To think that home education should mean one parent has no requirement to work under UC?

[Homeeducationproblems]

I home educate but I’m in receipt of carers allowance so I don’t have to worry but many of the parents in the groups we attend have children with difficulties who couldn’t manage school and because they don’t get dla or are waiting for a dla claim (it takes months) they are under extreme pressure.

I know that some people plan to home educate and yes if its a choice for NT dc from age 4 then I can see why they’d be expected to fund that/work alongside but there’s a huge groups of parents struggling to home educate children with difficulties and it seems as if they aren’t recognised and supported ?

AIBU to think that if you’ve had to de register for a child who can’t manage school and you are engaging with your LA home education department (a lot of home educators refuse to engage so there should be something in place where UC have it verified ?) that you should be able to get UC with no requirement to work?

Well in that case you have been very lucky. Given that you are an experienced home educator, are you not aware of the issues many have had with the LA overstepping which has led to the advice to not have visits?
You must have been around the groups for a long time and so I am very surprised that you didn’t anticipate people weren’t going to be positive about home visits. It’s been the same stance for at least 10 years which is how long I have been home educating.

I am not devaluing teachers. It's not their fault that the system is failing. They say themselves that they aren't able to do the job that they signed up for, which is to teach children well. That's not their fault. It's the way this current system is designed.
I am speaking from lived experience when I say teachers are home educating their children. As somebody active in the HE community, I come across many HE parents who are former teachers.

How can teachers be home educating their children when they are in school teaching other people's children?

Ah, sorry, just read you said that they are former teachers. In that case, as qualified teachers they are in a good position to teach their own children.

Proposals like this always assume all parents are great and want the best for their children. That is not true.
If this happened some parents would deliberately withdraw their child from school saying they could not cope, so they did not have to work a tough minimum wage job.

Whether a child is involved in gangs or if they are learning to read, write and speak in English are safeguarding issues that schools monitor, so it makes sense that the LA home Ed people take over that duty for home Ed children.

Those arguing against any monitoring of home education are overwhelmingly white and middle-class. They don't actually care about the children being let down by their parents.

If I’ve replied to your email in English, welcome you into my house in English and spoken to my children in front of you in English I will find it rude if you start asking me if I can speak or write in English. I’ll also presume you aren’t very bright.

If the parents of my sons’ black friends are repeatedly asked about if they are in gangs, then ask me too. Put it on the form for everyone.

I wouldn’t actually be against monitoring if they sent someone with knowledge of the curriculum and teaching methods. That would be useful. But until they send safeguarding checks into every household with children, to check no one is lying, I’ll be sending written reports.

Do you think ethnic minorities on the other hand are begging for some oversight from the council? Desperate a well meaning white lady enters their home? Just in case their children are neglected?

I think you’ll find it’s the middle class British who both love monitoring people, and distrust anything different.

I've got every sympathy for the situation you describe.
I'm also Home Edding and recieving child DLA and Carers Allowance.

I agree with you. There's a lot of people in a similar situation having a really hard time from the Jobcentre.
And the only difference between them and me is that I managed to get my ducks in a row and my paperwork sorted before I started home ed.
I used to be a welfare rights advisor so I had a head start. A lot of people struggle.

I don't agree with your solution. I think it's a bit dangerous to introduce incentives to home ed. Because you'll get people pulling their kids out of school purely to get the Jobcentre off their backs. I'd actually be happier with everyone having the requirement to seek work removed, rather than it being a special privilege for home edders.

It sounds like you're suggesting (as a solution) that, rather than the Jobcentre check people are looking for work the Council check that people are home Edding properly. Controversially amongst home edders, I would welcome a bit more council oversight. But it would be super unacceptable to a lot of our community. Plus I don't think councils are nearly well enough resourced to actually do it. My council has one guy responsible for home ed. I'm actually trying to work with him right now to get my kid back into school. Getting him to answer an email is like pulling teeth.

I think the actual solution to the situation is:

1. The social security system to be more reasonable, humane and efficient
2. Councils to actually provide a proper education for SEN kids instead of leaving us parents to manage on our own.

