Parents turn to home schooling as school system ‘fails children’

Home schooling is on the increase because parents feel “failed by the school system” over the lack of support for mental health, bullying and special needs, MPS have been told.

The number of students being home educated has risen by 38 per cent from October last year to 75,668 by last month, survey estimates by the Association of Directors of Children’s Services reveal.

While Covid-19 is one factor, MPS on the education committee were yesterday told that the trend was growing before the pandemic, with parents citing concerns on the poor support for emotional health, bullying and disabled needs in mainstream schools. “There’s a significant number of parents who are choosing home education because they feel like they have been failed by the school system,” Lucy Nethsingha, from the Local Government Association, said. “We need to make sure that those parents get much better support than they get now.”

Cllr Nethsingha said there was an “urgent need for more data” on the number of children now being home schooled and why, as the Department for Education currently does not collect statistics.

MPS heard that there should be a central register of the children taken out of school by their parents so local authorities can intervene if there are safeguarding issues.

But Jane Lowe, from the Home Education Advisory Service, warned that such a register could cost up to £500 million to establish.