I SEE that Graham Badman, criticised for resigning as Oxfordshire’s education director during Oxfordshire schools chaotic reorganisation in 2001, is putting forward recommendations for yet another expensive and unnecessary scheme, this time on a national scale.

His report on the Review of Elective Home Education, released on 11 June, proposes the huge task of annual registration and regular monitoring of all home educated children in England.

Only two years ago guidelines on Elective Home Education were issued to Local Authorities by the DCSF, setting out the current legal status. The guidelines demonstrated that LAs already had the powers to make inquiries of home educating families, and to follow up in cases where they were not happy with educational provision or had welfare concerns.

There are estimated to be 20,000 home educated children registered with Local Authorities and if compulsory registration is implemented this number may double. There are only five LA officers currently employed to deal with electively home educated children in Oxfordshire; no doubt the officers are already very stretched. With education budget cuts predicted, I can only guess that funding for the increased staffing and administration of this hair-brained scheme will be diverted from other services provided to families.I wonder if Mr Badman will feel the need to jump ship again, once the true cost of implementing such a scheme is discovered by taxpayers.

N MAY, Oxford