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

There are already multiple safeguarding measures in place for home educated children.

What "safeguarding measures" considering it's terrifyingly easy for parents or guardians to simply deregister a child and vanish entirely? That some LEA don't even do a once a year check, or require any documentation at all?

Studies have shown home educated kids are twice as visible as schooled children

What studies?

when even the powers that be who have all the information cannot come up with a single example where concerns about a child was not already known about by all the relevant agencies.

This is just a complete and utter lie.

A DBS check would be pointless and is discriminatory - it puts an additional cost on home educating families when other parents are not being DBS checked to look after their own children. If someone is trusted to look after their children during evenings and school holidays, or pre school age, then there’s no difference with them doing it during school hours.

I’ve not seen anyone answer the question about whether parents of pre schoolers should face the same regulations - I have pre school aged children, I’m a stay at home mum and I’ve never seen a health visitor as we opted out (which yes, you are legally entitled to do). Should I be DBS checked to look after them? What about grandparents who babysit or have children for parents who work? Should they also be DBS checked?

There are already multiple safeguarding measures in place for home educated children. Studies have shown home educated kids are twice as visible as schooled children due to them being out and about more often, home educated children are already registered with GPs, their births are registered, it’s not like people don’t know they exist. The DBS check would add nothing except serve as a financial barrier to home education

I love the way so many people suggest that it is a fact that Home Education is sometimes used as a cover for abuse - when even the powers that be who have all the information cannot come up with a single example where concerns about a child was not already known about by all the relevant agencies.

What is a fact is that some Home Educators are abusive to their children and we know this because the current safeguarding procedures have picked this up time and time again.

No Home Educator is against safeguarding children - what we are saying is the current safeguards for identifying children at risk work as well as - if not better - for HE children than they do for those in school.

Where there may be argument for changes is how agencies should work together to protect a home educated child where there are concerns as this is where all the serious case reviews have shown there to be an issue. Not on identifying and finding these children - that is working really well - but in the agencies knowing who is responsible for what after they have been identified.

So instead of using resources on an area of work where there is clearly a need for improvement the government plan to spend these resources on looking at thriving happy families.

This comment about DBS checks was made by a single person in the Lords who clearly has no understanding about DBS checks or EHE.

Perhaps we should all be more concerned about how someone so stupid got to be involved in the law making process and governing our country.

Spot on! So many narrow minded people on here

KateW73 nobody is talking about you and HE parents like you.

They're talking about the parents who are not like you, the ones who DO abuse their kids, who DON'T take their kids places, or to regular medical checks, or to bloody Brownies or whatever else people keep banging on about.

It is a fact that some parents pretend to HE as a front for abuse. So far not a single HEer has suggested ways to protect those children, and some are flat out denying that we exist because they'd rather sacrifice abused children for their own ideological purposes (exactly the same as TRA, basically).

Some of the posts from HEers on here have shown total ignorance of what abusive homes are like, and are acting like child abuse is some incredibly rare thing that nobody should care about because "most parents love their kids."

Nobody so far has been able to give a good reason why basic safeguarding is bad. Just a lot of froth about how introducing even very basic safeguarding will lead to mandatory forced abortion for any woman who ever shoplifted a lipbalm as a teenager.

Wow, so many responses to this are so ignorant of what home educating families are like.
You know how you all spend evenings, nights, weekends and school holidays with your kids? You take them to other places, too, right? You don't just hide in your houses all weekend. Well, home education is like that but for longer periods of time. We're not another species - we're the same as other parents doing what we need to for our kids. Most of the home educated children I've met started off going to school, but the two biggest reasons for parents taking them out of school was unmet SEND needs and bullying. Any of you parents looking with suspicion at home educators now could be in our shoes at some point in your kids' lives.
If home educated kids need checking up on without there being any evidence of abuse, just random checks 'in case', why wouldn't all children need to be checked up on during those long summer holidays when they're out of school? A lot could happen in six weeks, after all. Perhaps when local authorities want to charge the rest of you for DBS checks, you might think to object then, but it'll be too late - there will already be a precedent set that some families have to have their homes' inspected and their children questioned by strangers without their parents being present - so why not yours?

timetostartcaring.wordpress.com/british-politics-a-list-of-mps-convicted-of-sex-offences/

That's no problem - they'd be able to check both mine and DP's current DBS (Enhanced), registered with the Update Service so they're live documents.

No worries about 'passing', because neither of us have committed criminal offences.

Illegal schools should be closed. I don't understand how they can stay open.

But as long as there are abused children who go to school and are "seen" every school day and nobody finds out about it how many checks do you think home educators need ?

I would really appreciate it if someone who wants "more checks" could tell us if you think parents of pre-schoolers also should be subjected to the same checks. And what about during school holidays? Lots of us have asked this question but I haven't seen an answer.

Any child who is deregistered from school to be home ed is known to the LA. These parents have to write reports. So the children ARE NOT HIDDEN.

After 16 pages of numerous posters sharing their personal experience it's really abundantly clear that situations vary hugely from district to district.

Some LEAs are overly oppressive and make inappropriately strict demands on parents.

