NSS welcomes plan to tackle unregistered schools in new bill

The National Secular Society has welcomed a new bill's provisions to combat unregistered schools.

Plans to introduce a bill which would create new duties and powers aimed at ending unregistered schools were announced yesterday at the state opening of Parliament.

The NSS has long called for these policies to end the harms caused to children by unregistered, illegal faith 'schools'.

Unregistered schools actively conceal themselves from authorities to evade inspection. This allows them to teach a very narrow, religion-based curriculum, including extremist, regressive and discriminatory dogma, without any oversight.

Such schools also pose a serious threat to safeguarding, with evidence of children being taught in highly unsafe conditions and being subjected to physical abuse. Failure to register a school is a criminal offence.

Former chief inspector of Ofsted Amanda Spielman estimated the number of children attending unregistered schools likely numbers in the "tens of thousands".

Bill will empower Ofsted to investigate unregistered schools and mandate home education register

The Children's Wellbeing Bill will give Ofsted "stronger powers" to investigate suspected unregistered schools.

Similar powers were included in the Conservative Government's Schools Bill, which was dropped in 2022 following intense protests from Charedi ('ultraorthodox') Jewish activists.

Ofsted's annual report last year revealed it opened 190 investigations into unregistered schools, many of them faith schools. Despite this, just 25 warning notices were issued to educational settings that appeared to be breaking the law. Ofsted said weaknesses in the legal framework "continue to hamper our efforts to investigate unregistered schools and prosecute offenders".

The bill will also create a duty on local authorities to keep "children not in school registers", to ensure fewer children "slip under the radar". Elective home education is sometimes used as a cover to enrol children in unregistered schools.

The Government said "more children than ever" are not in school. As of October, an estimated 92,000 children are being home educated.

Bill's aims should include end of faith school discrimination, says NSS

The Government says the Children's Wellbeing Bill will "put children and their wellbeing at the centre" of education and "remove barriers to opportunity" so the school system is "fair for every child, no matter their background".

The NSS said this should prompt wider reforms throughout the education system, including an end to collective worship laws and the inclusion of discriminatory faith schools in the state funded schools system.

It warned plans put forward by the previous Government to remove the 50% cap on faith based admissions at free schools would be incompatible with the principles of the bill.

Research has revealed faith schools which prioritise children from families who share their faith in their admissions are more socially selective, create barriers for looked-after and previously looked-after children, and admit fewer pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).

The Children's Wellbeing Bill will require all schools to cooperate with the local authority on school admissions and SEND inclusion, but it is unclear if the Government will abandon the Conservatives' plans to remove the 50% cap.

Last year Keir Starmer said the Labour Party would be "even more supportive" of faith schools than the Conservatives.

NSS: Government "must abide" by bill's principles by ending religious privilege in education

NSS head of campaigns Megan Manson said: "We welcome the aim behind the Children's Wellbeing Bill to put children at the centre of education policy. We're also pleased to see measures to tackle the scourge of unregistered schools in this bill, and urge the Government to stand up to any religious opposition they may face.

"The Government must now abide by the bill's principles of removing barriers to opportunity and ensuring fairness for every child, by ending religious privilege in our state school system. And that must begin by scrapping the previous Government's plans to open the door to a new wave of discriminatory free schools.

"It's time to end, not extend, religious discrimination in school admissions."