Written question asked by Lindsay Hoyle (Labour) on Tuesday, 23 February 2010, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 25 February 2010. It was answered by Iain Wright (Labour) on Monday, 29 March 2010 on behalf of the Department for Children, Schools and Families.

Home Education

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what mechanisms are in place to ensure home-schooled children have (a) information about and (b) access to examination centres.

Answer: The ““Report to the Secretary of State on the Review of Elective Home Education in England”” (the Badman Report) recommended that local authorities should support home-educated children and young people in finding appropriate examination centres, and provide entries free to all home-educated candidates who have demonstrated sufficiently their preparedness, for all DCSF funded qualifications. The Government have accepted this recommendation, and the Department's statutory guidance to local authorities on registration and monitoring will set out the steps they should take to work with schools and FE colleges to identify suitable examination and assessment centres for home-educated children. A draft of this guidance will be issued for consultation later this year.The Government also welcome the work of the Qualifications and Curriculum Development Agency (QCDA) and the Association of Colleges (AoC), who are considering how they can encourage and support schools and further education colleges to provide a better service to home educators and other private candidates. QCDA recently published a leaflet, ““Accepting Private Candidates””, to provide examination centres with practical advice, and to alleviate any unjustified concerns they might have.

Secondary information