragraph 12 that an LA should seek a school attendance order only applies in cases where an LA considers it is unable to assess suitability because it has been denied access to a child and is unable to see the child, and there are no other means of establishing suitability. There is a range of ways in which an authority can make an assessment of suitability which do not involve being able to see the child or having access to the home.

We apologise for any concern that paragraph 12 has caused the parents of home-educated children."

Food for Thought: Home Education for Teenagers In the News The DCSF thinks school is the best place for children. Here at Education Otherwise Campaign Website, we beg to differ Iris Harrison's HE Diary Press Enquiries

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