Home education guidance

Section 5 Good practice for local authorities

Clear information

5.1 Local authorities should provide clear and accurate written information, including on their website, on home education. This should be framed in a way which is likely to be easily understood by parents/carers and by children, and anyone else who may be interested in home education. Contact details for home education support organisations should also be provided (see end of this guidance). All written information should be made available in community languages and alternative formats on request.

5.2 Local authorities should provide home educators and those considering home education with contact details for the official with responsibility for home education within the authority. This official will be familiar with home education policy and practice and hold an understanding of a range of educational philosophies. The local authority may wish to invite families to meet with a named officer to discuss their proposals or provision, and families are strongly encouraged to do so in order to create a culture of collaboration between home educators and local authorities. Any such meeting should take place at a mutually acceptable location. In line with Article 12 of the UNCRC it is recommended that the child is offered the opportunity to be included in that meeting, or otherwise to express his or her views, but the child's attendance and participation should not be seen as compulsory. Either during such a meeting, or otherwise, the parents and the authority should consider and agree what future contact there will be between them. In some cases, where parents have a clear idea of what home education entails and where there are no other concerns, such a meeting may not be necessary, although it is recommended that contact continues to support a collaborative relationship between the authority and home educators.

5.3 Local authorities should, as far as practicable, ensure that officials and staff who may be the first point of contact for a potential home educating parent/carer, e.g. answering telephone enquiries, understand the right of a parent/carer to choose home education, and that home educating in of itself is not a ground for child protection concerns. Local authorities should aim to ensure that parents/carers are provided with accurate information from the outset.

Record keeping and information management

5.4 Local authorities should keep a written record setting out any discussions, recommendations or agreements made with parents and, where relevant, the reasons for them. Any written report should be copied to the parents, and where appropriate, the child. In exceptional cases, where there is a reasonable concern that a passage in any written record might cause serious harm to the physical or mental health or condition of any person concerned, consideration should be given to withholding that part of it. The authority will be aware of the need to comply with the law and principles of data protection. Further information is available at paragraphs 3.23 to 3.27.

5.5 As a part of the updated guidance for home education, Scottish Government will work with local authorities to consider options for the collation of high-level information about the number of children and young people home educating in local authorities. The Scottish Government will continue to explore options for data collection to understand the needs of stakeholders, and inform policy development by the availability of a national picture of home education. The Scottish Government will work with stakeholders to ensure best practice and that the collation of high-level data is proportionate.

Practical support and resources

5.6 Authorities are not legally obliged to provide any resources for home educated children or their parent/carer, as full responsibility for a child’s education is held by their parent/carer after a request for withdrawal is approved. However, a local authority may choose to do so at their discretion, particularly where there are minimal resource implications for the authority. Some of the ways in which authorities might choose to support home educating families include:

• Providing general advice;
• Allowing access to learning centre resources;
• Allowing access to school resources where feasible;
• Signposting families to curriculum-related resources which are freely available online to schools;
• Allowing access to centres accredited to deliver qualifications and awards, and to sit examinations, where feasible;
• Facilitating access to any discounted rates for educational materials;
• Providing access to local authority owned community and sports facilities on the same basis as for school children;
• Informing home educating families of any projects or programmes which might reasonably be accessed by home educated children.

5.7 Families are encouraged to engage with their local authority prior to making the choice to home educate, to ensure that they are fully informed as to what support may or may not be available to them following a decision to assume full responsibility for their child’s education.

Providing support to children and young people with additional support needs who are home educated

5.8 The local authority does not have a legal duty to provide support to children and young people with additional support needs who are home educated. This is because the authority is no longer responsible for their education, and parents/carers have made the choice to withdraw their child from the local authority’s educational provision. However, parents/carers who choose to home educate their child may ask their local authority to use their discretionary power to establish whether or not their child has additional support needs, and to assess what level of support they might need. Children (aged between 12-15, with capacity to make such a request) and young people (aged 16+) can also ask the authority to do this. More information for children and young people on accessing additional support for learning can be found at My Rights, My Say.^[31]

5.9 Home education should always be a choice, and should not be resorted to as a solution if a parent/carer feels that their child’s needs are not being met within the school environment. Where there are concerns about the support that their child is receiving, parents/carers can raise these concerns with the school or local authority to try to resolve the issues and we would encourage the parents and carers to continue to engage in these discussions to try to come to a suitable resolution for their child. Where these concerns cannot be addressed through discussion with the school or education authority, the 2004 Act also provides mechanisms which parents/carers can access to try to resolve disagreements about the support that is being provided to their child at school. Information about these mechanisms can be found at the following links:

Mediation

Independent Adjudication

Additional Support Needs Tribunal

5.10 The local authority is not required to comply with a request for additional support or to provide any additional support. However, they may do so at their discretion. If the authority chooses to do this, they must provide the person who has made the request with information and advice about the additional support required. The support identified could include, for example, provision of learning and teaching support, resources or advice. As the authority is not required to provide any support to children and young people who are home educated, it is strongly recommended that parents/carers discuss this with the authority before making the choice to home educate, in order to ensure that they are informed of what support will and will not be available should they decide to move forward with home education.

5.11 There are a range of resources available to support children and young people with additional support needs who are home educated. Details of some of these can be found at Education Scotland's website^[32].

Review

5.12 As a matter of good practice, local authorities should regularly review all of their procedures and practices, including in relation to home education. Effective reviews, together with the sensitive handling of any complaints, will help to secure effective partnership. This could focus on whether improvements could be made in the processing of requests to withdraw a child from school, and contact with home educating families, and generally to meet the needs of children and parents. Home education organisations and home educating parents should be involved in this process of review, and it should be considered whether a Child rights and Wellbeing Impact Assessment (CRWIA) would need to be carried out. Further guidance on CRWIAs are available on the Scottish Government website^[33].

Getting it right for every child

5.13 The wider wellbeing needs of children and young people who are home educated can be supported through Getting it right for every child (GIRFEC). GIRFEC is the national approach in Scotland to improving outcomes for children through promoting, supporting, and safeguarding their wellbeing. Children and young people need to grow up safe, healthy, achieving, nurtured, active, respected, responsible and included so that they can become confident individuals, effective contributors, successful learners, responsible citizens and realise their full potential. This is delivered through:

• a named person who is a clear point of contact for children, young people and parents to go to for initial support and advice; a named person can also connect families to a wider network of support and services so that they get the right help, at the right time, from the right people;
• a shared and holistic understanding of wellbeing and a single model of how this is considered and supported;
• a single, shared approach to planning for children and young people where support across services is needed, coordinated by a lead professional.

5.14 The GIRFEC approach applies to all children, young people and their parents/carers, providing support if and when needed to address any wellbeing concerns, and to prevent any concerns getting worse. Where local authorities have a named person, this resource will be available to those who are home educated and home educating if they choose to use this service. As for all children, young people and parents/carers, there is no obligation to engage with a named person and it is important to emphasise that non-engagement is not in itself a cause for concern. Children and young people can also benefit from support which needs to be integrated across services through a child's plan coordinated by a lead professional.

5.15 The GIRFEC Practice Guidance 4 - Information sharing^[34] is intended for practitioners and service leads in services who work with children, young people and families. The guidance promotes lawful, fair and proportionate information sharing, which complies with all relevant legal requirements. The guidance aims to clarify the circumstances in which information can be shared with another agency, the considerations that need to be taken into account to ensure sharing information with another agency is appropriate, and the importance of involving children, young people and families in the decision to share information with another agency.