The Children, Education and Families Information Briefing of Bromley Council was scheduled to meet on 11 September 2025. The meeting was scheduled to discuss the annual complaints report, and to provide an update on elective home education. No decisions were scheduled to be made at the meeting, unless a member of the committee requested a discussion 24 hours in advance.

Annual Complaints Report and LGSCO Letter

The council was scheduled to note the Annual Complaints Report and LGSCO Letter 2024/25. The report includes statistics on the complaints that the council received, and provides oversight of the Local Government & Social Care Ombudsman's (LG&SCO) annual review letter and accompanying data sheets. The data sheets summarise ombudsman complaints and enquiries received, and the decisions made about Bromley Council for the year ending 31 March 2025.

The report states that the publication of annual reports on social care complaints is a statutory requirement under the Local Authority Social Services and National Health Service Complaints (England) Regulations 2009 and the Children Act 1989 Representations Procedure (England) Regulations 2006. The council aims to use feedback from a variety of sources to learn, understand and take action to improve services. The report at Appendix 1 provides an overview of complaints and all Local Government & Social Care Ombudsman enquiries to the council between 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025. The council received 607 complaints during this year (excluding Environment & Public Protection, who handle their own corporate complaints and recorded 207), which was an increase of approximately 14% on the previous year. 49% of complaints were fully or partially upheld against the council, a 4% increase on the previous year, and 61% of complaints were responded to on time, which is 5% worse than last year. The total financial consequences of upheld complaints amounted to £32,452.17, a drop of 40% on last year's £54,451.42.

The report also notes that the number of referrals made to the Ombudsman rose by 12% from last year's 154 to 173, but of those 173 referrals, only 43 became the subject of an investigation by the Ombudsman, a more favourable proportion (25% as against 31%) compared to last year. Of those 43 full investigations, 38 were upheld against the council (88%), which was higher than the London average. The report states that the council manages its relationship with the Ombudsman through thoughtful engagement, and that the need to consider pursuing judicial review against an LGSCO decision did not arise this year. The primary area of concern for Bromley Council this year was the timeliness in providing responses to the Ombudsman's enquiries, and that more targeted work is to be undertaken with each service area to identify what measures may assist in improving performance.

The annual report also includes data and analysis of complaints and compliments for each council department, including:

• Adult Social Care
• Children's Social Care
• Housing
• Planning & Regeneration
• Education
• Chief Executive's Department
• Environment & Public Protection
• Public Health

Update on Elective Home Education

The committee was scheduled to receive an update on Elective Home Education (EHE), following a Deep Dive report presented in May 2024. The report was intended to present data relating to home educated children in the borough, including volumes, and the impact of changes on service capacity and delivery.

Elective Home Education is the term used by the Department for Education (DfE) to describe the education provided by parents at home, rather than at school. Parents have a legal right to educate their child at home, and are not required to have any qualifications or training to do so. Parents are not required to inform the council that they intend to elect to home educate, or to seek approval from the council, unless the child has an Education Health Care Plan and attends a special school.

Bromley Council has a statutory duty, under section 436A of the Education Act 1996, to make arrangements to enable them to establish the identities of children in their area who are not receiving a suitable education. The council sees its role in relation to home education as part of its wider responsibilities, including safeguarding, to all the children in its area.

Since the 2022–2023 academic year, there has been a 52% increase in families choosing to home educate their children. Staffing levels have remained the same, which has required creative approaches to managing the demand within existing resources. If the demand continues to increase at current rates, the team will face capacity constraints to effectively monitor home education, and focus on the most vulnerable, working with other professionals, and fulfilling statutory safeguarding responsibilities.

The data shows a significant year-on-year increase in EHE registrations:

• 2022–2023: 375 children registered (52 moved to post-16)
• 2023–2024: 436 children registered (59 moved to post-16)
• 2024–2025: 570 children registered (96 moved to post-16)

The report notes that families give varied reasons for choosing to home educate their children, and that 34% of the cohort state they are home educating as a philosophical or lifestyle choice, but that 33% of EHE children have been removed due to dissatisfaction with school, and the remaining 33% gave no reason at all. The data also shows a clear increase in the number of home educated children as they progress through the school system, and that there might be a correlation between transition points and the parents' decision to elect to home educate.

The report also includes information on:

• The legal framework for elective home education
• The local authority's responsibilities
• The numbers and profile of electively home educated children in Bromley
• Service capacity and mitigation measures
• Destinations of 16-year-old EHE year 11 young people