UK home education guide
Local authority home education powers: what they can ask
Updated · 2 min read
None of this is hidden. It sits in the law itself, and it is much easier to know before a letter arrives than to look up afterwards.
All seven are written into law. Number 4 is the one they count on parents never checking.
№ 1 — 2 · access
They Cannot Enter Your Home
1. No power of entry for home education monitoring exists in the Education Act. 2. A home visit? You can decline and send a written report instead.
Declining a visit is not obstruction and it does not make you look uncooperative. Offering a written report instead is an ordinary, well-trodden reply, and for most families it turns out to be the whole of the exchange.
№ 3 — 4 · curriculum + hours
The National Curriculum Is Not Yours
3. It applies to maintained schools only — not your kitchen table. 4. No minimum hours, no timetable, no daily lesson plan required by law.
№ 5 · never enrolled?
Never Registered? You Tell No One
The question every parent asks:
Don't you have to notify the council you're home educating?
Only if your child was on a school roll. Never enrolled? The LA has no notification to receive.
№ 6 — 7 · the SAO
A School Attendance Order Needs Evidence First
6. Before issuing an SAO, the LA must serve notice and give you a chance to respond. 7. Their legal standard is 'suitable education' — not school, not inspectable by Ofsted.
The receipts
All Seven, In Your Pocket
The short version:
- No right of entry — visits are optional
- National curriculum: does not apply to you
- No minimum hours or timetable in law
- Never enrolled? Zero duty to notify
- SAO: notice first, you get to respond
- 'Suitable education' ≠ school timetable
- Their standard is broad — yours to define
How to use all seven
Knowing where the line sits makes the conversation calm rather than defensive. You are not arguing that the council has no role at all.
You are answering the question they are entitled to ask, in the form that suits your family: in writing, describing the education you provide, with a copy kept for your own records. Then you get on with your week.