The Government sets a clear statutory framework for safeguarding and child protection. The statutory framework makes it clear, that local authorities have overarching duties for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of individual children and young people in their area, established through the Children Act 1989.

Specifically, section 17 of that Act requires local authorities to provide services to children in need in their area, no matter where they live or where they are educated. Section 47 of the same Act requires local authorities to investigate whether action should be taken by them to safeguard or promote the welfare of children suffering, or likely to suffer, significant harm.

The statutory guidance, Working Together to Safeguard Children (2015), sets out how these duties should be complied with by local authorities. In addition, the Government has issued separate non-statutory advice for local authorities on elective home education, which contains guidance in relation to safeguarding.

Local authority revenue expenditure on children’s social care is funded from the general local government settlement. Local authority expenditure on children’s services is around £7bn (safeguarding, adoption, looked after children, family services; of which £5.9bn is comprised of safeguarding, adoption and looked after children services).

The Government sets a clear statutory framework for safeguarding and child protection. The statutory framework makes it clear, that local authorities have overarching duties for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of individual children and young people in their area, established through the Children Act 1989.

Specifically, section 17 of that Act requires local authorities to provide services to children in need in their area, no matter where they live or where they are educated. Section 47 of the same Act requires local authorities to investigate whether action should be taken by them to safeguard or promote the welfare of children suffering, or likely to suffer, significant harm.

The statutory guidance, Working Together to Safeguard Children (2015), sets out how these duties should be complied with by local authorities. In addition, the Government has issued separate non-statutory advice for local authorities on elective home education, which contains guidance in relation to safeguarding.

Local authority revenue expenditure on children’s social care is funded from the general local government settlement. Local authority expenditure on children’s services is around £7bn (safeguarding, adoption, looked after children, family services; of which £5.9bn is comprised of safeguarding, adoption and looked after children services).

The Government sets a clear statutory framework for safeguarding and child protection. The statutory framework makes it clear, that local authorities have overarching duties for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of individual children and young people in their area, established through the Children Act 1989.

Specifically, section 17 of that Act requires local authorities to provide services to children in need in their area, no matter where they live or where they are educated. Section 47 of the same Act requires local authorities to investigate whether action should be taken by them to safeguard or promote the welfare of children suffering, or likely to suffer, significant harm.

The statutory guidance, Working Together to Safeguard Children (2015), sets out how these duties should be complied with by local authorities. In addition, the Government has issued separate non-statutory advice for local authorities on elective home education, which contains guidance in relation to safeguarding.

Local authority revenue expenditure on children’s social care is funded from the general local government settlement. Local authority expenditure on children’s services is around £7bn (safeguarding, adoption, looked after children, family services; of which £5.9bn is comprised of safeguarding, adoption and looked after children services).

The information requested is not held centrally.

We do not recognise the term ‘National Schools Database’ but interpret it to mean one of two things:

1. The database for schools, Edubase, is a register of educational establishments in England and Wales, maintained by the Department for Education. It provides information on establishments providing compulsory, higher and further education. It provides information about the establishments (e.g headteacher details), but nothing related to individual children.
2. The National Pupil Database contains detailed information about pupils in schools and colleges in England and includes information about pupils’ characteristics, such as: gender, ethnicity, first language, eligibility for free school meals, special educational needs (SEN), pupil absence and exclusions. It only contains data about pupils registered at schools. Therefore children not attached to schools/colleges or an alternative provision institution are not covered.

The welfare of children unassigned to maintained schools or home educated is a Local Authority responsibility.

This data is not collected centrally. Although some local authorities operate voluntary registration schemes, there is no legal obligation for the registration of home educated children.

The number of children and young people with a statement or education, health and care (EHC) plan who are educated at home is not specifically collected in the ‘Statements and EHC plans England: 2016’ publication[1]. However, as these children and young people will be included in the total number of children and young people with statements and EHC plans, local authorities are likely to have included these children and young people in the ‘other arrangements made by the local authority’ or ‘other arrangements made by the parent’ category.

The number of children and young people with statements or EHC plans who are not in employment, education or training (NEET) is not specifically collected in this statistical first release. Where young people have a statement or EHC plan and are NEET, they will be included in one of the other categories, e.g. ‘other arrangements made by local authority’ or ‘awaiting provision’.

