Home Education Special: Huge Rise in Home Education
This HIP Special Report examines the factors fuelling the rapid growth in Elective Home Education and asks whether parents are given sufficient support when the school system is failing increasing numbers of children. We have contributions from teachers, educationalists, psychologists, health writers and, of course, parents. First, KENT BARKER puts the latest statistics into context.
Government and County Council figures have shown a massive increase in the number of school-aged pupils currently in Elective Home Education (EHE) – that’s to say not attending a school and apparently choosing to be taught at home.
In East Sussex in the 2022/3 academic year, 1,520 were being educated at home. But in the most recent year for which figures are available, 2024/5, that number had risen to 2,500, an increase of 64% – nearly two thirds. It is much higher than the national average which shows an increase of just 12.8% – from 111,700 in 2024/5 to 126,000 in the current year.
“Operating within limited resources, many schools no longer have the capacity to cater for children whose abilities, interests or development do not fit neatly into a standard model,” says journalist and Home Education specialist Ginny Smith.
When HIP started to report on the growing trend a year ago, a teacher and therapist who asked to remain anonymous told us: “For some families, it’s a lifestyle and a philosophy. For others, it’s the result of system failure. And for many, it’s neither planned nor wanted, but simply the only option left when school does not work for their child.”
A Hastings teacher who also asked us not to use his name points to factors other than lifestyle and philosophy to help explain the increase: “EBSA (emotionally based school avoidance) is often for anxiety, trauma, identity issues, medical, autism or other reasons and feeds into the decision to withdraw a child from school.”
It is remarkably easy to take your child out of school and embark on EHE. You simply inform the headteacher. The Local Education Authority – in Hastings’ case East Sussex County Council – should assign an Elective Home Education Support and Advice Officer to home educating parents. But it’s not uncommon for parents to refuse them access. The officers have no right of entry to a home, they cannot enforce a specific national curriculum, timetable or teaching method, and parents are under no obligation to respond to their enquiries. However, if the local authority believes that the home education is not suitable, it is possible for them to take further action by issuing a notice under the 1996 Education Act, demanding evidence that a child is receiving ‘suitable education’. They can also give a School Attendance Order (SAO) or, as a last resort, seek an Education Supervision Order (ESO) in the court. All of these sanctions also apply to children simply failing to attend school.
Ultimately, parents can be fined for absenting their children from school if they don’t provide them with alternative structured learning – but that is an increasingly controversial sanction.
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