Member

Amendment 233 in the name of my noble friend Lord Wei proposes that qualified teachers be exempt from registration, and there are similar suggestions in other amendments of his. I think this reflects the difficulty that we sometimes see, where the people—the local authority staff—performing the home education roles do not have sufficient background, confidence and support that they will trust their own judgment. If you have two qualified teachers bringing up their own child, or somebody who clearly has a good history of successfully home-educating children, it ought to be easy for the local authority personnel to place trust in that and to say, “No, we do not have to dot every ‘i’ and cross every ‘t’. This is clearly a good place. I have seen the children, and I understand what the education being provided here is. It is clearly quality. I need to turn my attention in other directions”. That system works in many local authorities; in others, it has completely broken down, which I think the Bristol letter illustrates. We need ways in which that sort of relationship can be encouraged and, where it breaks down, we can get some restoration and some movement back towards the centre.