Welsh home education consultation my notes on qs 1 & 2

1: Do you feel that the guidance provides sufficient assistance for local authorities to support home educating families?
2: Is there anything missing from the guidance which you think should be included, if so please specify?

The Welsh Government is currently asking for views on new draft elective home education guidance

The consultation runs until July 3rd 2015.

My notes on Questions 1 and 2

1.  Does guidance help LAs to support families? Depends what’s meant by ‘support’. Overshadowed by Chapter 4 Reviewing Provision with expectation of annual monitoring + face to face meeting. Introduction to different approaches home education is new & could be helpful + decrease expectation that home education should match or mirror school.  BUT examples of supportive good practice are quite sparse & not immediately apparent how they could be generalised eg how is 14-16 college funded (follow-up enquiries made to Ceredigion LA & College), do all areas have youth health teams etc.

2. Anything missing? No breakdown of categories SEN disability for children with statement SEN therefore insufficient consideration of impact on children with SEN and disability especially Autistic Spectrum Disorder with emphasis in guidance on face to face meetings and questioning the child/young person. Not enough examples of good practice & no explanation of how good practice might be funded. No motive for LAs to emulate or innovate.  Toolkit + case studies would be helpful as Appendix. Not convinced from Equalities Impact Assessment that LAs were actually asked much about good practice. Chapter 3 LA approach to EHE is inadequate, should have much more about LAs responsibility to challenge schools, not just Fair Access Panel + access to advocacy service. (MORE required on advocacy service.) No statistics on complaints process outcomes & not convinced can bring about desired result + is burden on individual parent. Edited to add point made on my Facebook page, no mention of flexischooling.

Previous Blog Posts

first impressions on reading the proposed new home education guidance
the long awaited readable children’s version
SEN
annual monitoring
Children Missing Education (section 436A)
Tracked Changes
Examples Good Practice
Why Not More Examples Good Practice?

Useful Links

Welsh Government consultation web page (includes draft guidance, response form, children’s version now in pdf AND plain text, children’s rights impact assessment, and equality impact assessment)
Draft guidance set out as web page
Children’s version set out as web page

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