Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of mandating regular welfare checks for home educated children.

The government supports the right of parents to educate their children at home. The department knows that many who do so are very committed and educate their children well, sometimes in difficult circumstances.

However, this government is committed to ensuring local authorities ensure all of these children are in receipt of suitable education.

The government is committed to legislating for statutory registers. Thanks to my honourable friend, the member for Meon Valley, for her work on her Children Not in School (Registers, Support and Orders) Bill, which the department is supporting as it progresses through Parliament.

The bill will introduce statutory, local authority-maintained registers of children not in school and help local authorities undertake their existing duties to ensure all children receive a suitable education and are safe, regardless of where they are educated.

It is important to note that elective home education in itself is not considered an inherent safeguarding risk. Most parents who take up the weighty responsibility of home education do a great job, and many children benefit from being educated at home. It is the government’s view that, when used correctly and in line with guidance, local authorities have sufficient existing powers to investigate and take action in cases where there is concern for the welfare of any child, including those who are educated at home. The department therefore does not have any plans to introduce regular mandatory welfare checks for these children.