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The recent sad events to which I referred earlier make it urgent that there be even greater integration of services at every level in the delivery of frontline services. We welcome the inclusion of schools as a partner on the children’s trust board, which is something that my noble friend Lady Sharp and I called for some years ago. However, I hope that the Minister will heed Shelter’s proposal that housing authorities are also brought into the tent as a relevant partner, given the importance of housing to children’s health and well-being. However, it is important to retain sufficient flexibility so that local boards can respond to local needs.
Clause 188 gives the Secretary of State the power to introduce statutory targets in relation to the safeguarding of children. We on these Benches welcome this, but it must be remembered that targets alone achieve nothing. It is very important in drawing up targets to watch out for perverse incentives that might result in the opposite of what we want. I welcome the explicit tightening of the safeguarding arrangements in relation to all those working in children’s centres. This closes an important loophole. Putting children’s centres on a formal, legislative basis will ensure the accountability of the centre manager. Early years settings have a vital role to play in the early identification of and intervention on safeguarding issues, but they should have a designated person who leads on the issue.
We rely on professionals to spot violence against children in the home and deal appropriately with the matter. These are difficult matters, but children’s well-being must be paramount. They should be protected from violence in all circumstances. I will be seeking to ensure that there is no justification for violence against children in any setting, including the home.
I look forward to the Minister’s reply to the many matters that I have raised, and I approach our further deliberations with relish. I apologise for having wearied the House with such an unusually long speech, but if the Government want to avoid this sort of situation, they should avoid portmanteau Bills of this nature.
3.52 pm
Lord Rix: My Lords, I am very grateful that the noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley, has left disability to the noble Lord, Lord Addington, otherwise there would have been very little for me to say. I am glad to welcome this Bill to the House, in particular for the attention that it pays to the wishes of learners with a learning disability, who will be entitled to education and training up to the age of 25 and whose needs will be substantially considered by local education authorities. It is therefore a Bill that is consistent with the welcome focus of the Department for Children, Schools and Families in recent years on children with special educational needs, through Aiming High for Disabled Children, the children’s plan and the more recent Bercow review.
The Bill quite rightly recognises that disabled people, particularly people with a learning disability, have been desperate for more education provision that leads them to meaningful, full-time, paid employment in adult life. Only 17 per cent of people with a learning disability are estimated to be in employment, while
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The new focus of the work capability assessment, on what disabled people can do rather than what they cannot do, is an important shift in thinking to achieve this aim. The added specialist support for disabled people announced with the Welfare Reform Bill will be integral to helping people with a learning disability into work. Clearly, however, welfare reform is just one piece of the jigsaw in achieving this aim. Alongside it, progress is essential in changing employers’ attitudes, as is, of course, appropriate training for the workplace. I therefore look forward to the Government’s forthcoming learning disability employment strategy, which I hope will have considered exactly how these developments in further education will address this chronic unemployment problem.
Just as it has taken a long time for the Government to realise the scale of the commitment needed to reform the welfare system and support people into employment, so this Bill seems only to scratch the surface of the skills agenda, which I hope will develop far more in the years ahead. I should have liked a stronger and more radical commitment to support lifelong learning for people who are far from the labour market, such as people with a learning disability—including those over 25.
I am particularly concerned that the qualification requirements of the apprenticeships scheme will create unnecessary barriers for learners with a learning disability. It is perfectly understandable that entrance requirements should be applied to the scheme, but it seems unnecessarily inflexible, for instance, to require learners with a learning disability to hold these specified qualifications at level 1 in order to access level 2 or level 3 apprenticeships. Put another way, whyshould somebody need a GCSE in maths to become a hairdresser? I would like to hear from the Minister how these blanket requirements comply with the public sector’s duty in the Disability Discrimination Act to make reasonable adjustments for disabled people, which may include treating them more favourably to promote equality of opportunity. If entry requirements are not made more flexible for people with a learning disability, we may well see further exclusion of those who should really be one of the main beneficiaries of the Bill.
