Letter from School Health Service - wwyd?

[noodle6]

I received a letter from the School Health Service. I'm not quite sure how to respond but clearly the LA had informed the Health Services (or the other way round?). Only my eldest DD is "known" so far - I withdrew her from school 2 years ago, and I now have another DD who turned 5 last Sept so I am guessing they are writing that because of my younger DD. This is so stupid because we have been using the GP services for any queries and health-related matters for the 2 years we have been home educating. We have had no need for any further meet-ups with health staff. Why would anything need to change now??

The letter, which is sent from a neighbouring Children's Centre which we never used, says :

"I am a Child Health Practitioner working within the Integrated Children's Team, working with children aged 0 - 19 years. I understand that your child/children is/are being homeschooled.

I would like to visit you and your child/ren at home on 09/07/12 at 14:00.

This will be an opportunity to discuss our service, offer any screenings and provide support with any health-related issues.

If this appointment is inconvenient I would be grateful if you could contact mee on the above telephone number so I can arrange a more suitable time.

Kind regards

Yours sincerely

XXXXXXX
Child Health Practitioner

(signed) XXXXXX - Assistant Practitioner"

How should I respond? I think I'd better respond in writing. I just need some ideas. Should I say "Thank you for your offer, but we have been using the GP's services for support in health-related issues and are very happy to continue as such. I do not see the need for any additional health-related services."?? Or is there a better way to put it?

Any suggestions or thoughts about this appreciated. TIA.

What are those processes IShall?

Incidentally do you think school teachers should be trusted to do the right things by themselves, with no checks from anyone that they're actually doing it?

Prehaps the home education community should take ownership of child protection in the home ed community. It is naivety to say that child abuse is impossible within a home ed enviroment. Its not just the potential for child abuse, but more mundane things like parents sticking their heads in the sand about special needs.

If the OP doesn't want the school nurse or the educational welfare officer then she needs to make suggestions on how her children should be safe guarded. Rather than the home ed community refusing "interference" they need to come up with solutions.

As a country we should care about ALL our children. If a child is being taught by someone who is mentally ill then that would concern me. (Even if the child is well looked after.) If a child is agriphobic then I would want that child to get help.

Prehaps children who regularly attend home ed groups need far less monitoring than those who keep themselves to themselves. Maybe home ed groups could be given support in a group setting to access school facilites like a science lab after hours. There could be a relationship between a local home ed group and the LEA that is about support, rather than shoe horning the children back to school. Parents could be offered courses in helping children with particular needs.

Educational welfare officers, school nurses and social workers could then come down like a ton of bricks on families who live in splendid isolation.

"Incidentally do you think school teachers should be trusted to do the right things by themselves, with no checks from anyone that they're actually doing it?"

Teachers don't work in isolation. There are plenty of checks on the quality of lessons from head teachers, LEA and OFSTED. Teachers also have a teaching qualification and a degree.

I am aware of that Really, I'm a teacher myself. What IShallWearMidnight was saying was that the LEA doesn't trust parents to do the right thing. I was wondering if she would prefer teachers to be trusted to do the right thing, with no interference from their head teacher or OFSTED?

We home educators have degrees too I was about to embark on a PGCE before I decided to home educate, and I fail to see how that particular qualification would have proved very useful to me as a home educator.

Not read the whole thread so sorry if I've missed anything.
Noodle why not phone and rearrange the appt to a time and place to
suit you. Maybe at wherever the practitioner is based. It doesnt have to be in your home if thats what is bothering you. They are offering you the same services offered to children in schools. Might be worth it to see if there is anything useful to your children. If not just let them know you have it covered.

OP - Call and ask for an appointment at the health centre. Many do try to do it at home because they think it is easiest for you and has the highest take up rate. The school nurse for the area is in charge of all kids health, they should have sent you a letter to say what is included in 'school nurse care' and how to access it before getting to the point of making an appointment. You are in your rights to tell them that they are already being are for by the GP (though they can't access your records without your permission I don't think) and don't need their care. The problem is there is an overlap here - the LA and the School Nurse will both have duty of care but they aren't very good at sharing information so even if you told the LA you do X, the school nurse hasn't the slightest idea so is just going from the beginning of their process.

Cailin And a home visit is required for that above a GP's visit? A home visit won't allow for most of the typical screenings. Do you feel school educated children should have home visits to ensure the child is being treated well? School educated children can be forced to work as well. The remits for a school nurse for home educated pupils is to ensure that they have the same access to screening as school pupils which can be done at a health centre. The LA's remit for ensuring education is most commonly done through reports, not home visits, as many people view the home as private. Abuse and neglect, for school or home educated children, is the remit of social services which could be contacted by any of those and anyone else (refusal of any type of health care would bring them in not a school nurse). I went to multiple schools, they all knew what was happening, I crashed through the net repeatedly and spectacularly (they all also failed to pick up my sight and hearing issues which had to wait until adulthood as my parents surely weren't going to take me to a health centre). "Please think of the children" isn't a reason to invade privacy without other outstanding reasons. Thankfully, the actual reason for home visits (the high take up) is easily resolved by arranging appointments elsewhere.

Do home educators think that safe guarding of children is important. What would they like in place to ensure that EVERY child is happy, safe and learning?

