Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to introduce a register of children schooled at home.

All parents have a legal responsibility to ensure their child receives a suitable, full-time education. While the vast majority of parents send their children to school, they have the right to choose to educate their child at home. While home education is not a safeguarding risk in itself, school can be a protective factor for children who are at risk of harm.

From October 2022, the department has collected termly data from local authorities on their home education cohorts. The most recent data was published on 12 December and records 111,700 children as home educated as of the autumn 2024 census day. 1% of elective home education children were recorded as a child in need, while 0.5% were recorded as having a child protection plan and under 0.5% were a looked after child. This compares with 3% children in need, 0.4% having a child protection plan and 0.7% looked after children amongst the overall child population. The department’s latest data is available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/elective-home-education.

Every child deserves to grow up in a safe and loving home. As part of the Children’s Wellbeing and School Bill, introduced in Parliament on 17 December, the government will introduce compulsory Children Not in School registers in every local authority in England. These measures will help local authorities to identify all children not in school in their areas, including those at risk of harm, and to take action where this is the case.

As part of that Bill, we are also taking steps to require parents of some of our most vulnerable children to obtain local authority consent before they can move to home education. This will apply to children who are subject to ongoing enquiries under section 47 of the Children Act 2004, children who have a child protection plan, and children who are attending a special school. Where those children are already being educated at home, local authorities will be able to consider whether that is in their best interests and to assess the suitability of their home learning environment. If that leads to a determination that home education is not in the child’s best interests, the local authority will be able to issue a school attendance order.