Meeting with the Scottish Executive |
| Four members of the EO response team had a meeting on September
27th with officers from the Scottish Executive as part of the consultation
process for the guidance on home education in Scotland. We met with
the officers who have recently taken over responsibility for amending
the draft to discuss the major issues raised by it, and to try and
discover what form the consultation process will take in the future.
This was a preliminary discussion at our suggestion with the intention
of helping the new staff to understand some of the difficulties home
educators have with the draft guidance and to hear their concerns
and where they are in the process.
We emphasised that as home educators are the providers and consumers of home education, the guidance should reflect their views and experience and should only incorporate the views of local authorities in so far as the practicalities of implementation are concerned. In other words the views of home educators as the experts in home education should be weighted heavily over those of education authorities within the parameters of the statute and the spirit of the law. The officers indicated that they are hoping to have further meetings with EO and with other home educating groups as well as with local authorities. There was no detailed discussion of EO's response at this meeting, but they have agreed that it will be necessary to have detailed discussions with all parties when they have fully assimilated the issues involved. They were unable to commit to an exact timetable, but did say that they are trying to prioritise the guidance as it has been dragging on for so long. EO will continue to put pressure on the executive to keep the consultation process on the guidance moving. In the meantime we have written to Schoohouse and HEAS in Scotland to inform them of the meeting as it is our view that co-operation between home education support groups will be crucial in achieving the best possible outcome for the consultation process on the guidance in Scotland. If you are aware of any other home education support groups in Scotland who might like to be kept informed, please contact Jill Fisher or Ann Samuel Till. Jill Fisher |
| Back to Scottish Index |
