NSPCC reply to AHED

AHED (Action for Home EDucation) recently sent an open letter to the NSPCC expressing concern at the comments made by Mr Vijay Patel in the Independent.

The NSPCC has responded by posting a reply on their Facebook page in which they state they have no position as regards home education from an educational perspective. Our concern is for the safety of children. Our view is simply that those educated at home should have the same right to protection as those taught in school. This is what we have asked the government to consider in its current review.

Quite how this fits with Mr Patel's comment "Some people use home education to hide. Look at the Victoria Climbié case. No one asked where she was at school. We have no view about home education, but we do know that to find out about abuse someone has to know about the child."

They go on to say "the NSPCC has a legitimate concern about the safeguarding of all children whether they are educated at home or at school and that will be the basis of our involvement with the Government review."

Most abused children go to school - so where is the evidence that school and official monitoring safeguards children?

Many children such as Victoria Climbie and the Spry children were already known to the authorities yet nothing was done so why are they trying to allege that there is some inherent danger in home education?

Whilst the government tries to convince us that we are all under threat of imminent attack by hordes of terrorists in order to steal our freedom from us, I believe that the NSPCC are using similar methods to claim that children all around us are at risk of abuse in order to justify their "important position" talking to government and seek greater powers to interfere with ordinary innocent families.

Is the NSPCC trying to divert attention away from its own failings and at the same time seeking to elevate its status and raise more money to pay for fancy offices and over priced advertising campaigns.

I have read that their "Full Stop" campaign has cost £3million, how many children has that saved? How many could have been helped if they had spent that £3million on family support centres or other direct help for children at risk.

If you want to make your voice heard, join facebook and comment on the NSPCC pages - they do seem to sit up and take notice when enough people do this, I think they are afraid of losing the money you all give to them.