Home educated children
Case reference FOI2024/00080
Published 5 February 2024
Request
I would like to request the following information under the freedom of information act:
1. On October census day in 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020 and 2019, how many children and young people were you aware of being electively home educated in your local area?
2. Of these, what proportion were known to have an education, health and care plan or statement of special educational need.
3. How many formal notifications for elective home education were made in each of the last five academic years (2022-23, 2021-22, 2020-21, 2019-20 and 2018-19)
4. During each of the last five academic years, how many local children were known to be electively home educated at any point across the academic year (the cumulative total)?
5. In the academic years 2022-23, 2021-22, 2018-19 and 2017-18, how much income did the council receive from penalty notices for unauthorised school absences?
Response
I would like to request the following information under the freedom of information act:
1. On October census day in 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020 and 2019, how many children and young people were you aware of being electively home educated in your local area?
A) Please note, counts of Elective Home Educated (EHE) children were only collected at the end of the academic year. Therefore, the following counts are all based on the end of the academic year, rather than October census day.
2022/23 273
2021/22 267
2020/21 229
2019/20 177
2018/19 174
2. Of these, what proportion were known to have an education, health and care plan or statement of special educational need.
A) 2022/23 13
2021/22 23
2020/21 13
2019/20 14
2018/19 13
3. How many formal notifications for elective home education were made in each of the last five academic years (2022-23, 2021-22, 2020-21, 2019-20 and 2018-19)
A) 2022/23 131
2021/22 130
2020/21 147
2019/20 65
2018/19 Information not available - please see the Important Note below.
4. During each of the last five academic years, how many local children were known to be electively home educated at any point across the academic year (the cumulative total)?
A) 2022/23 330
2021/22 284
2020/21 265
2019/20 177
2018/19 Information not available - please see the Important Note below.
5. In the academic years 2022-23, 2021-22, 2018-19 and 2017-18, how much income did the council receive from penalty notices for unauthorised school absences?
A) Please note that money received from penalty notices is not income for the council, but is used for issuing and enforcing penalty notices and prosecuting recipients who do not pay.
2022/23 £26,160.00
2021/22 £17,880.00
2018/19 £27,060.00
2017/18 £30,120.00
Important Note - Historically, details of EHE children were only collected for statutory school-age children. With the exception of 2022/23, counts for EHE children in Q1 and Q2 above were taken from the end of academic year reports produced for that particular year.
In 2023, EHE data was transferred into the current Management Information System (MIS). The figures for Q3 and Q4 are based on information taken from the MIS. However, data prior to 2019/20 is unavailable and we are therefore unable to report on this.
Documents
This is Herefordshire Council's response to a freedom of information (FOI) or environmental information regulations (EIR) request.
You can browse our other responses or make a new FOI request.