How to Run a Maktab in the UK in 2026: The Complete Guide

Introduction

The UK’s network of maktabs and supplementary Islamic schools is one of the largest in the Western world. An estimated 100,000–250,000 Muslim children attend these institutions — primarily in cities with large South Asian Muslim communities: Birmingham, Bradford, Leicester, Luton, Tower Hamlets, Oldham, Dewsbury, and across Greater Manchester and London. Most of these children attend their local maktab three to five evenings per week, learning Quran and Islamic studies alongside their mainstream school education.

Running one of these institutions well in 2026 is significantly more demanding than it was ten years ago — not because the educational mission has changed, but because the regulatory environment, parental expectations, and safeguarding standards have all evolved. An imam or committee that runs a maktab in the same way it was run in 2005 faces risks that did not exist then.

This guide covers everything you need to know to run a UK maktab professionally in 2026: governance and registration, safeguarding, GDPR, curriculum management, fee structures, staff management, parent communication, and the digital tools that make all of this manageable.

The UK Maktab in 2026: Context and Scale

The UK maktab sector operates in a unique intersection of religious freedom, child protection law, data protection regulation, and community expectation. Understanding this intersection is the starting point for running a compliant, effective institution.

What makes the UK context distinctive:

• Supplementary school status: Most UK maktabs are “supplementary schools” — not registered with the Department for Education (DfE) as independent schools, because they do not provide full-time education. This means they do not require Ofsted registration, but they also lack the formal accountability framework that registered schools have.
• High safeguarding scrutiny: Following high-profile safeguarding failures in religious education settings across all faiths, UK maktabs are under significantly more scrutiny from local authorities and community organisations than was previously the case.
• GDPR compliance expectations: The ICO has been actively enforcing GDPR for small organisations including religious charities. Data protection is no longer optional.
• Parental expectations: UK Muslim parents who also interact with mainstream schools, GP surgeries, and government services online increasingly expect the same professionalism from their maktab.

The South Asian heritage community:

The vast majority of UK maktab students come from South Asian Muslim heritage — Pakistani, Bangladeshi, and Indian backgrounds. The Hifz tradition in UK maktabs follows the South Asian model (Sabak/Sabak Para/Dhor), the curriculum is typically Deeniyat or Jamiat-affiliated, and the language of instruction is a mix of Urdu, Bengali, Arabic, and English depending on the community.

Governance: Registering Your Institution Correctly

Do UK maktabs need to register?

A maktab that operates for fewer than 18 hours per week and serves children under compulsory school age primarily does not need to register as an independent school with the DfE. Most evening maktabs (2–3 hours per day, 5 days per week) fall below the registration threshold.

However, governance structure still matters for:

Charity registration: If your maktab has an annual income over £5,000, it must register as a charity with the Charity Commission for England and Wales. Registered charities can claim Gift Aid on donations, have formal governance requirements, and enjoy certain tax benefits.

Community Amateur Sports Clubs (CASCs): Not applicable to maktabs, but useful to know the distinction.

Company Limited by Guarantee: Some larger maktabs or Islamic education trusts incorporate as a Company Limited by Guarantee — a non-profit company structure that provides personal liability protection for trustees/directors.

Recommended governance structure for a UK maktab:

Trustees: A registered charity must have a minimum of three trustees. Trustees are personally responsible for the governance of the charity. They must not be disqualified (bankrupt, convicted of dishonesty offences, etc.) and should be independent of each other as far as practical.

Safeguarding: The Non-Negotiable Foundation

Safeguarding is the most important compliance area for any UK institution working with children. The relevant legislation is the Children Act 1989 and 2004, Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSIE — updated annually), and local authority safeguarding frameworks.

Non-negotiable safeguarding requirements for UK maktabs:

1. Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL): Every maktab must have a named DSL — a person responsible for managing safeguarding concerns, coordinating with external agencies, and keeping relevant records. The DSL should be the head teacher or senior imam and must complete DSL training (typically a 2-day course).

2. DBS checks: Every adult with regular unsupervised access to children must have an enhanced DBS (Disclosure and Barring Service) check. This includes paid teachers, regular volunteers, and the imam if they teach. DBS checks cost £38 for standard, £44 for enhanced (as of 2026). They can be processed through the DBS or via an umbrella body.

