Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of the regulation of independent tuition centres.

Independent tuition centres would generally be considered to be out-of-school settings. Out-of-school settings are currently defined by the Department as “any institution providing tuition, training, instruction or activities to children in England, without their parents’ or carers’ supervision, that is not a school, college, 16-19 academy or providers caring for children that are registered with Ofsted or a childminder agency”. This definition covers a wide range of settings, which includes settings offering part-time or supplementary education to support mainstream or home education, extra-curricular clubs and activities (such as dance classes, sports tuition, instrumental music tuition), and uniformed youth organisations (such as Scouts and Brownies).

In many cases, these settings are already eligible to register with Ofsted on the General Childcare Register and can be subject to inspection. There are many existing powers in place to protect children in out-of-school settings, and the Department knows that they provide enriching education in a safe environment.

While the Department has not ruled out further regulation, it is important that the Department ensures any future system appropriately targets those settings exposing children to harmful practices, without causing undue burdens on the sector as a whole. Any future system introduced should also build on, and complement, the existing legal powers already in place, making the current system more effective.

The Department has provided over £3 million of targeted funding to selected Local Authorities to examine ways to boost local capacity to identify and intervene in settings of concern, and test the utility of existing powers. The Department is working closely with key safeguarding partners and stakeholders to consider the findings in the report and set out the Department’s next steps on the policy, with the aim of launching a consultation next year on how to best ensure these settings are as safe as possible.

The Department has also published a code of practice for out-of-school settings. This can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/keeping-children-safe-in-out-of-school-settings.