The petition of residents of South West Surrey,

Declares that the “Home Education—Call for Evidence and revised DfE guidance” has been written following significant consultation with local authorities and no consultation whatsoever with the home education community; further that the consultation is consequently for little more than show as an intention to implement the content has already been stated; further that it seeks to encourage local authorities to breach the ECHR Article 8 and the GDPR; and further that the report provides no accessible means for a parent to address ultra vires behaviour by their local authority, where many of those authorities already act routinely in an ultra vires manner.

The petitioners therefore request that the House of Commons urges the Government to withdraw the draft guidelines and the consultation, until it has put in place an accessible and workable complaints procedure and further has consulted with home educating parents, as it has with Local Authorities, what the contents should include.

And the petitioners remain, etc.—[Official Report, 26 June 2018; Vol. 643, c. 3P.]

[P002163]

Petitions in the same terms were presented by the hon. Member for Ealing Central and Acton (Dr Huq) [P002164]; the hon. Member for Cheadle (Mary Robinson) [P002165]; the hon. Member for Henley (John Howell) [P002166]; the right hon. and learned Member for North East Hertfordshire (Sir Oliver Heald) [P002168]; the hon. Member for Crewe and Nantwich (Laura Smith) [P002169]; the hon. Member for Coventry North East (Colleen Fletcher) [P002170]; the right hon. Member for New Forest East (Dr Lewis) [P002171]; the hon. Member for Stockton North (Alex Cunningham) [P002172]; the hon. Member for Clacton (Giles Watling) [P002174]; the hon. Member for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland (Mr Clarke) [P002175]; the hon. Member for Redditch (Rachel Maclean) [P002176]; the hon. Member for Taunton Deane (Rebecca Pow) [P002177]; residents of North Somerset constituency [P002178]; the hon. Member for North Herefordshire (Bill Wiggin) [P002179]; the hon. Member for Thirsk and Malton (Kevin Hollinrake) [P002180]; the hon. Member for Bridgwater and West Somerset (Mr Liddell-Grainger) [P002181]; the hon. Member for St Albans (Mrs Main) [P002182]; the hon. Member for Hertford and Stortford (Mr Prisk) [P002183]; the hon. Member for Erith and Thamesmead (Teresa Pearce) [P002185]; the hon. Member for Keighley (John Grogan) [P002186]; the hon. Member for Manchester, Withington (Jeff Smith) [P002189]; the right hon. Member for Maldon (Mr Whittingdale) [P002190]; the hon. Member for Stafford (Jeremy Lefroy) [P002191]; the right hon. Member for Chesham and Amersham (Dame Cheryl Gillan) [P002192]; the hon. Member for South Thanet (Craig Mackinlay) [P002193]; the hon. Member for Hazel Grove (Mr Wragg) [P002195]; the hon. Member for Ilford South (Mike Gapes) [P002196]; residents of Wolverhampton South East constituency [P002197]; the right hon. Member for Bexleyheath and Crayford (Sir David Evennett) [P002198]; the hon. Member for Bristol East (Kerry McCarthy) [P002199]; the hon. Member for Eddisbury (Antoinette Sandbach) [P002200]; the right hon. Member for Romsey and Southampton North (Caroline Nokes) [P002201]; the hon. Member for Weston-super-Mare (John Penrose) [P002202]; the hon. Member for Southampton, Test (Dr Whitehead) [P002203]; the hon. Member for Somerton and Frome (David Warburton) [P002204]; the right hon. Member for West Dorset (Sir Oliver Letwin) [P002205]; the hon. Member for Yeovil (Mr Fysh) [P002206]; the right hon. Member for New Forest West (Sir Desmond Swayne) [P002207]; the hon. Member for Stone (Sir William Cash) [P002208]; the hon. Member for Cheltenham (Alex Chalk) [P002209]; the hon. Member for Westmorland and Lonsdale (Tim Farron) [P002210]; the hon. Member for Gainsborough (Sir Edward Leigh) [P002213]; residents of Havant constituency [P002214]; the hon. Member for Lewes (Maria Caulfield) [P002215]; the right hon. Member for Chipping Barnet (Theresa Villiers) [P002222]; the hon. Member for Worsley and Eccles South (Barbara Keeley) [P002224]; the hon. Member for Oxford West and Abingdon (Layla Moran) [P002233]; the hon. Member for St Austell and Newquay (Steve Double) [P002220]; the hon. Member for City of Durham (Dr Blackman-Woods) [P002234]; the right hon. Member for Carshalton and Wallington (Tom Brake) [P002237]; the hon. Member for Birmingham, Northfield (Richard Burden) [P002225]; residents of Charnwood [P002243]; the hon. Member for Tiverton and Honiton (Neil Parish) [P002245]; the residents of South West Norfolk [P002246]; the hon. Member for Boston and Skegness (Matt Warman) [P002244]; residents of Morecambe and Lunesdale [P002247]; residents of the United Kingdom [P002254]; the hon. Member for Waveney (Peter Aldous) [P002232]; residents of Meon Valley constituency [P002239]; the right hon. Member for Scarborough and Whitby (Mr Goodwill) [P002241]; the hon. Member for South West Wiltshire (Dr Murrison) [P002228]; the residents of North West Durham constituency [P002259]; the hon. Member for Bath (Wera Hobhouse) [P002258]; the hon. Member for Erewash (Maggie Throup) [P002226]; residents of Stoke North [P002227]; the hon. Member for Coventry North West (Mr Robinson) [P002253]; the hon. Member for Chippenham (Michelle Donelan) [P002255]; the hon. Member for Oldham East and Saddleworth (Debbie Abrahams) [P002257]; and the hon. Member for South Derbyshire (Mrs Wheeler) [P002229].

Observations from the Minister for School Standards (Nick Gibb):

The consultation “Home Education—Call for Evidence and revised DfE guidance” closed on 2 July 2018. The relevant documents can be found at:

https://consult.education.gov.uk/school-frameworks/home-education-call-for-evidence-and-revised-dfe-a/.

As well as the call for evidence, the consultation includes draft versions of two guidance documents on the current arrangements for home education. These are intended to replace the Department for Education’s current non-statutory guidance for local authorities, which is to be found at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/elective-home-education.

The Department discussed home education with stakeholders in the normal course of business up to the launch of the consultation on 10 April.

All responses to the consultation will be considered before publishing the finalised guidance documents. At no point has the Department stated an intention to publish them as final versions without revision in the light of responses received to the consultation.

Representations on whether the contents of the two draft guidance documents breach Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (right to private and family life) or the provisions of the General Data Protection Regulation (as embodied into UK law in the Data Protection Act 2018), will be taken into account as we consider responses to the consultation.

The documents in their draft form contain no reference to remedies for behaviour by local authorities. This is because no special provision for this is necessary in respect of home education. The Education Act 1996 already contains general provisions for this purpose relating to local authorities. However, the Department will consider whether the finalised versions of the guidance documents should contain specific information on this.

This Department does not recognise the suggestion that consultation has been flawed or inadequate. Several thousand responses, the majority of which have come from home educating families, have been received, as well as a substantial petition, and there has been considerable opportunity for detailed comment and input from such families. Following the consultation and consideration of the responses, the two guidance documents will be published in the autumn of 2018 in their revised and finalised form. In addition, a formal Government response document analysing responses to the call for evidence, and setting out next steps, will also be published in the autumn of 2018.