The legal responsibility for a child’s education rests with their parents. While most parents choose to educate their children by sending them to school, others choose to educate their children at home. So, education is compulsory but school isn’t.
Those parents who make the decision to take responsibility for their child’s education instead of sending to school are Electively Home Educating (EHE).
By choosing to electively home educate, parents are taking on the full responsibility for their children’s education, ensuring it is full-time, suitable and effective. There are no funds available for parents who decide to home educate their children.
As a local authority, we have a duty to ensure all children receive a full-time, suitable and effective education, including those who are electively home educated.
We are committed to working with home educating parents in a spirit of partnership and co-operation so that together we can effectively meet our respective duties.
We carry out our duty through regular engagement with families in a range of ways including visits, calls and parental reports. These reviews also offer the opportunity for home educating families to raise any concerns or requests for advice and guidance regarding the educational provision being made.
Further information on how the EHE team works with families and fulfils its duty can be found in the information pack below, along with contact details for the team.
Supporting documents
- Elective Home Education information pack (part 1) - Overview (PDF, 189KB)
- Elective Home Education information pack (part 2) - Useful information (PDF, 151KB)
- Online learning suggestions (PDF, 34KB)
- Parent/carer guide to contact with the Elective Home Education (EHE) team (PDF, 116KB)
- Ideas to help record your child’s learning (PDF, 192KB)