Give councils tougher powers to deal with unregistered faith schools: report

Councils should be given tougher powers to deal with unregistered faith schools that operate outside the normal inspection and safeguarding regimes, a scrutiny report from the London Borough of Hackney has recommended.

It investigated the issues raised by the presence of 29 unregistered schools that offer a traditional religious curriculum to between 1,000 and 1,500 boys from various ultra-orthodox Jewish sects in the north of the borough.

The probe followed an incident in which a group of boys from one such unregistered school had to be rescued from incoming tides on the Kent coast.

Hackney’s concerns included an apparent lack of safeguarding procedures, a narrow and largely religious curriculum and a lack of interaction with education and safeguarding professionals.

The council said gaps in government policy allowed such schools to operate outside the law, and called for more effective legislation to ensure that adequate teaching and safeguarding were available.

It also urged the communities involved to work with the local safeguarding children board.

But the report found many ultra-orthodox parents would resist any attempt to take their sons out of traditional religious education, possibly by sending them abroad.

Labour elected mayor Philip Glanville said: “Council officers and political leaders in Hackney have worked tirelessly behind the scenes for a number of years to try to make progress on this issue, but in the end, our efforts have been hampered by the fact that legislation on unregistered schools is completely inadequate, and until the Government makes some changes in the law, it is very difficult for councils to ensure that children are safe in those settings.”

He added: “As a local authority, we have a safeguarding duty to every child in this borough, and it would be a dereliction of that duty to overlook our ability to safeguard any child or group of children.”

The mayor said he wanted the ultra-orthodox community to flourish but “there does need to be a frank discussion about how a more fully rounded approach to education could make the community more economically sustainable in the long term”

Hackney’s call for action drew support from regulator Ofsted. Its regional director for London Mike Sheridan said: “Ofsted has long called for the law to be strengthened so that unregistered settings can be closed down or registered much more quickly.

“It is simply unacceptable that some groups choose to run unregistered settings to avoid complying with government regulations on safeguarding and the quality of education young people should receive.”

Mark Smulian