Home education guidance: equality impact assessment

Background

The purpose of the home education guidance is to set out the legislative position of home education; to provide advice on the roles and responsibilities of local authorities and parents in relation to children who are home educated; and to encourage a collaborative and positive working relationship between local authorities and parents to develop trust and mutual respect to function in the best interests of the child. The guidance is issued by Scottish Minsters to local authorities under section 14 of the Standards in Scotland’s Schools etc Act 2000 (“the 2000 Act”), and local authorities must have regard to the guidance. The guidance is widely used and referred to by parents and home educating families, however the 2000 Act does not require parents to have regard to the guidance. The home education guidance does not cover the Scottish Traveller Education Programme.

The home education guidance was first published in 2007, before the Equalities Act 2010 was enacted. This updated guidance includes amendments to bring the guidance into line with current legislation and reflect wider changes that have taken place since 2007 which affect the provision of home education by parents.

The main changes to the guidance include:

• Stating that Scottish Government will work with local authorities to consider options for high-level data to be collated on the number of children home educating in Scotland, to enable a national-level picture of home education and to inform future policy work on home education.
• Strengthening the wording in the guidance to encourage home educators to make themselves known to their local authority.
• Strengthening the wording in the guidance in relation to the annual contact between home educators and their local authorities to strongly encourage a conversation to take place, and to involve the child if the child wishes this.
• Clarification of the wording around support provided by the local authority after a child is withdrawn from a school roll, to ensure that home educators or those considering home education engage with the local authority prior to withdrawal to check what resources may or may not be available to them.

The Scottish Government recognises the choice to home educate as a valid choice alongside the choice of sending a child to school. However, the choice to withdraw a child from school education means that the local authority is no longer responsible for the delivery of a child’s education, and parents take on the duty to provide a suitable and efficient education for the child’s age and level. A local authority is obliged to satisfy themselves that this is being provided, where a child or young person is known to be home educating in order to comply with the duty to take action where they are not satisfied that a child is receiving efficient education suitable to their age, ability and aptitude.