HOUSE OF COMMONS EDUCATION COMMITTEE: CALL FOR EVIDENCE ON OFSTED’S WORK WITH SCHOOLS

Response from Humanists UK, July 2023

ABOUT HUMANISTS UK

1. Since 1896, our work has been helping people be happier and more fulfilled. By bringing non-religious people together we help them develop their own views and an understanding of the world around them. Together with our partners Humanist Society Scotland, we speak for 110,000 members and supporters and over 115 members of the All-Party Parliamentary Humanist Group. Through our ceremonies, pastoral support, education services, and campaigning work, we advance free thinking and freedom of choice so everyone can live in a fair and equal society.

2. We have a long history of work in education, children’s rights and equality, with expertise in the ‘religion or belief’ strand. We have been involved in policy development around the school and the curriculum for over 60 years. We also provide materials and advice to parents, governors, students, teachers and academics, for example through our Understanding Humanism website[1] and our school speakers programme. We have made detailed responses to all recent Government consultations on education and reviews of the school curriculum, and submit memoranda of evidence to MPs, civil servants, and parliamentary select committees on a range of education issues. And we are an active member of many organisations working in education in the UK, including the Religious Education Council for England and Wales (REC), of which we are a founding member, the Sex Education Forum, the PSHE Association, and the Children’s Rights Alliance for England (CRAE).

3. Our primary interests in education relate to religion and belief. At the curriculum level, this includes RE, PSHE/RSE, citizenship, and science, but we also work on collective worship/school assemblies, and state-funded religious schools. We lead the national campaign on unregistered religious schools and work closely with former pupils of such settings, as well as current members of closed religious communities, to highlight their experiences and provide evidence to the authorities. Our work in this area includes working directly with community whistleblowers and our apostate support programme Faith to Faithless.[2] It has generated substantial and significant media coverage on the issue of illegal schools, including features on Newsnight,[3] BBC News at Six and Ten,[4] and more recently in The Times.[5] The earlier coverage prompted the creation of Ofsted’s unregistered schools team. We were the first external group to meet with that team, and the first to introduce them to pupils who had attended such schools. It also prompted Hackney Council’s own review of the issue in the local area.
    

4. SUMMARY

●       Supported by the Education Inspection Framework (EIF) and related guidance, Ofsted inspections successfully help to tackle problems pertaining to religious extremism, poor quality education, and discrimination in both state-funded and non-association independent schools.

●       Ofsted’s work in helping to protect learners via assessment of safeguarding practices and compliance with British values, and the Equality Act 2010 and the Human Rights Act 1998 are vital to the safety and wellbeing of children and young people.

●       However, the lack of sufficient powers to investigate and close unregistered schools means the inspectorate’s ability to prevent harm to the pupils attending these settings is severely limited.

●       In state maintained schools and academies, insufficient attention is paid to ensuring that learners receive inclusive religious education that covers religious perspectives and non-religious worldviews like humanism on an equal footing. This is a particular issue in religious schools where Ofsted does not have the power to inspect provision. However, even where Ofsted does have the power to inspect RE, it often fails to do so or does not report on this aspect of the curriculum.

●       Like the Department for Education (DfE), Ofsted’s complaints procedure lacks transparency and is difficult to navigate, particularly for parents.

INTRODUCTION

5. Ofsted is a controversial body. But, while there are differing views on whether, in its current form, the inspectorate is fit for purpose, these debates largely fall outside our policy remit. Instead we wish to use this call for evidence to articulate some of the most important (and successful) aspects of Ofsted’s work and highlight key areas for improvement. With this in mind, our response will focus on four issues:

●       Tackling issues relating to safeguarding, discrimination, and poor quality education and practice in the context of state funded and non-association independent faith schools;

●       Religious education;

●       Powers to investigate unregistered settings; and

●       Complaints procedures.

