I heard this on ITV's News at Ten: "Khyra had been withdrawn from school but the court heard that education and social workers were refused access to her."
What happened to this little girl and her siblings is absolutely appalling. First and foremost the responsibility for the abuse and her death sits squarely with the very people who were responsible for caring for her, and I hope that they are adequately punished for the crimes they have committed (although this remains to be seen).
However, the thrust of this report is alarming. And then I read this article:
"Get tough on home tuition to weed out abuse, says review... Sources close to the review have confirmed that its author, the former director of children's services at Kent county council, Graham Badman, is looking "favourably" at proposals that would require parents to register their children with their council when they are born or when they move to a different local authority."
And:
"The review, which is due to be published in the next week, is also
expected to recommend new guidelines on minimum standards for educating
children at home."
By implication, very real, legally enshrined responsibility for safeguarding is being shifted away from local authorities who have screwed up, possibly monumentally so. It is also precisely the kind of argument LCD advocates are using for the sake of the chiiiiildren. Jacqui Newvell, a principal officer of the children's charity the National Children's Bureau (NCB), which took part in the review, appears to be one such advocate. She is quoted in the above article as saying:
"We need to put children's interests at the heart of this and embed a children's rights agenda instead of a parents' rights agenda. This is a very, very sensitive issue, We know a lot of home educators are doing a great job but our concern is the minority who slip thought the net."
Let's be very clear about this: If social workers were trying to access Khyra, then there were clearly concerns present regarding her safety and/or welfare. This has been confirmed in media reports. Simply because officers were refused access to the property and the children does not mean that they were left powerless to intervene and possibly prevent her untimely death.
As with any other child, Khyra's local authority had a responsibility to safeguard her, the duty to investigate, and the power to "make, or cause to be made, such enquiries as they consider necessary to enable them to decide whether they should take any action to safeguard or promote the child’s welfare" - even if she was not already in their care, which appears to be their main line of defence.
Did Birmingham City Council understand and implement this legislation effectively? Really?
And is this question even relevant to those ignorant people who support the imposition of increased monitoring and regulation on elective home educators just because it "feels right", and they will be able to rest a little easier at night, knowing that "something has been done"? And they won't have had to lift a finger themselves...
Will those same people even bother to ask themselves whether it's any coincidence the review recommendations are due to be released alongside this trial? Just as Gordon is wittering on about "never walking away from people in difficult times"? Whilst the government feverishly attempts to push through this Bill? Will they understand what prompted Lord Lucas to warn:
"A typical pattern would be that we then get a rushed Henry VIII clause inserted at Report, giving the Government power to do what they want with regulations concerning home education."
Do they care about the implications for their own status as parents (or any of us as individuals) if the government assumes ultimate responsibility for the education of each child in this country? Can they see that this emphasis on safeguarding is illegitimate and misleading? That it masks serious systemic failure in the absolute basics of child protection? And that child protection is being used as a Trojan horse in which state control of education and life itself is being marched into our lives?
Can they not see that we have started with murdered children, despicably failed by parents, communities and the state alike - yet somehow ended up with calls for "minimum standards" for educating children as defined by politicians who have no concept of standards, and enforced by local authorities for whom even minimum standards are an impossible dream?
Probably not.
Let's hope enough of us do realise and take heed of this anonymous commenter, here:
"Graham Badman is producing his 'review' at the worst possible time for a person of an authoritarian bent.
Labour have just been decimated at the local elections, and there is not a single council left in their control.
Every Home Educator in the country should now feel confident that they will be able to confront their LA if they try to change the status quo.
New Labour is dead, and with it their insane fascist agenda.
Now is the time for all home educators to put their foot down and point blank refuse to obey anything to do with the Labour Legacy.
Everything has changed in Britain. We are not going to put up with any nonsense any more. All of the people in politics have been put on notice and are very nervous. If we do not stand up for our rights now, we will live to regret it."
