Will I still need to send reports/have visits for my 17 year old home educated DC?

[pipecleaner]

Just spotted this on another group.

If your child is going to complete year 11 in summer 2014(or any later year)they will need to continue for longer until at least their 18th birthday.

My 16 year old DC (17 beginning of Sept) will still be home educated until 18. However, I wondered if we had to remain in contact with the LA as we did before? Hope that makes sense. Many thanks

[Saracen]

No, you don't. You have a duty to educate your child only until the end of compulsory education age. After that, it is the young person who has a duty to continue in education or training until the age of 18. And anyway, the government has said that it has no immediate plans to criminalise young people who don't comply. At some point your teen may be asked about his/her current education or training in order to monitor the overall level of participation but in some areas nobody is even asking.

There is a separate issue, which is your eligibility to continue claiming benefits in respect of your teen: Child Benefit and the child element of Tax Credits, for example. The benefits office has stated that full-time home education does qualify, provided it started before the young person reached 16, but some families have had hassle because poorly-trained staff don't know this and the policy is to cut benefits in the first instance and make people appeal to get them reinstated. Have you had any communication yet about this, asking you whether your teen is continuing in fulltime education?

Have a look at Fiona's information about this: edyourself.org/articles/claimbenefitspost16s.php

[pipecleaner]

Thank you, Saracen. That's a relief. No more reports or visits to do (I know we don't have to do them, but I found them a waste of time box-ticking exercise with nothing on offer, or support or advice, from them).

We don't receive child benefit or tax credit. Though I'm sure it will be useful for others to have that info.

We did both (DC and dh and I) receive letters from a service called connecta, or something like that. It's a careers service asking what DC's plans were. I'm guessing the LA passed on our contact details.
Dh and I received the formal letter saying they would be offering their services and advice on education and training, if needed. DC received a letter in quite a different tone saying 'let us know what you're doing or we'll keep bugging you' on this basis (and the overall patronising, dumbed down letter) she's refusing to reply to them. I don't think she has to

[FionaJNicholson]

Hi

Saracen has linked to my 16+ benefits page, but I also have a page on the raised participation age.

Basically the LA is supposed to encourage as many young people to participate post-16 as possible, and will be penalised if participation rates are low, but there's no enforcement on the family and the Government has specifically said in the statutory guidance Annex that there is no requirement for the LA to be involved at all in post-16 home education.

If you don't tell them that you are continuing to be home educated you may go down as NEET (not in employment education or training)

[pipecleaner]

Thank you.

By coincidence I received a letter from the letter today saying that my DC has now been removed from the EHE list; basically giving the same info as you both have.

They also say they have a duty to track 16 - 19 yrs and would like us to let the careers advice place (connecta) know what DC's plans are. Their reasoning being that those not in education and training are often the most vulnerable people. I may well send an email to let them know (they've included the contact details for me personally). I didn't know we had to comply (it seemed to be an optional service, and to respond) or would be marked as NEET. I wonder what they do to those people marked so. I suspect they'd chase it up until they received a response.