Thousands of children are languishing in unregistered faith schools.
These schools prioritise fundamentalist religion over the education and welfare of children.
The scandal of unregistered schools must be addressed.
Some religious institutions operate schools which are not registered with the Department for Education, despite this being a legal requirement.
Schools are left unregistered to avoid regulations and inspections, so they can teach a very narrow, religion-based curriculum without oversight. This severely limits children's future options, as children leave these schools with very poor literacy, no formal qualifications and no skills or experience for life in modern Britain.
The lack of scrutiny also presents major safeguarding concerns. Children have been taught in unsafe conditions and subjected to physical punishment in these schools. The curriculum may also teach extremist, regressive and discriminatory dogma.
In 2019, Ofsted estimated as many as 6,000 children were being educated in unregistered settings. But the number could be even higher. Approximately 86,300 children and young people were electively home educated nationally during the year 2019/20. There is little regulation of home education, so many of these children could in fact be attending an unregistered school.
Some unregistered schools exploit loopholes in the law to avoid registration and operate at the margins of the law as an "out of school educational setting". Although many out of school settings, including tuition centres and supplementary schools, provide an excellence service, a minority put children's welfare at risk.
We are working to end the harms caused by unregistered schools by campaigning for greater powers for Ofsted tackle these settings, the elimination of loopholes to force more schools to register, and improved regulation of elective home education.
Take action!
1. Suspect an unregistered school? Report it!
Unregistered schools are illegal and pose a serious threat to children's wellbeing. If you think you know of a possible unregistered school, please report it to the schools inspectorate Ofsted.
If you are aware of children in imminent danger, please call 999 and inform the police.
2. Share your story
Tell us why you support this campaign, and how you are personally affected by the issue. You can also let us know if you would like assistance with a particular issue.
3. Join us
Become a member of the National Secular Society today! Together, we can separate religion and state for greater freedom and fairness.
Latest updates
New powers needed to investigate illegal religious school, councils say
Posted: Fri, 16 Sep 2016 13:00
The National Secular Society has welcomed calls from the Local Government Association to be given more powers to tackle illegal faith schools and investigate the education of the 37,000 children who are home schooled.
The Association, which represents 370 councils in England and Wales, said that home schooling was sometimes being used as a cover for children who really attended illegal faith schools which are not registered with the Department for Education.
Councillor Richard Watts of the Local Government Association said that "in some cases, a child listed as home schooled can, in fact, be attending an illegal school. With limited powers to check on the work a child is doing, however, councils are unable to find out whether this is the case. They work closely with their communities to help identify where illegal schools are, but the ability to enter homes and other premises and speak to children would go a long way towards tackling the problem."
"In addition, not all children are registered as home schooled, particularly where they never joined the mainstream education system, or have moved to a different area. Placing a legal duty on parents to register home-schooled children with their local authority would help councils to monitor how children are being educated, and prevent children from 'disappearing' from the oversight of services designed to keep them safe."
There has been a drastic increase in the number of children who are recorded as being home schooled, and a 65% increase has seen the total number of home schooled children who are registered as 37,000.
The Local Government Association said that the "significant rise was linked by the Education Secretary and Ofsted to an increase in illegal schools".
Watts continued: "If councils have powers and appropriate funding to check up on children's schooling, we can help make sure children aren't being taught in dangerous environments, and are getting the education they deserve, while standing a better chance of finding and tackling illegal, unregulated schools more quickly.
"We also need to know that where there are concerns, the right regulations are in place so that Ofsted and the Department for Education can close illegal schools swiftly."
The LGA said that "In some cases, children have been taught in warehouses and old factories, and in facilities with open drains or no running water. Some illegal schools have also been linked to the teaching of extremist views."
To fully investigate illegal faith schools, the LGA said that councils should be allowed to "enter homes and other premises and see children to check the suitability of education being delivered if necessary, and to compel parents to register home educated children".
