Education and Skills Bill

I take the noble Lord's point entirely. That is why we think that Clause 35 should stand part. Clause 36 ensures that where a parent has a history of failing their child and has already been offered a voluntary parenting contract and either refused to enter into the contract in the first place or failed to adhere to its requirements, the court will take such behaviour into account when deciding whether to impose a parenting order. It is right that the court should take the parent’s previous behaviour into account if they have already been given the opportunity to enter into a parenting contract yet failed to take advantage of this supportive intervention; indeed, this is already the case for parenting orders made under current legislation to tackle anti-social behaviour by young people. That is why we believe that Clause 36 should stand part. Clause 37 sets up the appeals process against parenting orders which is in place to ensure that parenting orders are always issued correctly and that sufficient opportunity and support have been given. If a parent feels that that has not been the case, they will know that they can appeal through an established independent process. By ensuring that the parent feels that they have been treated completely fairly, we believe that the chance of keeping them to their parenting order and helping their child to participate will be maximised. Without Clause 37, a parent could not appeal. That is why we believe that it should stand part. Clause 38 makes it clear that a parent's behaviour will be taken into account by the local education authority when it is considering enforcement if a child is failing to participate. It also allows regulations to be made that will ensure that the system is flexible enough to respond if a young person who is failing to fulfil the duty is in one local education authority and his parent is in another, and to clarify what should happen in such circumstances. It is appropriate that such detail should be contained in regulations as opposed to being on the face of the legislation. Similar provisions already exist in relation to existing powers to use parenting contracts and parenting orders. Without this clause, it would not be possible to prescribe how local authorities should exercise their functions in relation to parenting contracts and orders. That is why Clause 38 should stand part of the Bill.