Home Schooling Funding and Grants in the UK: What Parents Can Get

There is no general home schooling funding or grant available to parents in England, so if you choose to home educate you take on financial responsibility for the whole of your child's education, including tutors, learning resources, part-time provision and exam fees, with a small number of specific exceptions set out below. Local authorities receive no dedicated budget to support home-educating families, except where a child has high needs special educational needs, so the type and level of help on offer varies considerably from one council to the next.

The Department for Education asks councils to take a consistent, reasonable and flexible approach to supporting home educators, though there is no obligation to provide funding beyond the high needs exception. Where a child attends a state-funded school or further education college for part of the week, that part of their education costs parents nothing.

Is there government funding for home schooling in the UK?

No government grant is paid to parents for elective home education anywhere in the UK, as BBC Bitesize and the disability charity Scope both state. Once a parent chooses to home educate, whether by withdrawing a child from school or by never registering them, responsibility for the cost of that education sits with the parent; the state has no obligation to fund it. Local authorities are not given any general funding to support home educators; the sole exception relates to children with high needs special educational needs, covered later on. Because support is not standardised nationally, it is worth checking directly with your own council's home education team about what, if anything, it offers locally.

Do parents get money for home schooling?

Home education does not by itself provide parents with any extra money, though it does not remove an existing entitlement to Child Benefit. Child Benefit continues as normal while a child is home educated, and after they turn 16 it can keep being paid as long as they remain in full-time non-advanced education, meaning an average of more than 12 hours a week of supervised study; home education is included on GOV.UK's list of education that counts towards this. Free school meals work differently: they are tied to attendance at a school, so home-educated children are not eligible for them.

Can a child with an EHCP get funding for home education?

Whether a council pays for special educational provision when a child has an Education, Health and Care Plan depends on whether the family has chosen elective home education or has education otherwise than at school, known as EOTAS, and the two are treated very differently under the current rules. With elective home education, parents arrange and fund the child's education themselves, including any special educational provision named in the EHCP. With EOTAS, the local authority arranges that provision outside a school setting under section 61 of the Children and Families Act, because it has judged a school placement inappropriate, and the council funds it.

Where a council has offered provision and parents choose to make their own arrangements instead, the Department for Education's guidance says the council has no duty to help with the costs, and many do not; it must, however, give reasonable consideration to any request for assistance, with support limited to costs arising directly from the child's special educational needs.

The SEND system in England, including arrangements for education otherwise than in school, is under review, so check your own council's current policy on EHCP funding and EOTAS before relying on this position.

Will the council pay for GCSE exam fees?

In most cases, no: exam costs are treated as the parents' responsibility once a child is not attending school full-time, although some schools or colleges providing part-time places may cover the cost, and a local authority may have its own policy of helping with exam fees for home-educated children. Department for Education funding guidance for councils lists exam fees among the costs that a council is able to support under section 19 of the Education Act if it chooses to, though this remains entirely discretionary.

Most council home education pages set out plainly that parents pay exam registration and exam centre fees. Kirklees Council, for example, tells families they are responsible for all exam fees and states there is no government funding for home education, while Kirklees College runs a GCSE English and maths offer for home-educated young people in Year 11 who are registered with the council, with applications emailed to parents in the April of Year 10. Because arrangements like this are set locally, check your own council's home education page and speak to its home education team about exam centres and any similar college offer in your area.

Responding to a parliamentary petition calling for free GCSEs for home-educated under-18s, the government confirmed that parents who choose to home educate are fully responsible for that education, including the cost of obtaining qualifications.

Can home-educated teenagers study at college for free?

Yes, in a specific and limited sense: further education and sixth-form colleges can enrol home-educated 14- to 16-year-olds on a part-time basis and claim funding for them directly from the Department for Education, so neither the council nor the parent should be asked to pay a fee for that provision. This particular funding route is open to colleges only, not to schools or academies. From the age of 16, a young person can then join a fully funded 16 to 19 study programme at a college or sixth form, on the same basis as any other student that age.

The 16 to 19 bursary fund is not payable to a young person whose parents continue to home educate them after 16.

Which charities give grants to home-educating families?

A small number of charities are the main source of direct grants for home-educating families, and each has its own eligibility criteria. Family Fund gives grants to families raising a disabled or seriously ill child, provided the child needs a high level of support in at least three of seven specified areas, one of which is education, and the family is on a low income or receives certain benefits; it operates across the whole of the UK.

Buttle UK gives grants to children and young people on a low income who are facing a crisis or hardship, provided the child is accessing education or training for at least 12 hours a week.

Education Otherwise, the national home education charity, does not give grants itself; instead it runs a helpline and publishes information and guidance for home-educating families, which can be useful for finding out what else is available locally.

What support is there in Scotland and Wales?

In Scotland, a home-educated young person may be eligible for the Education Maintenance Allowance provided their home education course has been approved by the education authority and they were already being home educated before reaching school leaving age. Home educators can also be considered for the Best Start Grant and the Scottish Child Payment on the same criteria as any other family, though free school meals and school clothing grants remain unavailable, just as in England.

In Wales, parents still bear the cost of home education and of entering their child for public examinations, but local authorities are encouraged to provide support where resources allow. The Welsh Government allocates funding to local authorities specifically for elective home education, which councils then use to build a local support offer; according to the Children's Commissioner for Wales, this has been used to help with qualifications, learning resources and wellbeing activities. All 22 Welsh local authorities have also agreed to accept home-educated candidates at an identified exam centre.

Related guides

• Home schooling in the UK: the law, deregistration and how to start
• GCSEs for home-educated children: sitting exams as a private candidate
• Flexi-schooling: how part-time school works in the UK

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