Jeremy Miles MS, Minister for Education and Welsh Language
The statutory guidance on Elective Home Education, published today, has been developed to support local authorities in effectively discharging their duties in relation to home educated children.
The statutory guidance helps to ensure that all children are supported to access the universal services and benefits normally available to children and young people in mainstream education. It also helps clarify existing requirements in law and the respective responsibilities upon parents and local authorities to ensure consistency of practice for all children irrespective of how they receive their education.
The guidance has been developed following online consultation and engagement with a range of stakeholders, including home educated children and families.
The guidance acknowledges that the approach home educating parents take to ensure their child is receiving a suitable education is likely to be influenced by their own philosophy or views, and notes that progress, over the long term, may take a variety of forms.
The guidance sets out the Welsh Government expectation that in order to determine whether the education provided by a parent is suitable, the local authority should see and communicate with the child. Seeing and communicating with the child not only
provides an opportunity for the local authority to better understand how the child learns and what areas of learning they are interested in, it also provides an opportunity for home educated children to share their views on the education they
are receiving. This is key to upholding the right of all children to participate in decision making that affects their lives.
This statutory guidance is soon to be complemented by a new ‘home educator’s handbook’ with detailed advice and information to support home educating families in making the appropriate decisions for their child.
We are also progressing proposals in relation to establishing a database of children who are not known to a local authority, assisting local authorities in their duties to identify children who may not be receiving a suitable education.