Covering letter from my MP:
Further to our previous correspondence, I now enclose a letter I have received from Jim Knight, the Minister of state for Schools, about the proposed revisions to the Education (pupil registration) regulations.
The attached will be self-explanatory and I trust you will find it of interest. However, if there are any further points you would like me to raise with the minister, I hope you will not hesitate to get in touch with me again.
Letter to my MP from Jim Knight:
Thank you for your letter of 12 June 2006 enclosing correspondence from Fiona Berry of (my address) about the proposed revisions to the Education (Pupil Registration) regulations. She is concerned about the possible impact of the changes on parents who would to educate (sic) their child otherwise than at school.
First, it may be helpful if I explain that we are planning to revise the Regulations, which have been in place since 1985 (with subsequent amendments) to make them easier for local authorities and schools to use; to clarify one or two ambiguities in them; and to bring them up-to-date. We therefore carried out a full public consultation on the review of the Regulations which ran between September and December 2005. Responses were received from a range of organisations and individuals including those with an interest in home education.
Mrs Berry expresses concern that we “appear” to be introducing two-day delay in deleting children who are to be educated at home from the school registers. What we are planning is to introduce a requirement that schools give local authorities advance notice of when a child is to be deleted for this reason. I do not believe that this will in practice cause a delay between the child leaving school and being deleted from the register. In most cases schools will be aware that the children are leaving before they do so; either because a school is waiting for parents to confirm verbal notification in writing or because they have given their school advance warning of the withdrawal. This will give schools ample opportunity to advise their local authority of the deletion before a child leaves and the deletion becomes necessary.
On those occasions where the parents do not give the school advance notice that they are withdrawing their child there will be a short delay. This is simply to allow time for the school’s notice to reach the local authority and the length of the delay will depend on the method used to give it. The guidance that will accompany the regulations reminds schools that they must send the notice immediately and allow reasonable time for it to arrive. The example in the guidance is that they should allow two days for a letter to arrive by post. This will not affect the parent’s ability to educate their child at home: the requirement is solely concerned with the school notifying the authority of the child’s withdrawal and deletion from the register. Nor is their (sic) any intention that the authority will have to “approve” the parent’s wish to educate their child at home or the school’s deletion of that pupil from the register.
I should explain that one of the reasons that we have introduced the requirement for schools to notify their local authority of deletions in these circumstances is the concerns raised by home educators’ groups and others about parents being persuaded to withdraw their child in order to avoid either exclusion or prosecution for poor attendance. We believe that the requirement for advance notice will discourage the practice and allow local authorities the opportunity to offer support to those parents who want it.
Whilst we accept that the majority of parents who educate their children at home do so well, there is a small minority who do not. It is important that local authorities are able to intervene as early as possible to protect these children’s education. The requirement for advance notice of the deletion ensures that the authorities are aware of such cases and, only where necessary, are able to intervene.
Another reason is our belief that some decisions, such as those made in the circumstances that I outlined above and disputes between parents and school, are made in the heat of the moment. A gap between the parents advising the school of the withdrawal and the deletion, whether before the child leaves or after, will allow parents to re-consider their decision and, if they wish, change their minds before the child loses their school place.
Mrs Berry also expresses concern that we are changing the regulations in relation to the deletion of children with special needs. I can confirm that we are not changing the regulations in relation to children with special needs.
We have no intention to change the right of parents to educate their children outside the school system. Nor do we intend introducing further requirements for English local authorities to approve parents’ decisions to withdraw their children from school in order to educate them at home. The proposed regulations are explicit that it is mandatory for the school to delete the child from the registers in these circumstances and place no requirements on the local authority to acknowledge the advance notice. Indeed, the accompanying guidance makes it clear that schools should not wait for an acknowledgement.
Mrs Berry asks about the Parliamentary procedure associated with making the new Regulations. Our intention is to present them to the House in the normal way in July and subject to the wishes of parliament for them to come into force on September 1, 2006.
I hope this is helpful and reassures Mrs Berry on her points of concern.