6. In our view, Ofsted does vital work in highlighting (and therefore limiting) areas of poor (and, sometimes, even dangerous) practice in educational settings. However, it is far from perfect and there are aspects of its work that need to be enhanced or reformed if inspections are to help to achieve the organisation’s guiding principle of ‘improving lives by raising standards in education.’[6]

SAFEGUARDING, DISCRIMINATION, AND POOR PRACTICE IN RELIGIOUS SCHOOLS

7. Inspections play a key role in identifying poor educational practice, including the teaching of discriminatory or extremist attitudes in schools. Since the introduction of the statutory duty to promote British values in 2014, Ofsted has evaluated this aspect of provision and, in 2019, we welcomed the continued emphasis on the importance of these values (including tolerance, individual liberty, and respect for the rule of law) in our response to the consultation on the new education inspection framework. Unfortunately, particularly in the independent sector, the religious character of a school may be the cause of poor practice with respect to this area of pupil development. Ofsted has been successful at identifying religious extremism in schools. For instance, in 2019, an inspection of the Jamia Islamia school in Birmingham found books promoting extremist views, including support for Islamic State and the Taliban, intolerant statements about Jews and Christians, and condoning physical punishment of children in the school library. These findings contributed to an ‘inadequate’ overall rating.[7] And, in 2018, Yesodey Hatorah Senior Girls School in London was found to be providing a narrow and restrictive curriculum, redacting English text books, and failing to teach pupils about people with other faiths, beliefs or cultures, prompting another inadequate rating.[8]

8. This robust approach to identifying religious extremism and poor practice in schools, and then downgrading them as a result, seems to be paying dividends. In the case of Jamia Islamia, the latest inspection report from February 2023 demonstrates considerable improvement since 2019 – albeit still not fully meeting the Independent School Standards (ISS).[9] Similarly, following an inadequate Ofsted report which led to the DfE considering the school’s registration status,[10] the Vine Christian School has improved its pupil safeguarding and broadened its curriculum to comply with the ISS.[11] When such improvements have not taken place, Ofsted has played an instrumental role in providing the evidence necessary to secure school closure. For example, the Institute of Islamic Education in Dewsbury received a damning Ofsted report following a litany of serious safeguarding failures and the discovery of a book in the library which stated ‘…the participants of the homosexual act should be slained (wording in the text) whether they are married or unmarried because in filth and mischief of this act surpasses adultery.’[12] While school closure should always be a last resort, this is sometimes necessary to protect pupils’ rights to a broad and balanced education in a safe environment.

9. This said, when improvement does not happen in line with Ofsted reports, independent schools are not always closed down quickly enough by the Department for Education. For example, the Rabia School in Luton was first rated inadequate – not solely due to religious extremism or a failure to uphold British values, but also because of poor quality teaching and inadequate safeguarding – in 2014; in 2016 the Chief Inspector revealed that he had written to the Government twice about it;[13] but it took until 2021, when its final report showed that it was still not demonstrating sufficient improvement, for it to be closed.[14] The current regulations facilitate repeated cycles of improvement and deterioration, with some schools continuously making just enough progress for the Department to withdraw the threat of enforcement action before reverting back to poor practice.[15] The Government consulted in 2020, and then published legislation in sections 46-47 of the now-aborted Schools Bill, that would have tightened up regulations in this area. Without progress on this Bill, the current unsatisfactory situation continues.

10. With respect to equality legislation, Ofsted regularly identifies instances of mixed schools unlawfully segregating boys and girls – usually to the educational disadvantage of the girls.[16] However, as is the case when religious extremism is uncovered by Ofsted, simply identifying the problem doesn’t necessarily lead to a suitable solution: schools that unlawfully segregate children can simply split into two single-sex schools, with the blessing of the DfE, rather than being forced to adjust their curriculum and other practices to make sure girls and boys are treated equally. This is a problem.

