Inaction on illegal schools is ‘a national scandal’, Humanists UK tells Government

Humanists UK has renewed its call for the UK Government to take urgent action to protect children attending illegal religious schools in England. In response to a consultation on children missing education, Humanists UK – which has led the campaign against illegal schools for nearly a decade – told the Department of Education (DfE) that the lack of proper legislation in this area is ‘a national scandal’.

Ofsted estimates that at least 6,000 children currently receive their education in illegal or unregistered schools. These are able to operate due to loopholes in the law that allow settings that teach nothing but religious scripture to avoid being classed as schools, grant insufficient powers for Ofsted to inspect or seize evidence, and do not require parents to register children educated outside of schools.

As a result, children are being taught in unsafe, unhygienic conditions, where they receive nothing but a narrow religious curriculum. Former pupils of these schools have described leaving unable to speak English and with the education level of the average nine or ten-year-old. The recent Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse also found widespread evidence of sexual abuse.

The DfE’s consultation sought evidence on how to ‘improve the way children missing education are identified and supported’. However, it primarily focused on what schools and local authorities (LAs) could do to solve the problem, almost totally ignoring the issue of illegal schools.

In its response, Humanists UK said that the lack of adequate regulation on illegal schools and the absence of a home education register are ‘huge barriers’ to identifying children missing education (CME) leaving LAs and Ofsted powerless to act. It urged the Government to ‘urgently reintroduce draft legislation to widen the legal definition of “school” and grant Ofsted greater powers to inspect illegal and unregistered settings.’ It also noted that these provisions, which were part of the Schools Bill which was scrapped for other reasons, ‘not only had wide cross-party support when debated in the Lords, but were also endorsed by the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, the Bloom Review, and [Parliament’s] Education Select Committee.’ Earlier this month, peers from across the House of Lords also challenged Government inaction on this issue following a Parliamentary question from Lord Warner.

Humanists UK Education Campaigns Manager Robert Cann commented:

‘While it is good to see the Government consulting on what can be done to better identify and support children who are currently missing education, this consultation almost entirely ignores the serious and ongoing issues caused by lack of regulation on illegal schools.

‘The Government has been aware of this issue for nearly a decade and yet, despite numerous broken promises, has yet to take action in any meaningful way. The fact that thousands of pupils are still at risk in these settings is a national scandal and we urge the Government to reintroduce legislation to tackle the problem as a matter of urgency: it must return before the next general election.