3. Safeguarding policy: A written safeguarding policy, reviewed annually, available to all staff and accessible to parents. The policy should name the DSL, describe what to do if a concern arises, and reference the local authority’s safeguarding threshold document.

4. Staff training: All teaching staff and regular volunteers should complete basic safeguarding awareness training. The NSPCC and many local authorities offer free or low-cost online training.

5. Safe recruitment: When hiring or selecting volunteers, verify identity, obtain references, and complete DBS before any unsupervised contact with children.

6. Two adults present: Best practice (and increasingly considered a minimum requirement) is never to have a single adult alone with a child without another adult present or in sight. This is the “two-adult rule.”

7. Reporting: If a safeguarding concern arises — a child discloses abuse, a teacher behaves inappropriately, or any safeguarding concern emerges — it must be reported to the DSL immediately, and the DSL must consider whether to report to the Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO) or children’s services.

Safeguarding documentation in your management system:

The maktab’s management system should maintain: DBS check dates and reference numbers for all staff, safeguarding training completion dates, DSL contact information, and a secure record of any safeguarding incidents (with restricted access).

GDPR and Data Protection Compliance

GDPR is covered in depth in our dedicated article GDPR for Maktabs and Supplementary Islamic Schools in the UK. The essential actions for a UK maktab are:

• Identify all personal data held (student records, guardian contacts, staff records)
• Document your lawful basis for processing each data category
• Issue a Privacy Notice to all parents at enrolment
• Sign a Data Processing Agreement with any software provider holding your data
• Establish a data retention policy (how long each data type is kept)
• Set up a breach response procedure (72-hour reporting obligation to ICO for reportable breaches)

If your maktab uses a cloud management system — which it should — the system provider is your data processor. You must have a signed DPA before storing any personal data on their platform.

Curriculum and Board Affiliation

UK maktabs typically follow one of two approaches to curriculum:

Board-affiliated curriculum: The most common approach for UK South Asian community maktabs. The institution affiliates with an Islamic education board — typically Idara-e-Deeniyat (UK branch), Jamiat Ulama Britain, or a regional equivalent — and follows their standardised curriculum and examination structure. Board affiliation provides a recognised credential for students, curriculum guidance, and teacher training.

Independent curriculum: Some UK maktabs — particularly those with a strong imam who has developed their own teaching approach — operate independently. This provides flexibility but requires more internal curriculum development and provides students with only an institutional (rather than nationally recognised) credential.

The UK branches of South Asian boards:

Most major South Asian Islamic education boards have UK representatives or affiliated organisations. UK branches of Idara-e-Deeniyat and regional UK Jamiat structures can advise on board registration, curriculum materials, and examination procedures for UK-affiliated maktabs. Contact your relevant board’s UK representative early in the establishment process.

Hifz Programme Management

Most UK maktabs have at least some Hifz students. Managing the Hifz programme is the most operationally demanding aspect of a UK maktab.

Hifz programme structure for UK maktabs:

The UK South Asian community’s Hifz tradition follows the same three-stream model used across South Asia — Sabak, Sabak Para, and Dhor/Manzil. Students typically attend 5 evenings per week for 1.5–2 hours each session, with additional morning sessions where possible.

The UK-specific Hifz challenge:

UK Hifz students face pressures that students in dedicated full-time Hifz schools in South Asia do not. They attend mainstream school full-time, have homework, sports, and social lives, and come to maktab after a full school day. Sabak targets should reflect this reality — expecting a UK school-age student to memorise a full page daily after a mainstream school day is typically unsustainable.

Most experienced UK Hifz teachers work with targets of quarter to half a page per session for students aged 10–14, increasing to half to full page for students 15+ who are more committed to completing quickly. Realistic targets maintained consistently produce better outcomes than ambitious targets with frequent gaps.

Digital Hifz management:

For a maktab with 20+ Hifz students, digital tracking of all three streams is essential. When a Hifz teacher is absent, the substitute teacher can access the digital record and know exactly where each student is. When a parent asks about their child’s progress, the information is available immediately. When the annual report comes around, it generates from tracked data rather than from memory.

Staffing: Paid and Volunteer Teachers

UK maktab staffing typically combines a paid imam (who also teaches) with volunteer members of the community who assist with teaching. This model is sustainable but requires active management.

