Hundreds more children are being homeschooled in Birmingham than was the case two years ago, raising concerns that they could be exposed to extremism and other risks, Sir Mike Tomlinson has revealed.

He told TES that when he arrived in the city as its education commissioner in 2014, an estimated 750 children were being home-educated. But that number had increased by a third to roughly 1,000 by the end of his tenure in July.

This posed a big challenge for the authorities around ensuring that children were safe from extremism, neglect, abuse and other risks, he said.

Sir Mike said that this was part of a broader “national issue” about children being educated at home, in independent schools and in unregistered alternative provision.

The government should review existing powers to intervene in these settings to ensure children were safe, he argued.

‘Anybody’s guess’

“The problem is that we do not know how many children are being home-educated, we have limited powers in relation to those children, and we are reliant on the authorities’ own intelligence sources about where this alternative provision exists,” Sir Mike said.

“When they’re in that alternative provision, it is anybody’s guess as to whether they are or are not - not only safe but being educated, in a sense, according to the law.”

The problem is that we do not know how many children are being home-educated

In May, Ofsted chief inspector Sir Michael Wilshaw said that there was a “clear link” between the growth of “unsafe” unregistered schools and a rise in the number of children being home-educated.

Illegal schools were “unscrupulously” using the freedoms that parents had to home-educate their children as “cover for their activities”, he warned.

Colin Diamond, formerly Sir Mike’s deputy and now education director for Birmingham City Council, said that local authorities needed extra powers in relation to homeschooling that were “commensurate with our safeguarding role”.

The DfE said that it had increased Ofsted’s resources to take action against unregistered schools and that it was working closely with the inspectorate to ensure that any concerns were being thoroughly investigated.

@whazell