Bristol City Council Letter Sparks Home Educating Concerns

Council causes concern in Bristol home ed community with new letter

Parents home educating their children in the city, say they have received a letter from Bristol City Council with new guidance from this September.

A national page dedicated to home educators across the country, alerted followers to the letter which they say reads like the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill has already passed.

The page creators say it is a document that should ‘alarm every single one of us.’

They also say: ‘Bristol has historically been seen as one of the more supportive local authorities. Yet even here, this “heads up” letter sets out expectations far beyond current law. It’s a glimpse of what life under the Bill would look like for all families if it passes.’

Adding: ‘Bristol has historically been seen as one of the more supportive local authorities. Yet even here, this “heads up” letter sets out expectations far beyond current law. It’s a glimpse of what life under the Bill would look like for all families if it passes’

Since the bill was announced last year, it has caused concern within the home educating community – particularly with parents whose children have Special Educational Needs or Disability.

There has also been national action. In July this year, families took to streets across the country to ‘Stop the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill Protest’.

Families protesting came to Bristol to walk through the city centre calling for the bill to go.

The bill says that it will help ‘ensure’ that ‘children not in school are receiving a suitable education and are safe.’

The new measures would be introduced in England and Wales. These would include:

• Compulsory Children Not in School registers in each local authority area.

• A duty on local authorities to provide support to the parents of children on their registers.

• Changes to the School Attendance Order (SAO) process to make it more efficient.

• A requirement whereby parents of some children for whom there are existing safeguarding concerns or attend special schools will need local authority consent to home educate (and where children subject to some child protection processes are already being home educated, the local authority will be able to require them to attend school).

• A requirement for local authorities to consider the home and other learning environments when determining whether children should be required to attend school.

The Policy Summary Notes for the Bill says: ‘However, the number of children in home education has accelerated since the COVID-19 pandemic, with an estimated 111,7007 children believed to be home-educated in England as of October 2024, and a further 6,1568 believed to be home educated in Wales. The statistics show an increase in parents reporting that they are moving their children into home education due to mental health concerns or special educational needs/ additional educational needs. In some instances, parents may not be well-equipped to provide a suitable education, and some of these children may also be at risk of harm.’

Bristol’s home educators may find there is not much sympathy regarding the situation from the city’s political education lead.

Green Councillor for Southville Christine Townsend, who is now the lead for education in the city, addressed her concerns regarding home education at Bristol Schools Forum 26 November 2019.

Back then, she was a Maintained Primary Governor Representative for Whitehall Primary.

Bristol City Council’s Trading with Schools manager Ali Mannering, had presented the Trading With Schools Annual Report.

During questions from Bristol Schools Forum representatives, Christine Townsend asked what the Local Authority could do to ‘discourage home education’?

Chopsy Bristol was in attendance at this meeting so we know which members asked which questions. Part of the Trading With Schools agenda item was covered in our article about Bristol’s school attendance.

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