Over the last few years, Home Ed Cymru, a large peer led support network of Welsh home educators, has regularly attempted to engage with the Welsh Government and councils in Wales in providing feedback on policies and experiences.
A selection of some of these steps towards meaningful engagement can be found here.
It is not possible or helpful to provide all correspondences here.
This is simply a demonstration of some of the attempts of home educators to respectfully reach out to and engage with the Welsh Government and local councils in Wales.
This also forms a record of the range of issues of concern,
alongside documentation of the reasons why those issues were felt to be problematic, misleading or misrepresentative.
Whilst it is not appropriate to publish any responses without consent, the lack of change in approaches, policies and documentation, will be demonstrated in the shortly to be published review of present Welsh council policy and practice on EHE.
This can provide the reader with some insight into the lack of engagement and accountability of the former Welsh Government and councils in Wales.
This is shared therefore in the trust that the future Welsh Government will seek to be meaningful and constructive in engagement with families in Wales, and ensure that there are appropriate and reliable independent systems of accountability, advocacy, mediation, appeals, complaints and tribunals of families in Wales in relation to any proposed future increase in powers or remits of council staff regarding EHE.
Communications with the Welsh Government.
Many of the communications to councils will also have been sent to the Welsh Government.
Below are a short selection of communications that were sent specifically to the Welsh Government.
Although from a different group and network, please also see communications that were sent to the previous Cabinet Secretary for Education, Jeremy Miles, at the start of the seventh Senedd, by Families First in Education Wales,
Especially the legal rebuttal of the former Children’s Commissioner for Wales rationale and use of UNCRC as justification for calls to change guidance and legislation, as found here:
The then Cabinet Secretary did not respond to that rebuttal and did not agree to requests by Families First in Education to meet personally to discuss this or intended policy on EHE.
Urgent correspondence to the Welsh Cabinet Secretary for Education April 2024
Urgent correspondence to Lynne Neagle to ask for personal intervention regarding the lack of opportunities for home educated children and young people to respond to the consultation on CME databases, alongside concerns of misrepresentation of lawful roles and responsibilities in consultation communications.
Ms Neagle declined to respond personally or engage with home educators, with unfortunately unsatisfactory responses sent from civil servants only.
Home Ed Cymru’s Submitted Response to the consultation on CME databases.
Feedback of survey of home educators concerns and experiences of the Welsh Government offering only in-person-only method for EHE children and young people to respond to the CME consultation, alongside repeated requests for copies of information disseminated and used in those two in-person meetings.
EiE, after several requests, provided copies of the PowerPoint slides used but repeatedly refused to provide copies of the information leaflets that were used in the sessions, leaflets that those who attended felt contained misleading information, and also did not respond to the survey findings.
As an example of the kinds of responses that Home Ed Cymru could receive to such requests for information, their final response was “As there is nothing further to add to our response of 6 August, this query has now been closed down”
Attempt to engage with Cabinet Secretary for Education June 2025 for clarification on outworking of CME database mechanisms.
Ms Neagle did not respond, and several attempts at communications with civil servants instead did not bring clarity or definitive answers to questions on how the pilot mechanisms would work, with civil servants then refusing further communication.
Communications with Education Departments of each Welsh county/city councils – on specific issues.
Elective Home Education Guidance – Amended by Home Educators 18th July 2023
A team of experienced home educators collaborated to review the newly published EHE guidance and propose respectful and appropriate amendments.
This was sent to the Welsh Government and each LA in Wales in an attempt to engage conversation on and highlight areas of concern, as well as an attempt to encourage the Welsh Government to revise their guidance.
Clarification of understanding of the newly revised Welsh Government EHE guidance.
As sent to each LA in Wales – 19th September 2023
Letter on Welsh Government’s “Supplementary Materials” for Councils on EHE – 4th February 2024.
These supplementary materials of template forms, flowcharts and letters on the implementation of the 2023 guidance had been produced by the Welsh government and sent to each LA in Wales, but not published in the public domain. When Home Ed Cymru managed to obtain copies, we were concerned that these materials appeared to reflect intentions of the draft guidance which would not be legally enforced, and therefore provided misleading information for council staff and families alike, including the potential of causing council staff to act unlawfully if used as written.
Hence the attempts to engage the Welsh Government on this, and to explain to council staff in each LA the risks of use of these inappropriate and misleading materials.
Communications with Education Departments of each Welsh county/city councils – regular feedback
Periodic reflections of experiences of home educators as sent to each council in Wales.
Midpoint of year feedback of experiences to Welsh councils June 2024
New Year feedback of experiences to Welsh Councils January 2025
New Year feedback of experiences to Welsh Councils January 2026
Communications with Individual Education Departments of Welsh County/City Councils –
This section includes Feedback sent to various individual councils in Wales on their policies on EHE
alongside in some cases correspondence to the relevant Scrutiny Committees.
Feedback to each LA on policies that have been revised since the publication of the 2023 Welsh Government guidance on EHE is a work in progress, work which was paused to enable the team to focus on CWS Bill and CME database issues.
Thus, individualised feedback has only been provided to a few LAs to date.
Unfortunately concerning and inappropriate comments by members of scrutiny committees and/or misleading or concerning comments by council staff, including within reports to scrutiny committees, have necessitated correspondence in a number of cases.
There have been other cases of concern in terms of scrutiny committees in Wales where there simply was not capacity to address these at the time, given the many challenges of providing support to home educators in Wales including in relation to council conduct and approach.
Torfaen CC scrutiny committee – January 2024
Letter to Pembrokeshire CC regarding concerning and misleading job advertisement for new member of staff to work with home educators May 2024 onwards.
No response received to 5 emails regarding this, other than an isolated acknowledgement of receipt.
Blaenau Gwent CC scrutiny committee – July 2024
Alongside various discriminatory or inflammatory statements by committee members, quotes include the declaration by the Director for Education of their belief that “Our ultimate aim is for all of our young people to be in school” (note the use of the possessive “our”).
Correspondence to Pembrokeshire CC Scrutiny Committee from Home Ed Cymru – September 2024.
in conjunction with
Correspondence from Pembrokeshire home educators to Pembrokeshire Scrutiny Committee September 2024
Feedback on revised policy and Scrutiny Committee report Caerphilly County Council October 2024
Feedback on revised policy to Rhondda Cynon Taff CC October 2024
Correspondence with Bridgend CC re misleading information on council website November 2024
Monmouthshire Scrutiny Committee
No correspondence from Home Ed Cymru directly to the committee at the time, But problems with Scrutiny Committee meetings/report on EHE noted by Families First in Education Wales and communicated to Senedd Members by Home Ed Cymru
Wellbeing in Education Wales 