“It’s plugging a gap,” she continues. “If your child is struggling with their mental health, you can’t get an NHS referral and you want to keep them safe, what do you do? That’s very different to a parent who chooses it.”
The Department for Education says it knows “far too many children with SEND aren’t having their needs met” and recently announced £740m of funding to increase the number of places for pupils within mainstream schools.
More than 1.6 million children have SEND in schools in England, an increase of 101,000 from 2023. Experts say there are various reasons for this, including greater awareness.
In October, the public spending watchdog warned the special educational needs system is broken and families have lost confidence in it. Which begins to explain part of the spike in home education.
What remains unclear is how effective this is as a solution.
In the US, a much larger proportion of the population – an estimated 6% of children – learn at home, and studies there have found that home-educated children perform as well as, or outperform, their peers, external in most academic tests.
However, some experts point to the fact that participants in surveys tend to be in highly educated, middle-class families with internet access, which leaves out under-represented groups.
In the UK, the Education Committee called on the government in 2021 to commission research on the life chances and social outcomes of home-educated children – but three years later, the research is still limited.
One challenge with measuring success in the UK is that there is no obligation for home-educated children to follow the national curriculum or sit exams. Parents simply have a duty to provide a “suitable education”.
Earlier this month, the Education Policy Institute, an independent research organisation, warned that a lack of clarity around the law and what is required, “potentially risks some children missing out,” and that not knowing who or where they are “raises questions about variation in the quality and suitability of home education.”
