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  5. Safeguarding reforms at risk as research highlights significant strain on home education staff of local authorities

Safeguarding reforms at risk as research highlights significant strain on home education staff of local authorities

We’re calling on the government to fund local authorities.

  • Elective Home Education Officers1 in local authorities are responsible for an average of 388 children each, according to our new data.
  • Councils across England have reported that the number of families home educating their children has more than doubled over past five years.
  • Two thirds of local authorities saw an increase in the number of staff to match this demand.2
  • We’re calling on the government to fund local authorities to help them identify all children not in school and offer the right support where necessary through the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill.

Concerning new data has revealed resourcing strains are affecting local authority home education teams in England, with national figures showing that one full-time equivalent worker is responsible for an average of 388 children.

The data3 also revealed that three local authorities had just one staff member supporting over 1,000 children. One of these councils reported a staggering 1,513 children per staff member.

Currently, local authorities are responsible for identifying all children not in school, including home educated children in their area and delivering safeguarding measures where necessary.4 But these figures come as new duties and responsibilities for councils are due to be introduced through the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, including the creation of a Children not in School Register.

While welcoming the new measures, we’re urging the government to provide local authorities with the vital funding needed to adequately safeguard and support home educated children — ensuring no child falls through the cracks.

The research also revealed that a rising number of families are turning to home education, with numbers doubling since before the pandemic. The percentage of children being taught at home grew by an average of 186% in each local authority between 2018/19 and 2023/24. For 14 of the 148 local authorities that responded the number of children learning at home more than quadrupled over five years.

Despite this increase of home educated children, 99 local authorities said they had seen an increase in the number of staff to match this demand since 2018/19.

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A 13-year-old who contacted Childline said5 :

“I am home schooled because I was bullied at school, but I am scared of my mum. She has hurt me in the past and is very controlling; I am not even allowed to leave the house alone. She fights with her boyfriend a lot too and it frightens me when it gets physical.

"I have nobody to speak to about what is going on.’’

We believe home education is not a safeguarding concern in and of itself, but a lack of face-to-face contact with these children can make it challenging to assess and identify where there is a risk of abuse and neglect.

While many children thrive through receiving education at home, evidence from Child Safeguarding Practice Reviews show some children within this cohort require the attention of safeguarding agencies because they are at risk of harm and may not be visible to services.

Chris Sherwood, CEO at the NSPCC, said:

“Local authorities have a duty to safeguard and promote the welfare of home educated children, but these worrying figures show there are currently nowhere near the necessary resources for them to adequately fulfil these responsibilities.

“We know that receiving an education at home can be the best option for some children and families. However, robust safeguards must be in place no matter where a child’s education takes place. The creation of a register for children who aren’t in school through the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill would go a long way to help local authorities identify children not in school.

“But without additional resources and funding councils are likely to face an impossible task to deliver these reforms and effectively safeguard the rising numbers of children being educated at home in their area. The Government must invest to ensure their welcome reforms to the law can deliver in practice so children benefit from these new protections.”

Cllr Arooj Shah, Chair of the Local Government Association’s Children and Young People Board, said:

“We are pleased the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill will give councils the ability to maintain Children Not in School registers, which is a long-standing ask of the LGA. But additional funding is needed for this responsibility.

“Registers should also be accompanied with powers for councils to meet face-to-face with children to establish they are receiving a suitable education in a safe environment.

“The Government should use the Spending Review to ensure councils are adequately resourced to undertake these visits to ensure children are safe and receiving a suitable education.”

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References

  1. 1) Elective Home Education Officers are responsible for the effective delivery of statutory duties related to home education.

  2. 2) We contacted 153 Local Authorities and received 148 responses, a 96.7% response rate. 99 said they had seen an increase in the number of staff to match this demand.

  3. 3) Data is based on local authority FOI responses collected in 2024. The data relates to figures from the 2018 to 2024 period.

  4. 4) Local Authority responsibility: Under Section 437 (1) Education Act (1996) local authorities are required to “make arrangements to enable them to establish (so far as it is possible to do so) the identities of children in their area who are of compulsory school age but— (a) are not registered pupils at a school, and (b) are not receiving suitable education otherwise than at a school.”

  5. 5) Snapshots are based on real Childline service users but are not necessarily direct quotes. All names and potentially identifying details have been changed to protect the identity of the child or young person involved.