23 November 2008
Please return your responses to arrive by 14 February 2007 at the latest:
1. By e-mail to:
home.education@scotland.gsi.gov.uk
2. By mail to:
Review of Home Education Guidance, Scottish Executive, Educational Options Team, Area 2B-(N), Victoria Quay, Edinburgh , EH6 6QQ .
3. Online form below
Please complete and return the respondent information form attached at Annex B of this document, so we know how to handle your response.
If you have any questions, or would like any part of this consultation paper translated into another language, please contact Nicola Radley on 0131 244 0942.
We would be grateful if you could clearly indicate in your response which questions or parts of the consultation paper you are responding to as this will aid our analysis of the responses received.
This consultation, and all other Scottish Executive consultation exercises, can be viewed online on the consultation web pages of the Scottish Executive website at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/consultations. You can telephone Freephone 0800 77 1234 to find out where your nearest public internet access point is.
Handling your response
We need to know how you wish your response to be handled and, in particular, whether you are happy for your response to be made public. Please complete and return the respondent information form enclosed with this consultation paper as this will ensure that we treat your response appropriately. If you ask for your response not to be published we will regard it as confidential, and we will treat it accordingly. The respondent information form is reproduced at Annex B.
All respondents should be aware that the Scottish Executive are subject to the provisions of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 and would therefore have to consider any request made to it under the Act for information relating to responses made to this consultation exercise.
Next steps in the process
Where respondents have given permission for their response to be made public (see the respondent information form), these will be made available to the public in the Scottish Executive Library. We will check all responses where agreement to publish has been given for any potentially defamatory material before logging them in the library. You can make arrangements to view responses by contacting the SE Library on 0131 244 4565. Responses can be copied and sent to you, but a charge may be made for this service.
What happens next ?
Following the closing date, all responses will be analysed and considered along with any other available evidence to help us draft an updated guidance document. We aim to issue a report on this consultation process by 15 March 2007 .
Comments and complaints
If you have any comments about how this consultation exercise has been conducted, please send them to Lynn Henni at the address above.
Registering to receive information about other consultations
The Scottish Executive now has an email alert system for consultations http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Consultations/seConsult. This system allows stakeholder individuals and organisations to register and receive a weekly email containing details of all new consultations (including web links). SEconsult complements, but in no way replaces SE distribution lists, and is designed to allow stakeholders to keep up to date with all SE consultation activity, and therefore be alerted at the earliest opportunity to those of most interest. We would encourage you to register.
The Scottish Executive Consultation Process
Consultation is an essential and important aspect of Scottish Executive working methods. Given the wide-ranging areas of work of the Scottish Executive, there are many varied types of consultation. However, in general, Scottish Executive consultation exercises aim to provide opportunities for all those who wish to express their opinions on a proposed area of work to do so in ways which will inform and enhance that work.
The Scottish Executive encourages consultation that is thorough, effective and appropriate to the issue under consideration and the nature of the target audience. Consultation exercises take account of a wide range of factors, and no two exercises are likely to be the same.
Typically Scottish Executive consultations involve a written paper inviting answers to specific questions or more general views about the material presented. Written papers are distributed to organisations and individuals with an interest in the issue, and they are also placed on the Scottish Executive web site enabling a wider audience to access the paper and submit their responses 8. Consultation exercises may also involve seeking views in a number of different ways, such as through public meetings, focus groups or questionnaire exercises. Copies of all the written responses received to a consultation exercise (except those where the individual or organisation requested confidentiality) are placed in the Scottish Executive library at Saughton House, Edinburgh (K Spur, Saughton House, Broomhouse Drive , Edinburgh , EH11 3XD , telephone 0131 244 4565).
All Scottish Executive consultation papers and related publications (eg, analysis of response reports) can be accessed on the website.
The views and suggestions detailed in consultation responses are analysed and used as part of the decision making process, along with a range of other available information and evidence. Depending on the nature of the consultation exercise the responses received may:
Final decisions on the issues under consideration will also take account of a range of other factors, including other available information and research evidence.
While details of particular circumstances described in a response to a consultation exercise may usefully inform the policy process, consultation exercises cannot address individual concerns and comments, which should be directed to the relevant public body.
Please complete the details on the Respondent Information Form below. This will help ensure we handle your response appropriately.
Yes, make my response, name and address all available Yes, make my response available, but not my name or address Yes, make my response and name available, but not my address
The name and address of your organisation will be made available to the public (in the Scottish Executive library and/or on the Scottish Executive website). Are you also content for your response to be made available?
Yes No we will treat your response as confidential
We will share your response internally with other Scottish Executive policy teams who may be addressing the issues you discuss. They may wish to contact you again in the future, but we require your permission to do so. Are you content for the Scottish Executive to contact you again in the future in relation to this consultation response?
Yes No
Please type your answers in the text boxes below. Feel free to answer only the question that you feel relevant to you.
Question 1: Is there anything else you would wish to see in the introduction to the guidance?
Question 2: Do you consider that the legal position is presented clearly enough in the guidance?
Question 3: Would the section on the legislative position benefit from
Question 4: Is the section on who needs consent set out clearly enough, and if not do you have any suggestions for improvement of this section?
Question 5: Is it necessary to state possible reasons for choosing to home educate, given that this has no bearing on whether consent is given?
Question 6: If you feel it is helpful to state possible reasons, do you believe that the list at section 3.5 should be updated, or does it adequately cover the main reasons for wishing to home educate?
Question 7: Would you find it helpful if the guidance specifically referred to the particular issues surrounding Gypsy/Traveller families and home education?
Question 8: How is the process of requesting to withdraw a child from school currently working without a specified suggested timescale within which the authority should respond?
Question 9: Do you have any suggestions for improvement of the section on withdrawing the child?
Question 10: Do you find the section on developing relationships useful?
Question 11: How is the current guidance regarding frequency and type of contact between home educators and education authorities working, and would you like to see it changed in any way?
Question 12: Do sections 4.18 and 4.19 provide adequate coverage, for the purpose of this guidance, on child protection issues, and if not, what further guidance would you like to see?
Question 13: Do you have any suggestions, not already mentioned in the guidance, of how better relationships can be developed?
Question 14: Does section 5 set out clearly enough the roles and responsibilities for providing efficient and suitable education, and the monitoring of that education for:
If not, how would you improve it?
Question 15: Do you consider the list of suggested characteristics of efficient and suitable education at section 5.5 helpful and relevant, and if not, would you wish to:
Question 16: Is the section on attendance orders helpful, and if not, how would you amend it?
Question 17: Do you have any comments regarding the home education of children with additional support needs, which you feel should be reflected in any revised guidance?
Question 18: Do you find it useful to have a section on qualification options in the guidance, and would you like to see any changes or additions to this section?
Question 19: Are there any organisations, or types of organisation, not currently represented that you would like to see included in the contacts section?
Question 20: Are there any other issues not addressed elsewhere which you feel should be taken into account during the review of the guidance?
Page updated: August 15, 2005