Middlesbrough councillor slams qualifications of parents

Independent Councillor Joan McTigue shared her views during the first meeting of the newly formed Children’s Scrutiny Panel. During the meeting, Caroline Cannon, Interim Director for Education and Partnerships at Middlesbrough Council, confirmed that it was the council’s preference for kids to be in mainstream education.

Ms Cannon outlined different service areas, such as attendance and admissions, to members of the committee on June 24. She said that council priorities included reducing the number of permanent exclusions and suspensions across the town and improving attendance figures, highlighting how the two were linked – with lower exclusions will come better attendance rates. Ensuring there is a sufficient number of school places for all children and young people was also highlighted.

Ms Cannon said: “Our exclusions and suspensions are a major challenge for Middlesbrough. We know that we are one of the highest in the country in terms of the rates of exclusions and suspensions.” She discussed the importance of a “sufficiency of specialist placements – you will probably know that nationally, since 2018, there’s been 140% increase in requests for children seeking an education, health and care plan,” highlighting how this puts pressure on the system.

There are currently 88 permanent exclusions across the town, which is a slightly lower figure than last year. Ms Cannon said: “It’s good to see that there hasn’t been a sharp spike, we’re starting to be stable.” When it comes to suspensions, there has also been a reduction in the days lost per pupil, with suspension rates slowing. She also commented on an “improved” attendance figure, “we are currently at 92.5% and I think the national figure is just over 93%”. An attendance rate of 95% is considered good by the Department for Education. 

Currently, 377 children across the town are accessing alternative provision, this refers to “children who have been excluded in previous years, who have gone into alternative provision, who might still be in alternative provision going through their education career.” She later confirmed that it would be the preferred option to have less kids in alternative provision. 

Another statistic discussed was the increase (nationally and locally) in the number of kids who are electively home educated, the figure is currently 321 in Middlesbrough. This means that a growing number of kids are being taught by their parents at home, rather than being in a traditional school setting. 

Cllr McTigue said: “With regard to home education, I’ve seen snippets on social media of people who educate their children at home and I found it very worrying,” adding: “What qualifications do they have to have… because judging by some of them, they have difficulty spelling Bob backwards, some of these parents, and yet they are educating their children at home.”

Ms Cannon confirmed that parents do not need to have any qualifications, saying: “Parents can request to educate their children at home and they do not need to have qualifications to do that, they do not need to follow the national curriculum, our preference is that children are in mainstream education, but parents for a variety of reasons, choose to electively home educate their children.”

She added: “We will work with parents, we do go and do an unannounced visit, but it’s up to them how they educate their children. We don’t have any powers.” When Cllr McTigue suggested that families could tell council staff to “go away”, Ms Cannon said that typically “families do allow us to come in.” Cllr McTigue said that she found what she had just been told about elective home education “unbelievable”. 

During the meeting, Middlesbrough Independent Councillors Association (MICA) Councillor Brian Hubbard asked about children missing from school, “is Covid still having an effect on some children?” Ms Cannon said: “I think there are some children who are very anxious around getting back into school, but also just that we can see children in the early years of primary, those in secondary, we can see that it has had an impact, it still has an impact on our children and we mustn’t underestimate that despite [Covid] being a few years ago.”