The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill: An Attack on Home Education and Parental Rights

Written by and published with the permission of Poppy Coles.

I can’t imagine a life in which home education didn’t play a major part. Since 2012 my life has been inextricably linked with the home educating community; from beginning my own home-ed journey at the age of 13, to now supporting the community with educational resources and opportunities alongside my Mum. The decision my parents made to deregister myself and my younger brother from mainstream school over a decade ago helped shape our lives for the better, opening up our world and gifting us a much broader learning and social experience which still positively influences us today. My personal home-ed journey is now over, but for so many home educating families today, and all those who may wish to home educate in the future, the right and privilege I so benefited from is coming under threat by harsh new regulations put forward in Labour’s Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill.

Many families have thrived

It’s a legal right for any parent or guardian to choose to educate their child outside mainstream school under Section 7 of the Education Act 1996. Many families have thrived by taking advantage of home education over the years, but, sadly, negative and misinformed interpretations of our community are becoming increasingly common within mainstream media and political opinion, detrimentally impacting the general consensus of home education, and now having a direct effect on our freedom to home educate in England. This has become all too evident with the recent news coverage of Sara Sharif’s death. Young Sara was just 10 years old when she was murdered by her father and stepmother, and her story absorbed the public eye at the end of 2024. The news of the trial outcome concurred with the reveal of the government’s Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, in a move which distastefully used Sara’s death as a political tool to further advance tighter restrictions on the right to home educate. Sara’s murder is another fatal example of authority failure, for she was known to services throughout her short life, with decisions being made which directly affected her fate. However, rather than addressing such systemic issues, the case has instead been irretrievably tied to home education due to the fact that Sara was deregistered from school shortly before the summer holiday period in which she was murdered. She was in no way home educated in the proper sense of the term, and there is sufficient evidence to show that Sara was treated cruelly for an extended period whilst at school, so home education played no real part in the events which led to her untimely death. Unfortunately, the case has been consistently used as an example against home education, and used to suggest that home educated children are at higher risk of safeguarding issues; a fact which has been studied by organisations such as the NSPCC with no evidential confirmation.

Harmful rhetoric

This rhetoric is proving to cause much harm to the home educating community, encouraging those with little knowledge of the situation to support the government’s new draconian measures in the belief it will protect ‘vulnerable’ children. Whilst no-one can dispute how important it is to ensure children are safeguarded, the government’s bill proposes to go far beyond any acceptable boundaries, directly infringing parental responsibility and family rights. The home educating community, along with other organisations and parties who are concerned about the contents of the bill, have mobilised to stand up against these harsh measures over the past couple of months, and Mum and I have been busy writing to our MP, the Children’s Commissioner for England and submitting our evidence to the committee scrutinising the bill. So far many of our voices have been swiftly dismissed, but our fight continues, as we all try to raise awareness of the true, positive reality of home education, and show how this bill will negatively affect so many children and their families.

Home education is a vital outlet

Whilst writing my committee evidence I followed through the bill line by line, and the more I read, the more I could envisage the potential for harm, not just within the home educating community, but amongst any children who don’t quite fit within mainstream education. The rigid nature of a school setting and its standardised curriculum is unsuitable for a number of children, particularly those with SEN. As a neurodivergent young person, I suffered from crippling anxiety from the moment I set foot in school at the age of 5; a sensation which continued until the moment I was deregistered. Whilst I achieved academically, I became increasingly isolated and unhappy and was mentally traumatised by my school experience; a trauma I still, unfortunately, carry today. Home education is a vital outlet for many children like myself who need an alternative educational environment in which to thrive and reach their full potential. I, and many others, fear that the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill threatens to irreversibly impact a parent or guardian’s ability to successfully offer this alternative to their child, in order to suit their child’s best interests.

The main clauses of concern within the bill are, amongst others:

• the implementation of a Children Not In School register;
• the introduction of a Unique Identifier Number;
• the need for permission from local authorities to deregister a child from school if subject to a Section 47 investigation;
• requirement for a parent or guardian to report every detail of a child’s education, and any changes that might occur;
• requirement for educational providers to supply details of home educated children using their services to local authorities if required, with monetary penalties if this isn’t provided;
• the introduction of visits to family homes if educational provision is brought under scrutiny;
• the threat of school attendance orders if parents or guardians don’t comply with a local authority’s requests.

Deeply concerning

For many years successive governments have attempted to implement tighter restrictions on home educating families, but all have been quelled by external influences. This government, however, has ensured they push through this bill at the very beginning of their time in office, using safeguarding concerns as a reason, and giving home educators little doubt that some form of regulation is to be expected in the future, despite our vigorous campaigning. It’s deeply concerning to see how parents who choose to home educate are being vilified and targeted in an unscrupulous attempt to portion blame on a minority community in aid of the government’s personal agenda.

