Elective Home Education

The ADCS Educational Achievement Policy Committee has returned to the subject of elective home education (EHE) several times over the last 12 – 18 months.  Numbers of EHE learners in England are not routinely captured in a national data return however an independent education consultant has collated top level data via the use of FOI requests. 

In July 2014, local authorities in England recorded that 27,292 children and young people were educated at home, an increase of 17% on July 2013 (23,243), further headline information is available via www.edyourself.org.

In recent months a small sub-group of the Educational Achievement Policy Committee has pulled together a voluntary EHE dataset for local authorities to adopt.  While it is recognised that local authorities may not hold all of this information ADCS is keen to utilise this work in the first instance as the basis of a ‘state of the nation’ snapshot of this cohort on Thursday 21 January 2016, school census day.

We understand that local authorities can only report on the numbers of EHE learners that are known to them and that it is hard to gain a comprehensive picture of the size and make up of this cohort without a mandatory registration process.  It would however be useful to understand this issue in greater detail.  The results of this survey will be shared with the membership in spring 2016.

Please complete and return this survey by Friday 19 February.