Issue - meetings

The Panel received the report of the Executive Director – Children and Learning, which summarised the role of the Elective Home Education (EHE) Service and the current position in Southampton.

The Cabinet Member for Education, Councillor J Baillie; Robert Henderson, Executive Director - Children and Learning; Derek Wiles, Head of Education and Learning; and Bryn Roberts, Service Manager – Inclusion; were present and, with the consent of the Chair, addressed the Panel.

In discussions with the officers, the Panel noted the following:

·  That a new duty for Local Authorities to maintain a statutory register of children who were not on roll at a school, including children who are Electively Home Educated (EHE) and other children not at school, would come into effect in April or September 2022.

·  That children were tracked from first point of contact with a service the council provided, such as a sure start centre, to check there were in education.  However, families that move into the city won’t be tracked until the service receives information about the children in that family.

·  There is no requirement for parents to say why they are EHE.

·  The service provides support in partnership with parents who are EHE and resources are focused on families based on the level of need.

·  The data indicated that the performance of children who are EHE was generally below national standards.  Whilst there were a few parents who provided excellent EHE, they were not required to follow the national curriculum if the education provided was age and learning appropriate.  The evidence indicated that generally EHE does not give the same breadth of challenge and education that a school can.

·  The Education White Paper proposed that all schools should join Multi Academy Trusts (MATS) by 2030 the impact of that would be a loss of capital assets as buildings and sites are transferred into MATS and more schools moving away from Local Authority control.

RESOLVED:  That the Panel would be provided with a briefing on the Education White Paper, and details of developments which related to additional powers for local authorities regarding EHE, when more detail was available.