Some LEAs do nothing at all and don't request any reports or conduct any visits or checks.

It is clearly not factually correct to say ALL HE parents have to write reports. Some do. Not all.

going through serious case reviews recently and noticed several with home educational as a complicating factor.

Any child who is deregistered from school to be home ed is known to the LA. These parents have to write reports. So the children ARE NOT HIDDEN. The LA know of these children, and know what their education is like. So you were known to the local authority, they just let you down, like most government organisations.

Sorry you feel the need to troll-hunt Minky3. I assure you there is nothing extraordinary about having been abused as a child.

Happy to DM you a link to a major media article about my personal case published in 2009 (which only happened because I advocate and write about child abuse; the media generally ignore child abuse and have no interest in covering it).

Yes I know plenty of people who are dealing with social services due to this and their kids go to school. I also know some who convinced social services there was nothing going on and I have seen myself there is..... As for LAs overstepping, there are many who make demands which aren't within the law (demanding copies of work etc) and then threaten SAOs if you don't comply. There were issues with the home education officer at our LA for quite a while, she was overstepping the mark, she has now been replaced and so far so good with the new home ed officer from mine and many other families opinions..... I'm not concerned about my family as we have nothing to hide, but I am concerned for families where the parents may have a criminal record from when they were young and stupid and have completely turned their lives around who home educate..... Who is going to decide what crimes are deemed unsuitable and how long ago offences matter for? I get that violent and sexual offences will definitely be on the list but what else will be?
And I think many people are of the same thinking as me that this is a completely pointless and ridiculous idea. As I said if we as home ed parents should be DBS checked so should all parents as they're left to look after their kids outside school hours and in school holidays.

Who are all these HCPs who regularly see HE children?! I have a kid who is in school. We saw the health visitor once at 3 weeks and once at 6 weeks, when she refused to offer any support for my PND. We then never set eyes on her again. To get a developmental check for my child I ended up complaining to my MP because my area wasn't even offering basic checks. If I hadn't done that, no HV would have seen my daughter after the age of 6 weeks.

She's seen the GP once in six years for a rash. She's seen the optician once after several years of trying to get an appt and getting fobbed off. Our area doesn't have any NHS dentists so she has only seen a private one - a high percentage of children don't go to the dentist at all because of the NHS dentist shortage. What is the school nurse service?! She's been seen once briefly by someone administering the flu spray in school, no other access to a nurse?!

It would be really easy for abusive parents to avoid all these interactions with HCPs. Most of them I only got after a lot of persistence!

And many areas don't seem to check up on HE children - the family I have concerns about the council doesn't follow up, doesn't ask to see work or what they've been doing etc.

👌👋 yes. Lots of ex teachers in the home ed groups we are in. That to me speaks volumes

As a child who was beaten at home and at school for the entirety of my childhood I would never trust a school or authority again. A DBS check wouldn’t have flagged anything up at all either. Schools routinely fail children day in and out, I now suffer with childhood trauma/PTSD. This affected me so deeply that I have only just had my first and only child at the age of 36 as I was so convinced that I would do the same to my own child and have lived in constant fear my whole life. I am now at a stage in which I’m truly happy but it took a long time to get here.

I don’t know what the answer is to safeguard all children but I do know that a DBS in majority cases won’t help. However I do agree that something needs to be in place to ensure all children whether at school or not are heard.

What I don’t agree with is penalising and stigmatising all home educators which is exactly what this is doing, more support and funding would be a better starting point to me.

Home educated kids do have access to home visitors, doctors, opticians and people who safeguard like any other child would.

Except for the ones who don't.

We submit yearly reports for our children's learning and achievements

Except for the ones who don't.

They aren't locked in a cupboard, dirty and left to fend for themselves!!!

So fuck the ones who are, because my kids are alright Jack.

Most people love their kids.

Most people love their kids so let's not bother having any safeguarding?

If most people love their kids then how come child abuse and child exploitation is so common?

We do have checks by LAs. Our kids visit groups, see doctors, opticians etc. What difference would it make if they attended a school or not?

Because the checks aren't designed to protect kids like yours, but to protect the kids who never see a doctor, never visit groups, and aren't checked by LEA.

How do you think it would work?

What crime on a DBS would not have already prevented the parent from being in close contact with the child?

Yup. 100% agree

@user1493039869 ”most people love their kids” may be true but you are very naïve if you think that means that abuse is rare.
I’m a safeguarding lead in a school and the number of children dealing with abuse at home is staggering. In the last month I’ve dealt with so many cases of abuse and neglect that I’ve lost count. In this academic year a quarter of our students have had some form of safeguarding concern raised about them. They may be a minority, but they are not a small minority.
I’m not sure that DBS is the way to go, but there is good reason to make sure that HE children are monitored and that they have contact with professionals who can raise the alarm if there are issues.

A completely homeopathic lifestyle would be inherently neglectful anyway. Trying to avoid unnecessary medication is one thing, but leaving a child without proper medication and only using placebos could be dangerous or leave a child in unnecessary pain if they have a significant illness or injury.