Further to our previous correspondence, I now enclose a letter I have received from Jim Knight, the Minister of state for Schools, about the proposed revisions to the Education (pupil registration) regulations.
The attached will be self-explanatory and I trust you will find it of interest. However, if there are any further points you would like me to raise with the minister, I hope you will not hesitate to get in touch with me again.
Letter to my MP from Jim Knight:
Thank you for your letter of 12 June 2006 enclosing correspondence from Fiona Berry of (my address) about the proposed revisions to the Education (Pupil Registration) regulations. She is concerned about the possible impact of the changes on parents who would to educate (sic) their child otherwise than at school.
First, it may be helpful if I explain that we are planning to revise the Regulations, which have been in place since 1985 (with subsequent amendments) to make them easier for local authorities and schools to use; to clarify one or two ambiguities in them; and to bring them up-to-date. We therefore carried out a full public consultation on the review of the Regulations which ran between September and December 2005. Responses were received from a range of organisations and individuals including those with an interest in home education.
Mrs Berry expresses concern that we “appear” to be introducing two-day delay in deleting children who are to be educated at home from the school registers. What we are planning is to introduce a requirement that schools give local authorities advance notice of when a child is to be deleted for this reason. I do not believe that this will in practice cause a delay between the child leaving school and being deleted from the register. In most cases schools will be aware that the children are leaving before they do so; either because a school is waiting for parents to confirm verbal notification in writing or because they have given their school advance warning of the withdrawal. This will give schools ample opportunity to advise their local authority of the deletion before a child leaves and the deletion becomes necessary.
On those occasions where the parents do not give the school advance notice that they are withdrawing their child there will be a short delay. This is simply to allow time for the school’s notice to reach the local authority and the length of the delay will depend on the method used to give it. The guidance that will accompany the regulations reminds schools that they must send the notice immediately and allow reasonable time for it to arrive. The example in the guidance is that they should allow two days for a letter to arrive by post. This will not affect the parent’s ability to educate their child at home: the requirement is solely concerned with the school notifying the authority of the child’s withdrawal and deletion from the register. Nor is their (sic) any intention that the authority will have to “approve” the parent’s wish to educate their child at home or the school’s deletion of that pupil from the register.
I should explain that one of the reasons that we have introduced the requirement for schools to notify their local authority of deletions in these circumstances is the concerns raised by home educators’ groups and others about parents being persuaded to withdraw their child in order to avoid either exclusion or prosecution for poor attendance. We believe that the requirement for advance notice will discourage the practice and allow local authorities the opportunity to offer support to those parents who want it.
Whilst we accept that the majority of parents who educate their children at home do so well, there is a small minority who do not. It is important that local authorities are able to intervene as early as possible to protect these children’s education. The requirement for advance notice of the deletion ensures that the authorities are aware of such cases and, only where necessary, are able to intervene.
Another reason is our belief that some decisions, such as those made in the circumstances that I outlined above and disputes between parents and school, are made in the heat of the moment. A gap between the parents advising the school of the withdrawal and the deletion, whether before the child leaves or after, will allow parents to re-consider their decision and, if they wish, change their minds before the child loses their school place.
Mrs Berry also expresses concern that we are changing the regulations in relation to the deletion of children with special needs. I can confirm that we are not changing the regulations in relation to children with special needs.
We have no intention to change the right of parents to educate their children outside the school system. Nor do we intend introducing further requirements for English local authorities to approve parents’ decisions to withdraw their children from school in order to educate them at home. The proposed regulations are explicit that it is mandatory for the school to delete the child from the registers in these circumstances and place no requirements on the local authority to acknowledge the advance notice. Indeed, the accompanying guidance makes it clear that schools should not wait for an acknowledgement.
Mrs Berry asks about the Parliamentary procedure associated with making the new Regulations. Our intention is to present them to the House in the normal way in July and subject to the wishes of parliament for them to come into force on September 1, 2006.
I hope this is helpful and reassures Mrs Berry on her points of concern.
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