Unrealistic and unfeasible

Home education takes on a vast array of different forms and styles, from child-led methodologies to a more structured approach, and this bill makes clear that the government has taken little time to understand the diverse and fluid nature of our community. The government’s intentions as outlined in the bill are extremely worrying, with vast amounts of personal information required, including details which have the potential to endanger vulnerable families who have escaped domestic abuse or similar situations. With a grossly undefined possibility for sharing information with third parties and an increased risk of data breaches, unsolicited sharing of personal details seems high as the bill currently stands. The government has put forward such unrealistic expectations within the bill’s contents, and, if implemented, I can envisage negative consequences in the quality of education available to home educated children. The level of information the government intends for parents or guardians to impart is unfeasible. Each day, or even hour, can vary substantially, with many different resources and tutelage being utilised to provide a diverse, varied education for each child. How can the government expect parents or guardians to report every single little daily change to their child’s educational provision, and still have the time left to dedicate to their child’s education? I also fear that resource providers and tutors etc. may withdraw support for home educated children in the advent of a register, as the need to provide so much personal information about those children may seem too daunting and time consuming to bother with the hassle, particularly with the threat of monetary penalties if they fail to do so.

Lack of understanding

The most troubling aspect of the bill, however, is the potential for local authorities to request visits to family homes if an education is deemed unsuitable, with the ultimate threat of school attendance orders if a local authority sees fit. As outlined above, different families take vastly differing approaches to educating their children, crafting a personalised education to suit their own child’s unique needs and abilities. Some produce physical evidence of their studies, whilst others produce little written work or evidence, but learn plenty in their own, distinctive way. Each method helps develop articulate, intelligent individuals with a wide knowledge base, but their learning style, however, cannot be judged against a standard curriculum, achievement based system. Many local authorities at present have very little knowledge or training in the nature of home education, so I fear that the extra powers being handed to them in this bill would see many families wrongly judged, merely through a lack of understanding. The inclusion to “allow the local authority to visit the child inside any of the homes in which the child lives” is very worrying, threatening to disregard a family’s right to a private life and cause significant mental distress, particularly to those home educating family units which include SEN individuals. Home is a safe, personal space, and there seems to be little consideration of the negative impact this will have on children and parents alike. Home visits seem a step too far, and will offer no more evidence regarding educational provision than a parent can provide in a standard local authority report. Much education is carried out outside of the home, so the home environment holds little significance. I know that many families will have little choice but to refuse requested home visits for their children’s wellbeing and mental health. I do not believe that this should then lead to the potential of a school attendance order. There is much margin for error here and the very real possibility for decisions to be made that will wrongly place vulnerable children back into a school system which had previously caused them harm.

Parental rights are being diminished

In almost all cases, a parent or guardian is the very best person to judge a child’s needs, so I find it abhorrent that parental rights are being diminished so greatly by this bill, putting these decisions into the hands of a local authority and state who know little to nothing of each individual child’s genuine needs and emotional support. It’s unjust that all home educating parents be put under such scrutiny due to the actions of a tiny proportion of individuals who do not have the best interests of their child at heart, and I can only see that the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill will act to negatively impact the quality of education and wellbeing of home educated children, in direct opposition to the government’s supposed intentions of supporting and safeguarding.

An erosion of parental and children’s rights

Whilst I’ve primarily discussed how the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill will affect home educating families, it sets to erode parental and children’s rights as a whole, and, as is so often the case, I fear it may only be the beginning of stricter restrictions which will affect a far wider array of people. This is a fight for everyone and anyone who cares about democracy and the rights of families to decide what’s best for their children, without the fear of intrusive state intervention. Parents are not abusers by default, and I think it’s vital that all stand up to protect the good intentions of the well meaning families who make up the vast majority, and whom these proposed laws will cause the most harm.

The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill: What can I do to help?

Protect the rights of families

Awareness is the single biggest step towards positive change, and I truly hope this article has opened your eyes a little to the real world of home education and its importance to so many families, and highlighted the discrimination and pressure so many well meaning families face due to misinformation and bias, which is being pushed onto the public by media and government alike. YOU can make a difference though. If you’re passionate about protecting the rights of families to educate their children according to their child’s unique needs, please consider sharing this article to raise awareness. If you home educate yourself, or were home educated, please share about or talk about your own experiences and raise awareness of this bill. Anyone can write to their MP too, highlighting your concerns about the infringement of family rights and how you feel it may affect children and their families. The fight is far from over as the bill enters its reporting stage and passes through the House of Lords. Together we have the chance to make a difference, so please consider lending your voice to the cause!

You can read about the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill here.