Compulsory Registration for Home Educators Back In the news, again...

Compulsory registration is back on the agenda again, well when I say 'again' it is never really off the agenda from what I have observed, just last year Welsh home educators deflected an attempt at compulsory registration of home educators you can see the report here

Today again there is another attempt to bring the registration issue to the fore again in Wales with another report from the BBC  regarding a case back in 2011 you can see that here

In UK NSPCC raised a report and had to apologise for smearing home educators, see here, they did not learn a lesson as they are at it again with their latest report, a petition has been raised for them to withdraw their latest report which you can view the petition and learn more about it here

My own view on this assault on home educators and their persistence on implementing a compulsory register is a total failure in looking at child protection, child protection is not a home education issue, the two are more than separate issues.

For me them pursuing the compulsory register aspect of their ignorance of home education is nothing more than a deflection tactic to divert peoples attention to the real failures in child protection services.

It is a parents right enshrined in law The Education Act 1944 originally established that children's education should be based on their age, aptitude and ability. ..

If the LA do not believe an education is taking place then they have to right to make formal enquiries and state what their concerns are and then ask the parent to address those concerns, if the concerns are not dealt with adequately and there is reason to believe that an education is still not being received then they have legal powers to follow that through by pursuing a school attendance order 

Child protection does not come into that equation, if there are any concern about a childs welfare this is dealt with by social services, social services have no remit over home education.

The issue with registration is stated over and over, that they do not have any clue how many children there are that are home educated, but how can that be?.. That is a failure in their systems not in the home education law.

When my children first started home education we where contacted by a 'school nurse' who offered her services to home educators, so in that case as we had never registered or contacted LA,  where did they get their information we home educate?, obviously from Health Visitor services, so in that case that may give them a good indication of home educated children pre-school and then once a child is taken out and removed from school at school age, parents have to write to schools to give notice of their intention to home educate, which the school then notifies the LA, so why are these not being used as some kind of monitoring tool?, they should have an idea of numbers.

The case of poor Dylan Seabright shows that it was a services failure, welfare concerns where raised to SS but education officials where turned away at the door, why in that case where SS not brought in in the first place, if welfare concerns where raised it is a SS issue not education officials who should intervene, SS should have gone in, this shows that it was a failure of the services provided and no amount of registering would have changed the outcome.

Even the Open University have 'in' on the subject, their view is that there should be tighter regulation, for a supposedly intelligent part of society even Open University have it wrong, their statement reads

'If preserving parent’s freedoms in the longer term means a name on a register, or an annual visit, the short-term pain might be worth it'..

You can read this here or take a look at some of the comment's on the original conversation here

Clearly even the Open University do not believe in protecting 'rights of the parents', just by advocating a register in the first place and clearly have no idea about home education and even they do not understand the law. How loud do people have to shout that Child Protection is not a Home Education Issue, the two are very very separate issues...