Government announces new laws to protect children following investigation by The Independent into illegal schools

An investigation by The Independent revealed thousands of children have disappeared from the education system to be taught at illegal schools where they are at risk of abuse

The Government is to propose new powers to protect children following an investigation by The Independent which revealed thousands of children are attending illegal faith schools in the UK where they are at risk of abuse.

The Department for Education has confirmed new proposed powers will be brought forward to Parliament with a view to enabling intervention in "unregulated education settings which teach children intensively" and will be included in the forthcoming Home Office Counter Extremism Bill.

In April an investigation by The Independentrevealed thousands of children have disappeared from Government records to be taught in illegal ultra-Orthodox Jewish schools. The boys receive only religious education conducted in Yiddish and ‘secular knowledge’ is banned, meaning many leave school unable to speak English and with no qualifications or skills to live independently. Former pupils and whistle blowers told The Independent physical beating of children is common and teachers often encourage pupils to enter arranged marriages upon turning 18.

The children come from ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities in north London who believe that following a boy’s bar mitzvah, he should receive only religious education. Daughters tend to continue in legal, registered schools as theological training is not considered as important for women due to interpretations of their social roles as wives and mothers.

The investigation also revealed Hackney Council in London has been aware of the existence of some of these schools since at least 2010 but destroyed records of children going missing at the request of the schools. A senior member of Department for Education staff was aware of this destruction of records but did not act to raise any objections.

A spokesperson for the Department for Education said: “Unregistered schools are illegal and unsafe – and we are taking unprecedented and direct action against them across the board to protect children, inform parents and support teachers. This includes strengthening our guidance to schools on safeguarding, and proposals to change regulations so that schools have a duty to inform local authorities in all circumstances where a pupil is removed from a school register. 

“We have also announced an escalation of Ofsted investigations into unregistered schools, a new tougher approach to prosecuting them and a call to local authorities to help identify any setting of concern.”

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