Toogood Hair & Well Being

Any one who home educates or is thinking about this take action now before it is too late!

166,498 of you signed the petition to withdraw the children's wellbeing and schools bill. The petition will now be debated in parliament, and we need as many MPs there to support the home educators voice. You can copy and paste the below letter, editing the relevant sections, or deleting them if you don't have the time to get the extra info.

You can find out who your MP is and how to contact them here - https://members.parliament.uk/FindYourMP
You can get the latest figure for known home educators in your area here -

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/14fx1iy4eTf9NARXevAnJk2t0lR2WHD9wjFghbIDFFrI/edit?usp=sharing

Please note you must include your name and address for the MP to know you are a constituent.

Letter to send to MP
Dear MP,

MY NAME
ADDRESS

On the 1st December there is a debate in parliament to discuss the recent petition which gained 166,498 signatures requesting the proposed children’s well-being and schools bill be scrapped. Whilst I understand that scrapping the bill is unlikely to happen, the debate gives you a fantastic opportunity to share the voice of home educated children. Of which there are at least 120 thousand around the UK.

There are a lot of concerning things in the bill which will do serious harm to children especially home educated children.

Did you know there are approximately # # # number of home educated children in # # # LA. Many of them in your constituency, many of whom I imagine have written to you previously.

I implore you to attend, to be our voice.

The bill proposes a register (which already informally exists) that requires information above and beyond common sense and in fact would not be possible for a large number of your constituents to even provide leaving them at risk of being fined or losing the right to home educate despite the education being suitable.

It proposes the details of every adult involved in a child’s education be provided to the LA, this includes nan, postman, shopkeeper etc but it also requires groups and tutors to provide details to the LA or face a large fine, this will likely result in many services removing access to home educated children including scouts, music groups etc.

There has been no data protection assessment published. The potential data risks created by the changes in this bill are significant.

There are unfair and dangerous proposals limiting deregistration when children’s services are involved, the requirement for consent will force some children to stay in a school not able or willing to meet the child’s needs or to keep them safe. The proposals require someone who does not know the child the ability to overrule the parents ability to determine what is in the child's best interests. This is regardless of the reason for children's services involvement.

Further, the bill attempts to change the deregistration from special school process. The LA MUST refuse to consent to deregistration if it considers it in the child's best interests. There is no discretion for the LA and no appeal mechanism for parents. And a 6 month ban on requesting consent again regardless of the safety or circumstances of the child.

You may already know how badly LAs overstep. YOU COULD GIVE EXAMPLES OF HOW YOUR LA OVERSTEPS SUCH AS ENFORCED HOME VISITS, LYING IN WRITE UPS, ACCUSATIONS, MISREPRESENTING THEIR LEGAL DUTY ETC.

We understand the reasoning behind the bill, however the protections it claims to provide already exist, they are just not used appropriately, the bill does nothing further to protect a single child. The bill is not fit for purpose, it will result in many home educated children being forced into school despite the home education being suitable and parents left with criminal records due to bureaucracy rather than the child's actual best interests.

We need you to share our concerns and be our voice. Even if you agree with most of the bill we hope you will see the points raised are valid concerns and that you will attend parliament to share our concerns.

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