The news today of the Californian family who hid their 13 children in their home, imprisoned and abused, has triggered the normal reactions. How could this happen in an affluent road? How did no one know it was happening? Despite the monstrous appearance of both parents, the neighbours remained unaware. One of the factors was clearly that it wasn’t a poor area and people didn’t expect abuse and neglect.

The other factor was the children were home educated. In the US one can set up as a private school and evade monitoring. This wouldn’t be an option here in the UK but any parent can pull their child out of school and say they are home schooling. They are offered a link and visit from the local authority but if they decline this, there is no obligation for them to demonstrate the quality of education. Some conscientious families home school but many opt for this as a way to avoid monitoring of their children’s welfare.

Kyra Ishaq in Birmingham was such a child who died of starvation with no monitoring. The Californian children could have had the same experience here in the UK and if they were home schooled could have been unmonitored. Thinking that caring neighbours will always observe and ring social care is an unreliable assumption here in the UK too.