Support for dealing with the Local Authority Scotland

How to start home educating in Scotland:

Every Local Authority (LA) should provide information/guidelines on the withdrawal process on their website, which should be based on the statutory guidance (Scottish Government, January 2025).

The first step is to send your letter asking for consent to withdraw your child from school, as per the guide HERE. You should include your educational provision, as per the guide HERE.

Consent is not needed if: the child has never attended a public school, the child has never attended a public school in that authority’s area, the child is being withdrawn from an independent school, the child has finished primary education in one school but has not started secondary education in another, the school the child has been attending has closed, or the child is not yet of school age.

The LA should send an acknowledgement on receipt of these documents. They should then quickly (within 6 weeks) consider whether there are any reasons for consent to be withheld. You should be kept informed of the progress of the application, the reason for any delay and the likely timescale to reach a decision. The only reasons specified in the guidance relate to open and active child protection issues for the child in question (or their siblings or other children in the family home), or if there is a history of domestic abuse.

If consent is withheld, you should be given the opportunity to address the grounds for refusal and resubmit your request for reconsideration.

Your child should continue to attend school until consent has been received in writing, however the LA should take a reasonable approach to attendance whilst consent is being considered.

Contact with the Local Authority during and after the consent process:

Sections 2.16 and 4.1 of the 2025 Scottish Guidelines confirms LAs are not legally allowed to ‘monitor’ ongoing home education provision. However, the 2025 updated guidelines lay heavier emphasis on how contact could be made. It is now “strongly recommended”, although NOT a statutory requirement, that “local authorities and families known to them to be home educating should have contact in the form of a conversation at least once a year to discuss the progress of the child’s education, and for this conversation to include the child, if the child wishes.” It goes on to state that “where no concerns have been identified, local authorities must conduct the recommended annual contact with a parent/carer in a way that respects the privacy of the parent and child and their choice to home educate”.

Section 4.6 of the 2025 guidelines confirms contact should be made in writing initially and that LAs should not be prescriptive about the format in which information can be submitted by you (eg they cannot insist you fill out a form, talk to them on the phone or in person). After each contact, the LA should write to inform you whether the educational provision was seen to be suitable and efficient. Where concerns are raised, the council should make the exact nature of these concerns clear to you and give you time to address each specific point.

It is concerning that the 2025 guidelines are placing much more obvious emphasis on recommending the “good practice” of verbal meetings, be that in person or digitally, in order to share your information on your home education provision. Educational Freedom recommend all communication be written to ensure accurate data is stored on your behalf.

Section 4.9 of the 2025 guidelines confirm that “the authority does not have a right of access to the home or the child. There is no statutory basis for a local authority to seek access to a child as part of the annual contact with a home educator”. Remember, their duty is only to satisfy themselves as to the efficiency and suitability of your educational provision, not to judge the style, content or format, nor assess your family home or circumstances. They can only recommend in-person meetings, they cannot legally enforce them.

Additions to the 2025 guidelines to bear in mind:

The 2025 guidelines include a greater number of references to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), but the laws have not changed. The guidelines clearly point out in several locations that although your child’s views and opinions on home education should be asked, they are under no obligation to provide them (eg sections 2.4, 3.13). Several Scottish LAs have tried to use the UNCRC Article 12 to insist on speaking to the child before granting consent to withdraw, however the 2025 guidelines make it much clearer that this is not a requirement.

There is now a full paragraph detailing the position for separated parents who disagree over home education, with confirmation that this cannot be used as a reason to delay or withhold consent to withdraw (section 2.20). It states that “Where there is disagreement between separated parents about a child's education, it will be primarily for parents to find agreement where that is possible in the circumstances. It is not for the local authority to try and resolve such disputes.”

Families should be aware of the addition of sections referencing the Named Person scheme within the new guidelines (sections 5.13/5.14). It is recommended that a sentence regarding your wishes for/against a Named Person be included in your initial contact with the LA.

There is also a consultation underway by the Scottish Government to work with LAs to collate data on the numbers of home educated children in order to better inform future policies. Educational Freedom will continue to monitor any such policies and fight against any suggestions of a register system. The guidelines place heavier emphasis on recommending unknown families make themselves known to their LA but confirm this is not statutory.