Sunday schools protected in key religious freedom victory
from Evangelical Alliance:
The Government has abandoned plans to register and inspect out-of-school education settings, announcing this in a report on their call for evidence released today.
In so doing, they have taken an important step to protect religious freedom. In deciding not to pursue their proposals to register settings that teach for more than 6 to 8 hours a week, the Government have acknowledged the concerns in the 73 per cent of formal responses which rejected this proposal. Responses to the call for evidence also highlighted deep reservations about Ofsted having a role in investigating out-of-school settings: around 75 per cent of responses disagreed with this proposal. The Government noted that these responses ‘expressed concerns about Ofsted’s capacity, expertise and neutrality in dealing with such settings.’
The Evangelical Alliance spoke up when the call for evidence was made more than two years ago. We pointed out the unintended consequences of the initial proposals for civil society, such as many church activities like Sunday schools and youth groups being subjected to government regulation and inspection.
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