Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment has her Department made of the potential merits of increasing financial support for parents who home educate.

Parents have a right to home educate and those parents who choose to do so must provide an efficient, suitable full-time education if the child is of compulsory school age. Through the Children Not in School measures of the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act, the department will help local authorities to identify all children not in school in their areas, including those not receiving a suitable education or at risk of harm, and to act where this is the case.

When a parent chooses to home educate their child, they take on full responsibility for their education, including associated costs. Therefore, we have not assessed the merits of providing financial support to parents. The measures, when implemented, will introduce a new requirement for local authorities to provide support, in the form of advice and information, to home-educating families in their areas who are registered with them and who request it.