Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what are the current arrangements for parents who decide to homeschool their children; whether children who are homeschooled are given a Unique Pupil Number; and what safeguards there are to ensure that the relevant educational and local authorities are informed of the educational development and well-being of homeschooled children.

Responsibility for providing a suitable full-time education for children of compulsory school age who are educated at home rests with the parents. Although local authorities do not have a power to monitor such provision on a routine basis, they are under a duty to identify children who are not receiving a suitable full-time education, and as part of that process will take appropriate steps to ensure that if a child is not being properly educated at home, a school attendance order is served. Published departmental guidance to local authorities on this matter is attached.

Children who are educated at home are not allocated a unique pupil number (UPN), although if the child had been in attendance at a state-funded school at some point before being withdrawn for home education, he or she would have been allocated a UPN at that point.