There is not an exhaustive list of arrangements included in the category of ‘Other – arrangements made by the local authority in accordance with Section 319 of the Education Act 1996 or Section 61 of the Children and Families Act 2014’. The published SEN 2016 guide for local authorities[2] completing this part of the collection is as follows:

‘Section 319 of the Education Act 1996 empowers an authority to provide education for children with special educational needs “other than in school”. This may include education in centres run by social services or at home. Children would not normally be on another school register.

‘Section 61 of the Children and Families Act 2014 empowers an authority to provide education for children and young people with special educational needs “other than in school, post-16 institutions, etc”. This may include education in centres run by social services or where the local authority has named home education on an EHC plan.’

[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/statements-of-sen-and-ehc-plans-england-2016

[2] https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/special-educational-needs-survey-2016-guide

The standard to which home schooled children have to be educated is already the same as for those attending school. Section 7 of the Education Act 1996 requires parents to ensure that a child of compulsory school age receives full-time education suitable to the child’s age, ability and aptitudes, either by regular attendance at school, or otherwise. ‘Education otherwise than at school’ includes elective home education, and therefore, although methods may differ, the overall requirement is the same.

Section 136 of the Education and Inspections Act 2006 deals with the inspection of local authorities by Ofsted and would not be an appropriate method for imposing a new duty on them.

The transition period from statements to Education, Health and Care plans (EHCPs) runs until April 2018. Every local authority has published an individual Local Transition Plan setting out the timings for transfers to the new system. We are monitoring local authority progress and published figures about transition up to January 2015, returned by local authorities, in the Special Educational Needs in England Statistical First Release of May 2015[1]. We will publish the figures up to January 2016 in May 2016.

The Department does not collect information on the number of children who are home educated. Some local authorities choose to maintain registers so that parents can voluntarily register children being educated at home.

The number and proportion of school pupils who had a Statement of Special Educational Needs or an EHCP in each of the last five years is as follows:

The number of permanent and fixed period exclusions received by pupils with a Statement of Special Educational Needs in each of the last five years for which data is available is as follows:

[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-special-educational-needs-sen

[2] https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/special-educational-needs-in-england-january-2015

[3] https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-exclusions

The Department for Education has frequent contact with local authority officers and elected members on the subject of elective home education. Published guidance for local authorities is available on the GOV.UK website at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/elective-home-education

The Department for Education has published guidance on ‘Listening to and involving children and young people’, which makes clear that in keeping with Article 12 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, local authorities (LAs) should take steps to ensure that the views of children are obtained and taken into account. This published guidance is available on GOV.UK at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/listening-to-and-involving-children-and-young-people

The guidance is issued under s.176 of the Education Act 2002, which requires LAs to use guidance on consulting children when they exercise their functions in relation both to schools and to elective home education. It is for each local authority to decide how best to take account of the views of children who are being educated at home.

At present, local authorities (LAs) are not required to collect this data.

Ofsted has no powers or duties in respect of home education with regards to specific children who are being educated at home. We recognise that parents may choose to home school their children and may do a good job, but that education must be of a suitable quality.

If parents do educate children at home, a local authority may intervene if it appears to the authority that the parents are not fulfilling their duty. When Ofsted inspects children’s services in local authorities under section 136 of the Education and Inspections Act 2006, it considers the effectiveness of the authority’s arrangements for dealing with children missing education, a category which includes any children who are home educated but not receiving a suitable education.

We are taking steps to ensure the system is as robust as it can be when it comes to protecting young people, while at the same time safeguarding the rights of parents to determine how and where to educate their children.

Data for the numbers of children educated at home in England are not collected by the Department for Education. Some local authorities maintain voluntary registers of children educated at home but as they have no statutory basis, they cannot be regarded as an authoritative source of data.

The Department does not hold information for pupils taking GCSEs who are home schooled. The latest information for other pupils is available from the “Revised GCSE and equivalent results in England: 2014 to 2015” statistical first release available on GOV.UK at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/revised-gcse-and-equivalent-results-in-england-2014-to-2015.

The role of Regional Schools Commissioners is to work with school leaders to promote and monitor academies and free schools. The list of their responsibilities does not include unregistered pupils or home education.

No data is collected nationally on the number of children educated at home. If a child is educated at home, they can only be entered for National Curriculum Assessments if also registered on the roll of a school in advance.

It is not necessary to hold any particular qualification to educate a child at home. Parents have a duty under Section 7 of the Education Act 1996 to ensure that a child educated at home receives a full-time education suitable for their age, ability and aptitudes. Although local authorities have no power to monitor the suitability of education provided at home, they have a duty to identify children who are not receiving a suitable education. Authorities may make informal enquiries about the provision made in the home and the attainment of the child. If an authority is not satisfied that the education provided is suitable, it can initiate a school attendance process.

