Education and Skills Bill

Perhaps I may first respond to Amendment No. 53 of the noble Baroness, Lady Sharp. We entirely support the intention behind it. Young offenders are among the most vulnerable young people and are at serious risk of missing out on the education and training that they so badly need. The duty on a local authority, created by Clause 10, to promote effective participation in learning of all young people, subject to the new duty in Clause 2, already includes young offenders, so it would not be necessary to specify them separately. However, we have recently consulted on proposals to give local authorities responsibility for providing education for young offenders in custody. Our document Raising Expectations: Enabling the System to Deliver states in paragraph 3.46: "““Consistent with the principle that local authorities should plan, commission and fund education and training for all children and young people, we want them to do so for young people in juvenile custody (who are aged 10-17 and some 18 year-olds nearing the end of their sentence). Despite recent improvements, standards of provision still fall short of what we would expect for young people in mainstream education. New planning and funding arrangements for young people in custody must foster improved outcomes, including progression and achievement in education, and hence contribute to reducing re-offending””." Clear commitments are made there. We will see whether—I have to choose my words a little carefully, because I cannot pre-empt legislation—it would be appropriate to make these changes in forthcoming legislation in the next Session. The intended effects of Amendment No. 57 of the noble Baroness, Lady Verma, also are already secured in the legislation. Clause 10 puts a duty on local authorities to promote participation for all 16 and 17 year-olds in their area to whom the central duty applies. That includes those with learning difficulties or special educational needs. We agree that it is important to recognise the additional barriers that some young people face, including those with SEN. It is important to diagnose learning difficulties as early as possible. That is why we announced in the Children’s Plan an additional £18 million of spending which, among other things, is to improve the workforce’s knowledge, skills and understanding of SEN and learning difficulties through better initial teacher training and continuing professional development. I launched the new units for initial teacher training last week to give effect to the first phase of our investment in this area. The Bill seeks to strengthen assessment arrangements and accountability for those with learning difficulties through Clause 65. We will spell out in statutory guidance to local authorities that every young person with learning difficulties who is likely to benefit from an assessment should receive one. We have already consulted stakeholders on drawing up this guidance, and the Special Educational Consortium, which has also briefed noble Lords, recently commented that it was happy to be involved in the process and is pleased with the progress being made. I can reassure the Committee that Connexions and local authorities will continue to offer support to young people with learning difficulties and/or disabilities up to their 25th birthday. I turn to Amendment No. 58. When determining the resources required by schools and colleges, we already expect local authorities to have regard to their duty to promote participation, as they will have regard to all their duties. The amendment makes assumptions about how the new funding system will operate when the transfer of resources from the Learning and Skills Council to local authorities is implemented in 2010-11. It is premature to make such assumptions given that the details of the new funding system will be subject to the outcome of ongoing consultation about how to take forward these proposals. These changes should be implemented from the academic year 2010-11, which is well before plans to raise the participation age will be implemented. They will be put in place using the primary legislation, which, as I said earlier, is likely to be brought before the House in the next parliamentary Session, including amendments as necessary to the School Standards and Framework Act. The noble Baroness, Lady Howe, raised issues relating to Clause 10 on behalf of the noble Lord, Lord Dearing, who we are sorry is unable to be in his place. The duty placed on local authorities is a necessary corresponding duty to the one on young people to participate in education or training. These duties are two sides of the same coin. The duty on young people cannot be delivered without the support of local authorities. If this clause were removed, as the noble Lord has suggested, Clause 2 would still place a duty on young people to participate, but there would be no corresponding duty on local authorities to enable this, or to encourage them to do so. The noble Lord and I discussed this issue in a meeting. I give way.