Ofsted Uncovers 500 Suspected Illegal Schools in England

[6Foot2]

Link: Ofsted uncovers 500 suspected illegal schools in England [The Guardian]

 

More than 500 suspected illegal schools, educating thousands of pupils, have been identified in England over the past three years by the schools watchdog Ofsted, according to data published for the first time.

 

Some of the schools were in an appalling condition with rat traps, exposed wires and open sewers, Ofsted inspectors said. In one, pupils were left to play computer games all day, while in another inspectors found children in every classroom repeating religious texts with no other apparent education going on.

 

In some cases local authorities were unwittingly sending children to unlicensed alternative provision. In one case, a council paid £27,000 a year for one of its students to be educated in an unregistered setting. Elsewhere, students were found being taught by teachers who had been banned and untrained staff who had undergone no employment checks, in buildings where hygiene and facilities were poor.

 

The data, released by Ofsted on Friday and never published before, shows the illegal schools task force has investigated 521 settings, and inspected 259 since January 2016.

 

Ofsted estimated that 6,000 children were being educated in the 259 unregistered schools it has inspected to date but, according to Ofsted’s deputy director, Victor Shafiee, who heads the unregistered schools taskforce, the figures represent the “tip of the iceberg”...

[mikeprice]

Interested in this bit

 

In some cases local authorities were unwittingly sending children to unlicensed alternative provision

 

What - unwittingly???

 

maybe I'm being naive - but shouldn't they check as a matter of course???

 

still - good to hear that Ofsted has been doing something about these places

[FishCustard]

You'd think so, wouldn't you? A quick check on EduBase2 "Get Information About Schools" would tell you if they were registered. Takes about 45 seconds (I just tested!).

[mikeprice]

You'd think so, wouldn't you? A quick check on EduBase2 "Get Information About Schools" would tell you if they were registered. Takes about 45 seconds (I just tested!).

 

Yes - but you are a highly intelligent and technically aware IT Tech - you can't expect an overworked clerk in a council to be able to do that

 

especially if the council's budget has been cut to the bone and beyond so that people have had to take every shortcut possible and stop doing basic checks in order to be able to do the main part of their job

hence stuff like this falls through the cracks (other descriptions of gaping chasms are available!)

[FishCustard]

I suppose, but surely multiple people would have had to be aware of it - all of them would either have to not check, or check and then not care/hide the fact.

 

One of those Swiss cheese failures - where all the holes line up for a failure to happen.

[3s-gtech]

As it's a serious safeguarding issue, cutbacks etc are no excuse whatsoever - this is people's lives and wellbeing at stake. Anyone who has 'okayed' this funding should be professionally answerable. Not that I'm surprised.

[mikeprice]

If a school has decided to send a pupil to an unregistered school they there will be hell to pay - Head struck off - all sorts

 

If is a council - probably not much will happen - retraining for someone possibly