Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what measures they have put in place to ensure that any unregistered religious schools which do not allow pupils to use technology cannot use exceptions pertaining to vulnerable children in the regulations in place to address the COVID-19 pandemic to continue to teach full-to-capacity classes whilst also claiming pupils are home-educated.

Supplementary schools for children, including those offering religious instruction, for example, are typically considered to be out-of-school settings. The department defines out-of-school settings as organisations or individuals that provide tuition, training, instruction or activities to children in England without their parents’ or carers’ supervision, but are not:

• schools
• colleges
• 16 to 19 academies
• providers caring for children that are registered with Ofsted or a childminder agency

Unregistered schools are those that are operating as an independent school without having registered with the department. It is a criminal offence (under section 96 of the Education and Skills 2008 Act) for any person to conduct an unregistered independent school, and where we find evidence that a school is operating unlawfully, the department will seek to take action by working with police, Ofsted and the Crown Prosecution Service as necessary.

The department does not hold a central register of all out-of-school settings and so is not able to give an assessment of the ability of providers in the sector to adhere to restrictions in place to address the COVID-19 outbreak. However, since the beginning of the outbreak we have been in close communication with out-of-school settings stakeholders, including various representatives from the faith sector, to outline how the protective measures in the sector guidance work to minimise the risk of transmission and infection of the virus, and how they can be practically implemented across a range of settings.

Under the current national restrictions, announced on 5 January 2021, wraparound childcare providers, holiday clubs, and out-of-school settings should only continue to offer face-to-face provision for:

• children of critical workers, where it is reasonably necessary to support their parents or carers to work, seek work, attend a medical appointment, or undertake education or training; and
• vulnerable children and young people

During the current national restrictions, children who are home educated should not attend out-of-school settings for face-to-face provision unless they are considered to be vulnerable, or if they are children of critical workers.

Children may face a range of vulnerabilities, some of which are not easily defined.  Our guidance outlines that local stakeholders (such as education providers and local authorities) are best placed to identify who may fall into this category. The guidance is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-maintaining-educational-provision/guidance-for-schools-colleges-and-local-authorities-on-maintaining-educational-provision. Some pupils who have difficulty engaging in remote education may be considered to be vulnerable children and therefore eligible to attend provision. However, settings may provide their own laptops, or should consider different forms of remote education, where this is not possible, such as printed resources or textbooks, supplemented with other forms of communication to keep pupils and students on track or answer questions about work.

Further information on the criteria for vulnerable children and children of critical workers can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-maintaining-educational-provision/guidance-for-schools-colleges-and-local-authorities-on-maintaining-educational-provision. Providers should be moving to remote education as far as possible for those not eligible to attend for onsite provision.

The department expects providers that continue to offer face-to-face provision for eligible children, to follow our updated guidance on protective measures for holiday and after-school clubs, and other out-of-school settings, in order to safely adhere to the government’s restrictions. The guidance is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/protective-measures-for-holiday-or-after-school-clubs-and-other-out-of-school-settings-for-children-during-the-coronavirus-covid-19-outbreak/protective-measures-for-out-of-school-settings-during-the-coronavirus-covid-19-outbreak.

We have also published updated guidance for parents and carers to follow if their children are eligible to attend for face-to-face provision and they choose to send them to these settings. This guidance is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/guidance-for-parents-and-carers-of-children-attending-out-of-school-settings-during-the-coronavirus-covid-19-outbreak/guidance-for-parents-and-carers-of-children-attending-out-of-school-settings-during-the-coronavirus-covid-19-outbreak.