A PROBE into issues which could arise from children in Bradford being educated at home or in unregistered schools, including potential safeguarding matters, will begin this week.

It comes after Ofsted chief Michael Wilshaw criticised Bradford Council chiefs for being "naive" over the issue of children being taught at home, including at unregistered schools, and demanded they show evidence the council had on any such schools operating in Bradford.

In response, Bradford councillors voted to carry out a "comprehensive and robust review" of the authority's approach to home education in the next six months.

The "Scrutiny of Home Educated Children" will now be discussed by the authority's children's scrutiny committee when it meets on April 12.

A report to the committee says that in a meeting with the council last month, Ofsted raised some "legitimate concerns" as well as more general issues surrounding education outside of school.

The study will look at the council's approach to identifying children not registered in schools, how it minimises the risk of children missing from education, why some parents choose home education for their children and how the council can safeguard children outside the "regular" school system.

A draft terms of reference for the study says the committee might want to collect evidence by calling for briefings from council education officers, invite written evidence from other parties, hold open meetings where the public can present evidence and holding committee hearings.

A list of "interested parties" that may be involved in the investigation include the Department For Education, Ofsted, the children's services department, private teachers and schools, trade unions, parents, governors and the Telegraph & Argus.

The scrutiny committee will decide on the terms of reference at the meeting on April 12

Councillor Susan Hinchcliffe, executive for education skills and culture on Bradford Council, said: "I welcome the children's scrutiny committee doing a deep-dive into this subject.

"It's an area which has attracted a lot of interest recently and I want to make sure we are doing everything we can to support children and their families who have decided to educate their children at home."

At a full council meeting last month, Liberal Democrats group leader Councillor Jeanette Sunderland asked how many reports of unregistered schools the council had received in the past five years, and what action was taken.

She was told there was one report in 2014 and one in 2015.

In one case concerns were raised over a garage being converted into a school attended by children in the evening, but after checks it was found the owner had planning permission for this, and only a small number of children attended.

In another a woman was found to be teaching a small number of children at her home, again outside school hours. She was advised to apply for planning permission if she wanted to carry on, which she then did.

In both cases neither was found to be an unregistered school.

The committee meets in City Hall on April 12 from 4.30pm.