Elective home education guidance review [2023]
This consultation closed at 11:59pm on Thursday 18 Jan 2024
If you are motivated to complain about the way this consultation was conducted we have written a guide to help you to do so.
Guide to complaining to MPs about the Oct 23 – Jan 24 Consultation on draft EHE Guidance for LAs and parents
At the same time as we published the above item, we also published a Byte about the recent Opposition Day Debate which contains some suggestions on how to tailor your letter so that it raises relevant questions for members of either of the two main parties:
Documents published in connection with this consultation by the DfE – 26 October 2023
- Elective home education guidance review – GOV.UK – announcement
- Elective home education guidance consultation document – PDF
- Elective home education – draft departmental guidance for local authorities – PDF
- Elective home education – draft departmental guidance for parents – PDF
- Online submission form
This consultation closes on 18 January. The Byte team and others have sought to provide insights into the complex issues raised by the draft guidance. Lists of helpful articles and videos follow.
Resources
- Five Ways to Respond to the DfE’s Consultation on Draft Guidance – includes a table of all the questions asked in the consultation. This resource can be viewed as a web page or downloaded as a printable PDF;
- Quick Response Guide to the 2023 Home Education Guidance Consultation – PDF;
- Printout of each of the online portal response pages – PDF;
- Screenshots of 2 sample pages from the online portal – PDF;
- Comparison of 2019 EHE Guidance with 2023 Draft Guidance – downloadable tables comparing 2019 Guidance for LAs, with draft version.
- Comments on references to EHE & SEND in both sets of draft Guidance – PDF (external site)
Bytes commenting on the draft guidance
- So Far As It Is Possible To Do So – 4 Dec
- Data Protection – a Case Study – 10 Dec
- What Exactly is a Voluntary Registration Scheme? – 20 Dec
- Is the Draft EHE Guidance Fit for Purpose? – 14 Jan
Videos
- The Home Education Channel | Consultation on Home Education Guidance October 2023 | Full playlist | YouTube
- Joy Baker Day 2023 – Revised Guidance England | Randall Hardy 16 Nov
Ed Yourself | Fiona Nicholson
- 2023 Consultation Revised EHE Guidance – main page/overview
- Case Study 1 Draft LA Guidance – 30 Oct
- Case Study 2 LA Draft Guidance – 31 Oct
- Case Study 3 LA Draft Guidance – 1 Nov
- Suitable Education in New Guidance – 8 Nov [Updated 5 Jan]
- Suitable Education in New Guidance 2 – 11 Nov
- Will Parents Have To Prove Suitable Education? – 17 Nov
- Informal Process in New Guidance – 23 Nov [Updated 6 Jan]
- Formal Process in New Guidance – 28 Nov [must read]
- Support in New Guidance – 1 Dec
- Data Protection in New Guidance – 6 Dec
- Online Consultation New Guidance – 8 Dec
- Safeguarding in New Guidance – 11 Dec
- Special Educational Needs in New Guidance – 18 Dec
- Special Needs in New Guidance 2 – 18 Dec
- 7 Consultation Questions and Suggested Pages – 20 Dec
- Safeguarding in New Guidance 2 – 22 Dec
- Parents Guidance Inconsistencies – 26 Dec
- Parents Guidance Complaints – 26 Dec
- Home Education Guidance Consultation | The First Step – 2 Jan
- Changes to Home Education Guidance | Introduction – 3 Jan
- Why Is The Home Education Guidance So Long? – 4 Jan
- Answer Day Summary Home Education Guidance Consultation – 12 Jan
Media Articles
- Home education: Councils urged to create voluntary registers | Schools Week – 26 Oct
The consultations below are now closed
This page is a archive of materials relevant to past English consultations relevant to Elective Home Education. These are:
- Children Not in School [2019]
- Elective home education: call for evidence 2018 response
- Home Education – Call for Evidence and revised DfE guidance [2018]
- Integrated Communities Strategy green paper [2018]
On 2 April 2019, the Department for Education published its response to the previous year’s Call for Evidence on EHE and revised Guidance. This was accompanied by a further consultation on Children Not in School. The response to that consultation took longer than it should have done and then was delayed for around two years due to the chaos caused in the education system by the response to Covid-19. The response was finally published on 3 February 2022.
Below are links to the relevant documents and other resources.
(Note: Information on previous consultations are listed below.)
Children not in school [2019]
Closing date: 24 June 2019
Documents published in response to this consultation by the DfE – 3 February 2022
- Further plans to level up opportunities for every child – press release
- Children not in school: consultation response
- Children not in school: annex to the consultation response
- How we plan to support families who choose home education through registers of children not in school – DfE blog post
Byte concerning the response to the consultation:
- The Long Awaited Response to the CNiS Consultation (10 February)
The following documents were published as part of the consultation:
- Consultation document 634.9 KB (PDF document)
- UNCRC assessment 124.4 KB (PDF document)
- Family Test assessment 113.5 KB (PDF document)
- Equalities log 169.0 KB (PDF document)
Bytes concerning the original consultation:
- Registration but Not Monitoring – Really? (3 April)
- Humanists UK Welcomes Compulsory Home-School Register (15 April)
- Children Responding to the Current Consultation (20 May)
PDF Documents by the HE Byte Team:
- Responding to the Children not in School Consultation
- Comparison between questions on the published Consultation Document and On-line Response Form
Elective home education: call for evidence 2018 response
Elective home education: call for evidence 2018 response [PDF]
The following documents were published alongside the above.
They are listed on the following page:
Elective home education – GOV.UK [Revised Guidance]
- Elective home education: guidance for local authorities (45 pages)
- Elective home education: guidance for parents (24 pages)
- Elective home education: revised funding information for local authorities (2 pages)
Bytes commenting on the response to the 2018 consultation, the new guidance and the 2019 Children Not in School consultation:
- Registration but Not Monitoring – Really? (3 April)
- Separating the Guidance from the Consultation (12 April)
- The Basis for Changing the Landscape (26 April)
- Annex A: What Local Authorities Really Want (3 May)
- Children Responding to the Current Consultation (20 May)
- Wondering How to Respond to the Consultation? (31 May)
- Minister Responds to Written Questions on Settings (17 June)
2018
Home Education – Call for Evidence and revised DfE guidance [2018]
Closing date: 2 July 2018
Bytes:
- Home Education Consultation and Call for Evidence Launched! (11 Apr)
- MP Encourages HE Parents to Take Part in Consultation (8 May)
- Question 26 – Are there any other comments you wish to make… (11 June)
- Freedom of Information Request – Consultation Submissions (9 Aug)
PDF Documents by the HE Byte Team:
- Consultations Questions collated into a table
- Our comments on each of the thirty-eight questions
- Our suggestions for responding to just question 26
- Two-column version of both sets of draft guidelines
- Relevant extracts from the main Acts of Parliament
Integrated Communities Strategy green paper [2018]
Closing date: 5 June 2018
Our initial comment: Integrated Communities Strategy Green Paper & EHE (Byte, 14 Mar)
- Integrated Communities Strategy – Making Your Response (Byte, 18 May)
- Integrated Communities Strategy – Green Paper: Question 7 (Page, 18 May)
- Integrated Communities Strategy – Green Paper: Question 8 (Page, 18 May)