What is the Schools Bill?
On May 11th 2022 the government published the Schools Bill which puts forward sweeping changes to the way schools in England are to be run and how Home Educating families are treated. The Bill is currently going through the House of Lords and will continue through to the House of Commons for approval.
Why should you be concerned about The Bill as a Home Educating Family?
- It will become compulsory to register your child as home educating with the Local Authority (this is currently only voluntary)
- The Local Authority (LA) will be able to request any personal data from you about your family regardless of it’s relevance to Home Education and your rights to privacy
- The data collected will be able to be shared to whomever the LA wish, with no regard to GDPR
- You will be required to supply the names of both parents of the child, regardless of if that parent is involved with the care or in contact with the child.
- No allowance has been made for those for whom data disclosure poses a significant risk (e.g. domestic abuse survivors).
- If you do not supply the requested information, even if you cannot supply it, the LA can issue you with a School Attendance Order (SAO) which must be complied with in 10 days.
- It demands that out of school settings, including private tutors, groups, part time education centres share detailed information (which they may not have) about families and imposes
penalties if they do not do so. - It provides greater powers to the LA to assess educational provision and allows individuals to make a judgement as to the suitability of education based on their own prejudices and
beliefs. - There are no safety measures in the bill, if you disagree with the LA assessment and receive a School Attendance Order, you must comply, or else face fines of £2500, imprisonment, or
both. - There is no proper route of appeal, or complaint procedure for either School Attendance Orders, or the behavior of the Local Authority.
- The period of time to satisfy the LA of a suitable education has reduced to 10 days.
- If you choose to take the decision to court, but lose, you can be prosecuted and fined again (double jeopardy does not apply in this Bill).
- A School Attendance Order will stay with the child for their schooling life, they cannot be removed from school again to home educate, even if you move counties.
- If an EHCP with a named school is in place, a parent is not allowed to apply for a School Attendance Order to be revoked, even if a suitable education at home is taking place.
- Families with more than 5 children will be classed as a ‘school’ and will need to register with Ofsted as such.
- If a group/class or part time education centre operates in school hours, with more than 5 children, they will be classified as a ‘school’ and must register as such. (Currently it is accepted that up to 18 hours of this type of activity per week, does not require registration as a school).
Further amendments
- The Bill is currently going through a committee who will amend the draft Bill following debate with Lords. Further amendments will then be made in the House of Commons.
- Local Authorities have already requested that they be provided with the power of entry into people’s homes.
- The Education Committee have discussed annual Maths and English testing for home educated children, and aligning with the National Curriculum as a benchmark.
What you can do:
- Sign the petition.
- Share this information with your friends, family and community.
- Share information videos/resources on social media
- Join the national ‘Home Education Action Group’ and ‘Education Otherwise’ on Facebook to keep up with developments.
- Write to your MP, or arrange to meet with them to discuss your concerns.
- Attend protests when these are organised (see above groups).
Petition form:
Download the Petition form here.