Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that all independent schools are abiding by the Independent Schools Regulations.

Meeting the independent school standards is a condition of continued registration for independent schools. All of them are inspected on a regular cycle. If a school does not meet the required standards, the Department for Education takes appropriate regulatory action to ensure that the situation is rectified in the shortest possible time, or the school is closed.

The department has underpinned this approach by commencing the relevant provisions of the Education and Skills Act 2008 (‘the Act’), so that the role of the three independent inspectorates, and Ofsted’s role in quality assurance of those inspectorates, is put on a statutory footing. In accordance with the Act, the independent school standards were revised and strengthened from January 2015, introducing a new leadership and management standard. These changes form part of the reform programme outlined by Lord Nash in his letter of 28 March 2014 to the Chair of the Select Committee.