The Elective Home Education (EHE) team respect all the different ways you may choose to educate your child at home. Our team will work with you to:
- find out about the education you provide for your child
- offer advice and guidance about how to meet your child's learning needs
- help you to find other support services if you need them
Your home education must meet your legal duty to provide a suitable education under section 7 of the Education Act 1996. This duty is to make sure that your child receives an education that is suitable for their age, ability and any special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) they have. We have a legal duty to find out, as far as possible, whether home educated children are receiving suitable full time education.
For more information about what parents and local authorities have to do, you can see the government's elective home education guidance.
The EHE team will make informal enquiries about the education you are providing to your child. You don't have to reply when we contact you, or show proof about your child's home education. However, it is important to think carefully about why you might not want to and what is best for your child. If you don't give us enough information, we will not know if your child is getting a suitable education. If that happens, we have a legal duty to take action.
First meeting
When you start home educating, we will offer you a call or visit where we will talk about:
- your child
- why you chose home education
- the education you are providing
- any support or advice you may need
These meetings are a good start to our work together. An advisory teacher will look at everything you tell us. If you have asked for help, they will contact you.
You can also complete a report with our Parent Self-Completion (PSC) forms or by using a different layout. See 'more information' below.
Education reviews
We will review how you provide your child's education regularly. This can be a home visit, phone call or a meeting in another suitable place if you'd rather not meet at home. You can also send a report using either a PSC form or a different layout.
Reviews are a chance to talk about how things are going, celebrate progress and ask for advice or extra support if you need it.
If you don't respond to requests, or we can't be sure from the information you give us, we may have to find that your education is not suitable.
If home education is not suitable
If your education does not meet your legal duties, we must serve legal paperwork known as a section 437(1) notice. It means you have to show us that your child's learning is full time, suitable and efficient. You can find more about this in our guidance document. See the 'more information' section below. You will have at least 15 days to reply to the notice. This gives you time to gather information and send it to us.
If you respond to the notice, we will consider any details and proof you provide. If you don't respond, or we are still not sure that your child is receiving a suitable education, we will pass the case to the Children Missing Education (CME) team. The CME team will work with you to get your child back into education. They may give you a School Attendance Order (SAO).
You can find information about starting school on our requesting a school place page.
More information
We have an elective home education guidance document giving more information about home education in West Sussex. We also produce PSC forms that you can use to send reports to our team. To get copies of the document or PSC forms, contact the EHE team.