Home Schooling - Freedom of information

Request:

“Please could you provide data for each of the following queries for the 5 latest available academic years, broken down by year:

Number of children taken out of school, where home-schooling has been given as reason for withdrawal
Breakdown of children by sex, at the point at which they are taken out of school
Breakdown of children by ethnicity, at the point at which they are taken out of school
Reasons for withdrawing (please specify category and number of children within each category)
Number of home-educated children returning into mainstream education at some point before age 18.”

Response:

Devon County Council’s (DCC’s) response is provided below. Please note that the data provided is based on information held by DCC.

Numbers of five or below have been redacted under Section 40(2) of the Freedom of Information Act – ‘Personal Information’. This is because there is a chance of the individual concerned being identified from the data due to the low numbers, which would breach the 1^st Principle of the Data Protection Act – ‘Fair and Lawful Processing’. This is also in line with Department of Education guidance.

		2012-13	2013-14	2014-15	2015-16	2016-17
Q1	Number of students	203	256	329	380	441

Q2	Gender (current status of child)	2012-13	2013-14	2014-15	2015-16	2016-17
	Female	113	128	141	179	218
	Male	90	128	188	201	223
	Total	203	256	329	380	441

Q3	Ethnicity (current status of child)	2012-13	2013-14	2014-15	2015-16	2016-17
	AIND – Indian			*
	BAFR – Black African				*
	COCH – Other Chinese	*	*
	MOTH – Any Oth Mixed b’ground	*	*	*	*	*
	MWAS – White and Asian	*	*	*	7	*
	MWBA – White and Black African		*	*	*	*
	MWBC – White & Black Caribbean	*	*	*	*
	NOBT – Info not yet obtained	*	7	*	*	*
	OAFG – Afghan			*
	OARA – Arab Other					*
	OOEG – Other Ethnic Group	*		*	*	*
	REFU – Refused	*	7	13	15	18
	Unspecified	6	7	*	*	*
	WBRI – White British	176	209	285	323	388
	WEEU – White Eastern Euro’n	*	*		*	*
	WENG – White English	*		*	*
	WIRI – White Irish	*	*		*
	WIRT – Traveller – Irish Herit			*
	WOTW – White Other	*	*	*	*	*
	WROM – Gypsy/Roma	*		*	*	7
	WTUR – Turkish/Turkish Cypriot				*	*
	WWEU – White Western Euro’n	*	*	*	*	*
	Total	203	256	329	380	441

Q4	Reason	2012-13	2013-14	2014-15	2015-16	2016-17
	Alternative Provision	*	*	*
	Attendance/Prosecution			*	33	26
	Bullying	10	11	11	21	23
	Emotional Behavioural Difficulties			9	15	26
	Lifestyle/Philosophy/Culture	7	24	47	38	40
	Medical – Child	9	15	20	36	30
	Medical – Parent	*				*
	Near Exclusion			*	*	*
	Not Known	53	49	52	38	45
	Not Preferred School / School Environment	22	56	93	78	103
	Not Specified	90	82	89	89	117
	Other	*	*	*	11	12
	Problems with SEN Provision	*	*	*	*	11
	Relationship Issues			*	*	*
	Religious				*
	School Refuser/Phobic	*	8	7	12	6

	Note: the totals in this table will not match the total students as some students have moved between a school and home education more than once during an academic year but have had different reasons for moving



		2012-13	2013-14	2014-15	2015-16	2016-17
Q5	Number returning to mainstream	77	94	150	147	184

6. Number of School Attendance Notices issued

Not applicable.

7. Number of school Attendance Orders issued.”

2015/16 – *

2016/17 – *

2017/18 – 0

Figures prior to 2015/16 were not collated so information not held.