Member

These are families that just need to be allowed to get on with home-educating. We can see the seriousness of their intent through things such as exam entry, structured curricula and endorsements. Why focus on such families, diverting attention from cases where there may be genuine concern? We need to consider the capacity of local authorities themselves—I do not think we have spoken about that much so far in any of the groups. A scrutiny panel noted that staffing remains a pressure, especially within the Education Welfare Service, with relatively small teams working at full capacity and escalating demand making it difficult to allocate resources effectively. In such a system, forcing capable families into burdensome processes risks creating more false positives than protections. Amendment 230 would offer relief, not only to families but to officers themselves, freeing up time and focus for those situations that genuinely need intervention. Let us create a filtering mechanism, freeing up time and capacity to focus support and safeguarding where they are most needed.