WHAT IS IT?
Simon Bass, CEO, CCPAS
Ofsted is the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills. They inspect and regulate services that care for children and young people, and services providing education and skills for learners of all ages. Many people will be familiar with their role in inspecting schools. They also inspect other services such as child minding and nurseries, adoption agencies, children’s homes, independent fostering agencies, residential family centres and children’s centres.
The Childcare Act 2006 introduced changes to the way childcare provision is regulated and inspected. Although there are a few exceptions, most out-ofschool clubs which provide childcare (as opposed to clubs providing coaching in specific activities such as football, chess or French) need to be registered with Ofsted. However, if the club is run directly by a school (ie the club’s staff are employed by the school governors) it will come under the school’s own Ofsted registration and does not need to register separately.
On 26th November 2015, the government commenced a consultation which ran until early January 2016, about out of schools educational settings: registration and inspection. This call for evidence describes a new system for registering and inspecting education settings, providing intensive tuition, training or instruction to children outside of school. These settings are often, but not exclusively, supplementary schools and tuition centres.
The Government are inviting all interested parties, including education providers, local authorities and parents and children to help broaden their evidence base on out-of-school education settings.
Section 2.4 emphasises, ‘It is also not about regulating religion or infringing people’s freedom to follow a particular faith or hold particular beliefs.’ But it does go on to say that the purpose of the proposal is to ensure that intolerance is not promoted.
So what is proposed?
The government want to introduce a system where those providing intensive education are required to register their activity. This activity will be subject to inspection and sanctions would be imposed where settings have failed to safeguard and promote the welfare of children, with the ultimate sanction being that individuals could be barred from working with children, and settings closed down.
Intensive tuition, training or instruction is defined by the number of hours the activity lasts for in any one week, with the suggestion of those activities that last between six and eight hours a week or longer would fall into this category.
In order to register, an organisation would need to agree to a set of standards to ensure the well-being and safeguarding of children.
The expectations, as outlined in the consultation document, are those which any church would be expected to maintain anyway, including keeping records of the children present, ensuring that staff have been recruited safely, and that the premises itself is a safe environment. Two other areas that are highlighted in the consultation are:
- The use of corporal punishment, with the proposal that this is not adopted in any out of school settings.
- Undesirable teaching, with examples given of any teaching which undermines or is not compatible with fundamental British values, or which promotes extremist views.
The definition of what extremism is can be found in the Government’s Counter- Extremism Strategy published in October 2015: ‘Extremism is the vocal or active opposition to our fundamental values, including democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and the mutual respect and tolerance of different faiths and beliefs. We also regard calls for the death of members of our armed forces as extremist.’
One interesting aspect of the Counter- Extremism Strategy is the proposal to make changes to the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) disclosures which will allow employers to identify extremists in order to prevent them from working with children. Those with a conviction or civil order for extremist activity will be automatically barred from working with children.
The consultation offers opportunities for churches to respond to the proposals and outline any concerns that they have. For example, the Church of England and Scripture Union have already discussed implications and have responded.
WHAT IT MEANS
Alex Taylor, Premier Childrenswork’s staff writer
The consultation paper set out the government’s priorities for regulating those out-of-school settings providing intensive tuition, training or instruction to children. Primarily, these are supplementary schools and parttime tuition centres, but the scope of consultation also encompasses some aspects of work done by faith groups.
The aim of this proposed regulation is to keep children safe and protect them from the risk of harm, and from extremism. This includes meeting in a safe and suitable venue, keeping a record of the children on the premises and safely recruiting volunteers. It also includes ensuring that, ‘Those who work in positions of trust and influence with children and young people respect those with different faiths and beliefs and do not, in expressing their individual beliefs, promote intolerance against others’ (Out of school education settings: call for evidence, 2.4). However, in the same point, the paper states clearly that any regulation will not be about, ‘Regulating religion or infringing people’s freedom to follow a particular faith or hold particular beliefs.’
Denominations and parachurch organisations have played an active part in the consultation with the Department of Education. Mary Hawes, national children’s and youth adviser for the Church of England, says: ‘Nationally, the Church of England’s education office has been engaging with the process, to ensure the government has all the information it needs with regards to the activity in its parishes. We have submitted a response as part of the consultation.’
While some organisations fear such legislation (the Christian Institute is quite alarmed at the proposals, fearing that this could lead to some form of state regulation of religion) in reality, churches would not see much change to their ministries. ‘The expectations as outlined in the consultation document are those which any church would be expected to maintain anyway,’ comments Simon Bass, CEO of the Churches Child Protection Advisory Service (CCPAS).
Even if elements of children’s and youth work do need to be registered, registration would be ‘light-touch’ and inspection by Ofsted is unlikely. The paper states that any inspection would be in response to ‘concerns raised by children, parents or the community’ or as part of a random sample, and the aim of the inspections would not be to evaluate the quality of teaching.
In practice, Ofsted inspections are likely to be rare. The guidelines in the paper themselves point towards infrequent engagement, and the reality of limited resources and priorities means that it would be unusual for events such as holiday clubs or residentials to be inspected.
