To think that having to have a DBS check to home educate is unfair.

"Isolate their kids from school” - that’s a bit extreme isn’t it. Many/most have more freedoms than those in school.
Most who have their education taken seriously, the minority who don't have their education taken seriously won't be offered educational trips and meetings with other HE peers.
Stronger check ups would serve better than the DBS check.

I think there are very many cases of neglect and abuse that have been missed by the very authorities that are now going to be tasked with an additional burden of admin, information management, communication, assessment, monitoring and action. Whatever the arguments for or against DBS checks, registers and various degrees of local authority involvement with children, piling more pressure into a system that is already struggling is such a stupid idea.

Or perhaps now that the government has shown its hand about the future of state education, we should be looking much more cynically at this move and consider what long term plans for social and other local authority services are behind it.

On DBS checks, IMO it is a knee-jerk response to the perceived link between home educating and safeguarding. I don't strongly object, other than believing the money could be MUCH better spent on improving services.

For those who have withdrawn their children from a school environment they found was detrimental to their child's mental or physical health, it is a kick in the teeth to suggest that being under the care of DBS checked adults guarantees all will go well.

@SomePosters
I agree that some sort of registration and a light touch of checking in on the welfare of kids would be sensible.

I also agree that home education is fantastic and ours was very much a positive choice rather than a push from education.

Oh and dbs checks are pointless in this circumstance. Ridiculous and in no way a solution

I home ed. From the begining not as a last resort. I am passionate about it and my
kid is obviously thriving

i think there does need to be registration and some kind of regular check in.

i am suspicious of those who fight it so hard and a look into some of the previous board members of education otherwise and their convictions did not allay my fears

Your childs right to education and to a safe, healthy enviroment out trumps your right to privacy

@DontLookBackInAnger1

The main point here is that DBS checks won't in any way help to safeguard these children that are absolutely not being home educated anyway. They are being abused/neglected.

DBS checking is a useless box ticking exercise. By all means give home educators more support, give children unable to attend school due to mental health more support, support children in school, change the school system to allow all different kinds of children to be educated in school.

DBS checks will do nothing to find at risk children that aren't already known to be in at risk homes anyway.

As someone else has said. It's the same as only DBS checking certain teachers who those 'above' have decided to be more at risk of harming children.

I'll participate in something that actually helps to look after at risk children. DBS checks ain't it.

Also I am in no way insecure about my choice to home educate. I've worked in schools. I've had one of my children in the school system for years. I chose home Ed for very positive reasons. My point wasn't that it makes me feel bad. It was that what most people think they know about home education is wrong. Children are not isolated. They are not invisible. They are very much a part of the home Ed and wider community.

In fact I personally know of someone in the home Ed community who was concerned about another home Ed child and did indeed report to social services. That parent then got some support. It wasn't an abusive situation but it could have been. And the family did need some extra help.

Filling in a form and getting a box ticked means nothing. Support, observation and awareness from the wider community and not just the onus being on teachers to spot a family/child in need is much more important.

Too much responsibility is given to teachers. I can't imagine in the UK many people managing to have a child and bring them up solely in the family home without that child being noticed by other people/professionals.

DBS checking to work with children is much more involved than a normal check. It's an advanced screening.

It will pick screen anyone in the household along with the parents.

It's a really good idea as a minority of parents may have a slightly different agenda. This protects these children and can only be a good thing.

Home school children are out of the loop for safeguarding. It's just an easy way to help protect them without them having to be seen by anyone.

“Isolate their kids from school” - that’s a bit extreme isn’t it. Many/most have more freedoms than those in school

What makes Homeschool parents more likely to be abusive?

It's not that they're more likely to, it's that there aren't the same opportunities for professionals to spot signs of abuse or neglect.

I think it’s a very good idea

Home Ed children are off the radar - they don’t get seen every day like others do, so it’s harder to pick up on abuse. Look what happened to many in lockdown.

It’s the least we can do for these children to make sure parents with violent or other concerning convictions aren’t allowed to keep them out of view and safeguarding.

No it wouldn't at all. Home educators aren't the same as parents. They ARE parents, but they also choose to isolate their kids from school.

Yes sort of like an Ofsted inspection. I home educate and I’m always happy to have a home visit etc but most home educators won’t even give the LA samples of work as ‘it is the child’s private property’ ….. I left a fb home Ed group as I was told I was letting other home edders down and enabling the LA which would then make them expect other families to cooperate 🤦‍♀️

What is an extremist view, these days?

Well only those who've been caught

But we've let these kids live with op for the first five years without a DBS or school involvement. And if they went to a council or private school they'd still live with op without a DBS check.

