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The need of the hour is for a Government who will free up teachers, trust parents and inspire children, especially from poor backgrounds, to achieve their personal best. The Bill fails that task and it fails in restoring the broken society. It is time that we had change in order to give those children a chance.
9.57 pm
Baroness Morgan of Drefelin: My Lords, what a privilege it is to respond to this tremendous debate. I thank all noble Lords who have taken the time today to contribute to it.
I will say up front that the hour is challenging and so is the task. I undertake to write to noble Lords if I fail to pick up points of detail. I will do my best to cover in 20 minutes the remarks that I want to make, and I hope that noble Lords will bear with me on that.
The Government have always been passionate about education. We came to power promising that education would be at the heart of our policies, but our education system was literally in disrepair, with teachers worrying more about the drips coming through the roof than about how they were going to get through the day. There were real challenges in simply getting schools operating in more than a hand-to-mouth fashion.
We have made significant and sustained improvements to schools over the past 13 years, and output from our schools, which the noble Baroness, Lady Bottomley, calls for, has never been better. I challenge the Opposition to stop talking down the efforts of our pupils and teachers in this country and to talk up the amazing achievements of our young people. More children are leaving school equipped to enter the workforce, or go on to further or higher education, than ever before. Now just one in 13 schools is judged to be failing; in 1997, half of all secondary schools were judged to be failing.
We have a strong record of investment and rising standards in education. More young people from disadvantaged backgrounds than ever before are going to our universities, which we are all very proud of. In 2009, 80 per cent of children left primary school with the reading levels expected of their age, and achievement in English is up 17 per cent from 1997. Seventy-nine
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The noble Baroness, Lady Verma, when she spoke, which I have to say feels like some time ago, suggested that we are introducing too much regulation. I can reassure her that we are always conscious of the impact of our proposals and we are always sure to introduce new regulations only where they are strictly necessary and appropriate. It is this Government who, from a zero start, introduced 200,000 support staff in schools-not 20,000 as I said in my opening remarks-to help teachers and to let them concentrate on what they do best, which is teaching. We are the Government who have created a 10 per cent of time entitlement for teachers to do the preparation and planning work that they want to do, so that they can promote the excellence that we require as parents.
However noble Lords put it, I will make no apology for the guarantees that we are introducing in this Bill, as it is by their introduction that we will ensure that all children and their families benefit equally from what is on offer through our schools, especially the vulnerable who might otherwise lose out. Similarly, for example, that applies when we talk about changes to the home-school agreement and the introduction of a local authority survey for parents. These will ensure that all parents take their responsibilities seriously and have their views on local school provision taken seriously. Not to introduce these measures risks a piecemeal approach to change and not giving everyone a voice, which cannot be right.
When it comes to the question of the pupil-parent guarantees, it is this Government that set out our commitment to education right from the very start. It is because of the work that we do now that we can be clear about what parents and children can expect from the system. Through this Bill, we are providing guarantees for pupils and parents. This is a landmark development. I thank my noble friends Lady Blackstone and Lord Soley who spoke very eloquently about the importance of these measures-that pupils and their parents will, for the first time, be able to hold schools and local authorities to account if they are not meeting their commitments.
Many of these guarantees build, as I know Peers recognise, on existing legal duties and non-statutory programmes, but through their inclusion in this Bill we will ensure that all children, including the most vulnerable, will receive the education to which they are entitled. There must and will be redress for a guarantee to have meaning. We expect complaints to be resolved at a school level, and that is why the amendment about "tort" in the other place was so important. Only then, after it has not been possible to resolve matters at the school level, can they be referred to the local ombudsman. Therefore, there will be important means of redress.
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There has not been much mention of the proposed licence to practise, but we need to be clear that this is not about not trusting teachers to teach; it is about giving the teaching profession the status that it deserves. It is about creating that mechanism and using it to drive up standards by giving teachers the entitlement that they deserve for continuing professional development.
The Bill also allows for the introduction of the new school report card, which will enable parents to make meaningful choices about their children's future. This is something on which we are working closely with stakeholders, parents and teaching organisations, to make sure that the reconciliation of the different elements of the report card really works in a meaningful way.