Giventhat local education authority budgets are bound to come under much pressure for apprenticeship funding, I am concerned that local authorities will be severely tempted to use as a get-out clause the requirement
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The Government indicated in Committee in the other place that individuals can challenge LEAs if they believe “disproportionate expenditure” is wrongly used as an excuse, but I am deeply concerned by the responsibility that it places on people with a learning disability and fear that failure to provide them with the most suitable education and training may frequently go unchallenged.
Rather than indicate that suitable provision may not be possible, the Bill should go further to ensure sufficient provision. The briefing from the Special Education Consortium, of which Mencap is a member, draws attention to the sufficiency duty, with a robust needs analysis and audit provision, which is in the Childcare Act and which ought to be mirrored in this Bill. That process would go to the heart of ensuring that the apprenticeships scheme led to truly positive outcomes for people with a learning disability and avoided the past mistakes of many courses which ultimately lead nowhere. The Government argued in Committee that the performance management system and Ofsted will oversee LEAs and ensure a strong focus on outcomes. I, however, share the Special Education Consortium’s view that the system will not be robust enough. If LEAs are not compelled to assess and meet needs, I hope that the Minister will explain why the Bill does not go as far as the Childcare Act rightly did three years ago.
It has been made quite clear that apprentices will be considered as employees, so I am very pleased that apprentices with a learning disability will be entitled to Access to Work support. More clarification, however, will be needed around how Access to Work will interact with an employer-led apprenticeships scheme and therefore join up with Additional Learning Support, which is limited to operate with education providers. Those of us who want to see all adults with a learning disability prepared for the workplace would really wish to see provision extended to over-25s. While we would settle for the age extension that the Government have made in this Bill, I hope and envisage that over the coming years those over 25 who have not been so lucky will enjoy similar rights to be trained and given the opportunities that they deserve.
Meanwhile, people under 25 with a learning disability may fare better under this Bill, but I fear that having a learning disability may continue to go hand in hand with unemployment, unless central government take a strong lead to argue that we must respect those people who follow longer learning journeys, need additional investment in their skills and support and need local government to be far more proactive in guiding them through education that leads to employment. If LEAs and others shy away from that commitment, people with a learning disability will lose out and there will be a net loss to our economy. This Bill has indicated an understanding of these issues, but it must go further
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4 pm
The Lord Bishop of Lincoln: My Lords, I join other noble Lords in acknowledging the concise way in which the Minister introduced this wide-ranging Bill. I am particularly glad to be following the noble Lord, Lord Rix, whose experience in supporting those with learning difficulties is beyond parallel. I identify myself entirely with his sentiments and with those of the noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley, on those children who are most vulnerable in our society and the need for them to be protected at home, at school and elsewhere from violence of all kinds.
I am grateful to the Minister for her acknowledgement of the contribution made by the churches to education in this country. She referred particularly to academies, but, of course, the influence and involvement of the churches extends way beyond academies.
I ask noble Lords to imagine that you are a provider of a service to the community—not, I hope, a difficult thing for you to imagine. As this debate is about education, learning and skills, I ask you to imagine, if you will, that you are a provider of educational services, and not just any old educational services, for you are proud to tell of the nearly 5,000 schools for which you have an especial care and the 1 million children in them at primary and secondary levels. You will also want to tell people with pride about those academies that you have initiated in some of the most deprived areas of the country and also acknowledge the part that you play in further and higher education. Furthermore, imagine if you will that you are a core provider with statutory status conferred by virtue of the Education Act 1944, which differentiates you from other voluntary providers in the education sector.
