Skip to content

Files Released by the Welsh Government | 13 September 2023

Following the publication of the revised EHE Guidance in May, and the Ministerial Statement to Senedd on 6 June, the Welsh Government held two sessions with families, “to clarify any queries families may have in relation to the new statutory guidance and parental handbook on EHE.” Those attending had to apply to do so, and the numbers were limited for both sessions. The Children’s Commissioner for Wales chaired the sessions, which were held on 26 and 28 June.

Needless to say there were plenty of questions asked, seeking clarification from the Government officials who attended the sessions. Questions were raised both verbally and also through the ‘chat’ option, and there were too many to answer during each of the on-line events. Following the meetings, queries were also e-mailed independently to the Welsh Government both by attendees and by those who had been unable to secure a place at either meeting.

Replies to the many questions did not come swiftly. Enquirers had to wait until 13 September for a response, but when it came it contained an extremely large amount of information. The Government has to be commended for the amount of documentation shared, whether or not one agrees with the way they have chosen to try and implement the reforms which they say are justifiable.

The purpose of this page is not to comment on any of the documents, but to provide an easy access public domain catalogue of what was circulated. We will almost certainly be commenting on the contents on some of them in the future.

The files supplied cover two periods, with two documented events in each. Prior to the publication of the revised guidance, two training events for LA officers took place in February and March (2023), and documents and presentations related to both of these were included. The other period followed the publication of the guidance, and covers the two sessions described above. Because the latter includes the Government’s responses to the questions it was asked by home educators, we are listing these documents first, followed by those from the training sessions.

Update: 30 November 2023: A further batch of documents has now been made available as a single file by the Welsh Government. They are described in this post “Documents released by Welsh Government reveal highly intrusive objectives.

The original files were released either as PDF documents or MS Powerpoint slide presentations (.pptx). The latter were large and not accessible to all. These have therefore been converted to PDFs with no loss of information. We have also added a prefix to each file name to provide a logical order to help with future identification on your devices. The prefix ends with a capital letter before a separator character [•]. This is followed by the supplied file name, with minor changes to make them search engine friendly.

The files can be downloaded by clicking on the images below. The short-links on the right are included to make sharing on social media easier, but they are not clickable; please copy and paste.

File
Click image to open
File DescriptionShort Link
please copy and paste
Files following publication of revised guidanceJune to September 2023
Covering email sent on 13 September to which the files below were attached.https://tinyurl.com/WGov13Sep2023A
Slide presentation used in the two on-line meetings between the WG, CCfW & home educators in June 2023.https://tinyurl.com/WGov13Sep2023B
CCfW’s Office’s notes on the 26 June meeting, with questions asked and answers given at the time.https://tinyurl.com/WGov13Sep2023C

CCfW’s Office’s notes on 28 June meeting, with questions asked and answers given at the time.
https://tinyurl.com/WGov13Sep2023D
Welsh Government’s answers to multiple questions asked by HE families during the above meetings and subsequently (by email).https://tinyurl.com/WGov13Sep2023E
Files LA from training events prior to publication of revised guidanceFebruary and March 2023
Agenda for a meeting on 28 Feb between WG and LAs.https://tinyurl.com/WGov13Sep2023F
Document listing (in advance) the topics for the first session on 28 Feb. which was about Children Missing Education.https://tinyurl.com/WGov13Sep2023G
Slide presentation seemingly given at the start of ‘Use of WG grant funding’ session on 28 Feb.https://tinyurl.com/WGov13Sep2023H
Second slide presentation used in the above session on grant funding.https://tinyurl.com/WGov13Sep2023I
Slide presentation from 28 Feb – for the “Examinations” session.https://tinyurl.com/WGov13Sep2023J
Document circulated prior to 21 March meeting with LAs, giving advance notice of the two topics to be discussed, and the issues related to each. The topics were “Suitable and efficient education” and “ALNET” which appears to stand for “ALN processes and the Hwb playlist.” (The agenda for this meeting was not included in this bundle.)https://tinyurl.com/WGov13Sep2023K
Slide presentation by the WG which covers “The 8 most common Home Education approaches.” The final slide applies the information provided as a guide to LA officers to help with assessing a “suitable and efficient education.”https://tinyurl.com/WGov13Sep2023L
Slide presentation which focuses on EHE amongst the Gypsy, Romany and Traveller communities in Wales.
Note: the report referred to at the start as “Ivatts’ Report into EHE-GRT 2017” actually dates from 2006 and was published by Whitehall’s Department for Education and Skills.
https://tinyurl.com/WGov13Sep2023M
A short document which summarises the GRT presentation above and provides some background to it.
It also cites Ivatts as 2017, but uses a link which states it is 2006.
https://tinyurl.com/WGov13Sep2023N
Slide presentation which focuses on the issuing and processing of School Attendance Ordershttps://tinyurl.com/WGov13Sep2023O

This page is part of our Welsh Government section