Where Formal Notice is Required

DfE guidance for local authorities states:

Families beginning home education sometimes state that they are entitled to a period during which the home education provided for the child may not meet the requirements in s.7 because they are still, as it were, building up the provision to a satisfactory level."

However, families should be aiming to offer satisfactory home education from the outset, and to have made preparations with that aim in view, as time lost in educating a child is difficult to recover. In such cases, a reasonable timescale should be agreed for the parents to develop their provision; it is easier to do this if the parents are engaging constructively with the local authority but in any event, there should be no significant period in which a child is not receiving suitable education, other than reasonable holiday periods at appropriate points."

It is the policy of London Borough of Bexley that it must be confident that a child is receiving a suitable and efficient home education no later than 13 weeks and 1 day from the date the notice of declaration is received (this is the equivalent to two academic terms, including a one-week half-term holiday).

Where no information suggests the child is receiving a suitable education within 13 weeks and 1 day of the ‘Notice of Declaration’, because sufficient information has not been shared and including where parents have refused to respond, the only conclusion which an authority can reasonably come to is that the home education does not appear to be suitable.

London Borough of Bexley will issue a formal notice under section 437 of the Education Act 1996 requiring the parent to share information which enables London Borough of Bexley to be confident that the child is receiving a suitable and efficient full-time education. If London Borough of Bexley cannot be made confident that suitable education is being provided, it will close the child’s Elective Home Education record, refer them as a Child Missing Education, and the statutory process for issuing a School Attendance Order (SAO) will commence.

Where a child previously attended a Bexley school, and unless that child was permanently excluded or has moved or will be moving from primary to secondary phase education, London Borough of Bexley will seek to name on the SAO the school they left for home education.
Where a child did not previously attend a Bexley school, were permanently excluded from a Bexley school, or have or will be changing education phase, London Borough of Bexley will consult with schools in Bexley and identify a school to be named on the SAO.
Failure to comply with a SAO is a criminal offence for which the parent(s) can be issued with a penalty notice or prosecuted in the Magistrates’ Court.

At any stage following the issue of a SAO, parents may present evidence to London Borough of Bexley that they are now providing suitable education and apply to have the Order revoked. If this is refused, parents can choose to refer the matter to the Secretary of State for Education. If as a last resort, London Borough of Bexley prosecutes parents for failure to comply with a SAO, the parents may be acquitted if they can prove that the child was receiving a suitable education otherwise than at school at the time of the offence. If the parents are acquitted, the court may direct that the SAO shall cease to be in force.

If it transpires information has been deliberately withheld from London Borough of Bexley, and the parent is easily able to satisfy the court, London Borough of Bexley will ‘seek legal advice about the prospect of obtaining a costs order against a successful defendant on the basis that the prosecution would have been unnecessary if not for the defendants’ unreasonable conduct’⁹.

⁹ EHE Departmental guidance for local Authorities 6.19