A 'WORRYING' number of home-schooled families have failed to divulge reasons for ditching mainstream education.

New figures reveal that in the last academic year, 558 pupils in Oxfordshire were educated at home, up by 21 per cent from 460 the previous year.

Councillors raised particular concern about those whose parents did not tell Oxfordshire County Council why they took the pupil out of school, leaving the authority in the dark about the reasons for their discontent.

Of all reasons given, the number of home-schooled pupils in the 'unknown or other' category swelled from 127 to 249.

Addressing the council's education scrutiny committee on Wednesday, councillor Suzanne Bartington said: "I was very struck by the increase, it's practically double.

"Surely there is a better mechanism to actually understand the reasons underlying that decision."

Councillor Carole Thomson added: "I find it deeply worrying and seriously scary there are families out there we don't know about."

On Wednesday councillors unanimously agreed that council leader Ian Hudspeth should write to the Government, calling for greater powers to access and assess children who are home-educated.

Councillor Emily Smith, who suggested the idea, told fellow members: "Many children being electively home-educated thrive academically and socially in this setting, but others do not.

"Professionals have limited opportunities to identify those children who are not receiving a satisfactory education.

"Parents can refuse access to the home and the child, which poses a safeguarding risk, especially in the case of vulnerable children."

Parents can take their child out of school by writing to the headteacher, who will inform the council, but those not already enrolled are not obliged to do so.

In Oxfordshire, the council sends an information pack to parents choosing to home-educate and a dedicated liaison team offers support offers guidance.

Parents do not have to have a teaching qualification, do not have to follow the National Curriculum and do not have to force their child to take GCSEs or A-Levels.

Those that do take exams have to pay for them, and will sit at an external centre such as a college.

Currently parents who take their child out of school have no legal obligation to keep the local authority in the loop.

A bill is passing through Parliament to introduce a system of registration for home-schooled children, after Lord Soley said home-schooled youngsters can 'disappear' from authorities' radars.

The bill, if passed into legislation, would also give councils more power to keep track of home-schooled pupils' progress.

Second to the 'unknown/other' category, the second most common reason for home-schooling was 'dissatisfaction with the system'.

Speaking at the meeting, councillor Michael Waine mentioned a mother who had expressed concerns about the mainstream system.

He said: "She painted a pretty bleak picture about the council's relationship [with home-schooled families]. In some ways it was disturbing. She pointed to a negative attitude towards them as a family. We need to address that."

Responding to his concerns, the council's education inclusion manager Rachael Etheridge said she was 'very disappointed', adding: "Our link workers are very professional and fully realise that plenty of families want to make that decision [to home educate] and are entitled to do that.

"If there is that sense of negativity, we need to try to find means of breaking that down and showing that we are here to support families, not judge them."