Issue - meetings

(a)       That the Committee was assured about the Council’s discharge of its duties in relation to Elective Home Education;

(b)       That the Committee acknowledged the challenges faced by the Education Welfare Team in fulfilling their statutory functions with rising numbers of EHE pupils in Flintshire;

(c)        That the Committee reinforce the need for continued financial support from Welsh Government to further develop and secure the Council’s services and resources in relation to Elective Home Education; and

(d)       That a letter be written to the WG to encourage the creation of a national register for children who were educated at home.

The Chief Officer (Education & Youth) introduced the report which provided an overview of Elective Home Education (EHE) picture across Flintshire and the role undertaken by the Council with regards to monitoring and support. 

            The Senior Manager (Inclusion and Progression) explained education was compulsory but that parents had a choice on how that was delivered with some choosing to send their children to school and others choosing to electively home educate their child.  There was no responsibility placed on parents to inform the authority that they would be electively home educating their child.  If a child had not entered the education system then the authority would not be aware of that child.  There were processes in place if a child was removed from school and the authority would be informed and a pack would be sent to the parents for completion.

The Senior Manager explained that children with Special Educational Needs (SEN) was potentially an area of concern and that the authority did have some powers in this regard to ensure the education met the requirements of any statements of SEN.   She confirmed that parents did not have to follow the national curriculum and the authority did not have any powers to see the child or view what education was provided.  The responsibility to monitor this sat with the Education Welfare Service partly because of their expertise around safeguarding.  The officers play a key role visiting homes annually as part of the monitoring process and raising any safeguarding concerns where necessary.  Since 2020 funding had been received for this and Welsh Government (WG) had confirmed that they would be considering on-going funding on a 3 year basis.  The funding, which had not been provided before, allowed for some officer support to enable the authority to discharge its responsibility.  This provided £14,000 for parents to purchase specific items such as laptops and desks and funding for educational visits.  This year junior passes for Aura were purchased to support these children to engage in activity and meet other children.  The Senior Manager reported that WG had been looking at their policy for Elective Home Education for a number of years but as yet had not provided the authority with the statutory powers required to monitor this area fully. 

            Councillor Tudor Jones commented on the reasons for becoming home educated as shown in the WG data, attached at appendix 1 of the report, and said that two of the top reasons contained the word ‘anxiety’.  He asked whether the SHEP programme, as discussed earlier in the meeting, would assist in reducing anxiety for children transitioning from primary to secondary school.  In response, the Senior Manager confirmed that the TRAC Programme was extended to cover year 6 pupils and identified children who were anxious about transitioning to year 7.  Primary Schools identified children who had high levels of anxiety and individual programmes were put in place for those pupils.  The Chairman commented that it was important that parents were made aware of the TRAC and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 28