Home School Education Registration and Support Bill [HL]

Baroness Burt of Solihull Excerpts

Friday 15th November 2024 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Burt of Solihull (LD)]

My Lords, I have great hopes that we are pushing against an open door in respect of my noble friend’s Bill, because promises regarding a mandatory register have been made for years, although they never materialised under previous Conservative Governments. I have great hopes for our forgotten children this time. How many of them are there? We just do not know. The DfE can only estimate perhaps as many as 185,000 children, and all the rules regarding safeguarding children have seemingly ceased to apply.

On our Benches there is no disagreement in acknowledging the right of a parent to home-school their child. Post-Covid, this has become a lot more popular. But we need to understand what lies behind the decision to home-educate. Sometimes it is because, as has been mentioned, local authorities have failed in their duty to provide suitable, safe education. For example, children with special educational needs have been mentioned. There are also children who have been bullied at school.

However, sometimes, a child is not receiving enough of the right quality of education to fit them for adult life. Sometimes the reasons are more sinister, and a child is being neglected and abused, so luridly exemplified by the systematic abuse and tragic, horrific death of Victoria Climbié.

Concern about family privacy should never be allowed to undermine the best interests of the child. Lack of a compulsory register gives the opportunity for unregistered schools to flourish, which can then avoid oversight from the DfE and hence avoid regulations which may conflict with their religious teachings.

Freedom to practise a religion does not give religious groups the right to deprive children of an adequate education in a safe setting. I am respectful of mainstream registered religious schools, but unregistered religious schools in particular fail to conform to school standards, particularly regarding safeguarding and quality of education. This leaves those children open to physical abuse and woefully underprepared for the outside world, dependent on the insular religious community they were born into. They do not know what the outside world has to offer, and they may never break free.

I urge the Minister to take advantage of my noble friend’s Bill to reclaim our lost children and give them the education they need and deserve in a safe environment, to the standard that will equip them to become successful and productive citizens of tomorrow.