A tragic example Jack for which the blame cannot be totally placed on the employees of the LEA or welfare services

Despite recommendations of a recent report
Review of Elective Home Education in England June 2009 discussed in another thread (***see below) here, while education is compulsory for children in the UK, going to school is not, and it is believed between 20,000 and 50,000 children are educated at home, but the exact figure is unknown.

There is no legal requirement for home educators to update the LEA on the child's progress, to have any teaching qualifications, to give their children lessons or even to follow any kind of syllabus or the national curriculum.

There is also no automatic right of access to the parent's home, parents may refuse a meeting in the home

Similarly, the LEA has no legal obligation to investigate parents who don't send their children to school, unless there are very real and justifiable concerns for the child's welfare


*** in which it was completely inaccurately stated that -

"They're also making it more and more difficult to home-educate (no surprises there then)...and of course, every single child in the country is now on a registar from birth to 18, to which police, teachers, social workers and medical staff have instant access....PARENTS have no access to this at all.
Any child considered 'at risk' has a flag by their name.
My son does. Why? Because he's home-educated....and ALL home-educated children are now considered 'at risk'."

http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=123900#2732609