If iDave Is Serious About Shrinking The Public Sector...

...he needs to get these people slapped down, quickly:

Parents who educate their children at home should be forced to register with their local authority, school inspectors said today.

There's a shocker, eh? People who make a living inspecting widgets want all widgets made by every company to be part of their remit...

A report by Ofsted, the education standards watchdog, calls for new legislation to avoid making it possible for children to "disappear". Otherwise, inspectors argue, councils will be unable to fulfil their legal obligation to ensure children in their area are safe.

Not at all.

If a local authority can't find out how many children are in its catchment area without counting them at school or home, then might I suggest they aren't making best use of all the resources available to them?

But it seems they feel that they may as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb, because they also want to go further:

The inspectors also want council officials to have the right to undertake an annual home visit – which should involve the opportunity for a private discussion with any children taught at home.

If the binning of this report isn't on the horizon, then all our worst fears about the ConDems will be revealed.