11. In the state system, Ofsted has played a key role in identifying systemic failures in safeguarding and educational provision in Steiner schools.[17] This facilitated the rebrokering of these schools to a new multi-academy trust.[18] Although Steiner schools do not have a religious character, they are nevertheless an example of a type of school where a particular philosophy has been permitted to influence educational practice in a manner that is detrimental to pupils. This has included bullying of students, teaching racist attitudes, pseudoscience in the curriculum, and homoeopathy being given to pupils.[19] It should also be noted that, in the independent sector, poor performance in Steiner schools was enabled by the ineffectiveness of the now defunct School Inspection Service. These schools are now inspected by Ofsted and appear to be improving as a result.[20]

12. Ofsted does not inspect the denominational religious education (RE) provided in some faith schools (voluntary aided (VA) schools, academies whose predecessor was a VA school, or free schools). Instead this teaching is overseen by representatives of the faith group in charge of the school. This leaves such teaching vulnerable to extremism at worst, or at best considerable bias and an absence of respect for other worldviews. We campaign for the abolition of religious bias in all schools – including the provision of denominational (and therefore partisan) RE in faith schools. However, while such provision is permitted, at the very least the curriculum should be open to independent external scrutiny from Ofsted inspectors, rather than being a ‘closed shop’ of provision as it is currently. We cover RE in more detail in the next section.

13. As the cases above demonstrate, Ofsted plays a crucial role in identifying instances of poor safeguarding and non-compliance with equalities legislation in schools, and its work here is to be commended. Although not unique to faith schools, many of the most egregious child safeguarding problems are found in schools with a religious character. For example the Chief Inspector herself, in evidence to the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse in 2020, cited a pamphlet endorsed by religious leaders from the Charedi Jewish community, recommending physical punishment and humiliation of children in schools.[21]

14. Recommendations: The Government should take action more swiftly to close down schools that show no improvement when presented with evidence of religious extremism and intolerance; Ofsted must be given powers to inspect denominational RE in faith schools.

RELIGIOUS EDUCATION

15. Religious education (RE) has recently been described by Colin Bloom, the Government-appointed independent reviewer into religion in the UK, as the ‘cinderella subject’. Bloom’s report recommended the ‘introduction of minimum standards regarding timetabling and resourcing to bring RE alongside other humanities subjects which would then be centrally inspected by Ofsted’.[22]

16. Sitting as it does outside the national curriculum, yet still a compulsory subject until Key Stage Four, there is considerable justification for this view. Good RE, by which we mean RE that is inclusive of non-religious worldviews like humanism, would enable young people to form and explore their own beliefs and develop an understanding of beliefs and values different from their own, and would allow pupils to engage with serious ethical and philosophical questions in a way that develops important skills of critical thinking, reasoning, and inquiry.

17. We broadly welcomed the revised Ofsted inspection framework in 2019 but, although RE is listed as a compulsory subject in this, the framework is not clear that it must include non-religious perspectives like humanism.[23] Case law is clear that in order that the subject is taught in line with the Human Rights Act 1998, which treats religious and non-religious worldviews equally, humanism must be given ‘equal respect’ in the curriculum.[24], [25] (This was also a key recommendation of the landmark Commission on RE report,[26] which proposed that the subject be renamed ‘Religion and Worldviews’ to make schools aware of this broader scope.)

18. While, in 2021, Ofsted published a report on RE saying good quality teaching of the subject would include teaching about humanism,[27] we have seen no evidence that Ofsted inspects for the inclusion of humanism in the subject. This is in marked contrast to the manner in which Ofsted inspects schools for LGBT inclusiveness, for example. Given that religion or belief is (like sexual orientation and gender reassignment) a protected characteristic under the Equality Act 2010, there is no reason for this asymmetry. Further, research from the National Association of Teachers of RE (NATRE) found that the subject as a whole is inspected at a far lower level than other subjects, with few ‘deep dives’ taking place, especially at secondary level.[28] What’s more, even when deep dives do take place, the findings of these reviews are not always featured in the final report rendering them of little use to parents and other stakeholders in the provision on offer.

