Fiona Bruce – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Fiona Bruce on 2016-01-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans her Department has to include within its proposals for registration and inspection of out-of-school education settings (a) annual holiday clubs and (b) communal religious groups.

Nick Gibb

The Government wants children to be educated in a safe environment where they are not exposed to hateful and extremist views that undermine British values.

The call for evidence on out-of-school settings described:

(a) Supplementary schools as settings which offer support or education in addition to mainstream or core learning, and which operate after school hours and on the weekends; and

(b) Tuition centres as settings which could often be used in place of mainstream education and support home education, and which can operate at any time of day.

The proposals are about making sure that where there are concerns raised by parents and others about issues of extremism, child cruelty or inappropriate teaching in unregulated settings, the Government can take action to protect children and empower parents.

The call for evidence defined intensive education as anything which entails an individual child attending a setting for more than betweensix toeight hours a week. Such settings would be required to register with their local authority and be eligible for inspection where concerns were reported.

Settings providing ad hoc classes or regular classes below a specified time threshold would not be captured by the proposal. One-week holiday clubs and Sunday schools would not, therefore, be covered. The proposal is intended to capture settings where children receive intensive education, regardless of faith or whether provided by a community group.