6 Figure 5: Children who are electively home educated at the end of the period Source: RIIA quarterly dataset. Rate per 10,000 of the 5–16 population. While some parents and carers decide to home educate their children for positive reasons, others do so in response to their children’s negative experiences at school, particularly children with SEND and poor mental health or those who are experiencing bullying and discrimination at school (Smith et al., 2020). DCSs associated at least some of the increases in elective home education with schools’ punitive behaviour management policies and a curriculum that is failing to meet the needs of too many children. They also expressed concern that some schools guide parents towards home educating pupils, something that is well documented (Purcell et al., 2023), as is the fact that children who are moved out of school are disproportionately likely to be eligible for free school meals, have an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) or special educational need (SEN) support and have a history of absences and school exclusions (FFT Education Datalab, 2023; Gill et al., 2024). The Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel (CSPRP) reviewed 27 cases where children educated at home died or were seriously harmed (CSPRP, 2024). Three groups of children were identified: • Children who were kept at home, had never been to school and had little or no contact with the world outside their family • Children who were withdrawn from school, where professionals were aware of family issues or known safeguarding concerns, though not necessarily at a level leading to a referral to children’s social care • Children withdrawn from school because parents disagreed with a school’s approach for faith or cultural reasons. 94.62 89.54 94.64 106.60 110.84 106.3