19. Recommendation: when inspecting RE, Ofsted must ensure that the subject is inclusive of non-religious worldviews like humanism, and inspect the subject more robustly as a whole.

POWERS TO INVESTIGATE UNREGISTERED SETTINGS

20. Following a campaign led by Humanists UK, in 2014 the Government first tasked Ofsted with investigating settings they suspected of operating as unregistered schools. Many of these are religious in nature. Ofsted immediately got to work, and looked at 28 such settings between September 2014 and November 2015, and identified 15 where there was evidence that an unregistered school was operating. However, it took until 2018 for the first successful conviction of a proprietor.[29] Since then there have been only a further five, in spite of Ofsted identifying over 900 potential cases. This difficulty in taking action is because of loopholes in the law. For example proprietors claim they are merely providing supplementary religious instruction to children otherwise educated at home. Meanwhile many illegal settings evade detection by Ofsted, by simply not meeting the definition of an independent school in terms of the curriculum content or hours of attendance.

21. The education provided in many unregistered religious schools is known to be narrow, predominantly or entirely scriptural in its content, and deeply conservative, intolerant, and extreme. Ofsted’s own estimates are that at least 6,000 children are in such settings in England. As part of our campaigning, we have worked with former pupils of such settings to expose what goes on.[30] This includes living or learning in unsafe, unsanitary, and cramped conditions; studying a narrow religious curriculum with no English, Maths, or Science for long hours; and experiencing physical, emotional, and sexual abuse.

22. Ofsted would like to secure more successful prosecutions, and there have been repeated calls since 2014 for further powers. By 2022 this pressure seemed to be bearing fruit: after much consultation, draft Government legislation was introduced in May 2022 in parts 3 and 4 of the Schools Bill. This included a wider definition of educational settings that must register, additional powers for Ofsted to gain access to premises, and a register of home-educated children.[31] The proposals had cross-party support, but the Schools Bill was dropped by the Government in December, because a completely separate aspect of the Bill (the academisation proposals in part 1) proved controversial. The Government has said that both the home education register and wider legislation to shut illegal schools remain its policy. But it has also said it is waiting for a suitable legislative window, and has not said if or when such a window will arise.[32] We believe that the unregistered schools team at Ofsted is doing all it can within its current regulatory constraints, but its experience over the past nine years has shown that greater powers are necessary to be able to tackle the problem more successfully. This legislation must therefore return as a matter of urgency, and certainly before the next general election.

23. Recommendation: The Government should bring back the legislation that was found in parts 3 and 4 of Schools Bill before the next election.

COMPLAINTS PROCEDURES

24. Unfortunately, as is also the case for the Department for Education, Ofsted’s complaints procedure is not currently fit for purpose. In order to make a complaint about a school, parents (and other complainants) are required to first complain directly to the school. While this initial step is clearly intended to help address concerns at the school level, it can become a significant obstacle, particularly if the issue being complained about involves someone who holds a position of authority like Senior Management or is a member of the Board of Governors. This power dynamic can discourage individuals from pursuing their legitimate grievances further and has led some of the parents we have worked with experiencing major delays in the handling of issues or even dropping complaints altogether. Moreover, in our experience, once the complaint is lodged with Ofsted, there is often a lack of timely updates on the progress of the investigation, leaving complainants in the dark about any actions taken. This contributes to a sense of frustration and discouragement. Additionally, when responses are received, they are often generic and fail to address the specific points raised by the complainant, leading to a sense of their concerns being overlooked. These issues undermine the effectiveness of the complaints procedure and hinder the resolution of legitimate grievances.

25. Recommendation: Ofsted should create a route for some complaints (e.g. those of a serious nature that involve members of staff or governors who would normally be responsible for handling such complaints) to be made directly to Ofsted.

For more details, information, and evidence, contact Humanists UK:

Richy Thompson

Director of Public Affairs and Policy

0781 5589 636

richy@humanists.uk

humanists.uk