Elective home education
Autumn term 2025/26

Coverage

The release provides information on the number of children in elective home education in England at census date in each term, plus the number of children in elective home education education at any time in the previous academic year. The methodology document should be referenced alongside this data. It provides information on the data sources, their coverage and quality as well as explaining methodology used in producing the data.

File formats and conventions

Local authority and regional data has been rounded to the nearest 10, national figures are rounded to the nearest 100.

The following convention is used throughout the underlying data.

x - unavailable

z - not applicable

low - denotes figures based on count that rounds to 0, but is not 0. Figures may not sum to breakdowns due to rounding.

Data files

Elective home education at census date

Filename: ehe_census.csv
Geographic levels: Local authority; National; Regional
Time period: 2022/23 Autumn term to 2025/26 Autumn term
Content summary: The number of children in elective home education in England at the census date in each term by sex, year group and primary reason for EHE.

Variable names and descriptions for this file are provided below:

Variable name  |  Variable description
-------------  |  ------------------------------------------------
breakdown      |  EHE children on census date by characteristics
child_count    |  Number of EHE children on census date
child_percent  |  Percentage of EHE children on census date
rate_per_100   |  Rate of EHE children on census day by population

Footnotes:

1. Local authority response rates to the data collection vary by census date. To account for non-response, where required national and regional figures have been uprated based on local authority pupil populations.
2. A figure that rounds to 0, but is not 0 is denoted by 'low', 'x' represents not available and 'z' is not applicable.
3. Primary reason ‘other’ includes instances where local authority systems record two or more of the data collection reasons in a single category, for example mental and physical health, or religious and philosophical reasons.


Elective home education at any point in the academic year

Filename: ehe_academic_year.csv
Geographic levels: Local authority; National; Regional
Time period: 2021/22 to 2024/25
Content summary: The number of children in elective home education in England at any point in the academic year. Includes the number of starts in EHE, number of returns to education, section 437(1) notices issued, school attendance orders issued and revoked

Variable names and descriptions for this file are provided below:

Variable name              |  Variable description
-------------------------  |  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ehe_anytime_full_year      |  Number of EHE children at any point during the year
ehe_leave                  |  Number of EHE children who leave the local authority during the year
ehe_returns_full_year      |  Number of EHE children returning to school during the year
ehe_sao_issued_full_year   |  Number of school attendance orders issued
ehe_sao_revoked_full_year  |  Number of school attendance orders revoked
ehe_schtype_acad           |  Number of children who started EHE in the year with previous school type academy
ehe_schtype_acad_pc        |  Percentage of children who started EHE in the year with previous school type academy
ehe_schtype_ap             |  Number of children who started EHE in the year with previous school type alternative provision
ehe_schtype_ap_pc          |  Percentage of children who started EHE in the year with previous school type alternative provision
ehe_schtype_ehe            |  Number of children who started EHE in the year with previous school type home educated outside the local authority
ehe_schtype_ehe_pc         |  Percentage of children who started EHE in the year with previous school type home educated outside the local authority
ehe_schtype_else_unk       |  Number of children who started EHE in the year with previous school type elsewhere/unknown
ehe_schtype_else_unk_pc    |  Percentage of children who started EHE in the year with previous school type elsewhere/unknown
ehe_schtype_ey             |  Number of children who started EHE in the year with previous school type early years
ehe_schtype_ey_pc          |  Percentage of children who started EHE in the year with previous school type early years
ehe_schtype_free           |  Number of children who started EHE in the year with previous school type free school
ehe_schtype_free_pc        |  Percentage of children who started EHE in the year with previous school type free school
ehe_schtype_ind            |  Number of children who started EHE in the year with previous school type independent
ehe_schtype_ind_pc         |  Percentage  of children who started EHE in the year with previous school type independent
ehe_schtype_lamain         |  Number of children who started EHE in the year with previous school type local authority maintained
ehe_schtype_lamain_pc      |  Percentage of children who started EHE in the year with previous school type local authority maintained
ehe_schtype_none           |  Number of children who started EHE in the year with previous school type none (previously not of compulsory school age)
ehe_schtype_none_pc        |  Percentage of children who started EHE in the year with previous school type none (previously not of compulsory school age)
ehe_schtype_pru            |  Number of children who started EHE in the year with previous school type pupil referral unit
ehe_schtype_pru_pc         |  Percentage of children who started EHE in the year with previous school type pupil referral unit
ehe_schtype_spec           |  Number of children who started EHE in the year with previous school type special
ehe_schtype_spec_pc        |  Percentage of children who started EHE in the year with previous school type special
ehe_section_437_full_year  |  Number of section 437(1) notices issued
ehe_starts_full_year       |  Number of children who started EHE during the year

Footnotes:

1. Local authority response rates to the data collection vary by census date. To account for non-response, where required national and regional figures have been uprated based on local authority pupil populations.
2. A figure that rounds to 0, but is not 0 is denoted by 'low', 'x' represents not available and 'z' is not applicable.