Teacher categories and their rights:

National Minimum Wage (NMW): Paid maktab teachers — even part-time, even modest amounts — must receive at least the National Minimum Wage (£11.44/hour for over 21s as of April 2024; verify current rate). Paying below NMW, even for a charitable organisation, is a legal violation. Many maktabs inadvertently underpay teachers by not applying NMW to all paid sessions.

PAYE and payroll: If a teacher is employed (rather than genuinely self-employed), the maktab is responsible for PAYE tax deductions and National Insurance contributions. For small maktabs with one or two paid teachers, HMRC’s Basic PAYE Tools handles this. Consider whether teachers are genuinely self-employed or employees — the distinction is based on control and working arrangements, not simply on what the parties call the arrangement.

Fee Structure and Financial Management

UK maktab fees are typically modest — £15–£30 per child per month is the most common range for evening maktabs in 2026. Some maktabs charge per session rather than monthly; some are free and funded entirely by mosque income and donations.

Gift Aid: Registered UK charities can claim Gift Aid on eligible donations — 25p for every £1 donated by a UK taxpayer at no cost to the donor. Maktab fees paid as “donations” rather than fees may qualify for Gift Aid if the payment is genuinely voluntary and not obligatory. Consult a charity accountant on this distinction.

Financial accounts: Registered charities must submit annual accounts to the Charity Commission. The format depends on income level: receipts and payments accounts for income under £250,000; fully accrued accounts for income over £250,000. Maintaining clean, up-to-date records throughout the year makes this task straightforward at year end.

Parent Communication: Meeting 2026 Expectations

UK Muslim parents in 2026 compare their maktab’s communication standards to those of their child’s mainstream school. Most UK state schools now use apps (Arbor, ParentPay, SchoolComms) for instant parent communication. A maktab that sends a WhatsApp message to a group of 50 parents for all communications is operating below current expectations.

What UK maktab parents expect:

• Same-day absence notification (automated)
• Monthly fee statement
• Termly Hifz/Quran progress report
• Clear Ramadan schedule communicated three weeks in advance
• Prompt response to direct queries (within 24 hours)

A parent portal that delivers these through WhatsApp-native notifications — accessible from a phone browser without requiring a new app download — meets these expectations at modest cost.

Premises and Insurance

Premises:

Most UK maktabs operate from mosque premises — prayer halls, side rooms, or dedicated madrasa rooms. This is the most practical and lowest-cost arrangement. If a maktab operates from rented premises outside the mosque, a formal tenancy agreement and appropriate insurance are required.

Insurance requirements:

• Public liability insurance: Essential for any institution working with children. Covers claims arising from accidents on premises. Minimum £5 million coverage recommended.
• Employers’ liability insurance: Legally required if you have employees (including paid teachers). Minimum £5 million coverage.
• Contents insurance: For equipment (whiteboards, computers, books) stored on premises.

Many Muslim insurance providers offer combined packages for mosque and Islamic school activities. Contact the Association of Muslim Schools (AMS) for recommended providers familiar with supplementary Islamic school needs.

Digital Management: The Modern Maktab Toolkit

A 2026 UK maktab needs three digital tools at minimum:

1. A maktab management system: Student records, attendance, Hifz tracking, fee management, and parent communication in one platform. Ilmify is purpose-built for this. See Ilmify vs. IBEAMS for a comparison of the main UK options.

2. A safeguarding records system: DBS check records, staff training records, and incident records should be maintained digitally with restricted access. This can be within a management system (Ilmify includes this) or a separate secure document system.

3. A communication channel separate from WhatsApp: For official announcements — fee changes, Ramadan schedule, Eid closures — a managed channel (parent portal notification or email) that creates a record is preferable to a WhatsApp group message that disappears in chat history.

Common Challenges and How to Handle Them

Conclusion

Running a UK maktab in 2026 requires the same dedication to Islamic education it has always required — combined with a professional approach to safeguarding, data protection, governance, and parent communication that reflects the legal and social environment in which UK Islamic institutions now operate.

None of the compliance requirements covered in this guide are designed to make maktab management more difficult — they are designed to protect children, protect institutions, and build the trust that the Muslim community places in these institutions. A maktab that meets these standards is a maktab that will still be running safely and effectively in ten years.

The tools to achieve this standard are accessible and affordable. The main requirement is the decision to use them.

👉 See How Ilmify Powers UK Maktabs — GDPR Compliant, Hifz Tracking, WhatsApp Notifications →

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