Education and Skills Bill

My Lords, I thank the Minister for his customarily clear introduction and thorough explanation of what the Bill sets out to do and for his interesting history lesson. I think that everyone in your Lordships’ House will join me in admiring the Bill’s laudable aim to raise the aspirations of our young people and equip them with the necessary education and skills for a fulfilling future. Those of us who believe that education is a good in itself share the Government’s hopes that the Bill will go some way towards improving the approach that we in this country take to learning and acquiring skills. If that ideal is spread as widely as possible, so much the better. We can all agree that the improvement of basic skills and the acquisition of new ones are to be welcomed. However, in case the Minister thinks that I am getting carried away in my support for the Bill, I will add that, just because we can all sign up to the same goals, that does not necessarily mean that we think that the Government have found the right means of achieving them. However charmingly the Minister may try to pre-empt my arguments, I am still going to make them. There are serious flaws in the Bill and I know that I will not be alone, both inside the House and outside, in raising them. Not least of these is the way in which the Government legislate, although sadly that problem is not confined to this Bill. Large parts have been added without proper debate or scrutiny, making our job here all the more important, and the consultation process is open to question, although I shall come back to that. The Bill, like so many before it and like the education Bill that we will see in the next Session and on which, bizarrely, this Bill depends for its full implementation, will once again bring in more structural changes to a sector that is heartily tired of tinkering and tampering. Part 1 of the Bill deals with raising the participation age in education and training. Part 2 lays out the support that will be provided to enable this to happen. The Bill creates a duty on all young people to participate in education or training up to the age, ultimately, of 18 and places further duties on parents, local authorities and employers to facilitate this. I am sure that I will not be the only person to lift my hands in despair at how the Government are going about achieving this worthy ambition. A breach of this duty will result in sanctions. The Minister assures us that this is the last resort, that it will affect only a tiny number of people and that the sanctions are there simply to send out a message, but we have serious concerns. The young people at whom these measures are aimed are already disaffected with the education system. I realise that we are now talking about the cohort of year 6, but the children are similar. In many cases, they have in effect dropped out before they turn 16. Truancy rates are at their highest for 10 years, so if the Government cannot keep in school all our children who should be there now, how do they think that we will cope with thousands more disaffected young adults who are suddenly being told that they must stay on in a system that they feel offers them nothing? The Government have looked at this problem and have typically come up with the wrong solution. Instead of compulsion, with the threat of being slapped with a fine and hauled in front of the youth courts, we should look at how to engage and excite young people so that they have a desire to keep going, to maintain enthusiasm and to be informed and educated enough to make up their own minds without the Government bossily telling them what they can and cannot do. Surely that would be a better long-term approach than creating this raft of regulations, rules, penalties, duties, parenting contracts, threats, sanctions and the masses of attendant bureaucracy that these measures will inevitably create. I had an interesting meeting with the Institute of Directors, 70 per cent of whose members are from small and medium-sized enterprises—the very employers on whom the burden will fall most heavily and who have the least resources to cope. They are extremely concerned about the extra paperwork, the extra time and the difficulties that the Bill will create for them; they are concerned about falling foul of the law should they miss something or make a mistake. The Government talk of sending out a message, but it would be just awful if the message that went out to employers was to avoid young people because, with all these new rules, they are too much trouble. We have real unease about the practicalities and the principles of compulsion and we will press the Government on this issue. When we look at the training and education that will be made compulsory, we must be wary of allowing the Government to set targets in the heedless pursuit of just any qualifications. As my honourable friend Michael Gove said in another place, we should do everything that we can to harness every individual’s intellectual talent. I wholeheartedly agree, but would add practical talent. However, this is not only about acquiring a piece of paper. That piece of paper has to mean something. My mother left school at 14 and worked until she was 67 without any formal qualifications. Yet you could not have met a better educated, better informed person, who was exceptionally good at what she did. There must be thousands of people like her; otherwise, our economy would not be as strong and robust as the Government assure us that it is. We must not have qualifications simply for qualifications’ sake. The skills that are to be acquired must be meaningful to the young person and useful to their work. This may well take the guise of informal education, where appropriate, which can help to provide young people who have chaotic lives with the self-confidence, resilience and skills that they need to make the most of formal education and their personal development. A lot of these young people will move into jobs in service industries such as catering and retail, where perhaps the most useful skills are simple ones but ones that they simply have not been taught: the importance of time-keeping, personal presentation, being pleasant and looking at people when you speak to them. These things might seem minor to us but they can do so much to improve the attitudes and prospects of young people in that kind of workplace, or indeed in any kind of workplace. Much of what the Government are trying to achieve would be unnecessary if only standards in our schools were better, as the Minister acknowledged. The Government announced today that they have given local authorities 50 days to come up with a plan of action for their worst-performing secondary schools, although I am slightly at a loss as to why the possibility of their becoming academies is seen as a threat. Nevertheless, it begs the question: why 50 days when the Government have had 11 years? It is what happens before the age of 16 that will have the most impact. Our children should get the best start that they can. We simply must not tolerate a situation where four out of 10 children cannot master the