Consultation results now published

The DCSF released the results of the consultation on elective home education very shortly before the second reading of the CSF bill in Parliament on the 11th January. This is the consultation launched on 11 June 2009 and closed on 19 October 2009 that asked the general public what they thought about the proposals of the Badman Report. It is also the one that the government swore they would take into account the results before they formulated forthcoming legislation on HE.

http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/consultations/in ... 643&menu=3

Section 3, the "Summary of the responses to each question" states:

We received 5,211 responses to the consultation document of which: 2,222 were from home educating parents; 436 from home educated children/young people; 83 from local authorities; 40 from organisations representing home educating families; 40 from other organisations with responsibility for children. A further 2,390 replies fell into the “other” category including anonymous responses, those who did not specify a respondent type; and “campaign” type responses which were received after groups including the Christian Institute, Education Otherwise and the British National Party lobbied their members to reply to the consultation via their own websites.

Specifically mentioning the Christian Institute and the British National Party is a deliberate inference that the HE community is filled with religious nutters and fascists who associate themselves with controversial and disreputable organisations.

The use of the terminology "campaign" type responses really is beyond the pale for a government report. Now why is the word "campaign" surrounded by quotation marks? Because the government fully well knows it is a whopping great lie and a convenient way of smearing the HE community.