Out-of-school Education Settings Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Department for Education
Catherine McKinnell
Main Page: Catherine McKinnell (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne North)Department Debates - View all Catherine McKinnell's debates with the Department for Education
Out-of-school Education Settings
Catherine McKinnell Excerpts(8 years, 10 months ago)
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Sir Edward Leigh
I agree with my right hon. Friend. We should be using DBS checks if, for instance, people are trying to teach extremism, jihadism or whatever in an out-of-school setting or at home. We should use intelligence and existing powers to deal with the problem, not try to take a great sledgehammer to crack a nut.
Catherine McKinnell (Newcastle upon Tyne North) (Lab)
The hon. Gentleman is making a powerful speech. My constituents are concerned about the additional burden not only on volunteers, who do incredible work up and down the country, but on Ofsted. They are concerned about whether Ofsted has the capacity and the resources to implement the proposals, and about what the costs might be.
Sir Edward Leigh
I believe that Ofsted has neither the capacity nor the resources. It should concentrate on its job of ensuring good educational standards.
The DFE consultation document also mentions settings that are used during school holidays. Clearly, summer camps were in view. The Department now says that “one off residential activities” will not be covered. Fair enough. The body charged with registration is the local authority, but I am afraid we have seen enough local authorities banning Christmas and pulling funding from church groups to know that there will be places where relationships between local churches and the council are not friendly.
Apparently, out-of-school settings will be
“eligible for investigation, and if appropriate, intervention where concerns were reported”.
Investigation? Intervention? This is pretty intrusive stuff. The Government say that all this has
“the broad aim of keeping children safe generally from the risk of harm, including emotional harm”.