Letter to our MP

Dear Mr ....... MP

We are writing to you to express our concerns about the Children Schools and Families Bill now before Parliament.

This Bill proposes setting up a registration and monitoring system in England for families that home educate their children. We have serious concerns that this damages fundamental principles and will harm home educating families.

First of all, the Bill is based on the Badman Review of Home Education, which was rushed and flawed. One of the experts consulted by the Children Schools and Families Select Committee, Professor James C Conroy, stated: "In my 30 odd years of professional life in education I have rarely encountered a process, the entirety of which was so slap dash, panic driven, and nakedly and naively populist."

In particular, the report unfairly conflated child safeguarding concerns with home educating, as if such concerns were more likely in the home education context, when this is an entirely unproven assertion. We can only echo the words of your colleague in the House, Graham Stuart MP:

"As for parents who reject the Secretary of State’s school system entirely and sacrifice their time and career to bring up and educate their children themselves, they are stigmatised as more likely to be child abusers than normal people. It is an absolute affront to those in the home education community, and it is baseless. The scheme is all about getting home educators in a headlock and forcing their children back into the Balls fold."

We believe that no legislation should be debated until a proper, independent and thorough review has been conducted.

The Bill also attacks the fundamental principle in English law that parents are responsible for the education of their children. The proposed registration system is in effect a licensing scheme where the Local Authority has the power to grant and revoke registration at its discretion. The reality of this will mean that parents can no longer decide what is best for their child. If the Local Authority does not agree, then the parents are over-ruled and effectively no longer have responsibility for their own child's education.

Home education can be wonderful and creative. It can be tailored to a child's particular needs. The proposed system is likely to stiffle this and force everything into the Local Authority's view of what 'a suitable education' should be. The monitoring system includes an intrusive level of involvement, with what will effectively be mandatory annual home visits and prescribed paperwork to be completed. We fear that in effect this will simply mean that home educators will have to replicate school at home and more than likely follow the National Curriculum or they will be forced back to school. The very reason home education is undertaken is often because school has not worked.

Children are infinitely varied and each child is unique. Can there be only one way to educate a child? Must that always be by the Government's set educational formula? We believe that home education is not only a fair option, but is innovative and creative and schools could learn valuable lessons from it. This proposed system should not be established as it will crush this diverse and vital community.

We hope that you will consider these views and debate this actively in the House to ensure that this legislation is not passed at this time.

We look forward to your response and would be grateful if you would permit us to share it with others.

Thank you for your consideration.

Yours sincerely