Asked by: Lord Warner (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the written answer by Baroness Barran on 9 March (HL5960), what further checks they have made to the 81 settings that claimed to have changed their operations; what steps they have taken to ensure that the 21 settings that have closed their operations have not reopened in another location; what powers local authorities have to close settings that are not compliant with safeguarding requirements; and whether, in the consultation to be launched later this year, they will seek to define "school" so as to enable Ofsted to close unsatisfactory settings more speedily.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Shadow Minister (Education)
It is a criminal offence under Section 96 of the Education and Skills Act 2008 to conduct an independent school which is not registered with the Department. Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Schools (HMCI) may, under Section 97 of that Act, inspect without notice any setting which they have 'reasonable cause to believe' is the site of an unregistered independent school. Settings that have previously been inspected under Section 97 and where the proprietor has been issued with a warning notice are likely to be inspected again under Section 97 to check compliance. This includes settings where the second inspection confirms closure or a change to compliant operation. A setting may not be inspected again under Section 97 where HMCI no longer has reasonable cause to believe that an unregistered school is being conducted. This may occur, for example, if the setting has registered as a school and is then subject to inspection as such. Ofsted considers all intelligence it receives about unregistered independent schools and will undertake a Section 97 inspection where it has reasonable cause to believe that an unregistered independent school is operating. This includes where new intelligence is received about previously closed sites or where proprietors that have received warning notices may be operating on alternative sites.
The department has consulted on expanding the categories of full-time institutions that will be regulated in the same way as independent schools, as well as defining what is ’full-time’ for these purposes. Following this consultation, the government intends to legislate in this area at the next available opportunity.
Local authorities have overarching responsibility for safeguarding children and young people in their area, whether these children attend a school (either registered or unregistered), or an out-of-school setting (a setting not offering full-time education). They have a range of legal powers already in place to support them in this responsibility. The department will continue to work with authorities to ensure they are utilising the existing legal powers available to them. The department will also be reviewing and strengthening our existing guidance for local authorities on unregistered schools and out-of-school settings to support them to do this.
Asked by: Lord Warner (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what arrangements there are for the registration and regulation of private fostering agencies; whether there is a statutory basis for such registration and regulation; and whether other agencies and local authorities are informed of misconduct by an individual foster carer provided by a private fostering agency.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Shadow Minister (Education)
All independent fostering agencies (IFAs) are registered with Ofsted under the Care Standards Act 2000 and must meet the legal requirements set out in the Fostering Services (England) Regulations 2011. IFAs are inspected by Ofsted under the Social Care Common Inspection Framework (SCCIF) on a three-year inspection cycle.
Under the National Minimum Standards IFAs have a duty to ensure the welfare of the children in care and a duty to work effectively in partnership with other agencies concerned with child protection, such as the responsible authority, schools, hospitals and general practitioners.
Serious incidents must be reported by IFAs to Ofsted, including any serious complaints about an approved foster parent. Local authorities must notify the Child Safeguarding Practice Review panel, and by extension the department and Ofsted, within five working days of becoming aware of a serious incident. These incidents are where abuse or neglect is known or suspected.
If a foster carer’s approval to foster is terminated, a copy of the notice must be sent to the responsible authority for any child placed by another local authority, and to the relevant local authority if the foster carer lives outside the area of the fostering service.
Asked by: Lord Warner (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what progress Ofsted has made on the (1) registration, (2) regulation and (3) inspection of religious schools such as (a) madrassas, (b) yeshivas, and (c) Sunday schools where concerns have been raised about the appropriateness of the material being taught to children at such places; and what powers Ofsted has to take action, as necessary.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Shadow Minister (Education)
Out-of-school settings, such as supplementary religious schools, are not regulated under education or childcare law and are therefore not required to register with the department or Ofsted. However, the department remains committed to ensuring that children are safeguarded across all education settings and are working closely with key safeguarding partners, sector representatives, and parent groups to develop proposals for how we might further enhance safeguarding in this sector. The department will look to consult on such proposals later this year. We will be publishing updated safeguarding guidance for providers and parents, as well as a new e-learning package aimed at strengthening providers’ understanding of the arrangements they should have in place to keep children safe.
Any education setting which makes full-time provision to five or more pupils of compulsory school age (or one or more such pupils who is looked after or has an education, health and care plan), is not maintained by a local authority and is not a non-maintained special school is required to register with the department as an independent school. It is a criminal offence to conduct an educational setting which meets the definition of an independent school if this is not registered with my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education.
The government has been working proactively since 2016 to identify, investigate and, where appropriate, prosecute those operating unregistered independent schools. Between 1 January 2016 and 31 August 2022, Ofsted issued warning notices to 132 settings that may be operating as unregistered schools (this includes all settings including those with a secular or faith ethos). Of those settings, 81 changed their operation to comply with legislation, 21 closed and 16 registered. There have been six successful prosecutions against those operating unregistered schools and there are several ongoing investigations.
If safeguarding concerns are raised about a specific setting, we expect local authorities to intervene, as they are legally responsible for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children in their areas, regardless of the educational setting they attend.