We are taking steps to ensure the system is as robust as it can be when it comes to protecting young people while at the same time safeguarding the right of parents to determine how and when to education their children.

Our reformed system for meeting the needs of children and young people with Special Educational Needs (SEN) and Disabilities is designed to ensure that their needs are identified at an early stage, that the right support is in place, and that problems do not escalate.

All early years providers are required to have arrangements in place to identify and support children with SEN or disabilities and to promote equality of opportunity for children in their care. All schools should have a clear approach to identifying and responding to SEN and must use their best endeavours to ensure that children with SEN, including those with autism, get the support they need.

As part of their Initial Teacher Training, all teachers are expected to learn to identify and address various types of SEN, including autism. The Government is also funding the Autism Education Trust in 2015-16, providing £650,000 to provide tiered training at universal, enhanced and specialist levels for early years, school and post-16 staff to help them understand how best to recognise and support children and young people with autism.

The Department does not hold data on the numbers of autistic children who are home educated nor the numbers of children who are not in school. The Alternative Provision Census does collect data about children who are not in school or in a pupil referral unit. However, it covers as a single ‘Not in School’ category only those who are educated otherwise than at school under arrangements made and funded by local authorities. The information does not reflect types of special educational need.

The data may be available from Plymouth City Council, since it has a duty under Section 22 of the Children and Families Act 2014 to carry out its functions with a view to identifying all the children and young people in its area who have or may have special educational needs or a disability, and also a duty to provide children of compulsory school age with an education.

Our reformed system for meeting the needs of children and young people with Special Educational Needs (SEN) and Disabilities is designed to ensure that their needs are identified at an early stage, that the right support is in place, and that problems do not escalate.

All early years providers are required to have arrangements in place to identify and support children with SEN or disabilities and to promote equality of opportunity for children in their care. All schools should have a clear approach to identifying and responding to SEN and must use their best endeavours to ensure that children with SEN, including those with autism, get the support they need.

As part of their Initial Teacher Training, all teachers are expected to learn to identify and address various types of SEN, including autism. The Government is also funding the Autism Education Trust in 2015-16, providing £650,000 to provide tiered training at universal, enhanced and specialist levels for early years, school and post-16 staff to help them understand how best to recognise and support children and young people with autism.

The Department does not hold data on the numbers of autistic children who are home educated nor the numbers of children who are not in school. The Alternative Provision Census does collect data about children who are not in school or in a pupil referral unit. However, it covers as a single ‘Not in School’ category only those who are educated otherwise than at school under arrangements made and funded by local authorities. The information does not reflect types of special educational need.

The data may be available from Plymouth City Council, since it has a duty under Section 22 of the Children and Families Act 2014 to carry out its functions with a view to identifying all the children and young people in its area who have or may have special educational needs or a disability, and also a duty to provide children of compulsory school age with an education.

Local authorities can use the high needs block of the Dedicated Schools Grant to fund provision for home-educated children, where it is appropriate to do so. Guidance is available from the Department of Education on funding provision for home-educated children.

As set out in the ‘Special educational needs and disability code of practice’[1], where local authorities and parents agree that home education is the right provision for a child or young person with an Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan, then the local authority must arrange the special educational provision set out in the plan.

In cases where the EHC plan gives the name of a school or type of school where the child will be educated and the parents decide to educate him or her at home, the local authority is not under a duty to make the special educational provision set out in the plan, provided it is satisfied that the arrangements made by the parents are suitable.

Where parents choose to home educate children who have special educational needs but do not have EHC plans, local authorities should work with parents and consider whether to provide support in the home to help the parents make suitable provision.

The presumption is that looked-after children should access full-time learning in an education setting that best meets their needs. In the exceptional circumstances where a decision is made to home educate a looked-after child it would be for a local authority’s Virtual School Head, who is responsible for promoting the educational achievement of looked-after children, to decide how pupil premium funding should be used to support the young person.

Where a child’s carer has a special guardianship order, that person would have full parental rights over the child and would therefore be entitled to whatever home education support the local authority would normally provide to a parent, as described above.

[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/elective-home-education.

The safeguarding and security of children who are receiving home education is the responsibility of their parents. This includes ensuring that any other person involved in providing the children's education has undergone appropriate checks. Local authorities have a duty under s. 175(1) of the Education Act 2002 to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and this applies equally to children educated at school, at home, and in other settings.