HEdline

Campaigning for home education rights in Brighton & Hove

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New policy hangs in the balance as Council Head of EOTAS quits

Posted by hedline at 05:50 PM on May 18, 2008
Barbara Benson, Head of EOTAS at Brighton & Hove City Council, has announced her resignation, and is to leave her post at the end of July.  Her resignation follows the decision to transfer the EOTAS team, which maintains contact with home educating families, as well as providing education for children who are too ill to attend school, into the Behaviour and Attendance section of the Council, which is where Educational Welfare Officers are based. 
 
HEdline is seriously concerned that locating the EOTAS team in a new section, and the loss of Barbara Benson's experience and knowledge regarding Elective Home Education, could lead to an increase in unfair and unreasonable treatment of home educating families by council officials who are ignorant of the law.
 
It is therefore even more urgent that the council adopt a new policy on home education which:
  • is in line with the law, and does not attempt to infringe home educating families' legal rights
  • is developed in consultation with the home education community
  • is embedded throughout children's services in the city, by a programme of staff training
Unfortunately, the second meeting of the reference group, set up by the EOTAS team to discuss a new policy on home education, revealed that the head of EOTAS has not been given the authority to make the fundamental changes to approach that HEdline is pressing for.  For detailed notes of the meeting, see our report.
 
HEdline has written to Barbara Benson, requesting that a senior officer who does have the authority to discuss these central matters, be invited to the next meeting of the reference group.  If this does not happen, we will be obliged to withdraw from the reference group, and pursue our campaign for a new policy by approaching senior officers and elected councillors directly.
 
After nearly two years of discussion with council officers, we have achieved several improvements in the practice of the EOTAS team:
  • changes to the wording of the letters sent to new home educators
  • welcome changes to the wording of the leaflet sent out
  • acknowledgement that home visits are not required in order for the council to obtain information about the education parents are providing for their children
  • an agreement to pilot an open home education information day (planned for this July) as an alternative means of communication between the council and home educators
However welcome, these small changes fall far short of the fundamental change we have been asking for.  Serious problems remain with the overall policy and attitude of the council and its partners in the Children's and Young People's Trust.  For example:
  • the council still wishes to prescribe the content of the educational provision made by home educating families.  The latest draft policy presented to us for discussion included a list of characteristics described as a "minimum" for a child's education to be considered suitable.  This list went beyond that recently issued to councils in government guidelines, and beyond what is actually required by law.
  • there is a low level of awareness about home education among several key departments of the council, in particular the Education Welfare Service and Social Services
  • this has resulted in several local families having distressing and unwarranted intervention in their lives by council officials, ranging from being repeatedly stopped in the street by truancy patrols, to having their educational philosophy ignorantly criticised by social workers
  • the procedures included in the council's Children Missing Education strategy do not acknowledge that home education is a perfectly legal reason why a child may not be registered at a school, and the strategy does not give staff any guidance about dealing respectfully with home educating families if they meet them.
We will continue to take up these issues with senior officers at Brighton & Hove council and with councillors who sit on the Children's and Young People's Trust Board.  As well as continuing to press for a legal, fair and respectful approach to the home educating community, we will work together with the EOTAS team to take forward positive initiatives such as the home education information day in July.  We will also support any local home educator who feels they have been unfairly treated by council or hospital staff.
 
If anyone would like to join us, or find out more about our campaign, please email us on enquiries@hedline.org.uk.

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