HEdline
Campaigning for home education rights in Brighton & Hove
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HEdline to meet new manager at Brighton & Hove council
Posted by hedline
at 09:55 AM on June 16, 2008
|
Following HEdline's request to meet a senior manager with the authority to discuss the fundamental approach of Brighton & Hove Council towards home education, Maggie Baker, the council's Attendance Strategy Manager, has been invited to attend the next meeting of the home education reference group on Wednesday 18th June.
The meeting was called with one week's notice, and the EOTAS team has circulated a revised draft policy on home education, for discussion at this meeting.
This new draft does not include several of the changes specifically agreed at the last meeting of the reference group, on May 8th. Full details of the changes agreed are given in our report of that meeting, which was published here on May 18th.
Despite intensive work by HEdline members to comment on and redraft the policy, the latest draft remains unclear, misleading as to the council's and parents' legal responsibilities, and contrary in approach to the latest government guidelines issued in November 2007. We are forced to conclude that the reference group is nothing but a smokescreen, intended to give the impression that this policy is based on consultation with home educators. We do not accept the latest draft policy, and will continue to challenge it.
Rather than becoming drawn further into fruitless discussion of the detail of policy documents, HEdline members will be asking Maggie Baker to justify Brighton & Hove Council's continued refusal to consider a new approach to home education. All we are asking for is a clear policy, drawn up through a proper process of consultation with the home education community, which is based on the law, and which is embedded through a process of staff training across all children's services where officers may meet home educating families.
Any local home educator who would like to get involved in HEdline's work is very welcome to contact us on enquiries@hedline.org.uk.
The meeting was called with one week's notice, and the EOTAS team has circulated a revised draft policy on home education, for discussion at this meeting.
This new draft does not include several of the changes specifically agreed at the last meeting of the reference group, on May 8th. Full details of the changes agreed are given in our report of that meeting, which was published here on May 18th.
Despite intensive work by HEdline members to comment on and redraft the policy, the latest draft remains unclear, misleading as to the council's and parents' legal responsibilities, and contrary in approach to the latest government guidelines issued in November 2007. We are forced to conclude that the reference group is nothing but a smokescreen, intended to give the impression that this policy is based on consultation with home educators. We do not accept the latest draft policy, and will continue to challenge it.
Rather than becoming drawn further into fruitless discussion of the detail of policy documents, HEdline members will be asking Maggie Baker to justify Brighton & Hove Council's continued refusal to consider a new approach to home education. All we are asking for is a clear policy, drawn up through a proper process of consultation with the home education community, which is based on the law, and which is embedded through a process of staff training across all children's services where officers may meet home educating families.
Any local home educator who would like to get involved in HEdline's work is very welcome to contact us on enquiries@hedline.org.uk.
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