General information about home education can be found on GOV.UK

Our role in home education

The local authority has a statutory duty to make arrangements to enable them to establish (so far as it is possible to do) the identities of children in their area who are of compulsory school age but are:

• not registered pupils at a school
• not receiving suitable education.

The way this should be done is not set out in law.

If it comes to our notice that a child is being home educated, we will seek to work in partnership with parents and, where requested, will offer basic advice.

Our elective home education officer will contact you to obtain some basic information about your child and the way you intend to provide suitable education.

After a short time, an education adviser will ask to meet you to see how you are getting on.

The adviser will provide basic advice if asked and will arrange to see you and your child again in three to 12 months time, depending on how well your home education is going.

After each visit the adviser will write a brief report, which will be sent to you for comment.

If the adviser thinks that you have not been providing suitable or efficient education, he or she will say so and will offer advice on how to improve.

If you decide to return your child to school, the elective home education officer will assist you.

For further information please see our elective home education policy:

Elective home education policy  (PDF, 333 KB)

If you are unhappy with the way that this local authority has operated, in relation to home education, you can Make a complaint about Children’s Services.

If you decide to educate your child at home

Once you have decided to home educate, there are some things you may need to do:

If your child is on roll at a school, you must write to the headteacher to notify him or her of your decision.

Your child will then lose his or her school place (be removed from the school roll) and the local authority will be informed. However, if you are dissatisfied with your child’s school, we suggest that the best approach is to try to resolve the issues and to put them right.

Often, a simple conversation with the headteacher or the Chair of Governors can sort things out.

If your child is at a Special School, you will need the permission of the school and the local authority to remove him or her from the school in order to begin elective home education.

Please write to the school in the first instance.

If your child is of compulsory school age, but has never been to school, or is currently not on roll at a school, please inform the Education Statutory Services Team.

School and education staff should not encourage parents to consider home education.

Education Statutory Services Team 

Town Hall, 1 Town Square, Barking, London, IG11 7LU

020 8227 2151

accessattendance@lbbd.gov.uk

Special educational needs and home education

Home educating parents accept responsibility for their child’s needs in all respects.

However, the local authority also has some obligations for children who have an education, health and care plan.

If you wish to discuss how this might work, please contact the Education Health Care Team:

Education Health Care Team

020 8227 2400

ehc@lbbd.gov.uk

Children missing from education

If you know of or suspect a child of school age is missing from education, please contact us urgently so we can support the family to access an education provision. You may remain anonymous and we will carry out checks prior to contacting the parents or carers.

Children Missing Education policy (PDF, 354.97KB)

Children Missing Education Officer

2nd floor, Town Hall, London, IG11 7LU

020 8227 2151

accessattendance@lbbd.gov.uk