"We home educators have degrees too "

Yes, lots of home educators have degrees, but its not essential. Its perfectly legal for a completely illiterate adult to home educate.

I think that it should be complusory for home educators to have the equivalent of 5 GCSEs including maths and English at grade C standard or better. If the home educator has a basic education then they can learn for themselves. Most degrees are pointless.

School educated children do have home visits, usually at the start of reception. Also a school educated child is in contact with adults every day of the school year, allowing much more opportunity for any problems to be picked up. Like I said, some children still fall through the net, but if no home visits are allowed at all then even more children would fall through and end up in lives of misery.

I think is this is more about making sure they access the home to see how children who are home schooled are doing so that uncared for children don't slip through the net, so to speak.

As your child isn't in state ed, they are not being seen daily by teachers, which is often the first point of call if any problems occur.

I think if you refuse, they might think you're hiding something - unless you state that you're all sorted with ref health checks (use the GP etc) and vaccines all up to date etc.

Loopydoo I don't think checking on the home environment is the point at all. Which is why they don't mind you arranging to have the visit at the clinic.

whoops - didn't read entire thread so didn't see clinic bit.

Juule They did not mention "clinic". They only mentioned home.

Yes, that right, you don't need any qualifications.
Actually, I possibly agree with you about needing basic qualifications, or equivalent, as I wonder how some of the core subjects can be taught (or facilitated) to a high standard otherwise. I know that some studies have proved the contrary, however, so perhaps that is unfair of me.

"OP - Call and ask for an appointment at the health centre. Many do try to do it at home because they think it is easiest for you and has the highest take up rate. "

As I stated previously, most School Health Teams won't have anything to do with, or access to, local Health Centres. The reason they want to see you at home is because that's where the child is being educated. If they were being educated at school they would be seen there.

Ah sorry I just assumed that you could make the appt to see them at their office/ clinic if you preferred. That is what I have done in the past. Ii can understand you thinking this wasn't an option as it wasn't mentioned in the letter. Maybe phone them and suggest it. See what happens.

Cailin - if you send your DC to school, you sign up to the whole system with teachers reporting to head teachers, all being answerable to the governors, OFSTED coming in etc. I'm not sure exactly what your point is. If I delegate my DCs education to schools, then I want them to be answerable to me (which they kind of are indirectly, insofar as the LA is acting on my behalf by runnig schools, and monitoring their services). I am not answerable to the school, the LA or the health visitor/school nurse/GP. If I was acting illegally by neglecting/abusing my DC (or in the case of HE, not providing an education suitable for their needs) then I do expect to be answerable to the authorities. In the absence of evidence to the contrary, I am legally assumed to be doing everything as I should.

How would they gather evidence to the contrary IShall?

There seems to be an assumption that parents who choose to HE will automatically do the right thing and so checking on them is unnecessary. I don't see why anyone would assume that.

CailinDana Gathering evidence to the contrary? Sounds like they've got it in for HEors if that's the POV they are taking. They shouldn't be out to "gather any evidence" about abuse by visiting HEors' homes. They should be offering a service. Not "gathering evidence" when there apparently is none.

They can however, receive information about suspected cases of child abuse via the GP/hospital network and by the general public's reporting.

It's never going to be a perfect system in which every abuser gets caught, I agree. But setting out to "gather evidence of abuse" on the pretext of making home visits mandatory for all HEors is absolutely the wrong angle to take on this issue. As the law stands, parents are the ones who have the sole responsibility of making sure their children's educational needs are met, whether they home educate, enrol their children in state school, private school, private tutors, online school, or otherwise.

Unless this very basic law is changed officially, there can be no other way around it - and making home visits mandatory to gather evidence of abuse when there is none at present, is breaking the spirit of that law.

ReallyTired wrote:
Do home educators think that safe guarding of children is important. What would they like in place to ensure that EVERY child is happy, safe and learning?

Safeguarding children is important but it is not possible "to ensure that EVERY child is happy, safe and learning". As a society, the best we can do is have systems in place to pick up problems when they are reported. When those systems fail (as in the case of Khyra Ishaq and her siblings), children are harmed. However, nothing we do can guarantee to prevent abuse.

Khyra Ishaq's family were reported within two weeks of her death and still the death was not prevented - the system failed. This was nothing to do with her being home educated but was a complex mix of people not knowing or not carrying out their duty towards her.

ReallyTired wrote:
I think that it should be complusory for home educators to have the equivalent of 5 GCSEs including maths and English at grade C standard or better.

This is off-topic, so I have created a new topic.

I am actually incredulous at some of the attitudes on this thread. What if the parent rarely takes the child to the GP? And doesn't inflict enough damage to warrant a hospital visit? Should the child continue to suffer so that parents like you can preserve your privacy?

SDeuchars - who's going to report the abuse if no one checks up on the child?

Juule I will be writing to them about it. It would not seem "defensive" to write, would it? Or do you think calling is better? From past experience I just prefer to keep everything in writing. I don't mind meeting up at a neutral place for assessments. I just don't like the idea of them possibly insisting on coming to my home just because I am HEing. Of course I wouldn't know if they are going to insist or not, so I will just have to wait and see.