Asked by: Lord Warner (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what progress they have made, if any, in (1) registering, and (2) regulating, the home tuition of children to ensure that they (a) are taught a balanced curriculum, and (b) are able to secure recognised national qualifications.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Shadow Minister (Education)
The department remains committed to introducing statutory local authority registers for children not in school, as well as a duty for local authorities to provide support to home-educating families. The department will legislate for these at the next suitable opportunity, to help local authorities undertake their existing duties to ensure all children receive a suitable education and are safe, regardless of where they are educated. However, local authorities’ existing powers and duties, if used in the way set out in our guidance, are enough for a local authority to determine whether provision is suitable.
Elective home education needs to be suitable, although there is no requirement to follow the national curriculum, nor are parents required to enter children for public examinations. However, if the home education does consist of one or more of these, that would constitute strong evidence that education was ‘suitable’ in terms of section 7 of the Education Act 1996.
Asked by: Lord Warner (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government when they plan to re-open the public consultation on "Regulating independent educational institutions"; and what measures they will be taking to protect pupils at risk in unregistered settings, including illegal religious schools, until the law is changed.
Answered by Baroness Berridge
The department intends to reopen the consultation on 'Regulating independent educational institutions' when stakeholders ability to respond is less likely to be significantly affected by the COVID-19 outbreak. Responses received to date will be combined with responses received after the consultation reopens and fully reviewed after the consultation finally closes.
It is not yet appropriate to set a date for reopening the consultation as the situation in relation to the COVID-19 outbreak continues to change.
Ofsted continues to investigate potential illegal schools including consideration of new intelligence. Where appropriate, Ofsted have liaised with local authorities and other statutory bodies to consider whether there is appropriate action that should be taken, for example, to close settings where people are gathering illegally during the COVID-19 outbreak.
Asked by: Lord Warner (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the extent to which illegal schools have continued to operate during the COVID-19 lockdown; and how they intend to mitigate the risks to the pupils attending such settings as the lockdown is eased.
Answered by Baroness Berridge
The department intends to reopen the consultation on 'Regulating independent educational institutions' when stakeholders ability to respond is less likely to be significantly affected by the COVID-19 outbreak. Responses received to date will be combined with responses received after the consultation reopens and fully reviewed after the consultation finally closes.
It is not yet appropriate to set a date for reopening the consultation as the situation in relation to the COVID-19 outbreak continues to change.
Ofsted continues to investigate potential illegal schools including consideration of new intelligence. Where appropriate, Ofsted have liaised with local authorities and other statutory bodies to consider whether there is appropriate action that should be taken, for example, to close settings where people are gathering illegally during the COVID-19 outbreak.
Asked by: Lord Warner (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps, if any, they will take to prevent new voluntary aided schools with a religious character from immediately converting to academy status to bypass the 50 per cent cap on religiously selective admissions that currently applies to free schools.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
Any voluntary-aided schools, including those funded through the recently announced capital scheme, can apply to convert to academy status in the same way as any other maintained school. Whilst we do not plan to put in place specific restrictions on academy conversion for voluntary-aided schools, they will need to obtain the necessary consents, meet our criteria and undertake a consultation before doing so.
Asked by: Lord Warner (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many expressions of interest in the new capital funding scheme for voluntary aided schools were registered; and what proportion of those led to the submission of a full proposal in the first round of that scheme.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
The capital scheme for voluntary-aided schools is designed to be small, and registering interest in the scheme prior to submitting a bid for funding was not compulsory.
As well as exploratory discussions with stakeholders, we received expressions of interest for 22 new voluntary-aided schools.
The expressions of interest led to 14 bids for funding submitted to the department. A list of the bids that the department received will be published in due course.
Asked by: Lord Warner (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of whether new fully religiously selective voluntary aided schools have any negative impact on families in receipt of free school meals.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
The department undertook an extensive series of activities as part of the Schools that Work for Everyone consultation to understand the variety of opinions relating to faith schools. Having considered the views of respondents, and a range of stakeholder views, the department decided to establish the voluntary-aided capital scheme alongside retaining the 50% cap in faith admissions in faith designated free schools. The statutory process for establishing new voluntary-aided schools has not changed. It remains possible for proposers of any faith or no faith to propose a new voluntary-aided school, and likewise the voluntary-aided capital scheme is open to bids from proposers of all faiths and none.
Asked by: Lord Warner (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the number of non-religious families who will be disadvantaged by the establishment of new voluntary aided religious schools.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
The department undertook an extensive series of activities as part of the Schools that Work for Everyone consultation to understand the variety of opinions relating to faith schools. Having considered the views of respondents, and a range of stakeholder views, the department decided to establish the voluntary-aided capital scheme alongside retaining the 50% cap in faith admissions in faith designated free schools. The statutory process for establishing new voluntary-aided schools has not changed. It remains possible for proposers of any faith or no faith to propose a new voluntary-aided school, and likewise the voluntary-aided capital scheme is open to bids from proposers of all faiths and none.