The Christian Institute has welcomed the government pulling back from a number of controversial home education measures in the proposed Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill but warned that dangers remain.
The proposed bill would have required home-educating parents to provide local authorities with a register detailing how much time each parent, and any other adult, spent educating their child.
The Christian Institute described these plans as “intrusive”, “administratively burdensome” and “impractical” for all concerned.
During a House of Lords Report Stage debate last week, this requirement was shelved.
However the Institute warned that a Conservative amendment stating that local authority officials rather than parents can decide what is in the “best interests” of a “child in need” present a danger to parental rights.
John Denning, head of education at The Christian Institute, warned, “Many home-educators will still have reservations about the register, but the Government’s changes are certainly welcome. Of course it is important that there is intervention where a child is at risk, but the Conservative amendment goes far beyond that.
“The law must respect the principle that ordinarily, it is for parents to make decisions about children. We can pray that the Government will be able to remove this overbroad amendment from the Bill before it becomes law.”
Such concerns were echoed by the Labour government, whose minister pointed out that children with disabilities are often classified as “in need” in order to access support services. The Conservative amendment, means that parents of such children would lose their unilateral right to home-educate.
Concerns were also raised about planned pilot schemes that would mean that children withdrawn from school to home-educate would not officially be removed from school rolls until a meeting with local officials has taken place.
Such a provision would mean that home-educating parents would technically be breaching the law until the meeting takes place and possibly expose them to risk of a fine or even prison time.
Last year The Christian Institute commissioned Aidan O’Neill KC to examine the bill’s compatibility with the European Convention on Human Rights and data protection law.
In his analysis, O’Neill said the bill raised “significant questions” and could be “Convention incompatible” due to its disproportionate nature.