Now imagine that a Bill is introduced into Parliament that significantly effects the commissioning of the service that you provide. It does this through the establishment, for example, of local 16 to 19 partnerships to be used by local authorities for planning educational provision in all the areas across the country where you have a major interest and stakeholding. Then imagine further that the Bill as drafted makes no explicit provision for you to be involved in those partnerships, notwithstanding the fact that alongside local authorities you are a key provider of secondary education across the country as a whole and may well be the provider of one or more secondary schools in an area served by such a partnership.
Of course, your Lordships will have twigged long before now that I am asking you to imagine how it feels to be the chair of the Church of England Board of Education and the National Society for Promoting Religious Education, with its huge statutory stake in educational provision—and yet our dioceses are assured of no place in the partnerships in which local educational provision will be planned and commissioned. There may well be an expectation that the dioceses will be included in these partnerships, but we are sadly all too familiar with the pain and frustration caused by thwarted
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On the Young People’s Learning Agency for England, which has already been mentioned and is cited in Part 3 of the Bill, the omission of any reference in Schedule 3 to the Church of England Board of Education or the National Society for Promoting Religious Education is even more disconcerting. I note that paragraph 2(3) of that schedule requires the Secretary of State, in determining membership of the YPLA, to,
- “have regard to the desirability of appointing a person who has experience relevant to any of the YPLA’s functions”.
Clearly the national society meets this criterion beyond a doubt, so there is the strongest possible case for the society to be cited for inclusion in the membership of the YPLA. Of course, the same applies by extension to any committees set up under paragraph 7 of the schedule.
While I am at it, what about the Skills Funding Agency in Part 4? Surely the case for legally constitutional national society representation is as strong here as it is in relation to the YPLA. In relation to children’s trusts in Part 9 and the support staff negotiating body described in Chapter 4 of Part 10, we would welcome clear assurances from the Minister that diocesan boards of education will have a distinct role in planning, consultation and implementation of decisions. Indeed, establishing the dioceses as “relevant partners” would be a welcome step forward. These are detailed matters, but this is a detailed Bill, both in its clauses and in its schedules, so I do not think that providing these detailed clarifications should be burdensome.
The Minister will not be surprised to hear that we have special concerns with regard to the provision of spiritual and moral development and religious education for 14 to 19 year-olds. There is a particular issue relating to those in the 14 to 16 age group who may find themselves studying in more than one institution. We stand ready to assist the DCSF and the department’s faith group in overcoming a potentially negative unintended consequence of the otherwise welcome provisions in the Bill for this age group.
On the 16 to 19 year olds, we would welcome an assurance that the entitlement of all students to spiritual and moral development and religious education will be a requirement. This is important, not only because students themselves should be able to receive and benefit from such provision on a regular and reliable basis, but it is in the interests of community cohesion that young adults should not only understand their own faith tradition but also have a mature awareness of other faith traditions as well. That is what SMD and RE provides and, once again, we will want to se the national society’s framework for spiritual, moral,
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While we welcome the opportunities provided by the Bill, we have some questions. We welcome the opportunity provided for the Church of England to form sixth-form colleges and the reassurances given by departmental officers that the distinctive ethos of such colleges will be protected. A specific reassurance from the Minister to that effect will, of course, as always, be helpful. Meanwhile, we have spotted several parts of Schedule 8 in relation to sixth-form colleges which will need clarification, especially in relation to trustees’ value in the site of a closed sixth-form college and the apparent right given to local authorities to remove even foundation governors under certain, albeit extreme, circumstances.
We shall want to monitor carefully other aspects of the Bill as it moves onto its further stages, including Part 10 of Chapter 2 concerning complaints made by parents about schools. Will the process proposed here actually address the problems of frivolous and vexatious complaints, a question raised by the noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley? How and when will the provider be informed and involved in relation to such complaints, or will we first read about them in the newspapers? As raised by the noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley, what about academies?
