Lords call for action to close illegal schools

Members of the House of Lords have called again for new laws to close illegal faith schools. Peers spoke about the need to close legal loopholes used by proprietors of illegal faith schools. They did so during the second reading of Liberal Democrat Education Spokesperson Lord Storey’s Home Education Registration and Support Bill on Friday.

Humanists UK has led the campaign against illegal religious schools for over a decade. It briefed members of the All-Party Parliamentary Humanists Group (APPHG) ahead of the debate and welcomed Lord Storey’s Bill which seeks to require parents who choose to home-educate their children to register with the local authority, and for local authorities to maintain a register. This is important because there is no compulsory register of home-educated children, leaving the state unsure which children are open to abuse. It is also important because of its interplay with illegal faith schools. 

During the debate, APPHG member Lord Watson said:

‘The Bill does not refer to unregistered schools, but it is impossible to separate them from the issue of home education. As long ago as 2018, Ofsted inspectors discovered 286 unregistered schools in England, with around 6,000 young people attending them. I do not have up-to-date figures but, in many cases, it was claimed that the pupils were being home educated when in fact they were attending such schools every day. Thus, the Education Act 1996 is being exploited to enable children to attend those establishments. For that reason, I hope the Bill will be amended in Committee to more accurately reflect the extent of the problems associated with children being invisible and therefore potentially at risk of harm.’

A significant number of illegal schools operate throughout England and many of these are religious. In many cases, children are made to study religious texts for up to 12 hours a day with no maths, science, or other secular subjects. They are often exposed to extremist literature, and many settings operate in environments that are dirty and unsafe.

Labour peer and APPHG member, Baroness Whittaker said:

‘[…] there are also the children who have been made to attend those unregistered illegal schools whose narrow curricula and harsh punishments do not enable them to thrive. The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse found cases of physical and sexual abuse in some of those schools. This also needs to be dealt with.’

Liberal Democrat peer Baroness Burt, Vice-Chair of the APPHG, said:

‘Lack of a compulsory register gives the opportunity for unregistered schools to flourish, which can then avoid oversight from the DfE and hence avoid regulations which may conflict with their religious teachings […] unregistered religious schools in particular fail to conform to school standards, particularly regarding safeguarding and quality of education. This leaves those children open to physical abuse and woefully underprepared for the outside world, dependent on the insular religious community they were born into. They do not know what the outside world has to offer, and they may never break free.’

Physical and sexual abuse is sadly widespread. Proprietors of such settings often claim that children are educated at home, but only attend their establishments for supplementary religious education. The absence of a register of children educated at home means that these claims go uninvestigated.

Responding to the debate, Education Minister Baroness Smith said:

‘We do not choose to call these schools “unregistered” because, by being unregistered, they are illegal. The Government’s aim is that all children of compulsory school age receive a safe and suitably broad education. If parents secure part of their child’s education through attendance at an unregistered independent school, they are putting their child into an illegal school—one that is not known to the department and not subject to inspection against the independent school standard. There is therefore no system to assure their performance, and they can and often do pose a safeguarding risk. It is illegal to operate an unregistered school, and those conducting an unregistered independent school are committing a criminal offence. […] We will keep the powers available to Ofsted during these inspections under review, but I make clear that we are not willing to see children being put in danger in illegal schools.’

However, despite saying while she ‘wholeheartedly support[s] the intention behind the Bill’, Baroness Smith said she did not ‘believe that it is the most effective way of bringing compulsory children not in school registers into being’. The Government itself has announced legislation to introduce such a register and close loopholes around illegal schools, during the King’s Speech. Government legislation is therefore the most likely way this issue will be tackled. But Lord Storey’s Bill is useful to help keep pressure on the Government to act.

Summing up, Lord Storey – who agreed in his opening speech that his Bill might not be needed if the Government’s own Bill ‘deals with home education’ – said: 

‘I quite like the Minister’s phrase “illegal schools” – is that of unregistered schools. I am absolutely horrified at what Ofsted has told me about unregistered schools that do not teach any basic subjects at all. From the age of eight, there is a curriculum or a time spent entirely on religious teaching. In one school inspectors found that somebody teaching children was on the sex offenders register, and in another there was somebody with a criminal record. Ministers will know this—but it is very difficult to close those schools down. […] I think that in the last 10 years we have managed to prosecute only one school, because as soon as pressure is put on them they quickly regroup and go somewhere else, or they say that they are going to home-educate. There is a real problem of illegal schools, to use the term, and we must grasp that nettle as well.’

The Bill was committed to a House of Lords committee for further consideration.

Humanists UK’s Education Campaigns Manager Lewis Young commented:

‘Friday’s debate and second reading of Lord Storey’s BIll demonstrated a strong political will to take action against and shut down illegal schools, and make sure children receive an appropriate, inclusive education, are taught in a safe setting, and are properly recorded for attendance.

‘We welcome Lord Storey’s Bill and also the Government’s proposals to bring forward legislation that should close illegal schools, and look forward to working with officials to develop these proposals.’