And that’s a good and positive thing.

With the expectation for councils to act in a child’s “best interests”

comes the repeated message that children “should” only be deregistered if this is considered to be for positive reasons,

that deregistration for what the government consider to be “negative” reasons should be discouraged, obstructed or prevented where possible.

This belief is inappropriate and unfounded for a number of reasons.

Surely protecting and advocating for your children a positive reason?

The duty to safeguard the wellbeing of a child, and ensure a child has a suitable education, both lie with the parents.

Parents would be failing in their legal duty if they do not take steps to ensure those.

Parents taking steps to advocate for their children, to safeguard them, to improve their educational opportunities are surely positive steps.

“Negative reasons” according to the Welsh Government include anxiety, bullying, school not able to meet needs, threat of prosecution/fines, medical needs.

Are these not needs where a parent is duty bound to act in their children’s interests to protect their wellbeing?

Forcing parents to feel required to deregister their child to avoid fines and prosecution when the children are unable to attend is surely a situation of the government’s own creation.

Why is this important?

Because in an increasing array of circumstances, the government intends to consider council staff in a better position to determine what is in a child’s best interests.

Children with disabilities – and indeed parents with disabilities too – will factor highly in this significant cohort.

Read more in these articles about the problems with the intention for consent to deregister and mandatory meetings before deregistration.

It would seem extremely likely, from questionable practices already emerging, that council staff see  allegedly “negative” reasons as not acceptable or appropriate reasons for deregistration and that deregistering for these reasons is to be discouraged,  having targets and aims to reduce the numbers of children being deregistered, especially if these “negative” reasons are cited or believed to apply.

Thus it would appear that it is already an increasing view among council staff, as seen in documentation and mirrored by government communications, that deregistering for these “negative” reasons – anxiety, bullying, school not able to meet needs, medical needs – is considered to be not in the child’s best interests,

It would appear that there are and will be increasing expectations for council staff to consider these to be not in the child’s “best interests” and take whatever steps available to act against the wishes of the family.

Resulting in the somewhat bizarre situation where, for example, having a child who is being bullied in school can produce a situation where the parents are no longer considered to be capable of acting in a child’s best interests.

Reasons for deregistration can and often do change with time

Did you jump or were you pushed when choosing to deregister?

A not unusual conversation.

It’s not unusual because as a society we often have become conditioned to consider school as the “norm”, to consider it somehow “odd” if it is not a good fit for our children.

It’s not unusual because of such negative rhetoric and misinformation perpetuating deterring myths and fears in the media about home education. .

Many parents will tell you that they felt pushed, that they felt they had no option but to deregister, only to subsequently find that home education isn’t second best but the preferable option.  

Research demonstrates that a significant number of families who initially chose to home educate for reasons related to the school experience, such as concerns around SEND and mental health, who now indicate a general preference for home education.

Feeling no option but to deregister doesn’t mean it’s the wrong choice for the child

In a 2024 research report on reasons for deregistration, across all respondents (1220):

• 55% agreed that they had expected school would work for their child.
• 29% did not want to home educate initially.
• 24% felt they did not have a free choice in whether to home educate initially.

However,

• 88% felt that home education was the right choice for their child initially.
• 91% feel that they are happy to continue home educating now.
• 67% wish they had chosen home education earlier.

Deterrent from giving constructive feedback on limitations or failures of schools.

How providing “negative” reasons at deregistration can be used against families.

According to the Children’s Rights Impact Assessment of the Welsh Government’s parallel CME (Children Missing Education) database mechanisms,

If parents provide what WG consider to be “negative” reasons for deregistration,

Then they will consider the parents likely to be less capable of providing a suitable education, the child more likely to be CME and therefore the child and family more likely to be placed on their extensive CME databases.

So, to give accurate and consecutive feedback o why the provision at school was not appropriate or adequate, parents are rewarded by being considered less likely to be providing for their children. Deemed to be under suspicion of making their child to be missing education (CME) when the parents are likely to be taking these steps because the child was not receiving or able to access suitable education in school, including if were not safe to do so.

This means, according to that same Welsh Government document, being placed under increased scrutiny and suspicion, having to undergo “formal enquiries”, have information about not just you and your child but so many others in your life stored on a database, have the potential of other red flags therefore being raised because of this suspicion

The irony is that parents who remove their children from such damaging situations are ones who are demonstrating maximal care for their children.

This use of parents providing “negative” reasons for deregistration would effectively create a climate of censorship.

It risks being used to silence parents from being able to give what

A healthy system should surely welcome constructive feedback on why the provision had not been suitable, feedback that if encouraged could be used to significantly improve the experience and provision of other children.

However, instead, this mechanism risks being used to silence parents from being able to give helpful, constructive and honest information.
It would risk any issues with school provision not being addressed, to the detriment of children’s well-being.

This is why it is so important to appreciate that:

• Reasons for home educating can and do change
• Reasons for home education are multifactorial
• Even so called “negative reasons” are ways for parents to act in the best interests of their children
• That parents are the ones who are “best” able to discern and advocate for their child’s “best interests”
• That children that parents are considering deregistering have often been expressing their need for an alternative to the school environment in the only ways they know how
• That for many children, school is not the best place to thrive
• That home education is not a second-rate option, but a wonderful opportunity for children, whatever the initial reasons for deregistration.
• That home education is not something to be culled or feared.