Devon tend to approach EHE from a more educational welfare point of view.  Although the department seems willing to engage and ‘get to know’ home educators, they do come from a very strong state educational background.  During 2009, Devon looked to re-write their literature concerning home education to make it less ‘schooly’ and more appropriate to EHE.  There was some consultation with a small number of home educators about this.  However, for Devon to improve their support to home educators they are going to need a broader influence and engage more with local home educators and groups.  They need to listen to their local EHE community with a more open mind, free from a lot of the state educational notions. 

There is quite a large disparity between what the department says its policy is and actually the experience that home educators have when they are visited by Devon EHE inspectors.

Families that have chosen to register and receive visits with Devon LA have had mixed experiences.  Unfortunately, HESW has had several families report very bad experiences when having a home visit; including complaints of insensitive and inappropriate dialogue with children, insistence of producing more structure and certain forms of evidence of work and poor/inaccurate reporting of the educational provision. The home visit experience depends on which advisor you are assigned and also on your family’s learning style.  Families that tend to follow a more structured (school-like) approach tend to have a better experience.

If for any reason you want to know what personal information Devon County hold about you or your family, you will need to make a request under the Data Protection Act 1998; see County website.