HomeSchooler.org.uk

The Government is trying to change the law on home education. If passed into law these proposals in the Children, Schools and Families Bill would take effect from April 2011.
It is hard to tell exactly what the Government has in store because one of the primary objectives in the Children, Schools and Families Bill seems to be to provide extensive enabling powers for future regulation of home education outside parliament.
However, a number of things are very clear. There will be a licensing scheme where home educators have to apply annually for permission to home educate. There will be mandatory interviews with all home educated children. Non co-operation with any aspect of the process will mean that the application will fail and permission to home educate will not be granted.
Interviews will be in “the place where education is provided to the child.” The place where education is provided is expected to be widely interpreted as the home, but the Government has avoided using the word "home" as this would be emotive and might sway someone in Parliament to speak out against the proposals. The precedent of changing the law explicitly to compel entry to private homes might also provoke a backlash from the civil liberties movement.
The Government has made plans on the basis that out of an estimated 40,000 home educated children, 8,000 will fail the application process for registration in the first year. Further details about the Government’s plans can be found in ‘Costs and Benefits’ on p/10 of this paper.
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“This Bill is not about support for home educated children. The Government does not need to
change the law on home education in order to guarantee funding for home education support.
The only guaranteed money to local authorities under “new burdens” arrangements is for
inspection and enforcement. Support for home educated children is not to be made a statutory
requirement and the inspection criteria for Ofsted with respect to Children's Services refer
exclusively to safeguarding, not to support.