Agenda item

To consider the recommendations from the Children’s Services and Education Scrutiny Board in respect of the Elective Home Education Working Group:

       Cabinet considered the recommendations from the Children’s Services and Education Scrutiny Board in respect of the Elective Home Education Working Group

The Cabinet considered the recommendations from the Children’s Services and Education Scrutiny Board in respect of the Elective Home Education Working Group.

The Cabinet Member for Children and Education, on behalf of the Cabinet, submitted her thanks to the Children and Education Scrutiny Board for considering this matter.

Reasons for Decision

The findings reflected wider national concerns that the Association Directors of Children’s Services (ADCS) and Association of Elective Home Education Professionals (AEHEP) had made to the Government relating to the need to strengthen the legislation, to provide further safeguards for children who were Elective Home Educated (EHE) and the need to provide funding to local authorities work with EHE children through Designated School Grant (DSG).

The Cabinet was requested to consider the recommendations and determine what action it wished to take. In accordance with the Localism Act 2011, the Cabinet was requested to respond to the recommendations of the scrutiny board within two months, setting out any approved recommendations and how they would be implemented. Progress against these recommendations would be monitored by the Children and Education Scrutiny Board.

Alternative Options

The purpose of the review was to consider current support for Elective Home Education and if it met the needs of young people and parents, findings would inform if the Council should consider alternative options.

Agreed:-

(1)          that, the Cabinet consider the following recommendations from the Children’s Services and Education Scrutiny Board in respect of the Elective Home Education Working Group:

(a)     The Elective Home Education (EHE) resource pack be reviewed and edited to make it more accessible to parents;

(b)     The EHE website be refreshed to provide information, guides and links to other information and links to EHE forums for advice and support;

(c)     To identify resource and support within the Council to facilitate the refresh;

(d)     That additional spaces and facilities be identified for EHE groups to meet and carry out activities, and that competitive rates for use of those facilities be negotiated for EHE group use;

(e)     That the Council develop a mechanism for resources to be shared for EHE, such as a hub for books or other educational material to be kept;

(f)      That youth social networks, such as ‘Just Youth’, be promoted on the EHE website for users to find out what’s on in Sandwell for young people and to encourage engagement;

(g)     To raise awareness of the Special Educational Needs (SEN) and Education and Health Care Plans (EHCP) support available and access for children;

(h)     That the Cabinet Member for Children and Education and the Director of Children’s Services, on behalf of the Council, be requested to write to the Secretary of State for Education, Nadhim Zahawi and to the Parliamentary Select Committee Inquiry of Home Education, to register this Council’s findings from the EHE review which highlights the need for regulation and resources for Elective Home Education; and to endorse a letter from the Association of EHE Professionals which asks whether consideration is being given to strengthening the legislation to provide further safeguards for children who are EHE.

(2)     that, in connection with Resolution (1) above, a further report be submitted to the Children’s Services and Education Scrutiny Board, on the decision of Cabinet.