However, there is a great deal in the Bill that we welcome as a significant contribution to enhancing, enriching and extending the participation of young people in the great adventure of learning and skills acquisition, which can only be to their benefit and will benefit society as a whole as we equip a new generation for the challenges of the future. As a major provider of education and skills training, faith groups in general, and the Church of England in particular, stand ready to play our full part in developing the strategies undergirding the Government’s proposals. We trust that amendments to the Bill along the lines that I have suggested will enable us to do so to good and full effect.
4.12 pm
Baroness Blackstone: My Lords, I declare an interest as the vice-chancellor of the University of Greenwich. Like the right reverend Prelate, I generally welcome the Bill although I accept that it is a bit of a ragbag with 12 different parts on a whole variety of different aspects of the education system, many of them unrelated to each other. Before I go any further, I must remark on the amazing way in which the Liberal Democrat Benches appear to have divvied up every single area of the Bill. This is a degree of organisation that we on this side of the House did not know the Liberal Democrats were capable of.
I want to concentrate my remarks on apprenticeships. Before doing so, I want to welcome a couple of other areas, one of which I suspect will not get very much attention today—that is the clause which gives sixth-form colleges a separate legal entity. For a long time I have been a huge admirer of what sixth-form colleges do.
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The second thing that I welcome is the split of the QCA. The regulation of the testing, examinations and qualifications system and curriculum development never sat very comfortably together in a single body. It is very important that we get the structure and powers of Ofqual right. From my experience as a Minister with responsibility for all qualifications, this is a very difficult area. Therefore, I hope that in Committee we are able to come back to one or two of the details on this.
I turn to what for me is the most important part of the Bill—apprenticeships. This section is essentially a follow-up to the legislation last year to extend education and training to all 16 to 18 year-olds on a compulsory basis. I said then that it was a historic moment; however, without the value or substance of a work-based education-and-training component available on a statutory basis, it would not be quite as historic. I am delighted that the Bill creates a statutory framework for apprenticeships, a national apprenticeship service and a guarantee that all suitably qualified young people may get an apprenticeship at level 1 by 2013.
I say to the noble Lord, Lord De Mauley, that it was a huge error to allow apprenticeships to more or less collapse in the 1980s and 1990s. We know that many young people become disenchanted with academic education, and they may even be completely turned off by school- or college-based vocational education. However, we also know that many of these young people can be motivated to learn in a working context where they can see a direct relationship between what they are learning and their job. I should be very interested to know whether the Conservative opposition spokesmen regret what happened prior to 1997. The noble Lord provided a lot of statistics about the failure of Labour to make as much progress as he believes we should have done. I accept that we should have made more progress, but after inheriting a situation whereby the collapse had reduced the number of people getting apprenticeships to about 60,000 to 70,000, increasing it to a quarter of a million is at least some progress. I am sure he would acknowledge that. I hope that a Conservative Government’s policy will be to expand apprenticeships and ensure that they are of high quality.
I turn to the specific measures in the Bill on apprenticeships. It is important that we get this legislation right this time around, because only by doing so will some of the huge inequalities between the educational haves and have-nots start to be narrowed. I was a little
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The starting point must of course be what happens in secondary schools. All teachers at this level need to be aware that there are several mainstream routes at age 16. There is obviously the A-level and GCSE route, there is the diploma route, other vocational qualifications, and there will now be apprenticeships. They should not be perceived by teachers as a low-status solution for educational failures, but as a powerful, quality alternative for many young people from which they will be less likely to drop out than if they take another route. The noble Lord, Lord De Mauley, mentioned that it was important that this information and guidance should be provided, but he did not go on to say what I thought he might have done—that, I am afraid to say, Clause 35 on information and guidance is wholly inadequate. I say to my noble friend the Minister that I should like to come back to this in Committee. It really will not do just to say that schools, when giving careers advice, should consider whether it is in the best interests of a child to tell them about apprenticeships. All pupils should have the right to know the full range of options and their teachers should not prejudge their best interests. Teachers should advise youngsters that this is an option and not just decide not to tell them because they would rather the young people went down another route. That really must not happen.
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