Ofsted hits out at Church over Sunday school inspection bar

THE head of Ofsted has attacked the Church for preventing inspections of Sunday schools.

Amanda Spielman, the chief inspector, said it was a “matter of regret” that the Church of England blocked examination of out-of-school provisions.

She called for more powers for Ofsted to scrutinise settings where children are educated outside of school hours to protect them from extreme religious views.

Speaking at the Church of England’s Foundation for Educational Leadership conference yesterday, she said Ofsted must be able to inspect out-of-school provisions, including Sunday schools and Bible clubs.

Ms Spielman recalled how a government plan to allow inspections of all groups caring for children for more than six hours a week was dropped in 2016, following an intervention from Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and MPS.

“It is a matter of regret that the Church has resisted changes in the law to allow Ofsted to inspect these settings,” she said. “This is not about infringing religious freedom ... it is about ensuring that the small minority of settings that promote extremism are not able to evade scrutiny.”

Nigel Genders, the Church of England’s chief education officer, said: “We did have concerns over proposals in 2015, which, at the time, could have ensured that everything down to village Sunday schools might have to be registered. We have worked closely with government since then, and are happy to go on working them on any proposal that would target areas of concern rather than imposing a new burden of bureaucracy across the board.”