basics. Without the ability to read and write, and without a grasp of numeracy, all the exciting and wonderful things that education has to offer are lost. We should not be surprised when children become disengaged and disruptive. Tackling underachievement early must be a priority before it has a chance to have a knock-on effect and handicap a child’s future. We also need a proper route to vocational training through diplomas and modern apprenticeships, but that must mean suitable, hands-on experience, not someone just sitting behind a desk ticking boxes. Vocational qualifications must be rigorous and they must be valued by our young people, which means that they must be valued by employers. We will ask the Government to show that they have properly thought through the practicalities, logistics, funding and organisation required to provide flexible, meaningful and desirable training courses for all these young people. That includes proper support for young people with learning difficulties across the spectrum to help them to overcome the barriers to employment. We must also be mindful of the distressingly high number of young people who suffer from mental health problems. Unless we ensure that we make adequate provision for them, they will continue to fall through the cracks of the new system, as they have done in the old. In addition, we should have better advice available for young people so that they know their options for the future and can make informed choices. Career guidance needs to start earlier and should be geared specifically to providing detailed information on the skills requirement of particular occupations. In two-thirds of schools in England, careers advice is co-ordinated or delivered by staff without any formal qualifications in this field. Moreover, wearing my shadow Minister for Women’s hat, I believe that careers advice should robustly challenge gender stereotypes. According to excellent research by the YWCA, the five lowest-earning apprenticeships are dominated by women, while—surprise, surprise—the top-earning apprenticeship is almost 100 per cent male. This is so important because women in poverty find it much harder to pull themselves out of it and a woman in poverty at the age of 16 is twice as likely as a man to be trapped in poverty at the age of 30. Part 3 deals with improving adult skills, an aim that no one could criticise. Demographic change means that it is becoming increasingly important that we improve the skills of our existing workforce. We welcome moves to a more comprehensive, single careers service, but we fear that the Government are in danger of repeating the mistakes that they made in the establishment of Connexions. It would be a great pity if the objective of universal and impartial careers advice were overshadowed by the urgency of targeted programmes. The Conservative Party believes that lifelong learning and acquiring new qualifications—either to help with better employment prospects or for general well-being—are worthy goals, which is why we have deep concerns about the Government’s policies on equivalent-level qualifications. The University of Bolton—an institute close to my heart—has 9,000 students, half of whom are mature students and many of whom are working and studying for their degrees on a part-time basis. The Government’s actions will cost Bolton £1.5 million next year, but the university is so committed to those students that it will bear the cost, which will not be easy. Universities all around the country will be facing the same problem. Part 4 causes us great concern. I declare an interest as a governor of Bolton School, my old school, and as a member of the executive committee of AGBIS. The Bill will transfer the regulation and registration of independent schools from the DCSF to Ofsted. If there was ever a case of ““if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it””, this surely is it. Our independent schools are recognised by the OECD as the best schools in the world. I have been enormously encouraged by the efforts of the noble Lord, Lord Adonis, to encourage understanding between the state and independent sectors, to foster excellent working relationships and to share best practice. Independent schools have a good working relationship with the DCSF but are upset and worried that it will be ruined by these changes. I should have thought that the Government would welcome and encourage a good rapport between one of their departments and a sector for which it has responsibility. Perhaps Ministers are so unsettled by such an unusual occurrence that they were not thinking entirely logically. It is such a shame that, at a time when barriers, real or perceived, are being broken down between the independent and other sectors, the Government would jeopardise that by injecting confusion and difficulty into the situation. The Government tell us that they consulted on the issue, but the Bill was written and published before the consultation was complete. This is a reform—I use that word loosely—that the independent sector did not want, that Ofsted did not ask for and that will place the Secretary of State further away from what was and should continue to be a good working system. We will seek to have this part removed from the Bill. I also hope that the proposed changes to Section 347 schools, of which there are only 75 in the country, will be considered carefully so that we do not end up with a fearfully bureaucratic scheme where none is necessary and serves only to hamper the excellent work that the schools do. Two other areas that we will want to explore further are the changes to the admissions code that were added so late that there was little time for debate in the other place and—I am sure that this will come as no surprise to the Minister—the protection of personal and sensitive information, on which we will be seeking reassurance. In conclusion, I quote the words of the educational charity Edge: "““Who wouldn’t support more young people becoming engaged in education, employment and training?””." I look forward to hearing the contributions of other noble Lords. My noble friend Lady Perry of Southwark, who I am glad to see is in her place, unfortunately has had to withdraw because she cannot stay for the closing speeches, but she will be taking part in the further stages. Throughout the Bill, we need to think about imaginative and positive schemes. Over the past few weeks, I have been heartened after speaking to some of the truly remarkable organisations that we are so lucky to have in this country, such as the Prince’s Trust, Edge, Barnardo’s, Rainer, the YWCA and countless other voluntary bodies that do so much excellent work in helping our young people to realise their potential. I place on the record my thanks to them and to all the other organisations that have taken so much time and trouble to brief us. There is so much opportunity for noble Lords on all sides of the House in this Bill. We have the chance to make a real difference to the hopes and prospects of young people in this country. We must ensure that we deliver the best that we can, because they deserve the best that we can give them.