On curriculum reform, I have to admit that I am even more bemused now than I was before about the Opposition's proposals. They are becoming increasingly contradictory. They are a contradictory combination of, on the one hand, a backward, nostalgic look that thinks children must learn lists of kings and queens of England, names of rivers and algebra and, on the other, reckless hand, market forces letting rip with a Swedish free-school experiment. This is not what our children need to set them up for success in adult life, nor what employers are looking for. It is not what higher education institutions are calling for. The proposals include, among other things, I believe, relaxing planning requirements so that you can open a school anywhere-in an office block or a car park. These are the gimmicks, not the serious guarantees that are in the Bill. These gimmicks do not add up to a coherent approach to delivering a good education for every young person. They are about starving some schools while this project goes ahead in an ad hoc way. So I am bemused, though I am sure that at some point someone will put me right.
Thinking about curriculum reform, I was particularly appreciative of my noble friend Lady Blackstone's remarks about the Rose review, and the comments of the noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley. The Bill proposes reforms to the primary curriculum to ensure that children receive the thorough grounding they need in reading, writing and maths, based on a huge amount of expert consultation and advice. We have looked at how the primary curriculum can be freed up so that teachers can concentrate on doing what they do best, and to ensure that the children they teach get the best possible education. These changes have been widely welcomed by teachers and others involved in our schools system.
The noble Earl, Lord Listowel, asked about the future of the Masters in Teaching and Learning. We have made £30 million available for the initial rollout of the Masters in Teaching and Learning. Teachers have started to enrol in the north-west and in challenging schools nationally. The MTL will provide an important source of continuing professional development over time. This is something that I know noble Lords will be interested to hear more about.
There was much debate about PSHE and the relevant proposals, principles and clauses in the Bill. The noble Lord, Lord Alton, talked about Catholic schools and his concerns about the implementation of the Bill. We recognise that a one-size-fits-all approach to SRE will
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My noble friend Lord Layard also welcomed the contributions on PSHE. I was very grateful for his remarks and those of the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Bradford-I was pleased to hear his welcome. We know that the Bill sets out several guiding principles for the teaching of PSHE as part of the national curriculum. Schools will be required to comply with these. They have been designed to provide a set of clear and consistent messages about how PSHE should be taught. They will protect against inappropriate, inaccurate and unbalanced teaching, particularly on some of the more emotive elements of PSHE.
For the record, I must be clear. The principles are as follows. Information must be presented as accurate and balanced. PSHE must be taught in a way that is appropriate to the age, and religious and cultural background of pupils-and that reflects a reasonable range of religious, cultural and other perspectives. PSHE must be taught in a way that promotes equality, encouraging acceptance of diversity and emphasising rights and responsibilities. These principles are absolutely key and are designed to offer protection from one-sided arguments. We need this Bill because at present there are no such principles in our statutory system. It would be possible, therefore, for a school to provide PSHE teaching which was inaccurate, unbalanced, biased and which took no account of the diversity of our 21st century England. Therefore, it is extremely important that we have this Bill and its provisions on PSHE.
Guidance will be produced, including more information on the principles. We will be consulting on this and it will be in place to support schools as they prepare for the statutory implementation of PSHE by September 2011. I hope that that offers important reassurance. My noble friend-
Baroness Walmsley: How will the Government check how these measures are implemented in schools in practice at the chalk face?
Baroness Morgan of Drefelin: My Lords, one would normally expect all elements of the national curriculum to be fully inspected by Ofsted. As part of the national curriculum, that would be the case for PSHE as well. I am getting a very slow nod coming from the source of my inspiration over there, but that is what I would expect.
I reassure my noble friend Lady Blackstone and the noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley, that the effect of the government amendment which was accepted in the
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I am still focusing on curriculum. The noble Lord, Lord Lucas, talked about the Rose review. I will write to the noble Lord on that. The noble Earl, Lord Listowel, talked about the challenge posed by teenage pregnancy rates and how they are influenced by a wide range of factors. He was very clear about his concerns, but there is growing evidence in this regard. We know that sex and relationship education programmes have a positive impact on the behaviours that lead to teenage pregnancies. There is a great deal of evidence available that I would be happy to share with noble Lords. I agree also with the noble Earl about teacher training in PSHE. We are taking a number of steps beyond this Bill. We are delivering £2 million of funding each year to train teachers and professionals delivering PSHE in schools. As noble Lords would expect, we are working with the Training and Development Agency for Schools.
