Introduction
Cambridgeshire is a big county, and we have seen a large increase in families deciding to electively home educate (EHE) their children. As a local authority, we aim to communicate with our EHE families in a supportive way. We fulfil our role as an information and advisory service, and engage with the diverse needs of families who choose EHE.
We have opened this consultation to gain the views of the EHE community on the services we currently provide. We want to hear what would be most helpful to you as you navigate elective home education with your child. We would like parents to understand how we engage with them. We want to clarify our current processes. We also want to better understand why families have elected to home educate. Gaining parents’ and carers’ voices and capturing your views and needs is central to building this information service. This helps us to fulfil our statutory duties and provide information in a way that works for you.
Policy compliance statement
This consultation has been reviewed to ensure alignment with current Elective Home Education (EHE) policy. It includes Cambridgeshire County Council's guidance and the Department for Education’s statutory expectations.
It reflects the local authority’s duties under Section 7 of the Education Act 1996. It respects parental responsibility for education and incorporates accurate references to Children Missing Education protocols.
Current EHE process
When you choose to home educate your child, we will reach out to you to make an informal enquiry about the education you are providing. The local authority has a legal duty to ensure every child of statutory school age receives an education that is suitable to their age, ability, aptitude, and any SEND needs. We ask parents/carers to:
- Respond to our informal requests for information about the education being provided to their EHE child
- Take on the responsibility for sourcing, preparing and delivering the educational resources necessary to educate their EHE child
- Inform us of any changes in situation, such as moving home, enrolling in a school etc.
Rightly, you have expectations of us as a local authority, too. You can expect us to:
- Provide useful information online about what EHE involves, different aspects of the EHE process, and sources of further information and support
- Respond to EHE queries
- Let you know when it is time to inform us of the education provision your child is receiving
- Allow you to provide the information about education provision in a range of ways. We are flexible about how this information is shared with us.
- Respond to families who do not give the information needed. We do this to be certain that a child is receiving an education with action in line with the Education Act 1996
We write to you annually to make an informal request for information about the education your child is receiving. Sometimes we may contact you sooner if this is in the child's best interests.
We love to hear from you with this information in any way that helps you share your child’s educational experiences. Some parents/carers like to write a report, some prefer the structure of the online form we provide. We love to read about the wonderful forms education takes, so how you give us that information is up to you.
If we don’t hear from you after we first make contact, we will write to you again. If, after two attempts we do not receive a response from you, your child is no longer registered as EHE. They become a child missing education (CME) as per the new CME guidance (Children missing education: statutory guidance for local authorities and schools - GOV.UK). This is because we cannot be sure that your child is receiving their educational entitlement. We open your child to an Officer who will make further attempts to ascertain the educational provision. If this is also unsuccessful, we then take a formal approach and may name a school that your child must attend. This is called a School Attendance Order (SAO).
Our current offer
Before you take part in this consultation survey, please review our current resources and information.
- View our current local offer for the EHE community at Elective Home Education (EHE)
- We have produced an online resource to help support parents in providing information about their child’s educational provision
- Our EHE directory lists different places that families can find support, ideas and resources for their child’s education. This is updated regularly.
- We are unable to support examination entry/scheduling for EHE families. However, we have information to help you arrange this for yourself Exams | Cambridgeshire County Council
- We are sometimes asked by families to visit homes to assist with the EHE process. As part of our information service remit, we are unable to visit families to give advice on the content of the education provision or review work. We also cannot help parents deliver education. Whilst we do not routinely visit families to advise on educational content, visits may occur under specific statutory circumstances. This includes situations such as when a child is identified as CME.
Our service – what matters most?
As with all public services, we operate under limited budgets and resources, and we are a very small team. We want to ensure we offer you the best service we can using the limited resources we have available. This consultation is asking you to think about some key questions:
- How would you like us to engage with you? What would that engagement look like?
- What questions should we ask you to make it as easy and meaningful as possible for you to tell us about your child’s education provision?
- What information would you like from us? In what format?
- What are the main motivations and reasons that you have chosen to EHE your child?
- What really matters to you in terms of the information we provide?
- How can we communicate with each other in constructive and productive ways?
Consultation survey
With the consultation rationale discussed above, we would be grateful if you could complete the survey below. It will give us invaluable information to help shape our service to you. It will also help us to understand your needs, and how to best formulate that information to reach you in the best possible way. We appreciate your engagement, and thank you in advance for your contributions. Your responses will remain anonymous and your family will not be identified.
Please click on the link below to take you to the survey.
