Asked by: Lord Davies of Brixton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Barran on 20 February (HL5445), what enforcement activity they have undertaken in each of the last five years in respect of unregistered alternative education provision against (1) such providers, (2) schools engaging such providers, and (3) local authorities.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Unregistered alternative provision are settings that provide alternative provision, but don’t meet the threshold to register as independent schools. Unregistered schools are required to register as an independent school if they offer full time education for:
Ofsted publish statistics on their activity investigating suspected unregistered schools. Since 2016, 956 settings have been investigated. Of these, 33% are classed as alternative provision providers. This information is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/unregistered-schools-management-information.
Asked by: Lord Davies of Brixton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Barran on 20 February (HL5450), what assessment they have made, if any, of the accuracy of the information provided through the Schools Census in respect of the usage of unregistered alternative education providers.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Since the 2022/23 academic year, the department has started to collect data from all schools, via the school census, about the alternative provision they arrange, including in unregistered settings. The first mandatory collection is currently being carried out within the spring census and so the information requested is not yet available.
Asked by: Lord Davies of Brixton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Barran on 20 February (HL5445), whether they will publish the responses received to the call for evidence on the use of unregistered alternative education provision, prior to preparation of the commissioned analysis.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The government is not planning to publish individual responses submitted to the call for evidence into the use of unregistered alternative provision. A full breakdown of responses received will be published as part of the final analysis report. The report will include the key findings from submitted responses and it will be published later this year.
Asked by: Lord Davies of Brixton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Barran on 20 February (HL5446), why they do not collect or collate information on unregistered alternative education providers.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department stopped maintaining a central voluntary register of unregistered alternative provision providers in 2012. This followed a recommendation by the department’s Behaviour Adviser, in the report, Improving Alternative Provision. This report can be found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/180581/DFE-00035-2012.pdf and is attached.
Asked by: Lord Davies of Brixton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many unregistered alternative education providers there are in England.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department does not collect data on the number of unregistered alternative education providers. Data is collected in the alternative provision census on the placement of pupils by local authorities and, since 2022, arrangements made by schools. This data is collected via the schools census, including where a placement is with an unregistered alternative education provider. However, information on the provider is not collected and the number of unique providers cannot be derived.
Asked by: Lord Davies of Brixton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many unregistered alternative providers in England provide full time education of over 18 hours per week to school-age pupils.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Any education setting which provides full-time provision to five or more pupils of compulsory school age (or one or more pupils of compulsory school age who is looked after or has an education, health and care (EHC) plan), is not maintained by a local authority and is not a non-maintained special school, is required to register with the department as an independent school. It is a criminal offence to conduct an independent school that is not registered.
Any unregistered alternative provider which provided full-time education of over 18 hours per week to five or more children (or one or more children who are looked after or who have an EHC plan), may be operating unlawfully as an unregistered independent school.
Since those conducting such a setting are committing a criminal offence, they do not generally inform the department about the school’s operation. It is not therefore possible to accurately estimate the number of unregistered alternative providers in England which are providing full-time education to school-age pupils.
It is possible that some unregistered alternative providers are providing more than 18 hours per week to school-age pupils in ways which mean the setting is not operating as an unregistered independent school because, for instance, it caters for fewer than five pupils of compulsory school age. The department does not collect data at a provider level about unregistered providers.
Asked by: Lord Davies of Brixton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what data they collect on the commissioning of unregistered alternative education providers by schools.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department does not collect data on the number of unregistered alternative education providers. Data is collected in the alternative provision census on the placement of pupils by local authorities and, since 2022, arrangements made by schools. This data is collected via the schools census, including where a placement is with an unregistered alternative education provider. However, information on the provider is not collected and the number of unique providers cannot be derived.
Asked by: Lord Davies of Brixton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many unique unregistered alternative providers have been commissioned by schools, including academies and all other non-maintained schools, to provide education placements for children in England.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department does not collect data on the number of unregistered alternative education providers. Data is collected in the alternative provision census on the placement of pupils by local authorities and, since 2022, arrangements made by schools. This data is collected via the schools census, including where a placement is with an unregistered alternative education provider. However, information on the provider is not collected and the number of unique providers cannot be derived.
Asked by: Lord Davies of Brixton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many unique unregistered alternative providers have been commissioned by one or more local authorities to provide education placements for children in England.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department does not collect data on the number of unregistered alternative education providers. Data is collected in the alternative provision census on the placement of pupils by local authorities and, since 2022, arrangements made by schools. This data is collected via the schools census, including where a placement is with an unregistered alternative education provider. However, information on the provider is not collected and the number of unique providers cannot be derived.
Asked by: Lord Davies of Brixton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government when they will publish the outcome of their Understanding the use of unregistered alternative education provision consultation, which ran from 11 July 2022 to 30 September 2022.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department recognises the need to strengthen protections for children and young people in unregistered alternative provision settings, so that every placement is safe and has clear oversight.
To find the right solution, the department launched a call for evidence on the use of unregistered alternative provision. The call for evidence closed on 30 September 2022.
The department has commissioned independent analysis of responses to this consultation, which will be published later this year.