Do you know anyone in Congleton who is still homeschooling their kids?

As the number of children being home schooled in Cheshire East has increased by 11 per cent over the past few months.

It is an unexpected side effect of three lockdowns, even as the last one let kids go back to school in March.

A report due to go before Wednesday's (October 6) meeting of the children and families committee shows 457 children were being taught at home at the end of March this year.

In a separate, unrelated issue, the number of referrals to social care has risen by more than a quarter in Cheshire East.

Latest figures available show there were 467 from January to the end of March 2021 and this shot up by 28 per cent to 601 in the three months from April to the end of June this year.

Mr Rowney said in the report: "The main source of the increase is from schools as they are now seeing children in a classroom environment for longer and understanding the impact the Covid pandemic has had on health and wellbeing.

"Analysis shows that the rate of contact to referral increased in 20/21, suggesting that safeguarding risks were still being identified and referred appropriately and this is remaining in quarter one [Q1 of 2021-22 which is April 1, 2021 to June 30, 2021."

For data protection reasons, the exact number of these homeschool pupils from Congleton has not been revealed.

Exam chaos, the stress of testing and shielding families requiring children to stay at home are also behind the rise.

Nationally, there was a 75.6% rise in home education between September 2020 and April 2021. But national figures for the months since have not been revealed.

An Alsager councillor raised concerns about the rise in home schooling in Cheshire East and the social and academic impact it could have on some children.

Cllr June Buckley (Lib Dem) also asked about the extra pressure it placed on the council.

"What do Ofsted actually think about these home educated?" Cllr Buckley asked at the children and families committee meeting.

"If you're a school, you get Ofsteded, but people can take their children out of school, and the onus seems to be on the local authority who are providing a service to suddenly provide somebody else to go in and check."

She added: "Sometimes you need to go to school just to meet other people and learn how to interact."

Latest available figures show the number of children being home educated because their parents have opted to remove them from school has increased by 11 per cent, from 457 at the end of March this year to 509 by the end of June.

A report to the committee stated there were a number of reasons, including anxieties around Covid.

Director of education Jacky Forster said although the council had managed to reduce the potential number by about 60%, 'it's still been a significant increase'.

She said there was a team of home education advisers who had regular contact with the families and children.

"They will meet with the families to make sure that we're confident in that work," said Ms Forster.

"Ofsted have a mixed view. Obviously they have concerns at times about it, and they challenge us about the role we take, and the measures we have to ensure that it's appropriate education.

"They will look at how we are ensuring that we are confident that they are safeguarded and about the welfare of those children, because they're often hidden children."

"Where we have any doubts or risks, we would make an appropriate referral to our social care colleagues because they then have statutory powers," she said.

"It is a difficult area of work because there are expectations of us, but we don't have a lot of legal powers around it."

Are you a homeschooling parent? Get in touch - we'd love to do a story with you.

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