I understand some people are very against visits but they also had a go at me about sending samples of work when I was in the fb groups - surely as part of a report some examples of learning would be a could of samples , I understand a lot of learning isn’t ‘on paper ‘ but some is even if a small amount why is it such an issue that I got ripened to shreds for sending work each year to show progress ? I was told I should have refused and only described the work

*ripped

@GeneralLevy I know the home-educating parents who lobby against oversight in England. They are an active organised group and they are virtually all whit and middle class.
Anyone who disagrees ends up being too intimidated to say anything against them.
And I am not white, so please do not patronise me about white people in authority.

I will admit though as a poc myself (also we live in a council house and are not well off at all) I was very pleased my LA ehe officer was also a poc with very extensive SEN knowledge and extremely understanding. I do appreciate not all LA are as good as ours is

Who are these people? Do they have a front? Who do they represent?
In London the groups are diverse

There are actually grants and funds available for home educated children up to a certain age. I come from a massive family of home educated and I'm about to start with our 3 youngest next year. The grants help towards books,trips etc similar to how most are free in a school up to a certain age

Where from? Would be interested in examples as I’ve never seen anything like this. The only funding I’ve ever seen is hard fought for and rare.

I agree. It would be abused imo.

We have parents at school who only send them in because they are forced to through attendance meetings and threats of fines. Getting the children up and dressed and out the door every morning is far harder than letting them stay up all evening and lying in the next morning. I think this would be abused.

We had plenty of PP families who didn’t send their child in during the lockdown period (when they were entitled to a place) because if they didn’t, they could claim £15 per child per week for food for them. When you have 4/5/6 children-that’s a lot of money.

This would just give councils an excuse not to find or fund a suitable school place and end up with parents under pressure to home educate when they don’t want to.

None of those things mean that you are teaching your child to read or write in English though. All it shows is that they understand spoken English. For all the LA knows you might have decided not to teach them those skills for whatever reason. So they ask, and they ask to see evidence. They would do the same with any multi lingual home where the first language spoken isn’t English. It doesn’t mean they think you are thick/radicalised/lazy/neglectful, just that some parents are.

The same as when you take an injured child to the hospital or a child to the dentist to have teeth out they ask if you have social work involvement. They don’t think every parent is negligent or an abuser, but they know that some are, so they check.

The reality is that the kids that don’t get seen are the ones in the most danger- be that white middle class new age hippies who home Ed on principal or black families with SEN kids who are forced to because the system is shit. They should all be under equal scrutiny and that involves awkward questions.

In a 2 parent family there's no requirement for both parents to work, as long as one parent is funding things. In a solo parent family if a suitable school isn't being provided for the child's needs then I'd agree.

I certainly am suggesting that as every child in this country has right to an education, children of varying abilities and intelligence are admitted to that system and therefore leave with differing levels of education. Adults that are not very well educated are not going to be competent in providing an education in a home schooling context. Even if an adult is well educated, they may be wholly unsuited for the role. That's before you get to the issue of what a holistic education should entail, i.e there are many advantages in being socialised with your peers and even understanding how life is organised at a macro level outside of the domestic landscape.The Finish education system is the best in the world as it is inclusive, non competitive and has a student orientated approach, there is not a need for a big home schooling community, you have to ask why that is? When you have very young children you may think it is better to homeschool but I personally think teenagers having two myself need more than the company of Mum and Dad. They need to detach, learn independence, learn to deal with challenging people as opposed to their agreeable parents, how do they do that if their horizons are just the family home and a few people in a homeschooling group?

I'm a long-term home educator and have often seen the problem you're describing, OP. It is heartbreaking.

However, it seems to me that you are suggesting an education-linked solution to the problem of a broken disability financial support system. If we are dreaming of systems which actually work, then rather than concoct a difficult-to-assess home ed support system, I think it makes better sense to simply offer support to all children with disabilities.

In short, if we imagine that it was straightforward and quick to get DLA awarded, and that carer's allowance paid decently, then parents would already have the financial resources to home educate their disabled children. Nobody would have to assess whether those children "needed" home education or whether the offered school placement was tolerable. The parents could just decide to home educate if they saw it was the best solution.

I agree with you , the dla delays are terrible at the moment. Maybe there needs to be a separate system (like LCRWA for UC is separate to PIP so something that recognises a child’s need to be home educated for Sen/medical that’s quicker to sort out than dla)