Educating your child or young person with SEND at home (EHE)

Elective Home Education is the term used to describe parents’ or carers decisions to provide education for their children or young people at home instead of sending them to school.

The government has produced guidance to help parents/carers understand their responsibilities and rights in relation to EHE. We recommend parents/carers read this guidance Elective home education: guide for parents (publishing.service.gov.uk) (opens link in new window)

In Kirklees, we have an Elective Home Education team whom parents/carers can contact for advice, guidance, and support. The team are also happy to speak to parents/carers who may be considering elective home education and want to talk it through before a decision is made. The team can be contacted on 01484 221919 (ask for EHE team) or by email EHETeam@kirklees.gov.uk

There is lots of information about Elective Home Education available on the Kirklees website Elective home education | Kirklees Council including information on:

What to consider when deciding to elect home education
What you need to know/what the law says
Resources

You can find out more information by reading the Kirklees polices about Elective Home Education

Kirklees Elective Home Education Policy (opens PDF in new window)

Kirklees EHE Information for Parents (opens PDF in new window)

Kirklees Flexi-School guidance (opens PDF in new window)

Making the decision to withdraw your child or young person from school can be a difficult choice and needs careful consideration to ensure it is a fully informed choice.

We would advise speaking to school staff about any potential concerns in school (for example bullying, attendance or educational needs not being met) before making the decision to home educate your child or young person.

By home educating, you are committing to making sure your child or young person receives full-time education at home. How you deliver this education is up to you, you may want to educate in a structured manner like a lesson in a school or you may feel that you want to teach your child in a more informal way.

You must also meet the costs of educating your child or young person including any public examinations.

Parents’ or carers right to educate their child or young person at home applies equally where a child has special educational needs & disabilities (SEND). This right is irrespective of whether the child has an Educational Health Care Plan (EHCP).

As a parent or carer you have a legal duty to ensure that your child or young person receives “efficient full-time education, suitable – to the age, ability and aptitude, and to any special educational needs, either by regular attendance at school or otherwise” (otherwise can mean “at home”)

The LA recognises and understands there are a range of approaches and philosophies home educating families may use and that there are many approaches to educational provision.

If your child or young person has SEND and attends a special school, you’ll need to get the council’s permission to educate them at home. You do not need the council’s permission if your child or young person attends a mainstream school, even if they have an EHCP. If your child or young person is attending school because of a school attendance order, you must get permission from your local council before you can educate them at home.

When your child or young person has an EHCP, it is the local authority's duty to ensure that the educational provision specified in the plan is made available to the child or young person - but only if you as the parents have not arranged for the child or young person to receive a suitable education in some other way.

Therefore, if the home education you provide as parents or carers is suitable, the local authority has no duty to arrange any special educational provision for the child or young person; the plan should set out the type of special educational provision that the local authority thinks the child or young person requires and should also state that parents have made their own arrangements under section 7 of the Education Act 1996.

The local authority will of course continue to check the suitability of the home education as required by sections 436A and 437 of the 1996 Act, and if at any point it considers that the home education is no longer suitable, it must ensure that the special educational provision specified in the EHCP is made available as well as taking the steps set out above in relation to school attendance.

The Local Authority will continue to hold an Annual Review, this includes ensuring that the EHCP is still appropriate and needs to remain in place. Your rights to appeal to a SEN Tribunal still apply.

If you are educating a child or young person at home already and come to believe that they have special educational needs, you can ask the local authority to carry out a statutory assessment or reassessment of their special educational needs and the local authority must consider the request within the same statutory timescales and in the same way as for all other such requests.

You can speak with the Elective Home Education Team by the following ways:

Telephone 01484 221919

Email EHETeam@kirklees.gov.uk

You can call SENDACT on 01484 456888 (if the young person has an EHCP) or speak with KIAS (Independent SEND advice and guidance service) on 07771977384 for more information and advice.

What is flexi-schooling?

Flexi-schooling describes an arrangement between the parent and school where children are registered at the school in the usual way but attend school part-time. For the rest of the time, the child is home educated.

Unlike full-time home education, any agreement between parents and a school for the child to be flexi-schooled is at the Head Teacher’s discretion. Flexi-schooling can be a long-term arrangement or a short-term measure for a particular reason. The child will be required to follow the National Curriculum whilst at school, but not whilst they are being educated at home.

There may be many reasons why parents may want to arrange flexi-schooling for their children, for example:

illness,
a desire to home educate while making use of the school for some subjects,
school phobia/refusal,
allowing time for a special ability, such as music, sport etc.,
a phased return to school after an absence for some reason

Flexi-schooling is also different from a temporary reduced timetable. Reduced timetables are put in place on an exceptional basis for a time-limited period for circumstances such as medical intervention or to meet a pupil’s individual needs.

How a Request for Flexi-schooling Should be Made

Arrangements for flexi-schooling can only be made at the request of a parent or carer with parental responsibility. 4 If a parent/carer is interested in making a flexi-schooling request, the Head Teacher of the child’s actual or prospective school should be contacted so that the proposal may be considered.

Parents do not have a legal right to have a flexi-schooling arrangement. Flexi -schooling is an arrangement between the school and the parent of a registered pupil and is entered into at the complete discretion of the Head Teacher.

The Governing Body may be involved in agreeing and reviewing a general approach to requests for flexi-schooling, but this does not exempt the Head Teacher from the need to consider each request individually. The whole Governing Body should not become involved in individual cases and cannot overturn a Head Teacher’s decision.

There is no right of appeal against the decision of a Head Teacher not to agree to a flexi-schooling request.

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Last updated: 29/09/2020

Useful links

Kirklees Elective Home Education Team

Kirklees EHE Team

KIAS

Kias - Independent Advice and Support