THE number of Essex children being home-schooled has massively increased in the past three years. Essex County Council said that the complexity of needs for home educated children was also increasing reports the Local Democracy Reporter.

This comes as the county council works to reduce the length of time for special needs assessment. Essex County Council has seen a year-on-year increase in home-schooled children over the last ten years.

The number of homeschooled children stood at 2,255 in November 2021, which increased to 3,881 by January 2025. In January, 199 children in Essex had an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) for elective home education. That number has been increasing over recent years, from 4.4 per cent in 2018 to 5.8 per cent in January.

That increase was picked up at the People and Families Policy and Scrutiny Committee meeting on January 16.

Councillor Marie Goldman said: “I know anecdotally from parents that contacted me in within Essex that have chosen to electively home educate their child because they have tried with the SEND system and they just haven’t been able to get the support that they need – they’ve gone through the EHCP process they still haven’t managed to get the support that that they need and they’ve just given up.”

Committee member Councillor Aidan McGurran said: “What’s very apparent to a lot of us on this committee is parents aren’t making a right to choose – it’s purely out of frustration with the present system – either delays in assessments or the provision not being what the parents feel it should be. So I think that’s obviously an area of real concern.”

She added that the window opened last week for all local authorities to submit data, allowing for comparison.

She said: “I’m not in a position at the moment to be able to say how we compare in terms of the SEN representation with that within our cohort, but it’s certainly something that we’ll be looking very closely at.”

Deputy cabinet member for education Councillor Andrew Sheldon said: “There are parents out there who are, of course, concerned about the level of SEND provision, particularly the level of time it takes to get their assessments done.

“This is something that we have done a lot of work and will continue to do.”