Erosion of Parental Responsibility by the Backdoor

I have started and restarted this post so many times as the Children’s Unhappiness Bill (as nicknamed by me) but known by the Government and officially as the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill is the gift that keeps on giving. It is not even subtle in hiding its erosion of parental responsibility in relation to EDUCATION, and it seems to come from an unfounded premise that LA’s ALWAYS KNOW BETTER THAN PARENTS WHAT IS IN A CHILDS BEST INTEREST.

A particularly strange concept to a substantial proportion of parents whose child comes under the SEN umbrella, I include myself in this group. If as this Bill seems to infer parents do not know what is best for their children but Local Authorities do why does the DFE own published information clearly demonstrate LA’s do not comply with Children’s and Family Act 2014 which literally is legislation in place to put in place appropriate support in a child’s best interests, why is the Tribunal over run with LA’s literally in the majority of cases not complying with the current law and by actively defending the indefensible and crucially not acting in the child’s best interests.

Why are their Judicial Review’s necessary because Local Authorities’ literally defy a child’s best interests and appear to misuse care proceedings instead of listening to the parent who does have the best interests at their heart for their child.

Even more incredulous is the Bill is long but contains NO genuine meaningful checks and balances to ensure were Local Authorities get it wrong we as a parent can protect our child from the arm of the state (Local Authority) potentially causing harm to our child and family.

I read with horror the DFE accompanying explanatory notes , and what it implies, if your child’s mechanism of receiving education is through home education your child will not be able to have their home treated as a private safe space. I know many have in the past explicitly raised to members of the DFE that a family’s home is precisely that and raised that their child’s needs may require their home to be their home and safe space from strangers intruding. If you want to look this intrusion up yourself, see page 22 “Introduce a requirement for local authorities to consider the home environment and other learning environments when determining whether or not children should be required to attend school.” In what free society is it  written into law that when there is not even suspicion of harm a child is not entitled to have their home as a safe space. Existing law already has mechanisms in place to access a child when there is suspicion of potential for significant harm with appropriate checks and balances in place.

Michelle Zaher                      19/12/24

Educational Freedom