Home education - reporting concerns

EHE parents who wish to report concerns or make a complaint

EHE parents who wish to report a concern, or register a complaint, about any aspect of our service should do so by contacting the Assistant Team Manager for Inclusion in the first instance.  Please e-mail home.education@southampton.gov.uk and mark your e-mail “CONCERN” or “COMPLAINT” and it will be dealt with as quickly as possible. 

If after the concern or complaint has been dealt with parents remain dissatisfied with the response, the formal Southampton City Council complaints procedure should be followed.

Reporting and responding to concerns - professionals

Professionals working with a family who wish to raise concerns about the education provision of home educated children should first discuss their concerns with parents. After this discussion, if concerns remain, parents should be advised that a referral will be made to the local authority via home.education@southampton.gov.uk

Upon receipt of referrals, the Inclusion Services Team will decide whether it is appropriate to request further information from parents about the learning process that is in place, advising parents who the referrer is.

Reporting and responding to concerns - non-professionals

In cases where a referrer has stated that they wish to remain anonymous, any information provided will be deemed to have been given to the council in confidence. As such, any information that will lead to the identification of the referrer will not be passed on to the parents, as this may be a breach of confidence and/or the data protection principles.

Referrers should note that although we may act upon concerns that are brought to our attention, we will not engage in further dialogue about the family as to do so would be a breach of data protection principles.

To report any concerns in relation to the educational provision of a home educated family, please contact our team on 023 8083 4779 or by emailing home.education@southampton.gov.uk

Safeguarding

Any concerns of a safeguarding nature should be reported to our Children's Resource Service (CRS) on 023 8083 3004.

Changes of address

To notify us of a change of address, please contact us on home.education@southampton.gov.uk

Partner agencies

If a practitioner working in a partner agency is aware, or believes that a child is home educated, they should contact Inclusion Services on 023 8083 4779 to ensure that the child is not a child missing education.