Education and Skills Bill

moved Amendment No. 68: 68: After Clause 12, insert the following new Clause— ““General duties of governing body of an institution within the further education sector (1) The governing body of an institution within the further education sector shall, in discharging their functions relating to the conduct of the further education institution, promote the well-being of children at the further education institution. (2) In this section ““well being of children”” means their well-being so far as relating to the matters mentioned in section 10(2) of the Children Act 2004 (c. 31). (3) In this section ““children”” means persons under the age of eighteen.”” The noble Baroness said: This amendment, tabled in my name and that of my noble friend Lady Walmsley, would place a duty on further education providers to promote the well-being of children to ensure that the further education sector becomes a named partner in the Every Child Matters programme. In 2007, when a similar amendment was debated during the passage of the Further Education and Training Bill, noble Lords debated the ways in which the expectations laid on further education establishments were changing, with a new influx of students as young as 14 and with as many as 120,000 14 to 16 year-olds attending FE colleges regularly. Part 1 of this Bill will increase that intake even more, with a projected additional 28,000 16 year-olds remaining in the education system. It is likely that this group will include some of the most vulnerable and marginalised young people, who, for a number of reasons, may find it difficult to follow an unbroken pattern of study or to begin work-based training. These can include homeless young people, young parents, looked-after children and care leavers, unaccompanied asylum seekers, young offenders, young people with substance misuse problems and those with mental health problems, young disabled people and young carers, many of whom may have missed out on a considerable amount of education before reaching the age of 16. The five outcomes for children that lie at the heart of the Every Child Matters agenda are underpinned by Section 10 of the Children Act 2004, which defines the statutory partnership, the children’s trust, that is responsible for the planning, commissioning and delivery of children’s services. The outcomes are: to be healthy, to stay safe, to enjoy and achieve, to make a positive contribution and to achieve economic well-being. The guidance issued under Section 10 of the 2004 Act makes it clear that ““other bodies”” can include schools and further education colleges. The children’s trust guidance states that local authorities are expected to engage with education providers with a particular aim to address the economic well-being outcome. Supplementary guidance, currently out for consultation, emphasises the need for the children’s trust to increase its efforts to involve schools, implying that progress in this area has been sluggish. If progress in engaging schools fully in the Every Child Matters developments has been slow, it is likely that the engagement of the further education sector, with which at present local authorities have no statutory relationship, will be even worse. During the debate on the Further Education and Training Bill, the noble Lord, Lord Adonis, referred to four ways in which the FE sector currently promotes the well-being of young learners, and I should like to address some of their shortcomings. First, Section 175 of the Education Act 2002 places a duty on the governing body of a further education establishment to safeguard and promote the welfare of children receiving education and training at a further education institution. This duty is focused on protecting children from harm, not on the more holistic concept of promoting and improving a young person’s well-being. Secondly, the noble Lord mentioned pastoral support in FE colleges, which has three main components: undoing barriers to learning, boosting learning and achievement, and motivating learners to broaden their aspirations. Some FE colleges provide good, dedicated pastoral care support, and here I declare an interest as being on the Corporation of Guildford College, where I believe such support is provided. But this good practice is not consistent across the sector. Although pilots of different models of pastoral support were announced by the Government two years ago, many colleges have still not settled down to a consistent pattern of good practice in this regard. Placing the FE provider under a duty to improve the well-being of children and to bring them into the shared outcomes framework will mean that the provision of pastoral support becomes more consistent across the sector and will lead to improvements in practice. It could also lead to the development of well-being indicators for the sector similar to those being developed for schools, which would contribute to the development of consistent standards in the personal support services available to 14 to 19 year-olds. Thirdly, the Minister mentioned that the old local learning and skills councils are included under Section 10 of the 2004 Act covering the duty to co-operate. Although the councils were named as partners in Section 10, their contribution to improving the well-being of children and young people was as a commissioner of post-16 services, and that now applies to the regional councils. This does not satisfy the need for individual institutions, including further education colleges, to make their own contribution to the well-being of young people. Fourthly, the Minister believed that the common inspection framework would do the job. I accept that Ofsted’s thematic report on further education indicates that many colleges are rated good or even very good at providing this kind of support. However, the same report notes concerns about the new challenges facing staff in further education colleges, in particular in relation to the 14 to 16 year-old age group with whom, through the diploma programme, they will now have increasing contact. When a duty to participate comes into force, the number of disaffected 16 and 17 year-olds will add to the difficulties that the college may face, bringing further challenges to the sector. Applying the well-being duty to FE providers should lead to improvements in the training available to staff working with young people and an increased expectation that further education providers will be made aware of and tap into the additional support services available in the community. That is particularly so given that, as we all know, the functions of learning and skills councils are to be transferred to local authorities. In that case, FE colleges will be answerable to local authorities for the 16 to 19 year-old cohort of students in their care. It would seem appropriate that they should have the same obligations as schools in this respect. The amendment is supported by the National Children’s Bureau and the Equality and Human Rights Commission because they, like noble Lords on these Benches, believe that it is desirable and necessary to ensure that young people in further education are treated in exactly the same way as those in schools, and schools already have that duty. It will, in the end, contribute to their success in learning, since we all know that a young person whose needs are not being met will not learn as well as someone who is well supported. I beg to move.