Taping of interviews of children by HE inspectors. Are there any legal rights to do this?

[Bubble99]

Given that the inspector will have the power to revoke HE registration, will a parent be able to insist that the interview is taped if they are not allowed to be present?

Badman has said that a child may be accompanied by another adult 'if appropriate' and I'm wondering who decides.

I know that this relates to A SS case but I'm wondering what rights parents may have.

So far, the actual laws have not been written - what Badman wrote was a set of recommendations as a result of the consultation. It's now up to the government whether they put all of his recommendations in place by changing the law.

There's a consultation document for this stage too - Link here - this gives you the opportunity to respond to questions like: "Question 10 Do you agree that the local authority should have the power to interview the child, alone if this is judged appropriate, or if not in the presence of a trusted person who is not the parent/carer?"

So, if you think they need to add in a right for parents to have a tape of the discussion, then that's the place to put it.

Unfortunately, I suspect they'll say that if a child was being abused, then they would need to know that they could speak to the inspector in confidence, to protect them...

So I don't know how much chance there is of success. Which is a bummer!

I am going to begin taping the LA inspectors from now on, when I go to support HE families.

AMIS.

DS1 has his Interhigh first 'have a look' session soon!

IIRC the ink on the contracts to build T5 at Heathrow was dry before the 'consultation' had even started. This will get shuffled through PDQ, I reckon.

The information from the child/inspector interview could be used against a HE parent in court to force a child back to school. It's scary to think that a child could be led into saying something that will later be used against them. And, with an anti-HE 'school is best' type of inspector, it could easily happen.