A dbs check is probably a bit pointless. I think there should be regular home checks though

And in my opinion this is the issue as the system stands now. There is no monitoring of the standard of education or the learning environment for home schooled children. While I’m sure most parents want the best for their children, it’s far too easy for abusive parents to keep their children out of school so their actions are not noticed. Homeschoolers should be subject to regular inspections in the same way as a normal school. A DBS check is nothing more than a lazy abdication of responsibility.

Is it a measure that has been floated and won't happen in reality because of the extra number of people required to carry it out? Is it designed to hopefully get some parents to think that perhaps their child should attend school instead?

Should teachers feel their reputation is being tarnished by having to have DBS checks?

All teachers are DBS checked though, not some or a random selection.

So I'm assuming, the way forward is to dbs check all parents 🤷🏻 sounds reasonable

I'd prefer if home educators were randomly spot checked.

I'll use your example.
That man then moves across the country. Not officially, but he's been in contact with somebody with children. Because he's got all this experience, he's really 'good' with the kids when they meet.

One of the kids has been finding school difficult and Mum is very short on money, so he suggests that if he moves in, he could look after the kid whilst she works. He advises her that all she has to do is tell the head that she will be home educating with immediate effect and there's nothing anybody can do to stop her, she doesn't have to register with the local authority, she can just remove the child and she won't have any further problems. And if it's done unofficially, she 'won't lose any universal credit top ups' or have to pay more council tax.
Kid gets offrolled.
Scumbag is in the girlfriend's home with her kid 'deschooling' whilst he gets the child's full trust by being the fun one who knows all the games. Maybe he even does a few spellings with the child or watches the occasional factual programme.
Nobody checks who is doing the actual home educating. But this bloke who would never be able to get a job in a school because of his conviction is free to be alone with a child who has nobody else to notice they aren't their usual self or is acting out some of the man's videos. Maybe it goes so well that he joins a Home Ed group. Starts out offering group things - lots of parents are impressed by him and feel that it's OK to continue with him in the group, perhaps having sleepovers or social things.
However, had a DBS been required, she'd have had him refusing to do it 'don't you trust me, it's not fair that men get judged but it's OK for women to spend time with their families' or he storms off. The fact that he refuses to do a DBS when it's a requirement could be ringing alarm bells with her when he was so very plausible all the rest of the time. Or somebody else notices he's there and is told 'oh yes, we home educate'. They report this because something doesn't feel right or they've heard stuff going on during the day. If it's a legal requirement to have a DBS, there's then grounds to start looking. And then the conviction shows up. Either way, that convicted abuser isn't going to be home educating that kid (who could be a 12-14 year old girl, not just a small child) and they've just been flagged up as seeking unsupervised contact with children.
It's just one example of how a requirement for a clear DBS to home educate could pick up a situation. But one example, if it happens, is at least one fewer crime against children. They won't do it if it's only the odd one or two brutalised kid - but if there are 50,000 EHE kids in the UK (I'm not using accurate figures because nobody has them, thanks to that absence of a requirement to register) and 0.1% of those are abused by somebody in the home who has a conviction that would show up on an enhanced check, that's at least 50 children being protected.

YABVU. Home education regulation in this country is incredibly light touch - dangerously so. If you want to home ed your children, that’s up to you - but it poses a very real safeguarding risk to children with abusive parents, and should be far better scrutinised. DBS checks on parents are a sensible step.

Should teachers feel their reputation is being tarnished by having to have DBS checks?

That's not equivalent. A closer analogy would be having dbs checks for some teachers but not requiring them of others, who are considered less risky for arbitrary reasons.

Should teachers feel their reputation is being tarnished by having to have DBS checks?

Someone asking you to have a check, because they acknowledge that you're keeping your child, potentially, quite isolated, is not a judgement on home schooling.

It's based on risk assessments for a minority of those children who are suffering abuse and have no means to communicate or reflect that. Therefore, a DBS, while it won't safeguard all at risk home educated children, will help the LA to risk assess the situation and intervene if needed.

You can't prioritise your feelings of insecurity around societies view of homeschoolers, over the children who are abused and kept away from institutions in order to conceal. You just can't.

How is this going to do anything? So if you got caught shop lifting once, 10 years ago when you were 19 are you going to be stopped from home schooling? If you're a known child abuser then surely you wouldn't be allowed to parent/keep a child anyway?? And if you're not known because you've kept it under wraps then a DBS is no use? Also the mother could put herself down as the home educator but then her visiting/live in partner be the abusive one.

I wonder how many children that have died/abused would actually have been saved by this - I'd hazard a guess at none. This is an idiotic idea to look like something is being done when it really isn't. The real answer costs a lot more money than this.