Home-schooling parents 'harassed by Portsmouth council'

Portsmouth Home Education Group accused the council of trying to force children into mainstream schools

Parents whose children are permanently home-schooled have commenced legal action over "harassment" by a council.

The group said Portsmouth City Council (PCC) had issued legal "threats" to families ordering them to send children to mainstream schools.

It has raised more than £4,700 towards a judicial review through an online appeal.

The authority said it had a duty to ensure that children were receiving education that was suitable.

Councillor Suzy Horton, in charge of schools for the authority, declined to comment further.

Portsmouth Home Education Group said the council had declared that parents' "written reports do not provide enough evidence of a suitable education", which contravened national guidance.

Home educator Kayleigh Barton said the authority had caused her family "unwarranted stress and distress".

Vicky Campbell, who home-schools her son, said the council was using its limited resources to attack parents

She said: "PCC refuse to answer questions and will not be specific about what is unsatisfactory, they simply keep demanding more.

"Both my children have now written to PCC to ask them to stop with the harassment. [They] now dread the mail being delivered in case it's PCC again."

Another parent, Christina Goodred, said: "We have had threats of legal action in an attempt to force us into sending our children into school."

Vicky Campbell, from the group, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: "We cannot understand why - at this time of national crisis - PCC is choosing to use their limited resources to attack our community."

The group said parents who questioned the council were being issued with legal warnings including School Attendance Orders.

The charity Education Otherwise said it was supporting the "extremely important" legal case.

It said: "The... parents have tried all other means of seeking reasonable conduct... but PCC has continued to act in ways that the barrister considers potentially unlawful."

In a statement, the council said: "We work closely with families who are home educating and the majority of parents demonstrate that they are providing that education."