Agenda item

As requested by the committee at their January 2018 meeting members are provided with the following reports regarding Children Missing Education and Elective Home Education:

·       An update to Children’s Select Committee relating to the current position in Wiltshire of those children who are classified as Children Missing Education (CME).

o   Annex 1 – Children Missing Education: Statutory Guidance for Local Authorities

o   Annex 2 – Wiltshire Council CME-CMOE Policy

·       An overview of the current situation within Wiltshire relating to Elective Home Education.

o   Appendix 1 – Children’s Commissioner Report

Both reports contain data and figures referring to CME & EHE. Members are asked to comment on the data within the reports and consider receiving and annual update.

Consideration was given to a report by the Director, Families & Children’s Services which provided an update relating to the current position in Wiltshire of those children who were classified as Children Missing Education (CME).

It was explained that the report referred to those children and young people who were missing, i.e. their family or their individual whereabouts being unknown. Generally this was in respect of children who had moved out of Wiltshire, their destination was not known and they did not appear to be on the roll of another school in England. 

Members welcomed the report and were pleased to note that, despite the difficulties involved in identifying these children, there had been a reduction in children missing education from 130 in 2017 to 80 as at 14 February 2019, as a result of more vigorous checking and working with partners, including Police and health staff.  However, it was appreciated that there were more children that should be included in this category including children from travelling communities, numbers of which were unknown.   It was also noted that children were likely to be moving into Wiltshire but were not registered.

The Committee also received a report which provided an overview of the current situation in Wiltshire relating to Elective Home Education.  It was noted that a parent/carer could elect to home educate their child at any stage of a child’s education. Should this option be taken at the earliest pre-school stage then that child would not be registered on any school roll. However, if the option was taken at a later stage, schools were required to notify the Local Authority and remove the child’s name from the school roll. The Local Authority held a register of all children who were known to be home educated, which was overseen by the Education Welfare Service.    

The number of young people known to be electively home educated had been steadily increasing from 385 in the academic year 2015-2016 to 619 in 2017-2018.  The numbers home educated in the current academic year so far had reached 596. Work was currently being carried out to ascertain the reasons for this increase, bearing in mind that parents/carers had every right to home educate their child.  Sometimes the reason was poor school performance and this was being investigated. It was also noted that work was being undertaken to ensure that the standard of home education was good; in most cases the standard was fine.

Reference was made to the needs of children with special educational needs and it was noted that some parents/carers considered that they did not receive sufficient support from mainstream schools.     

After further discussion,

Resolved:

1.              To note the information and data provided on Children Missing Education in Wiltshire.

2.         To note the information and data provided on Elective Home Education in Wiltshire.

3.         To receive the correct figures on Children Missing Education for the following, and to circulate with the minutes of the meeting:

·         Gender Breakdown

·         Ethnicity Breakdown

4.         To add Children Accessing Alternative Educational Provision to the committee’s forward work programme as a future pre-meeting information briefing in autumn 2019.

5.         To receive further data and analysis in 12 months on children with SEND receiving Elective Home Education.