Local Authorities’ views of the Badman Review into Elective Home Education

Abstract

This study explores the views of nine Local Authority (LA) professionals (home education officers) regarding their current elective home education (EHE) context and practice, and how they perceive their professional practice evolving or changing as a consequence of the Badman Review into EHE (2009). This study is topical due to the resurgence of interest in EHE in political and media discourse. Moreover, this study is also timely due to EHE being an under researched area generally; with professionals views rarely elicited. It is an area that is gaining in prominence, with the new Government’s agenda concerning free schools (Daily Telegraph, 24/04/2010) and parent choice in education (Guardian, 02/05/2010; BBC News 28/07/2010). The study found that current EHE practice was generally regarded to be insufficient. This was generally attributed to the fact that LAs have no legal requirement to see and monitor an EHE child, because there is no mandatory obligation for parents to register as EHE and thus have contact with their LA. The guidance that is available in terms of assessing whether educational provision is ‘suitable and efficient’ was also regarded as too vague