Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they intend to implement in full Part 4 of the Education and Skills Act 2008 relating to the registration of organisations offering alternative provision in the independent sector; and if not, why not.

Alternative providers (AP) which are full-time and meet the criteria for registration as an independent school are already regulated under the 2008 act. The parallel provisions which would enable regulation of part-time independent settings have not been commenced.

The department is aware that local authorities, schools and AP commission out-of-school AP settings for a variety of reasons, including to equip children with vocational skills working with specialists or to offer work placements

Our statutory guidance is clear that in all cases the local authority or school, acting as the commissioner of AP, should assure itself that the provision is delivered by high quality staff with suitable training, experience and safeguarding checks. Ofsted inspectors are expected to consider the progress of pupils who attend off-site provision, when conducting school and college inspections.

In March 2018, the department published guidance, attached, setting out how the government, Ofsted and local authorities can work collaboratively to help ensure unregistered out of school settings are safe and providing a suitable education.