Home educated children - Find a freedom of information request

Please provide information for the following 9 questions:

1. How many home educated children does your LA currently have recorded?

2. How many households do these children come from?

3. In the last 12 months how many s437(1) formal notices to satisfy have you served on parents regarding home educated children?

4. How many School Attendance Orders (SAOs) (attendance order in Scotland) have been served on children that were known to be home educated until the SAO was served?

5. What was the outcome of each SAO? (for example, prosecuted for non - compliance (please explain the outcome from court), revoked (please explain why the SAO was revoked). ) 6. How many children do you have recorded as a Child Missing Education (CME) that are not subject to S437(1) or SAO?

7. In the last 12 months, what is the range of time period between a parent requesting the LA provide a school place and the child starting at the school? (for example a home educated child that wishes to go to school, or a family has moved to the area and wants a school place).

8. In the period of time, between the parental request and the initial start date at school, has the LA put in place education for the child under s19 Education Act?

9. If s19 is provided, how many hours education per week are put in place?

1. 1913

2. 1606

3.  Formal requests for information are sent at the initial stage of EHE, if parents do not provide an intention to education plan within the required time scale. We do not record figures on this. If information is not required at the Adviser visit stage when Informally requested then an Informal request is sent. S437 refers to an SAO for which figures are provided for below.

4. 2023/2024 – 286 SAO ‘s issued. 263 came from EHE.

5. Legal reports competed for 2022/23- 25

    Legal reports completed within 23/24 academic year - 15

    None recorded as revoked.

    Reasons for closing after SAO beginning and before proceeding to court. (below is for all years):

 Outcomes from court:

Files received for 2022/23

25 cases received

10 case prosecuted, 9 pleaded or proved in absence, 1 went to trial

1 case suggested re-start Sao process

5 children were returned to school – no prosecution

3 provided suitable evidence of education

2 placed in hospital school/home tuition

3 cases not pursued as they were yr 11 pupil and late in the academic year

1 case not pursued for other reasons

Files received for 23/24 academic year

5 SAO cases prosecuted for 23/24 academic year

3 SAO cases withdrawn and not prosecuted against during 23/24 academic year

7 SAO cases still waiting to be prosecuted for academic year 23/24

6. The number of children open to CME is 2065 (452 remain open from 23/24 academic year) that aren’t open to SAO.

7. Lincolnshire County Council (LCC) don’t record specifically how long it takes to process an application. It is important to note that there are no decisions made by the local authority during the school admissions process. LCC act as a central point for parents to make applications, but we are not involved in the allocation of those places

8. Government guidance states that the local authority must notify the parents of the outcome of their application in writing within 15 school days.

If by the 15th day it is not possible to offer a school place the local authority then requests home tuition for the child. In the last academic year 38 children were offered home tuition.

9. Core offer for Interim Home Tuition is 10 hours a week.