I appreciate that home education is a very controversial issue. I was very interested in-and have thought very carefully about-the comments made in the debate. My noble friend Lord Soley spoke very eloquently about the dilemmas involved, as did the noble Baroness, Lady Deech. The noble Baroness talked about balancing the rights of the parents and the right of the child to education. I listened very carefully indeed to the comments of the noble Lord, Lord Lucas, as I always do. As we know, the Bill ensures standards of education-that is the key driver here. The noble Baroness, Lady Bottomley, was particularly concerned about what was driving standards of education. Access to a standard of education is important.
The registration and monitoring of home educated children will not be onerous. Many noble Lords wanted that to be clear. Local authorities must have the tools they need to tackle the small number of cases where the education provided is not satisfactory. I want to reassure the noble Baroness, Lady Deech, that the ContactPoint directory will be very helpful in promoting registration, along with a whole range of other issues. It is key that we promote access to a suitable education for all children, as the noble Baroness, Lady Deech, stressed so clearly.
With regard to the concerns expressed by the noble Baronesses, Lady Verma and Lady Bottomley, and the noble Lord, Lord Lucas, the Bill does nothing to change the rights of parents to educate their children. Parents will continue to decide whether their children should go to school or whether they wish to educate them at home. There is nothing in the Bill that requires parents to teach the national curriculum, take certain
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The noble Lord, Lord Laming, as ever, spoke extremely eloquently about Clauses 28 and 29 and I welcome his support. I agree that the purpose of a serious case review is not to act as an inquiry or to apportion blame but to help agencies learn the lessons and improve practice. I agree that success depends on the voluntary contributions of all involved, relying on families and neighbours to share aspects of their lives which they might otherwise hope to keep confidential. I agree, too, that it is best to gather all the available information if we are to have confidence in the serious case review recommendations which are so key to moving forward. Serious case reviews are different from inquiries. I stress the important role of the executive summary as a published document and the key role that Ofsted plays in ensuring that it is an accurate summary of the main report so that the public can have confidence in the recommendations. I agree that undertakings of confidentiality made in the production of these important documents must be honoured and that we must have consistent policies in the handling of all serious case reviews. I thank the noble Lord for advising us and giving us the benefit of his experience once again. I will have to wait until I have had Sir Roger Singleton's review before I can answer the question from the noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley, but I will make sure that she is properly and promptly informed about the Government's plans on that.
There was much concern about the family courts. In response to the challenge from the noble Baroness, Lady Howarth, the Government are committed to the paramountcy principle, to the Every Child Matters outcomes, and to promoting the best interests of the child. We are committed to ensuring the privacy of children and families involved in court proceedings, but there is widespread recognition that the family justice system needs to become more accountable to the public that it serves. There were some very detailed
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The noble Lord, Lord Ramsbotham, as ever, made some very important points about the needs of vulnerable children. I can commit, on the record, as I said in my letter to him earlier today, to the legislation requiring local authorities to ensure that there is enough suitable education and training to meet the reasonable needs of young people detained in the youth custody system. That is very much the responsibility of local authorities, and I would be happy to meet further with him to discuss that and any other matters of concern that he may have.
I should conclude, because I have overrun by three minutes. I reiterate my commitment to follow up on the concerns that have been raised to make sure that we do the work and that we do it properly. I thank noble Lords for this debate. Building on our record of improving standards, this Bill will help to deliver a world-class 21st century schooling system that will allow every child and every young person, whatever their interests and abilities, to reach their full potential. I commend the Bill to the House.
Bill read a second time and committed to a Committee of the Whole House.
Allhallows Staining Church Bill [HL]
Reported from Committee
The Bill was reported from the Unopposed Bill Committee with amendments.
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