TY - JOUR
T1 - Home Education in England: A Loose Thread in the Child Safeguarding Net?
AU - Purcell, Carl
AU - Baginsky, Mary
AU - Manthorpe, Jill
AU - Driscoll, Jenny
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press.
PY - 2023/3/16
Y1 - 2023/3/16
N2 - For a small number of parents home education is a preferred alternative to school and in England more parents are taking up this option. This has refuelled a long-running debate about the adequacy of a regulatory framework under which parents are not required to register their children as home educated and provision is not routinely monitored. This article highlights concerns regarding the ability of local authorities to fulfil their duty to safeguard these children, drawing on interviews with sixty-eight officials working in twenty local authorities, national surveys of local education and safeguarding agencies and interviews with thirty-eight staff working in twenty-five schools. We argue that, although the Government’s Department of Education is committed to introducing compulsory registration of home-educated children, more is needed to strengthen local authority powers and to address the reasons why some parents choose, or feel pressured, to take their children out of school.
AB - For a small number of parents home education is a preferred alternative to school and in England more parents are taking up this option. This has refuelled a long-running debate about the adequacy of a regulatory framework under which parents are not required to register their children as home educated and provision is not routinely monitored. This article highlights concerns regarding the ability of local authorities to fulfil their duty to safeguard these children, drawing on interviews with sixty-eight officials working in twenty local authorities, national surveys of local education and safeguarding agencies and interviews with thirty-eight staff working in twenty-five schools. We argue that, although the Government’s Department of Education is committed to introducing compulsory registration of home-educated children, more is needed to strengthen local authority powers and to address the reasons why some parents choose, or feel pressured, to take their children out of school.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85150359837&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1017/S1474746423000052
DO - 10.1017/S1474746423000052
M3 - Article
SN - 1474-7464
VL - 42
JO - Social Policy and Society
JF - Social Policy and Society
IS - 1
ER -