Home-schooling is an emotive subject. This week the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill returns to the House of Lords. In theory, no one would oppose a law designed to keep children safe and ensure they receive a meaningful education. But the worry is that the bill blurs the line between protecting children and penalising responsible families who choose to educate their children at home.
The rise in home-schooling since the pandemic has been dramatic. There has been an increase in elective home education in England from around 92,000 in autumn 2023 to an estimated 111,700 in autumn 2024. That’s a near 21 per cent jump. Children now educated at home make up 1.4 per cent of all compulsory school-age children.
Why the boom? The simplistic explanation that pandemic fears alone drove parents out of schools no longer holds. Post-Covid data suggests only a small fraction of parents cited health concerns as their main reason for home-schooling; more significant drivers were mental health, unmet special educational needs (SEND) and dissatisfaction with mainstream provision. For many families, home education has become a proactive, thoughtful choice made in the best interests of their children.
However, this nuance appears to have been lost. The bill would introduce a national register of children not in school and strengthen council powers over those choosing home education. To critics, this looks less like safeguarding than a surveillance framework, treating all home-schoolers as potential risks.
Opponents claim government overreach, arguing parents would be required to log every hour of teaching, and warning that compelling registration jeopardises the very freedom home education is meant to preserve. They say the bill conflates home education with safeguarding risk, despite a lack of evidence that home-schooled children are more vulnerable than in-school peers. Could sweeping mandates deter families from choosing home education, pushing children into circumstances that do harm them? Critics also suggest that, under the bill, home education could be curtailed even where it secures a child’s welfare better than local schools do, especially for those with SEND or severe school anxiety.
And yet, the state does have responsibilities. Thinly resourced councils struggle to track children not in school. Surely, this strain highlights the need for better resourcing and better systems, not blanket regulation tarring all families with the same brush? A safeguarding structure that cares for children without undermining parental autonomy is possible. It must distinguish between cases of genuine risk and legitimate educational choice. A national register could be part of that, but only if accompanied by strict safeguards on data use, respecting diverse educational approaches and supporting, not penalising, home educators.
Parliament must ask a simple question this week: do we want a law that protects children without trampling on freedom, or one that uses the language of well-being as a Trojan horse for surveillance? This is not just about home-schooling; it’s about the kind of society we want: one that trusts families to make deeply personal decisions, or one that assumes the worst until the state approves? The bill, in its current form, may lean worryingly towards the latter.
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