Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Bill

Amendment No. 205, in this group, is tabled in my name. I agree strongly with the noble Lord, Lord Greaves, about the importance of this section of the Bill. Speaking as the leader of Wigan local authority, which has been a pilot LEA, I think that this is a really important mechanism for delivering the place-shaping agenda. I listened with care to the noble Lord’s arguments. We need to be careful that we get the places right. If they are too big, they will not reflect local needs. Under Clause 106, the Government are trying to maintain a balance between the need to engage with partners that will achieve this place-shaping agenda and a practical concern for having organisations that can have meaningful dialogue together given the large and disparate number there could be. As the leader of a local authority, I am not convinced that we want an endless list of organisations with which we might have to engage, because that can lead to practical problems. There are no references to educational organisations in this list. I cannot conceive of a single local area agreement that would not involve education, whether it is participation, attainment or skills. Some part of the education agenda will be a key part of a local area agreement, so we have to engage with schools and other partners. I understand the issues that my noble friend has already expressed on schools, which I have tried to cover in a later amendment. Amendment No. 205 simply concerns the post-16 sector where it is separate from FE and sixth-form colleges. I hope that my noble friend understands why local authorities think that this is important. I will be interested to hear the noble Baroness, Lady Scott, speak to her Amendment No. 207. I am not sure that I share her view that higher education necessarily should be in a local area agreement. It depends on the nature. On the Greater Manchester involvement, we have five universities actively engaged with us in a sub-regional context in developing the economy and the higher skills agenda. I am not sure this is always at a local level. Clearly, there are local issues in a physical sense with higher education, but in a strategic role it is beyond the boundaries of most local authorities.