Letter to my MP
Dear Chris McCafferty,
Re: Lone parent home educators on Income Support
Many thanks for your letter of the 21st April 2008 on this subject enclosing Stephen Timms' reply to your representations on my behalf.
Mr Timms' reply included the following:
"Home education presents certain flexibilities where unlike lone parents who send their children to school, they do not necessarily have to observe school hours, days or terms thus allowing them greater flexibility to fit work around their children's education."
The matter is currently in consultation for a very short period of time (http://www.ssac.org.uk/actcon.asp) before the decision is finalised, so I would now ask that you urgently reply to Mr Timms on my behalf to correct the serious misapprehension under which he seems to be labouring.
I would like you to explain to him that home education often takes place throughout all of the child's waking hours - not just in certain pre-arranged chunks of the day. Many people - myself included - educate our children according to the autonomous method which involves being constantly on hand to facilitate learning whenever opportunities arise. Far from allowing us greater flexibility to fit paid work around our children's learning, this means that we have no spare time whatsoever.
We home educate in this way partly because many of us consider it to be the only way for us to ensure our compliance with our duties in section 7 of the Education Act 1996, which compels us to "cause our children to receive efficient full-time education suitable to their age, ability and aptitude, and to any special educational needs they may have, either by regular attendance at school or otherwise." Many of us deregistered our children from schools in which the above legal requirement was certainly not being met and are therefore unwilling to risk further damage to our children's education by changing our present arrangements.
If no exemption is made for home educators in the decision to move all lone parents on Income Support onto Job Seekers' Allowance, I imagine many home educating lone parents will, rather than opting to register their children at school, choose instead to forego the adult component of their benefits. This will of course exacerbate the issue of child poverty that the current proposals are supposed to improve. As you can see, lone parent home educators are likely to be placed in such an impossible position if and when this change goes ahead.
I therefore urge you as my MP, as well as conveying the realities of the situation for lone parent home educators to Mr Timms on my behalf, to vote against this decision if it comes before the House.
I am a member of AHEd (Action for Home Educators) and you can read more about that organisation's position and progress on this issue on its public wiki here: http://ahed.pbwiki.com/WelfareReformLoneParents.
Thanks again for your invaluable support.
Yours sincerely,
Gill Kilner
Re: Lone parent home educators on Income Support
Many thanks for your letter of the 21st April 2008 on this subject enclosing Stephen Timms' reply to your representations on my behalf.
Mr Timms' reply included the following:
"Home education presents certain flexibilities where unlike lone parents who send their children to school, they do not necessarily have to observe school hours, days or terms thus allowing them greater flexibility to fit work around their children's education."
The matter is currently in consultation for a very short period of time (http://www.ssac.org.uk/actcon.asp) before the decision is finalised, so I would now ask that you urgently reply to Mr Timms on my behalf to correct the serious misapprehension under which he seems to be labouring.
I would like you to explain to him that home education often takes place throughout all of the child's waking hours - not just in certain pre-arranged chunks of the day. Many people - myself included - educate our children according to the autonomous method which involves being constantly on hand to facilitate learning whenever opportunities arise. Far from allowing us greater flexibility to fit paid work around our children's learning, this means that we have no spare time whatsoever.
We home educate in this way partly because many of us consider it to be the only way for us to ensure our compliance with our duties in section 7 of the Education Act 1996, which compels us to "cause our children to receive efficient full-time education suitable to their age, ability and aptitude, and to any special educational needs they may have, either by regular attendance at school or otherwise." Many of us deregistered our children from schools in which the above legal requirement was certainly not being met and are therefore unwilling to risk further damage to our children's education by changing our present arrangements.
If no exemption is made for home educators in the decision to move all lone parents on Income Support onto Job Seekers' Allowance, I imagine many home educating lone parents will, rather than opting to register their children at school, choose instead to forego the adult component of their benefits. This will of course exacerbate the issue of child poverty that the current proposals are supposed to improve. As you can see, lone parent home educators are likely to be placed in such an impossible position if and when this change goes ahead.
I therefore urge you as my MP, as well as conveying the realities of the situation for lone parent home educators to Mr Timms on my behalf, to vote against this decision if it comes before the House.
I am a member of AHEd (Action for Home Educators) and you can read more about that organisation's position and progress on this issue on its public wiki here: http://ahed.pbwiki.com/WelfareReformLoneParents.
Thanks again for your invaluable support.
Yours sincerely,
Gill Kilner
posted by Gill at
07:47
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