Concern about 'draconian' home education laws

Nov 26 2009 By Michael Russell, Ealing Gazette

Rhea Anderson and her eight-year-old son, Damian, at a play session for home educated children at the Log Cabin, Northfield Avenue, Ealing

PARENTS who educate their children at home say the government is trying to introduce draconian new laws to interfere in family life.

Rhea Anderson, of East Acton Lane, East Acton, plans to send a petition to the Department for Children, Schools and Families, asking it not to bring in new legislation based on what she and others claim is a flawed review.

The 49-year-old said: "In the law, children's education is the parents' responsibility, whether you choose to delegate that to a school or home educate. But these changes would make it the government's responsibility - it will be able to tell me how my child should be educated and that's not right."

Any new legislation will be based on the Badman Review, written by Graham Badman, the former director of children's services at Kent County Council.

He calls for urgent action by councils to protect home-schooled pupils, including a compulsory register which parents can be barred from, giving council officers access to their homes and the right to inter-view children alone.

But Ms Anderson said the review, which took five months to compile, did not find any evidence of abuse in the home education system other than those already known to social services.

She added: "There is already a national database which councils have access to, where parents have to say what school their child goes to. What they're proposing isn't a register, but a licence which they can refuse if parents are not educating their children in the way their targets dictate."

In two weeks Ms Anderson has rallied more than 20 parents to sign the petition and says their efforts will be combined with similar petitions in 300 other constituencies across the country.

The parents' petition will be sent via Ealing, Acton and Shepherd's Bush MP Andrew Slaughter.

He said he would gladly meet with the parents when he received the petition and added: "I can't see any objection to registration. Unfortunately a lot of kids disappear every year and one of the best ways of knowing where they are is on a school register.

"While at school a lot of adults who aren't family are able to see children every day and see if there's something wrong. But I'm not sure the answer is to send inspectors into homes.

"Asking teachers to prove their fitness as a teacher is completely reasonable, but asking people to prove their fitness as a parent is totally different. It's not a black and white issue."

Ealing Council and the Department for Children, Schools and Families were unable to comment. * Email ealingacton shepherdsb ush@ freedomforf amily education.org to find out more.

Case study: The Anderson family