Officials in Birmingham have rejected claims by the official schools watchdog that they have done too little to protect children from extremism following the “Trojan horse” scandal.

Sir Michael Wilshaw had said Ofsted’s work to protect children from extremism would be a “waste of time” if local authorities did not improve the tracking of pupils in England who leave mainstream education.

The Ofsted head singled out Birmingham, Luton and Bradford as areas of “concern” as he warned that missing pupils could be at risk of exposure to extremism.

He said headteachers felt unsupported by local authorities in those areas, and gave an example in Birmingham, where he said more than 250 children had been removed from a council register without being located.

His comments came after he wrote to the education secretary, Nicky Morgan, to raise the issue, two years after the “Trojan horse” scandal in the city.

Birmingham city councillor Brigid Jones, cabinet member for children, families and schools, said: “Given that no one from the political leadership has been interviewed in an Ofsted inspection since 2014, and that it has changed quite significantly since then, we found the comments in Sir Michael’s letter to be a surprise. Our doors are always open should Ofsted wish to talk to us about their concerns directly.”



She added: “We have 800 dedicated social workers and a similarly committed wider team of professionals who support and work alongside them. They deserve recognition and credit for all they’ve done so far in the improvement journey.

In terms of the chief inspector’s comments on schools in Birmingham, we note what is being said but contend they don’t fully reflect the feedback that we receive from teachers, our education commissioner and the positive views of other government departments on our work on extremism.”

Wilshaw told the BBC on Friday: “Our concern at Ofsted, my concern as chief inspector, is these [missing] children could be in unregistered schools, they could be in illegal schools, they could be vulnerable to all sorts of influences including radical and extremist thoughts. We need to know where these youngsters are.

“It’s not impossible – this is the duty of a local authority. They have, enshrined in statute, safeguarding responsibilities for all children no matter which institution they go to.

“They should commit resources to this and track this, otherwise all the work we do to get schools to promote British values, all the work Ofsted does to ensure children’s safeguarding will be a bit of a waste of time if there are significant numbers of children that are outside mainstream provision.”

In a newly published letter, Wilshaw said he had continuing concerns about the performance of Birmingham city council and its ability to protect and ensure the safety of its children. In 2014, the city found itself at the centre of the “Trojan horse” controversy, which centred on an alleged move by a small group of hardline Muslims to seize control of a small number of the city’s schools.

The allegations sparked investigations by several agencies including the Department for Education and Ofsted.

Wilshaw’s letter to Morgan said it was two years since he wrote to her predecessor Michael Gove in which he warned that Birmingham city ouncil had failed in its duty to help schools to keep pupils safe from the potential risks of radicalisation and extremism. The warning followed inspections of 21 state schools in the city.

Schools that were placed in special measures as a result are now “generally improving”, he said, adding that two of them had recently been rated good after reinspections.

However, following visits to the city to meet schools and the council, he said: “As a result of these discussions, I am quite clear that, although many of these schools have improved and children are now much safer, the situation remains fragile.

“While the overwhelming majority of parents support the changes that have taken place over the past two years, there are a minority of people in the community who are still intent on destabilising these schools.”

Wilshaw’s letter to Morgan also warned that Birmingham’s children’s services department had failed seven inspections in the last decade and that children in the city remained at risk.

“Despite the appointment of a succession of commissioners to the city, there has been little tangible improvement to the overall quality of child protection services,” the chief inspector said, adding:“Birmingham’s political leaders, in my opinion, have consistently shown themselves to be incapable of delivering the urgent and sustained change required to improve the safety and wellbeing of the city’s vulnerable children.”

Wilshaw pointed out that management of children’s services in the city had been handed over to an independent trust and urged Morgan to ensure this trust remained independent and “not influenced by those in the local authority who have demonstrated such incompetence over many years”.

The letter went on to list in detail a number of concerns, including those raised by inspectors that council staff were too slow in checking the whereabouts of children missing from education, and that there were not tough enough checks on youngsters whose parents chose to home-school them.

Wilshaw concluded that some of the “serious shortcomings” he outlined were not confirmed to Birmingham city council and that following recent visits to Bradford and Luton he was worried about the ability of a number of authorities to address risks in their area.

Wilshaw called on Morgan to agree for an Ofsted inspector to be assigned to any local authority where the government considered that children “are at a greater risk of radicalisation or their safety is being put in jeopardy by poor safeguarding practices”.

A Department for Education spokeswoman said: “Although Birmingham city council has made some improvements to the way it runs its children’s services, we know this progress has not gone far enough, fast enough, and Sir Michael Wilshaw’s letter reinforces that.

“That’s why we have already announced we are working with the council on the development of a voluntary trust to make sure children and families in Birmingham receive the best possible care and support. On top of this, we are delivering a comprehensive package of reforms to radically improve child protection and the raise the status of social work.”