Asked by: Baroness Morris of Yardley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what action they are taking to identify the number of unregistered schools.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
In January 2016, we announced funding for Ofsted to establish a dedicated team of specialist inspectors to identify and inspect those suspected of operating unlawfully and take action to bring them into compliance with the law, including closing the school, or working with the police and Crown Prosecution Service as necessary.
Local councils have overarching responsibility for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of all children and young people, and, together with local safeguarding children board partners, they should be assessing any risks to children wherever they are educated. Statutory guidance outlining the responsibilities of local councils is attached and can be accessed at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/children-missing-education.
The government has been working with Directors of Children’s Services on the issue of unregistered schools, and in collaboration with them and with Ofsted have drawn up guidance on joint working between Ofsted, the department and local councils on tackling unregistered schools. We intend to publish the guidance in the near future. Where an unregistered school is identified, Ofsted take steps to share this information with the department and the local council. The department supports councils to use their powers under safeguarding or health and safety legislation to disrupt and tackle unregistered independent schools. Local councils have a duty to investigate where they suspect that a child in their area is suffering, or likely to suffer, harm. Where unregistered independent schools are identified, it is likely to be in the children’s best interests, in terms of both education and safety, for them to move as quickly as possible into properly regulated schools.
Asked by: Baroness Morris of Yardley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what action they have taken to safeguard children in premises that have been confirmed by Ofsted as unregistered schools.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
In January 2016, we announced funding for Ofsted to establish a dedicated team of specialist inspectors to identify and inspect those suspected of operating unlawfully and take action to bring them into compliance with the law, including closing the school, or working with the police and Crown Prosecution Service as necessary.
Local councils have overarching responsibility for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of all children and young people, and, together with local safeguarding children board partners, they should be assessing any risks to children wherever they are educated. Statutory guidance outlining the responsibilities of local councils is attached and can be accessed at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/children-missing-education.
The government has been working with Directors of Children’s Services on the issue of unregistered schools, and in collaboration with them and with Ofsted have drawn up guidance on joint working between Ofsted, the department and local councils on tackling unregistered schools. We intend to publish the guidance in the near future. Where an unregistered school is identified, Ofsted take steps to share this information with the department and the local council. The department supports councils to use their powers under safeguarding or health and safety legislation to disrupt and tackle unregistered independent schools. Local councils have a duty to investigate where they suspect that a child in their area is suffering, or likely to suffer, harm. Where unregistered independent schools are identified, it is likely to be in the children’s best interests, in terms of both education and safety, for them to move as quickly as possible into properly regulated schools.
Asked by: Baroness Morris of Yardley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what checks are carried out on teachers working in unregistered schools to ensure that those teachers are suitable people to work with children.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
Anyone who teaches, trains, instructs, cares for, or supervises children should have appropriate background checks undertaken by employers as part of their recruitment process, and would be eligible for a criminal records check. An unsupervised person undertaking these activities on a regular basis would also be eligible for a barred list check, as part of this process; and it is an offence for an employer to knowingly employ someone in such a role if they have been barred. It is equally an offence for that individual to undertake such activities.
In addition to a criminal records check, consideration of other available information, such as references from previous employers, would be considered good practice as part of any organisation’s recruitment decision and as part of their broader safeguarding policies.
Asked by: Baroness Morris of Yardley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what is the (1) shortest, (2) longest, and (3) average, time taken to determine an application to register a school.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
The department’s guidance advises applicants that the process of registering an independent school can take around six months. The department does not hold records of the time taken to determine an application to register an independent school for all historical cases. However, for schools where the department has made a final decision on registration in 2017, the shortest timeframe was 10 weeks, the longest was 143 weeks, and the median average was 23 weeks. Applications can only be taken forward once they contain all the required information and can only be approved if the independent school standards are likely to be met once the school opens.
By law, free schools (both ‘presumption’ free schools and central free schools) must also be named on the independent schools’ register before they can open. In order to be added to the independent schools’ register, the Secretary of State must decide whether or not the school is likely to meet the relevant independent schools’ standards once it is open. To enable the Secretary of State to make this decision, Ofsted carries out a “pre-registration inspection” two or three months before the opening date. Schools cannot legally open unless they are registered.
Asked by: Baroness Morris of Yardley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many stand-alone academies have been placed by Ofsted into the requiring improvement or special measures categories.
Answered by Lord Nash
279 stand-alone academies have been judged to require improvement (including those judged to be satisfactory – the equivalent grade - under the pre-2012 inspection framework) or in special measures at their most recent Ofsted inspection. This is 14% of the stand-alone academies inspected. 1705 stand-alone academies (86%) have been judged by Ofsted to be outstanding or good. By way of comparison, 3178 maintained schools were graded as requiring improvement (including those graded as satisfactory under the pre-2012 inspection framework) or special measures (19% of the maintained schools inspected) and 13,565 (81%) were judged to be outstanding or good.
The strong accountability regime for academies allows the Department to tackle underperformance swiftly. In 2014 the Department introduced eight Regional Schools Commissioners (RSCs) to strengthen the oversight of academies and free schools. These RSCs, acting on behalf of the Secretary of State, can intervene by: bringing in additional expertise; challenging the academy trust to make changes to its leadership team; and issuing pre-warning notices and warning notices to drive improvement.
Asked by: Baroness Morris of Yardley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many sponsored academies have changed sponsor since 2010.
Answered by Lord Nash
30 academies have transferred to new sponsors since 2010 out of over 4500 academies, either at the request of the sponsor or due to fundamental concerns about the academy and/or sponsor performance.
Asked by: Baroness Morris of Yardley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to ensure that there is an appropriate regional distribution of teacher training opportunities, in the light of the level of recruitment of teachers in rural and coastal areas.
Answered by Lord Nash
The Department for Education’s estimate of trainee teacher need is based on a number of factors, including the current stock of teachers and pupil number projections. This national estimate forms the basis of our allocation of teacher training places.
The allocation of places for the 2015/16 academic year was based on the criteria identified in our published methodology, which is published online at: www.gov.uk/government/publications/allocation-of-initial-teacher-training-itt-places-2015-to-2016
Geographical impact was considered as part of the allocation of places for 2015/16.