HL Deb 19 May 1998 vol 589 cc160-1WA
Lord Northbourne

asked Her Majesty's Government:

Whether there is any provision in statute for the inspection of the quality of care offered by maintained special schools, other than the inspection carried out by Ofsted; and whether they have any plans to provide for such inspection. [HL1902]

Baroness Blackstone

There is no current provision is statute. The Government are considering the recommendations made by Sir William Utting in his recent report,People Like Us: The Report Of The Review Of The Safeguards For Children Living Away From Home. One of the recommendations is that the provision in Section 87 of the Children Act 1989 for local authority social services departments to inspect independent boarding schools be extended to cover maintained schools, maintained special schools and non-maintained special schools offering boarding provision.