Wales to register children who are schooled at home
ASTATUTORY register for the nearly 2,000 home-educated children in Wales is to be set up by the Welsh Government.
A task group is being set up early this year to look into how best the register can work to safeguard children taught at home.
The move follows calls for a register following the death of 11-year-old Dylan Seabridge from scurvy.
Dylan became ill at his family’s isolated farmhouse in Pembrokeshire and died in 2011.
He had had no direct contact with agencies such as doctors, nurses and teachers from the age of 13 months, a Child Practice Review later found.
An independent review report into the case in 2016 called for the Welsh Government to introduce a compulsory register of home-taught children.
The report’s author Gladys Rhodes White said current legislation was in “stark contrast” to the Welsh Government’s commitment to the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child.
Children’s Commissioner Professor Sally Holland and the NSPCC Cymru have also called for a register.
Prof Holland has said many children receive excellent home schooling but registration would ensure none slip through the net. With 46 in every 10,000 pupils of compulsory school age in Wales now learning at home, there should be a law to ensure the standard of that education, she said.
Numbers of home-schooled children in Wales rose slightly from 1,682 in 2015-16 to 1,724 in 2016-17, according to the Welsh Government.
Responding in a written answer to a question from Mid and West Wales AM Simon Thomas on what steps are now being taken to protect homeeducated children in Pembrokeshire, Education Secretary Kirsty Williams said: “I am committed to ensuring all children in Wales receive a suitable education, are safeguarded and have the opportunity to benefit from universal services.
“I have accepted, in principle, the recommendation by the Children’s Commissioner for Wales for a statutory register for home-educated children and will be working with the commissioner to take this forward.
“To help support local authorities identify home-educated children in their area, I will be challenging current ways of working to ensure we maximise opportunities for further strengthening collaborative approaches to protect the rights of these children to receive an education and to be safe.”
National safeguarding practice guidance for electively home-educated children is being developed with help from the CYSUR Safeguarding Children Board, she added.
Former Children’s Commissioner for Wales Keith Towler, now with the National Independent Safeguarding Board, has agreed to chair a group to lead the work.
A Welsh Government spokesman said: “We have listened carefully to concerns about safeguarding children who are educated at home and have accepted, in principle, the recommendation of the Children’s Commissioner for Wales for a statutory register for home-educated children.
“We are currently exploring the options available and will continue to liaise closely with the Children’s Commissioner as we progress this work.”