Senedd Cymru | Welsh Parliament
Y Pwyllgor Plant, Pobl Ifanc ac Addysg | Children, Young People and Education Committee
Plant a phobl ifanc sydd ar yr ymylon | Children and Young People on the margins
Ymateb gan Unigolyn | Evidence from Individual
Home educated children - who inevitably come under the category of "children not on school roll" are not at increased risk of harm, neither are they "on the margins". It is both insulting and unlawful to presume that parents are incapable of raising their own children (which includes fulfilling their lawful duty of ensuring they are educated) without state intervention or oversight. Likewise there are no grounds for concern about how home educators "practice". Yet you give your definition of "children on the margin" as "groups of children in circumstances that require a specific response from children’s services or other statutory providers and for which there are concerns about the current policy or practice."
School children are at far great risk both of abuse within their learning environment than home educated children. Likewise, school children are more likely to not be receiving a bespoke individualised suitable education, as some 30% of school children do not achieve the state's own aim and standard of 5 GCSEs, and similar figures of primary school children do not meet the state's rather artificial and inappropriate expectations of literacy and numeracy for their age. Each home educated child is instead allowed to develop along their own particular learning path and developmental stage.
The data of home educated children MUST be kept confidential, with parents only expected to share data with the authorities on a purely voluntary basis. Furthermore it is absolutely essential that healthcare is not tied to the school environment to ensure open access for all - not only for home educated children but also for school children where there can often be breakdowns in communications and opinions between parents and staff.
Most especially, the plans for using health care services to provide data, without consent of parent or child, to LAs so that home ed families can be "inspected" MUST be abandoned. These proposals are highly unethical and would be likely to place barriers in place for home educators accessing health care. Indeed, previous attempts to share data from health care sources to help track illegal immigrants had to be abandoned by Westminster in 2018, as these proposals were found to create obstacles to people accessing health care. If such plans had to be abandoned for those who may have been in someway acting illegally, how much more for parents who are acting lawfully in home educating their children.
Home educated children - who inevitably come under the category of "children not on school roll" are not at increased risk of harm, neither are they "on the margins". It is both insulting and unlawful to presume that parents are incapable of raising their own children (which includes fulfilling their lawful duty of ensuring they are educated) without state intervention or oversight. Likewise there are no grounds for concern about how home educators "practice". Yet you give your definition of "children on the margin" as "groups of children in circumstances that require a specific response from children’s services or other statutory providers and for which there are concerns about the current policy or practice."
School children are at far great risk both of abuse within their learning environment than home educated children. Likewise, school children are more likely to not be receiving a bespoke individualised suitable education, as some 30% of school children do not achieve the state's own aim and standard of 5 GCSEs, and similar figures of primary school children do not meet the state's rather artificial and inappropriate expectations of literacy and numeracy for their age. Each home educated child is instead allowed to develop along their own particular learning path and developmental stage.
The data of home educated children MUST be kept confidential, with parents only expected to share data with the authorities on a purely voluntary basis. Furthermore it is absolutely essential that healthcare is not tied to the school environment to ensure open access for all - not only for home educated children but also for school children where there can often be breakdowns in communications and opinions between parents and staff.
Most especially, the plans for using health care services to provide data, without consent of parent or child, to LAs so that home ed families can be "inspected" MUST be abandoned. These proposals are highly unethical and would be likely to place barriers in place for home educators accessing health care. Indeed, previous attempts to share data from health care sources to help track illegal immigrants had to be abandoned by Westminster in 2018, as these proposals were found to create obstacles to people accessing health care. If such plans had to be abandoned for those who may have been in someway acting illegally, how much more for parents who are acting lawfully in home educating their children.
Home educated children - who inevitably come under the category of "children not on school roll" are not at increased risk of harm, neither are they "on the margins". It is both insulting and unlawful to presume that parents are incapable of raising their own children (which includes fulfilling their lawful duty of ensuring they are educated) without state intervention or oversight. Likewise there are no grounds for concern about how home educators "practice". Yet you give your definition of "children on the margin" as "groups of children in circumstances that require a specific response from children’s services or other statutory providers and for which there are concerns about the current policy or practice."
School children are at far great risk both of abuse within their learning environment than home educated children. Likewise, school children are more likely to not be receiving a bespoke individualised suitable education, as some 30% of school children do not achieve the state's own aim and standard of 5 GCSEs, and similar figures of primary school children do not meet the state's rather artificial and inappropriate expectations of literacy and numeracy for their age. Each home educated child is instead allowed to develop along their own particular learning path and developmental stage.
The data of home educated children MUST be kept confidential, with parents only expected to share data with the authorities on a purely voluntary basis. Furthermore it is absolutely essential that healthcare is not tied to the school environment to ensure open access for all - not only for home educated children but also for school children where there can often be breakdowns in communications and opinions between parents and staff.
Most especially, the plans for using health care services to provide data, without consent of parent or child, to LAs so that home ed families can be "inspected" MUST be abandoned. These proposals are highly unethical and would be likely to place barriers in place for home educators accessing health care. Indeed, previous attempts to share data from health care sources to help track illegal immigrants had to be abandoned by Westminster in 2018, as these proposals were found to create obstacles to people accessing health care. If such plans had to be abandoned for those who may have been in someway acting illegally, how much more for parents who are acting lawfully in home educating their children.
Home educated children - who inevitably come under the category of "children not on school roll" are not at increased risk of harm, neither are they "on the margins". It is both insulting and unlawful to presume that parents are incapable of raising their own children (which includes fulfilling their lawful duty of ensuring they are educated) without state intervention or oversight. Likewise there are no grounds for concern about how home educators "practice". Yet you give your definition of "children on the margin" as "groups of children in circumstances that require a specific response from children’s services or other statutory providers and for which there are concerns about the current policy or practice."
School children are at far great risk both of abuse within their learning environment than home educated children. Likewise, school children are more likely to not be receiving a bespoke individualised suitable education, as some 30% of school children do not achieve the state's own aim and standard of 5 GCSEs, and similar figures of primary school children do not meet the state's rather artificial and inappropriate expectations of literacy and numeracy for their age. Each home educated child is instead allowed to develop along their own particular learning path and developmental stage.
The data of home educated children MUST be kept confidential, with parents only expected to share data with the authorities on a purely voluntary basis. Furthermore it is absolutely essential that healthcare is not tied to the school environment to ensure open access for all - not only for home educated children but also for school children where there can often be breakdowns in communications and opinions between parents and staff.
Most especially, the plans for using health care services to provide data, without consent of parent or child, to LAs so that home ed families can be "inspected" MUST be abandoned. These proposals are highly unethical and would be likely to place barriers in place for home educators accessing health care. Indeed, previous attempts to share data from health care sources to help track illegal immigrants had to be abandoned by Westminster in 2018, as these proposals were found to create obstacles to people accessing health care. If such plans had to be abandoned for those who may have been in someway acting illegally, how much more for parents who are acting lawfully in home educating their children.