Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Bill

Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Bill - Amendment by Lord Lucas

311 Insert the following new Clause-
"Support for home education
Support for home education
(1) The Secretary of State shall establish a body to be known as the Home Education Consultative Committee (the "HECC").

(2) The Secretary of State shall appoint to the HECC such persons as he considers appropriate.

(3) The Secretary of State shall consult the HECC whenever he intends to make proposals that will have an effect on home educating families.

(4) The HECC may undertake investigations into areas of policy or practice in relationships between the government and the home educating community.

(5) The HECC may produce and promote guidelines and examples of good practice in relationships between the government and the home educating community.

(6) The HECC may make proposals to the Secretary of State for changes in practice or policy of home education."

Now I am wondering who exactly is going to sit on this Home Education Consultative Committee? The lack of people on the Home Education Review panel with real world knowledge or experience of HE now looks like a bad omen of what is to come.

Another quango?



How does the Secretary of State define appropriate? Will there be any people with several years experience in HE, or will the appointed persons primarily comprise of experts in state school education with no knowledge of HE? Where will the Secretary of State even find the people to appoint to the HECC?



Will the Secretary of State ever consult HE parents or members of HE support groups, or will he rely upon the HECC for most of his advice and information? Is it wise to say that the HECC will end up as a convenience facility for the Secretary of State to relieve him from having to search the country for suitably knowledgeable individuals or chase up HE parents?



May or will undertake investigations? At the moment the only relationship between the government and the HE community is that a LA can issue a School Attendance Order if it becomes clear that a HE child is not receiving a suitable education. This very rarely happens in practice. Apart from this, HE parents are on their own and ineligible for any support from the government.



Will members of the HECC realise that many HE parents do not want the government to interfere in their children's education?



So in other words, the Secretary of State is effectively covered by HECC for whatever draconian or authoritarian legislation he implements? Whenever he changes policy he can say it is in the interests of the HE community according to his so called committee of experts, who in practice are more likely to be poodles to his own or his government's interests.

Is Education Otherwise involved in the creation of the HECC?