Home Schooling

Baroness Barran Excerpts

Thursday 19th December 2024 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent (Lab)]

My Lords, I put on record our thanks to the right reverend Prelate for the work that he will be doing in his diocese to support the communities which will be struggling, especially right now, and coming to terms with the consequences of the trial. With regard to the proposals put forward by the right reverend Prelate, we are about to start consultation on the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, which was introduced in the other place just this week. Consultations will continue in this place, and I look forward to discussing it with him. In advance of such discussions on the legislation, I have spoken to the Minister responsible in the other place, and she has offered to host a round table immediately after Christmas with noble Lords who are interested so that we can discuss these issues in detail in a more appropriate setting.

[Baroness Barran (Con)]

My Lords, I echo the Minister’s sentiments about the tragic death of Sara Sharif and thank her for starting her Answer in that way. On these Benches, we welcome very much the proposal in the new Bill that children who are subject to a plan or an investigation will not be allowed to be home educated. I wonder whether she could commit to going back and talking to her honourable friend the Minister for Children and Families, urging her to write to every director of children’s services now to establish how many children who are home schooled currently are on the child protection register or subject to an investigation, and make sure that we check up on their safety.

[Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent (Lab)]

My Lords, I thank the noble Baroness, who has great experience from her previous role in engaging with this. I reassure your Lordships’ House that local authorities are already actively engaged in this area. On the safeguarding statistics related to home education, of the 111,700 children in home education, 1% were children in need, while less than 0.5% were recorded as having a child protection plan or being a looked-after child. This compares with 3% of children in need, 0.4% having a child protection plan and 0.7% being looked-after children among the wider child population. We have the statistics, but, obviously, all local authorities have an onus to make sure that children are safe.