PARENTS have been warned of the dangers posed by illegal schools.

Bradley Simmons, south west director of education watchdog Ofsted, issued the warning as new figures showed that almost 40 illegal schools were investigated across the region.

None of the unregistered schools, which include faith institutions and "alternative" outdoor-based schools, are understood to be based in Swindon.

However, Mr Simmons urged parents to be alive to the problems that the institutions pose.

“They can be pretty dangerous, because there is nobody checking out safeguarding,” he told the Swindon Advertiser.

“Nobody is checking who runs them. We’ve found some really grim examples of places purporting to be schools. In a third of places visited people running them have not been checked. We don’t know their background.

“It’s really important that if you’re going to run an institution for children, those places are checked.”

Mr Simmons advised parents to ask schools whether they were registered with Ofsted.

He said Swindon Borough Council were "really hot" on identifying unregistered schools. Ofsted were not aware of any such institutions currently operating in the town.

Institutions must be registered as a school with the Department for Education if it is providing full-time education to at least five children of compulsory school age, or one child who is looked after by the local authority or has an education, health and care plan.

The school must operate from a building, and must offer a curriculum that includes maths and English. While there is no legal definition of full-time education, government guidance is that 18 hours or more per week is likely to constitute full-time education.

Nationally, an Ofsted task force has inspected 259 unregistered – or illegal – schools since it was set up in January 2016. It is estimated that up to 6,000 children have been taught in the unregulated sites.

A fifth of the schools were faith institutions, of which 14 per cent were tied to the Islamic faith, seven per cent to Judaism and five per cent to Christianity.

Victor Shafiee, Ofsted’s deputy director in charge of the unregistered schools taskforce, said: “The problem here is first and foremost about safeguarding. Many of these places are unsafe – with poor facilities and hygiene, badly trained or untrained staff, who may not have had any employment checks made on them, and little care for children’s health and well-being.

“We need to make sure children are safe and receiving a good education that prepares them for life in modern Britain. Ofsted will continue to do everything we can to investigate and inspect unregistered schools, and where necessary we will seek to prosecute those running them.”