Significant rise in pupils being home educated

The Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) has just published a report ‘Out of sight and out of mind’ about the use of home education and the effectiveness of the current system.

In their report, they say:

“Analysing the data across a range of local authorities in England, the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) estimates that by the start of the 2021/22 academic year a record high of least 81,000 children were being home educated.

Prior to the pandemic, the cohort of children who are home educated was growing by around 20 per cent year on year. The cumulative number of children who were home educated over the course of last year was over 115,000. This is an alarming 34 per cent higher than before the pandemic.”

In the CSJ’s research, they heard of many instances where parents took their children out of school because they believed that school was no longer a safe environment. Many parents cite difficulties with accessing SEND provision, a lack of support for mental health and serious incidences of bullying as reasons for opting for home education. These parents feel that schools are failing to meet their children’s needs.

Their investigation also found a concerning number of parents being coerced into home education for reasons other than the child’s best interest – known as off-rolling. In these cases, parents are often left deliberately uninformed about the consequences of being moved off-roll, as well as little or no support with home education.

Whilst home education is a parent’s choice, governing boards need to be aware of the number of children being home educated within their school.  DAG has produced a short guide to home education to enable governors and trustees to be better informed, see our guide: Busy Governor’s Guide to Elective Home Education