very important thing you can do to protect your family

[ommmward]

write to your MP and ask them to sign Early Day Motion 1785

Mr Ed Balls wants to give LA officials the power to enter private homes without any reason to think anything is amiss and to force children to submit to an interview on their own with LA staff. These are powers that even the police and social services don't have!!!!

He wants to do it because he is concerned that not having your child in an institutional setting (that's school now, but he could easily extend these plans to those who don't use nurseries or child minders) might be a cover for abuse. His planned legislation is a sledgehammer to crack a nut- he doesn't have evidence that HE is being used as a cover for abuse and it will cost a great deal of our tax money to have LA staff coming to do welfare checks - but he hasn't even done an impact assessment!

So please write to your MP, tell them the planned EHE legislation is disproportionate, uncosted, and has no evidentiary basis, and please would they sign the EDM 1785 or, failing that, 1784 (less good wording IMO)

If you don't HE you probably think this has nothing to do with you. But those with children not in child care are next in line for such heavy-handed state intrusion. We will support you when that time comes. Will you take 5 minures writing an email to support us HEers now?

ommward - thank you for that. I am not sure what has hapened to my nephew and why he is not being assessed. Nor do I know why my sister is not being given more help and support. I suspect it might be because my sister took him out of school because he was being bullied and the LEA have now taken a hands off attitude.

I do agree with the general thrust of ths thread by the way. I do not think these new powers are needed. I do think the existing powers are not being applied and implemented properly by the look of things - at least in some cases.

I suspect LEAs might well quite like new powers to start kicking downs doors at private schools like the one where our DSs are. I am sure a lot of LEAs would like more control there too.

But please pay attention to my earlier posts about what you say in your letter - the potential to give them a get out of jail card here is huge.

that is good advice from seeker. There are some blogs with sample letters that have been carefully written if people want templates to adapt. the dare to know on that was linked to for the survey is one, and this one is another, and this one has lots sent to different MPs.

Dare to know specific letter asking MP to sign the Early Day motion

Good post, litchick.

I think the whole thing is a mess and I have no confidence that it will improve! I do think HE should be put forward as an equal, educational choice for parents, but as such needs some regulation-but it needs more vision.

Just adding this, in case anyone isn't able to write to an MP or sign the UK petition, or you have people you can forward them to in other countries.

This link is to a global petition about the UK situation.

(Also this link is to a Swedish petition, they are also facing a similar situation as the government are saying that their schools offer such a comprehensive and inclusive education that there is no need for home educating to be a legal option!)

I hadn't thought that these new powers to inspect home educators could be used for kids not at nursery or pre-school but of course they could easily be used for this - if the legislation is framed that way. If, however, the legislation applies to children of compulsory school age then it can't be used for those who are younger. It would have to be amended at a later date.

I wouldn't worry too much anyway, this government's days are numbered and the Tories won't take forward most of Labour's plans.

I thought that the real reason for this legislation was to catch parents who keep their girls at home to force them into an arranged marriage but of course they can't say that because it would be considered racist.

I don't think social services should be able to talk to a child without a NEUTRAL adult present, even if it is a neighbour or a teacher from a school down the road. At least them you have a witness to what was said - and maybe such conversations should be videoed/taped. Otherwise they can suggest anything. Young children say all kinds of things and it would be very easy to misinterpret them - whether with good intentions or wilfully.

I fear that Baby P will lead to knee jerk reactions in the same way that Soham did. All I will say is: remember Sally Clark. Parents need protecting as well.

The thing is Helly, despite there being a consultation on this that doesn't close till October it is mentioned on the legislative schedule for 2009-2010. Essentially they've decided to go ahead no matter what the consultation results say. We wouldn't be able to say for sure, but given the speed the rest of this has been done with there are pretty strong suspicions that its being pushed through ASAP.

I think some people are missing the point of the potential for expanding these in home visits. There is a 'curriculum' now for babies - the Early Years Foundation Stage. If you are staying home with your 6 month old baby, would you be happy for someone from the local authority coming into your home and asking you to demonstration how your child is progressing through the EYFS and how you are facilitating this? HE starts from birth, so most parents do it for a least a little while. Can you picture them interviewing your 1, 2, 3, 4 year old?

HSMM - I'm not missing the point - you need to see what the draft legislation says. If it can only be used for kids of compulsory school age, that means it can't be used for kids under 4/5. Mind you, it doesn't stop a nosey parker inspector having a look at the younger children in an HE family - eg one is 6 and there are, say, younger kids of 1 and 3. However, the devil is in the detail of the draft legislation and how it is framed.

Well, considering there was talk about reducing the offical school starting age to 4 in a review earlier this year, there would be other ways of doing it. Like changing the EYFS or something. (the proposal was scrapped I think)

Whether or not you agree with/disagree with or practice/don't yet practice home education, please take the time to read this article (hope link works), and then make your own mind up as to whether or not this is an issue that may currently/one day concern you.

How does this affect Wales? Education is one of the social elements that have been completely devolved from England. Ommward?

I've not read all the messages so appologies if I'm off track but I think that the problem is that Badman thinks there is only one type of 'education' that can be called 'education' (ie a very schooly method of learning.) The general public seems to think this too and the people I have spoken to have said that they want to see home edders being checked to see if their children are up-to-age readers and so on. The proposals in the report are suitable for schools but they don't work for home ed.

I think it would be very productive to encourage people to imagaine that autonomous education was what the government thought was 'best' and that the few parents who decided to 'school' their children should be subjected to invasive checking to see if their child was recieving a suitably autonomous education and not being abused. These parents should also show that they have no definate plans or goals to be achieved over the next year. Evidence that too schooly an environment was being created should be treated with suspician and must mean that the child is not being 'educated' 'properly.' I know this would be hard for people to imaagine but this is EXACTLY what home schoolers are being put through, its just that our educational philosphy is not always the 'school' philosophy.

Also, any legislation, which sets a precedent of allowing a right of access to the family home is very dangerous.

Hi zazizoma

my understanding is that the welsh assembly will wait and see what happens in England and then decide whether to jump on the band wagon. Welsh HEers are just as worried about the whole thing as the rest of us. Scotland are neatly protected - they have completely separate law in this area and the executive have made it clear there are no plans to follow the dcsf agenda.

For those not following the story closely, you may be interested to learn that, following a heap of FOI requests and number crunching, it has been found that the whole "twice as likely to be abused" stuff you'll have read in the broadsheets a month ago was complete and utter bollocks. So the whole premise of the report, together with Badman's justification for his proposed punitive regime was based on a lie an unfortunate mistake.

linky 1

simple but devastating summary