Christian foster agency challenges Ofsted discrimination rating

Cornerstone (North East) Adoption and Fostering Service only uses evangelical Christian carers

Ofsted "abused" its position by accusing an evangelical Christian fostering service of discrimination, a court has heard.

Cornerstone (North East) Adoption and Fostering Service has launched a High Court challenge after its inspection rating was lowered.

The Sunderland-based agency was criticised for only welcoming married heterosexuals as foster carers.

It argues the education watchdog's objections were "wholly theoretical".

Cornerstone was downgraded from "good" to "requires improvement" after a review in March 2019.

'Over-zealous'

Aidan O'Neill QC, representing the agency, said it took a "theological approach" and was successful at finding "forever homes" for challenging children.

He said Cornerstone's stance had been approved by the Charity Commission but "over-zealous" Ofsted had "blundered in" on a "white charger" to be a "champion of equality and human rights".

Mr O'Neill accused it of "abusing its regulatory function" and said inspectors invented "hypothesised scenarios" which "do not exist in reality".

He said the scenarios were created "so Cornerstone fail the test".

They found no failings in the quality of care or training of carers and any objections were "wholly theoretical", Mr O'Neill said.

"There are no actual victims or complainants," he said.

"You cannot set up straw men and say 'if they were to do this to them then this would be unlawful'."

Mr O'Neill said Cornerstone did not have to justify its ethos to Ofsted, adding: "The state has to be neutral in regards of religious beliefs".

He said any discrimination was on religious grounds which is protected by the Equality Act.

'Clear discrimination'

Representing Ofsted, Sir James Eadie QC said inspectors had concluded Cornerstone's recruitment needed action "because they were unlawful in terms of discrimination law".

Sir James said equality law applied as the agency was plainly providing a public service.

It was "perfectly clear" Cornerstone was discriminating, he said, because "in a nutshell" it "does not recruit foster carers who are homosexual".

Sir James said a prospective homosexual carer would be "required to sign up to a code which effectively denies their orientation".

He cited the case of a Roman Catholic adoption agency which a court ruled had to allow gay couples to sign up if it wanted to keep its charitable status.

Sir James said Cornerstone was a "tiny agency" with 18 approved households and 16 children in care and there was "no evidence that a shortage of or demand for evangelical Christians foster carers exists".

Mr Justice Julian Knowles, sitting via Skype, said the "very important, difficult and complex case" would "take some thinking about".

He will publish his ruling in due course.

Cornerstone began in 1999 and operates in north east and north west England, Cumbria, North and South Yorkshire and the Humber area.