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Letter to Manchester re gagging policy

Page history last edited by PBworks 16 years ago


 

Manchester City Council's website

 

Manchester City Council's web site displays the following information re Elective Home Education. (September 2007)

 

"When parents/carers make a decision to educate at home they must initially write to the headteacher at the child's school requesting their removal from the school role. A School Attendance Adviser will then contact the family and arrange a home visit. During this visit checks will be made to ensure parents/carers have all the information necessary to proceed with home education. Only parents/carers can take the decision to educate other than at school. Schools or officers of the local authority should not suggest this option, to either parents or children of school age.

 

Once this visit is completed, contact will be made by an Education Consultant (Manchester Education Partnership) to discuss curriculum issues and long term plans. During this visit the Education Consultant will make a decision whether the education being provided is "suitable" and establish an annual contact procedure."

 

AHEd Members Action

 

AHEd members decided to write to the council, specifically about the apparent 'gagging' of schools and LA officers in respect of suggesting the home ed option to families. However, it became clear that there are further issues that quote raises and it was decided that it would be more useful if they were raised together in one letter about this particular web page.

 

Pauline Newman is the Director of Children's services.

pauline.newman@manchester.gov.uk

 

AHEd members worked on the letter below which has been posted to Pauline Newman and the City Council (06.09.07)

 

Letter.

 

Dear Pauline Newman

 

Action for Home Education (AHEd) members are concerned about some of Manchester City Council's policies on Elective Home Education. Your web site at

http://www.manchester.gov.uk/site/scripts/documents_info.php?categoryID=1&documentID=1334

raises several concerns.

 

First, the information states that "A School Attendance Adviser will then contact the family and arrange a home visit." AHEd members feel sure you are aware that the local authority do not have any legal right to insist upon a visit to the home of any home educating family who do not wish to be visited. This is in accordance with their human rights as per Article 8 of the ECHR and it is also clearly stated in the DCSF home education guidance at

http://www.parentscentre.gov.uk/educationandlearning/whatchildrenlearn/learningathomeoutsideschool/electivehomeeducation/

It would be more accurate and helpful if Manchester City Council's website was clear that parents may respond to the Council's enquiries in any manner of their choosing. It would also prevent the unnecessary intimidation and fear that this sort of language can cause, especially for those children who have been traumatised by their experience with school and local authority officials.

 

Second, it is of great concern to AHEd members that Manchester City Council prevent their staff from suggesting the perfectly legal and valid option of elective home education, to families in their area. ("Schools or officers of the local authority should not suggest this option, to either parents or children of school age.") Statute recognises elective home education as having equal status to school education and it is dishonest, in our opinion, to withhold information about this option from the public. It is also morally unacceptable to withold such information as may be the life-saving help that some children need. Many children, possibly up to eighty, are killed or commit suicide every year due to bullying in school, including eight year old Manchester girl Marie Bentham (http://www.bullyonline.org/schoolbully/cases.htm).

 

We can't know whether these children would still be alive if their parents had known about elective home education, but I'm sure you would agree that not to have informed them of that option would have been indefensible.

 

Parents should be given clear and honest information about all of their legal options for providing their child with a suitable education, rather than supplied with censored information that suits the preferences or prejudices of a third party. Parents, not the local authority, are legally responsible for the education of their child, as per section 7 of the Education Act 1996, and it is patronising and dishonest of the local authority to decide they must censor their choices.

 

Finally, the web site information states that "... contact will be made by an Education Consultant (Manchester Education Partnership) to discuss curriculum issues and long term plans. During this visit the Education Consultant will make a decision whether the education being provided is "suitable" and establish an annual contact procedure." AHEd members feel that once again Manchester City Council are promoting their own preferences over fair, legal process and that this unduly misleads parents into believing they have a duty to be visited in their home, discuss curriculum and long term plans and engage in annual contact with the local authority, none of which are actual legal requirements and all of which are ultra vires policies that could be subject to judicial review.

 

AHEd members look forward to reassurance that the Mancester City Council web site will be amended in accordance with the law and that local authority officers and school staff will be informed that it is not the Council's policy to withold information about elective home education and that such information should be routinely provided.

 

Yours sincerely,
 
( )
(Chair, AHEd.) For the committee and membership of AHEd
ahed.pbwiki.com/ The Action for Home Education Group.
 

 

Press Release

 

Click here to see our press release.

 

 

Update March 2008:

 

One AHEd member got fed up with waiting for Pauline Newman to respond and decided to ask the Manchester City Council webmaster to intervene.

After some time and resorting to sending the following e-mail, the page has eventually been removed for updating.

 

"I note that the web page remains unaltered.

 

Would you please inform me of the progress of the production of a new page and meanwhile remove the content of the current page which holds misleading information and replace it with a message advising the public of the expected rewrite. 

 

It is not a minor issue for the Council to mislead the public in this manner and to publicly admit that they withhold important and potentially life-saving information about education choices from parents.

 

This is not a whimsical request about the colour or style of a page and I hope you can impress this upon the people responsible for producing the content and publishing the page, to avoid involving the ombudsman or facing legal action."

 

We will update this page with any further developments.

 

Meanwhile, why not take this as encouragement to get the rubbishy Home Ed pages of your own LA altered?

 

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