NSS campaigns director Stephen Evans said: "It is welcome to hear the Local Government Association being so proactive in dealing with this problem. We have seen reports of individual councils not doing enough to investigate and identify illegal faith schools. These issues cannot be avoided for reasons of religious sensitivity. All children are entitled to a good education, too many are being failed."
Ofsted warned recently that some councils and police forces were not willing to investigate unregistered religious schools because they "don't want to upset community relations" and Bradford Council was accused of being in "denial" over illegal faith schools.
See also: Allowing children to languish in illegal religious 'schools' is the bigotry of low expectations.
Councils ignoring illegal schools because they “don’t want to upset community relations”
Posted: Tue, 6 Sep 2016 13:31
Ofsted chief Sir Michael Wilshaw has warned that local councils and police are continuing to ignore illegal faith schools, undermining efforts to prosecute the operators and protect children's rights.
In an interview with The Times, the outgoing Chief Inspector said that "political correctness" was causing local authority to turn a blind eye to illegal faith schools, particularly in the case of unregistered Islamic schools.
Sir Michael said that the 150 to 160 illegal schools which are already known about are just the "tip of the iceberg". He told The Times that prosecution cases Ofsted is preparing are "very robust" but said local authority inaction was undermining them.
He said local authorities "have to see this as a serious problem, identify where these places are and close them down."
Instead he said that councils' attitudes to Muslim voters was "a bit like the Seventies and Eighties" where "a lot of local authorities didn't confront the Socialist Workers' Party and all those infiltrating schools in those days partly because the councils themselves were made up of some of those people."
Though unregistered schools of other faiths have been identified, illegal Muslim schools were a particular concern.
He said that in one city even the police were not willing to report unregistered schools. He said police in the example he cited "don't see it as a responsibility" to investigate illegal schools.
Ofsted recently published a handbook for "conducting inspections of unregistered schools".
To identify unregistered schools, the guidance states "Ofsted may receive information regarding possible unregistered schools from a variety of sources including, but not limited to, the DfE, parents, local authorities or the police."
But Sir Michael said that some local authorities were actually "getting in the way" of Ofsted's attempts to identify and challenge illegally operating 'schools'.
In the new Ofsted guidance inspectors are given a model warning notice they could give to the operator of an offending 'school' which states: "it is a criminal offence to conduct an unregistered independent educational institution in England."
Anyone found guilty of doing so "is liable on summary conviction to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months or to a fine".
NSS campaign director Stephen Evans commented: "This is a phenomenon we are seeing time and time again. Local authorities and services ignoring the plight of children and young people due to misplaced concerns over religious and cultural sensitivity.
"Children of all backgrounds should enjoy the right to a decent education. It's time to put an end to the bigotry of low expectations that allows children to languish in illegal faith schools that place them at risk of harm and fail to prepare them for for life in modern Britain.
"Michael Wilshaw has commendably spoken out against illegal schools and tackled the reluctance of public authorities to identify and take action against them. We'll be seeking assurances from Ofsted's new chief inspector that she will continue to pressure local authorities to identify establishments which leave children and their education neglected. Once identified, the DfE must ensure that illegal schools are closed down, those running them prosecuted and the children attending them receive the education they're entitled to."
Problems in identifying premises which are operating as illegal schools have been reported before. In March 2016 MP Naz Shah told Bradford Council that they were in "denial" over unregistered schools. She made the remarks during one of a series of local meeting Sir Michael held in Birmingham, Bradford and Luton, areas of particular concern where significant numbers of children are not accounted for in local school rolls. Sir Michael said Bradford Council were being "naïve" and challenged them over what active information-gathering they had undertaken to find illegal schools.
In addition to his comments to the Times on unregistered schools, Sir Michael said that home schooling was being used "by parents who want to opt out of the state system because they don't want their youngsters exposed to equality issues or sex education." He said the law needed to be more stringent on home education.
