Elective Home Education Team

Service details

Who are we?

Making the decision to withdraw your child from school can be a difficult choice and needs careful consideration to ensure it is a fully informed choice.

The Elective Home Education Service helps provide information on:

  • services that may help with school or education-related issues
  • what to consider when deciding to home-educate a child or young person
  • what you need to know / what the law says 

Things to think about before you decide to home-educate

If you decide to teach your child at home you should consider the following:

  • The advantages or disadvantages of both options. Home and mainstream education. 
  • The costs involved. You will be responsible for all costs relating to your child’s education. 
  • The social aspects of your child’s development. Your child still needs to be involved in social activities, friendship groups, and play opportunities with other children of a similar age. 

Home education should not be seen as a solution to problems with children not wanting to attend school.  It is better to understand and try to resolve the reason why they do not want to go to a school than make a hasty decision.

School staff, Education Attendance Officers, and Hackney's Re-Engagment Unit are able to offer help with these problems.


When can you start to home educate?

You can teach your child at home once your child reaches compulsory school age. This is the term after their 5th birthday. Home education can begin at any time during a school year.


What about children with Special Educational Needs or Disability (SEND)?

Children with special educational needs may be educated at home whether or not they have an Education Health Care Plan (EHC Plan).

If your child has an EHC Plan and is attending a mainstream school but you feel the support your child needs, and that has been identified in their EHC plan, is not being provided and this is the reason you are considering removing them from the school you can ask for an “early review” meeting so that this can be looked at in more detail.  

At this meeting, you can discuss any concerns with relevant professionals from the school and other services and look at how to resolve them.


What is the process for children in special schools?

If your child is attending a special school, then you must get permission before you take your child “off role” or out of the school.  Once you have permission the local authority will contact you to ask for some information. 


What about children who have additional needs but not an EHC Plan?

If you are worried your child’s needs are not being met at mainstream school:

Sometimes you may be the first to realise that your child may have an additional or special educational need.

Children who need extra support at school can get it and schools already have funding for this. This is called “SEN Support”.

SEN support is paid for with funding that already exists within the school's delegated funding or budget share.

SEN Support is provided from an amount of funding that can extend to £ 6,000 but this is not necessarily the appropriate amount for every student who requires some additional support.

Most students will have their needs met without requiring the full funding of this level. Schools should follow the Graduate Response to support.

SEN support in mainstream schools is how most children with additional needs are supported. 


SEN Support funding helps schools take quick action for students who need extra help or support with more commonly occurring SEN needs that may affect children before the need for an EHC Plan.


What kind of support can the school give my child?

To find out what support a school could offer at SEN Support look at its SEN Information Report. All schools should be able to say how they support all children and some schools have enhanced support for a particular kind of SEND or need.

These reports should be easy to find on the school's own website or can be requested from the school. 


If your child has a health condition or disability there is a service that supports schools to meet their needs. Children who can access the Medical Needs Tuition Service must still be "on roll" with a school and it does not apply to children who have been taken out of school to be home-educated. 


Can anyone help parents and young people?

There are impartial services that support parents who need help communicating with their child’s schools. Hackney SENDIAGS (SEND Information, Advice, and Guidance Service) is a local service that can help you think about, prepare for, and attend school meetings with you. This service was previously called The Parent Partnership Service.


When might an Education, Health, and Care Needs Assessment (EHCNA) request be necessary?

If SEN Support has been tried and/or you feel that your child or young person’s needs are significantly impacting their learning you can request an Education, Health and Care needs assessment. Even if this does not lead to an EHC plan it could help identify what the underlying issues are and help everyone understand what needs to happen at school to make the experience better for your child or young person.

EHC Needs Assessment Request forms can be found in the documents library section of this website and there is an Education, Health, and Care Planning Team who will contact you to let you know when they have received your request and where it is in the 20 week timeline. 


There are services in Hackney to help parents and young people apply for EHC needs assessments. If you are going to apply for an assessment it is helpful to have examples and/or supporting information that explains why you are concerned about your child or young person.

Some services have drop-in sessions where you can discuss concerns with a professional without having to have a formal referral.  

SEND Local Offer

Local Offer Age Bands
Early Years and Pregnancy 0-4
Primary 4 -10
Secondary 11-14
Preparing for Adulthood 14-18
SEN Provision Type
  • Targeted

Who to contact

Contact Name
katie.stone@hackney.gov.uk
Contact Position
Hackney Education Elective Home Education Lead
Telephone
0208 820 7060 0208 820 7060
E-mail
ElectiveHomeEducation@hackney.gov.uk
Website
education.hackney.gov.uk/.../elective-home-education
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Where to go

Name
Hackney Service Centre
Address
Hackney Education (Floor 3)
1 Hillman Street
Hackney Service Centre
London
Postcode

E8 1DY

View E8 1DY on a map
Venue Notes

Buses: 30, 38, 55, 106, 236, 388, 242, 253, 276, 277, D6

Train: London Fields, Hackney Central, Hackney Downs

Other details

What to do if you have a complaint

If you have feedback about the service, something you like or are not happy with please discuss it with the worker or manager in the service. They will use your feedback to look at if the service is as good as it can be and try to help sort out any problems. 

If you are still not happy with the service you can raise your concerns formally. This means someone who is not part of the service will look at your feedback or concern and see if anything can or needs to be done to help make things better.

If you need to make a formal complaint you can use the London Borough of Hackney complaints procedure.

Feedback from parents and others who have used this service

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Disclaimer

Read our disclaimer - important information about Hackney SEND Local Offer and FIS

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