Ofsted’s powers are set to be boosted after new legislation has been proposed, which would give the schools regulator the power to shut down any unregistered schools – many of which are faith-based.
Steve Beegoo, Christian Concern’s Head of Education and the chief executive of the Christian Schools’ Trust, spoke to Premier Radio about the newly proposed Schools Bill: “Ofsted does have an issue – that there are a number of these places that pop up, seemingly out of nowhere, and they do need to understand what is going on.”
However, there is an issue with the amount of power being given to the schools regulator: “Ofsted’s powers continually grow … The concern is that as Ofsted’s powers grow, their accountability doesn’t grow, and in fact it seems to be weakened. Ofsted already has huge powers to provide surveillance on places where they think there may be a school going up; they can just turn up at any place where they think there may be a school, just like the police. However, unlike the police – who have quite robust systems for pushback – Ofsted has very limited layers of accountability…”
9 May 2022
Premier Christian Radio