New Guidelines on Home Education in the UK

For the last year or so, British home-educators, as we call ourselves here in the UK, have been in varying states of anxiety, as we were told by the government department responsible for Home Education there may be 'light touch changes' going to happen with regard to the legal Guidelines on HE. Guidelines are the notes and advice which government issues on how Law should be applied and is subject to change, after periods of public consultation, without the necessity of passing primary legislation through Parliament.

The Consultation accepted comments from the Local Authorities (the same ones charged with providing state schools and also the 'monitoring' of HE'ers) largely hostile to HE and over 600 responses from Home Educators themselves, among other respondents.

It seems that during the course of the Consultation, Government opinions about HE changed, because the new official Guidelines, issued yesterday by the DCFS, are EXTREMELY positive and supportive. In fact, our position as independent home-educators has been strengthened legally as a result. A relief for those who have been so anxious and a nice surprise even for me, and I wasn't that worried.

Mainly, I was not worried because any change in the way the law is interpreted would have necessitated a fundamental shift in legal and moral principle, AWAY from the principle that the child's education is the parent's responsibility (which is what it always has been in British law) over TO a completely new principle, that the responsibility for the child would be that of the government (which it never has been).

And such a fundamental shift in the principle of responsibility would have laid the government open to all kinds of legal challenges and law suits from those who have been failed by the state education system. Well, that's just my own view, of course, about why our rights have just been strengthened, not eroded as so many feared. The message is clearly that the child does not belong to the state. If s/he 'belongs' to anyone at all, it is to the parents.

There has been a bit of a frenzy of panic-mongering among some HE'ers this last year or two, which I've found disconcerting. Yes, we need to be vigilant when it comes to the laws which might affect us and in the ways they are interpreted and applied, but let's not get hysterical in future. Let us just calmly discuss with each other how to effectively dialogue with Government. Making home Educators feel vulnerable and afraid serves no useful purpose.

For anyone who is interested, you can read the new Guidelines here.