Scarborough and Whitby area sees 50 per cent increase in children being home-schooled
The Scarborough and Whitby area has seen a 50 per cent increase in the number of children being home-schooled since 2022/23.
The number of children who are electively home educated has increased by 51 per cent, according to a report on the state of education services in Scarborough and Whitby.
At the end of the 2023/24 academic year, there were 1,303 children recorded as electively home educated (EHE) in North Yorkshire, 240 (18.5 per cent) of whom were formerly attending a school in Scarborough and Whitby committee area.
The increase in home education in North Yorkshire as a whole was 37 per cent compared to the previous year.
The Government has announced plans to introduce a national register in England to help account for all home-educated children.
Councillors on the Scarborough and Whitby area committee will meet on Friday, March 21, to discuss the report which examines the state of local education services.
It reveals that the Scarborough and Whitby area has a 14 per cent share of the total schools’ population in North Yorkshire but also has a 21 per cent share of suspensions for the whole county.
Almost 10,000 suspensions were handed out to 3,114 pupils in the 2023/24 academic year across North Yorkshire and 634 of these children were from mainstream schools in Scarborough and Whitby.
The report notes that the area had a 21 per cent share of suspensions for the whole county and 22 per cent of permanent exclusions.
North Yorkshire Council said it was “important to note that the decision to suspend or permanently exclude from school can only be made by the school’s headteacher as a last resort”.
The authority said that the increasing rates of suspensions and permanent exclusions were part of ongoing discussions and that the regional response has included outreach support for schools through SEND Locality Hub teams who have offered outreach services for children at risk of suspension or permanent exclusion.
Overall, there were 1,021 young people in Year 11 living in Scarborough and Whitby last May, of whom only 25 (2.4 per cent) were not in education, employment or training after leaving school as of January 2025.
The report also notes that “this figure is above the overall North Yorkshire figure of 1.7 per cent for the same period”.