The government wants to change the home education guidance and has published a draft showing the proposed new version. The new draft guidance provides a checklist for “suitable education”. “Assessment of suitability” is new as is measurement of literacy and numeracy which would have the effect of narrowing the definition of education, which by law has to be suitable to age, ability, aptitude and any special educational needs.
The new guidance is not ready to be used. It is still at the draft stage. The consultation closed 18.1.24. The current guidance remains in force until such time as a final new version is published. The current guidance can be found here https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/elective-home-education
My Comments
- The current guidance already has a bullet point list although in the 2019 guidance it appears much later in the document at paragraph 9.4. There is a link to my page on the current guidance at the foot of the page
- There are subtle shifts in the new draft which would have a significant impact overall
- The new draft requires families to demonstrate “sufficient secular education” which translates as measuring the child’s levels of literacy and numeracy
- “Assessment of suitability” is the big idea in the new draft guidance, implying that this is an active and potentially lengthy process of gathering the evidence required to complete the assessment and make a judgement of “suitability”