My Lords, in Part 4, on independent educational institutions, particularly Clause 60, the detail seems to put independent schools on a standards system closer to that of publicly funded schools. As I said at Second Reading, I was struggling to understand the rationale for the provision under Clause 60(2), which says that the Secretary of State needs to be
“satisfied that … standards is or are not being met”
and have
“reasonable cause to believe that … one or more students at the institution will or may be exposed to the risk of harm”.
10 pm
On 19 May this year, it was reported that Ofsted had issued an updated version of its December 2021 inspection report on Ampleforth College, which is still rated inadequate on safeguarding and leadership. The Department for Education issued its first warning notice in 2018, so DfE has known that it has been in an unsafe position for four years now. This is the fourth inspection that the school has failed in just over a year, having failed three ISI inspections in the years before that.
I understand why there may be an attempt to clarify the law, but what is delaying the Secretary of State taking action? Do we need this clause for action to happen, or are there other remedies? If the power of decision resides solely with the Secretary of State and they can choose not to act—as has happened at Ampleforth—what is the point?
In Clause 60, new Section 118E proposes the requirement to stop boarding, which is put in place to protect pupils. I am all in favour of that in principle, but thinking it through, in any school that has safeguarding issues so severe that a stop boarding requirement is necessary, surely continuing the school in any form should be in question. Safeguarding must be paramount and the precautionary principle must always be in place.
Let me illustrate that with part of the most recent Ampleforth Ofsted report:
“The arrangements to safeguard pupils, including the most vulnerable … remain ineffective … Most, but not all, pupils say they feel safe. However, pupils are at risk of harm ... Leaders do not accept responsibility readily for the harm experienced by pupils in their care.”
Later on, it says:
“Whilst there are some strengths in the boarding provision, pupils’ overall experiences and progress is inadequate. This is because leaders and staff fail to take appropriate action to protect pupils from serious harm.”
It ends with:
“The school does not meet the national minimum standards for boarding schools relating to child protection, management and development of boarding, staff and supervision, and keeping children safe in education.”
I raise this because the new section separates out the boarding issue. At one stage last year, Ampleforth was told it could take no new pupils, but boarding was not stopped, although for some years now, safeguarding has remained a problem at this school. How certain can the Secretary of State be that children will be safe during a period leading up to the suspension of boarding, if only boarding is suspended but day teaching continues? If this is imposed as an emergency action and boarding is ceased suddenly at a large school, there is no mention here of the role of or assistance to the school’s local authority designated officer and their team, as well as children’s services more widely, who are likely to have to provide immediate support for, say, those pupils whose parents live a long way away or abroad.
Part 4 feels as though this is legislation to fill some gaps to ensure that safeguarding at independent schools is properly carried out. Reading reports from the Independent Inquiry into Child Sex Abuse on boarding schools is very chilling. It appears some schools have not learned. Does the department believe that it will now have the tools needed to ensure that independent schools are judged by the same standards as publicly funded ones? After all, the priority must be the safety and education of the children, even if parents are paying for that education and the school is not part of the public system. I look forward to the Minister’s response.
One of the problems at all schools, day and boarding, has been how teachers and other staff are received when they report suspicions about a pupil being abused,
whether in school, at home or elsewhere. A duty to report suspicions, also known as mandatory reporting, where a teacher or other staff member reports their suspicions to an authorised and designated person, has transformed school safeguarding in other countries. This is what my second amendment, Amendment 171Z, seeks to achieve through a duty to report child sex abuse. Some form of mandatory reporting is present in 81.8% of developed nations, including 86.4% of nations in Europe, and in 78.6% of developing nations.
Professor Mathews, an academic expert on mandatory reporting from Australia, was a witness to IICSA when it was examining mandatory reporting in April 2019, and he said:
“In the scores of countries that have enacted mandatory reporting legislation for child sexual abuse, none, to my knowledge, have reversed it. Many of those jurisdictions have conducted subsequent government inquiries, looking at whether it is still justified as public policy, including on economic grounds, and they’ve concluded that yes, it is.”
The impact of mandatory reporting laws in Australia—which have been in place for years; in some states, for over 20—means that there is now a substantial amount of academic research. This has shown that, since mandatory reporting was introduced in New South Wales in 1987, referrals from teachers rose, and there was also a decrease in public referrals, because the public knew that teachers and others in their position—those seeing children—were going to be dealing with it. Teachers became confident about using the system and detected some form of abuse in 67% of cases. Of all child sexual abuse cases referred to children’s services, 24% came from teachers.
The problem with the law in England at the moment is that it is all “should” not “must”—and that has not changed the culture. Once in law, it is embedded in teacher and other staff training, management systems, development and training sessions, and Ofsted’s reporting. The IICSA reports on child sex abuse in schools—especially in schools where it has happened for years, decades even—make for totally harrowing reading. I have talked to survivors of child sex abuse at boarding schools, and they all say, “I never want it to happen to anyone else”—and yet things do not change.
Personally, I would like mandatory reporting in all registered activities that children take part in, which is what happens in most countries that have mandatory reporting, but I was told it was unfortunately outside the scope of this Bill. Frankly, achieving it for schools would be helpful as a good start. I look forward to IICSA’s final report and their comments about whether countries in the UK should adopt mandatory reporting. I beg to move.