Ofsted to be given new powers to crack down on illegal schools under government plan

Ofsted could be given new powers to crack down on suspected illegal schools – allowing them to seize extremist material and interview leaders, the Government has announced.

The schools’ watchdog would be able to gather evidence from unregistered schools, which could then be used in prosecutions and in cases to close down schools.

The proposals – set out in the Government’s new green paper – come just days after the Ofsted boss warned MPs that children were being taught with “worrying teaching materials” in illegal schools, including books that advocate men beating their wives.

The Government is also planning to close a loophole that means full-time education establishments that only teach religious education do not have to register as a school.

“All full-time independent education settings should be registered and regulated, no matter what curriculum they offer,” the paper read.

“Currently, some cannot be registered because of the restricted range of their curriculum. This is unacceptable given the need to protect the welfare and education of the children involved.”

Education minister Lord Agnew, who is responsible for counter-extremism in schools, wrote in The Times that he was “concerned” about cases where “children are said to be ‘home educated’ but are in reality attending illegal schools”.

In the past two years, Ofsted has uncovered 359 unregistered schools – of which 192 were inspected and 50 given warning notices. A total of 38 settings have been closed or ceased operating illegally.

Amanda Spielman, chief inspector of Ofsted, called the new proposals a “major step forward” and added that the new powers would be “put to maximum effect”.

Speaking to the Education Committee last week, Ms Spielman expressed frustration about the schools’ watchdog’s limited powers to seize evidence in suspected unregistered schools.

“At the moment we can copy, so we do take photographs where we can, but if the proprietors or teachers pick up everything that’s there and walk out with it, there’s nothing we can do, they can simply take it away,” she told MPs.

The Integrated Communities Strategy green paper also includes plans to make anyone wanting to set up a free school “provide evidence of their efforts to reflect the social and ethnic make-up of the area”– and to encourage councils to introduce school catchment areas that include “diverse residential areas” to boost integration.

The proposals come just a week after public figures and religious leaders called on the Government to abandon plans to allow new faith schools to take fewer pupils from different backgrounds.

An open letter to the Education Secretary – which was signed by former Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams – said it was difficult to bring to mind “a more divisive policy” than lifting the 50 per cent faith cap, which stops religious schools from selecting more than half of their pupils based on religion.

Paul Whiteman, general secretary of school leaders’ union NAHT, said: “School leaders see first-hand the impact that poor integration can have on children and families.

“Schools already invest a lot of time and money into getting children the support they need to learn and thrive. But they will be wary about the additional workload implications in this green paper.

“The green paper contains some laudable ideas but the impact on schools could be significant. Additional inspection measurements for Ofsted cannot help but result in additional workload for teachers and school leaders because Ofsted is a huge lever directing schools’ activities.”