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Education: Home Schooling

Volume 715: debated on Tuesday 15 December 2009

Question

Asked by

To ask Her Majesty's Government for each local authority for which they have data, (a) how many home-educated children are considered not to be receiving a suitable education, (b) what is the total number of home-educated children, and (c) how many of the home-educated children considered not to be receiving a suitable education (1) are from traveller families, (2) are children who first became home-educated in years 10 or 11 with a previous history of irregular attendance, (3) are children whose parents have not provided the local authority with the data which they have asked for, (4) are children whose parents have refused to allow the local authority to interview their children, and (5) are children who have not been assessed by the local authority. [HL408]

I attach a table showing the number of electively home-educated children in each local authority that responded to the questionnaire on home education distributed in September. The department's policy is not to release any information that might lead to individual children being identified where data released could be combined with other data. As 69 local authorities identified a total of 609 home-educated children that they assessed as receiving education but not full-time or suitable education, we are not able to release a breakdown of this data by local authority, as the numbers for each individual authority would be very small and individual children might be identified.

We did not collect information on the ethnic or cultural background of home-educated children receiving no education, nor their age, so we are unable to provide information on the number from a traveller background, or the number that are in years 10 or 11. In respect of the children in his categories 3 and 4, local authorities were asked separately for information about children where there was a lack of cooperation with monitoring.

The document published at http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/everychildmatters/publications/documents/laeelective homeeducation/) includes the questionnaire that was sent to local authorities which set out the different categories of information that were sought.

Local Authority

Total Elective Home Educated (EHE) population

Bath and North East Somerset

50

Bedfordshire

70

Bolton

81

Bradford

132

Brighton and Hove

157

Buckinghamshire

185

Calderdale

38

Cambridgeshire

200

Cheshire East

127

City of London

*

Cornwall

311

Coventry

60

Cumbria

261

Darlington

97

Derby

79

Devon

674

Dorset

157

Dudley

156

Durham

110

East Riding of Yorkshire

139

Essex

733

Gateshead

29

Gloucestershire

224

Greenwich

96

Halton

28

Hampshire

372

Isle of Wight

141

Isles of Scilly

0

Kent

673

Kingston upon Hull

84

Kingston upon Thames

44

Kirklees

67

Lancashire

465

Leeds

140

Lewisham

123

Lincolnshire

411

Liverpool

57

Manchester

91

Medway

195

Milton Keynes

96

Newcastle upon Tyne

52

Norfolk

375

North East Lincolnshire

49

North Somerset

121

Northamptonshire

183

Northumberland

46

Nottingham City

96

Nottinghamshire

238

Oxfordshire

329

Plymouth

135

Reading

50

Redbridge

55

Redcar and Cleveland

27

Rotherham

70

Sefton

58

Somerset

249

South Gloucestershire

108

Southampton

82

St Helens

33

Staffordshire

244

Stockton on Tees

31

Sunderland

66

Surrey

695

Torbay

91

Trafford

35

Wandsworth

47

Warrington

39

Warwickshire

123

West Sussex

407

Wigan

72

Wiltshire

148

Windsor and Maidenhead

*

Wirral

35

Wolverhampton

141

Total

11,6**

* indicates number < than 10 per LA

Asked by

To ask Her Majesty's Government for each local authority for which they have data, (a) how many home-educated children are subject to child protection plans, (b) how many home-educated children have been taken into care or placed with a foster family, (c) what is the total number of home-educated children, and (d) how many of the home-educated children in each local authority who have been taken into care or are subject to a child protection plan (1) are from traveller families, and (2) are children who first became home-educated in years 10 or 11 with a previous history of irregular attendance. [HL410]

The department's policy is not to release any information that might lead to individual children being identified where data released could be combined with other data. As 74 local authorities identified a total of 51 home-educated children that were subject to child protection plans we are not able to release a breakdown of this data by local authority as the numbers for each individual authority would be very small and individual children might be identified. However, the department has provided a histogram setting out the spread of child protection plans by local authority and this can be found at (http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/everychildmatters/ete/independentreviewofhomeeducation/irhome education/).

We have not collected information about the number of home-educated children taken into care or placed with a foster family, neither have we collected any information about the number of home educated children subject to care orders who are from a traveller background, or who are in years 10 and 11.

I attach a table showing the number of electively home-educated children in each local authority that responded to the questionnaire on home education distributed in September.

However, neither we nor local authorities know how many children are being home educated as there is currently no requirement for home educators to notify local authorities or any other public bodies that their children are home-educated.

Local Authority

Total Elective Home Educated (EHE) population

Bath and North East Somerset

50

Bedfordshire

70

Bolton

81

Bradford

132

Brighton and Hove

157

Buckinghamshire

185

Calderdale

38

Cambridgeshire

200

Cheshire East

127

City of London

Cornwall

311

Coventry

60

Cumbria

261

Darlington

97

Derby

79

Devon

674

Dorset

157

Dudley

156

Durham

110

East Riding of Yorkshire

139

Essex

733

Gateshead

29

Gloucestershire

224

Greenwich

96

Halton

28

Hampshire

372

Isle of Wight

141

Isles of Scilly

0

Kent

673

Kingston upon Hull

84

Kingston upon Thames

44

Kirklees

67

Lancashire

465

Leeds

140

Lewisham

123

Lincolnshire

411

Liverpool

57

Manchester

91

Medway

195

Milton Keynes

96

Newcastle upon Tyne

52

Norfolk

375

North East Lincolnshire

49

North Somerset

121

Northamptonshire

183

Northumberland

46

Nottingham City

96

Nottinghamshire

238

Oxfordshire

329

Plymouth

135

Reading

50

Redbridge

55

Redcar and Cleveland

27

Rotherham

70

Sefton

58

Somerset

249

South Gloucestershire

108

Southampton

82

St Helens

33

Staffordshire

244

Stockton on Tees

31

Sunderland

66

Surrey

695

Torbay

91

Trafford

35

Wandsworth

47

Warrington

39

Warwickshire

123

West Sussex

407

Wigan

72

Wiltshire

148

Windsor and Maidenhead

*

Wirral

35

Wolverhampton

141

Total

11,6**

* indicates numbers < than 10 per LA