EASIER access to information could be the reason the number of children being home educated in Worcestershire has more than doubled in the last nine years.

There were 234 school-aged children who were being taught at home over the previous school year, according to figures released by Worcestershire County Council has shown.

It has more than doubled from 2005 to 2006 when just 101 children were home educated.

Julie Bunker, Midlands representative of Education Otherwise, said one of the reasons for the increase in home-educators could be down to the internet.

"The internet has grown in a big way and the group are on Mumsnet, all over Facebook and have a Yahoo group - we are much more reachable."

She said through Worcestershire Home Educators Network, educational trips and meet ups are organised and she has a wealth of information to send to parents looking to home educate.

"We do get a peak in contact around September and January when schools go back and, anecdotally, we see an increase of people looking to take their child out of school at about the age of eight-ish who are perhaps having difficulties with special needs and are being asked to do more and are finding it difficult."

Kate Handley, from Tolladine, decided to pull her autistic son Oliver, who also has ADHD, out of mainstream school at the beginning of year one as she felt his needs were not being met.

Having home-educated him for a year, the six-year-old has now been given a place at Hollymount School where his mum said he is thriving.

"I didn't feel there was enough support in his previous mainstream school, he couldn't cope, the school couldn't cope.

"I wasn't going to keep him somewhere he wasn't happy."

Miss Bunker explained the ways parents educate their children at home can range from structured to the other end of the spectrum.

Miss Handley chose to use a mixture of techniques to educate her son.

"There was less stress, he was calmer and he didn't have that sense of dread when he had to go out the door - it worked for him.

"I had to do what was best for him and wanted to offer him the best education."

"I think they need to tackle the reason why so many children are being home schooled because I believe most of those children will have special needs which aren't being met in mainstream education."

Her friend Xenia Sherwood, from Tolladine, started home educating her nine-year-old daughter Caitlin in September after not being happy with the amount of her work her daughter was doing in school.

The family had also spent two years trying to get Caitlin a special education needs statement.

"She is in year five now and will be doing her exams next year and she was not going to know what to do so we decided to home school her so she could keep up.

"School said she had difficulty concentrating but Caitlin is now begging me to do more work."

Diana Fulbrook, independent chair at Worcestershire Safeguarding Children Board, said while the vast majority of home-educated children are safe and well she had concerned home-educated children were not being monitored.

"We would like to see a formal registration as well as rights to access the home and interview children."

But Mrs Bunker said the law was already clear that if there were welfare concerns then authorities can and should already act whether the child is home or school educated.

Anyone interested in home education can log on to worcestershire-home-educators.co.uk. There will also be a Midlands Home Education Fair held Saturday, October 18 from 2.30pm to 5.30pm at the Parish Centre, Sandhills Road, Barnt Green.