Education Bill

My Lords, we know that the most important determinant of success post-16 is attainment pre-16. I start with a simple point to explain why the Government have been focusing on investment in the early years, why we have been seeking to improve the quality of new teachers, why we are bringing in reforms to the curriculum and why we have introduced the pupil premium to help to address the gap in attainment between more affluent and more disadvantaged backgrounds, which is of concern to everyone in the Committee. Noble Lords know that, across the Bill, we are keen to give schools more freedom to take decisions in the best interests of the pupils, to have less central prescription and focus on inputs and to provide more information about actual results. Our approach to careers guidance is based on the same principles. It draws on the recommendation of the Panel on Fair Access to the Professions, led by the right honourable Alan Milburn, that responsibility for careers guidance should be given to schools, who know their pupils best. That is why in the core of this clause we are seeking to move responsibility to schools. I agree with the point made by my noble friend Lord Boswell that young people should know about the full range of academic and vocational options available to them. I know there are concerns that schools might want to steer children towards staying on in the sixth form, for example. That is why we are clear in the clause that careers guidance provided under the duty must include information on all 16-to-18 education training options, including apprenticeships. A number of noble Lords have raised points about age, which I will now address. Clause 27 places a duty on schools in relation to young people from the start of the academic year in which they turn 14 to the end of the academic year in which they turn 16—year 11. The noble Baroness, Lady Jones of Whitchurch, raised the point, as did my noble friend Lady Brinton and the noble Lord, Lord Low. The case has been put for extending this age range, both downwards to cover younger pupils and upwards to reach students in school sixth forms and colleges. We are going to consult formally on the question of extending the duty down to year 8 and up to young people aged 18 studying in schools and FE institutions. That acknowledges a number of points raised here and during the debate in the other place. We have discussed these plans with the Association of School and College Leaders, the Association of Colleges and the Sixth Form Colleges’ Forum, all of which have warmly welcomed the commitment to consult. Subject to the consultation the duty could be extended by regulations from September 2012. However, I sense the mood of the Committee about this point and I will therefore discuss it further with my honourable friend John Hayes, the relevant Minister. There have been a number of important contributions about the importance of quality. There is a clear difference between the approach of this Government and that of the previous Government. Noble Lords opposite have put the case for retaining statutory safeguards on the way in which schools fulfil their duty to ensure that pupils receive independent guidance. The Government’s approach is not to require schools to work with a particular provider of careers guidance but to make sure that they can commission any specialist support that they need from a strong market in which there is choice and diversity, backed up by quality standards. That was one of the concerns of the noble Lord, Lord Peston. The National Careers Service will be subject to a quality standard for publicly funded careers guidance that other providers of careers services will be able to hold, to assure schools and colleges that they are delivering a high quality service. The Careers Profession Alliance is bringing together the main professional bodies for careers for the first time to establish common professional standards, so that everyone signs up to the same code of ethics and to the same standards of practice. The Careers Profession Alliance is committed to a register of careers professionals, and wishes to achieve chartered status for careers professionals over the next three years. The noble Lord, Lord Low, asked whether standards would cover working with disabled people. I will of course raise that matter with the responsible Minister, Mr Hayes. As has been mentioned, evidence shows that young people receive advice on their futures from many different sources: parents, teachers and obviously careers advisers. Some may prefer to get their support from a helpline or by researching online. A YouGov poll this year showed that nine in 10 young people were comfortable with using the internet to access that kind of advice. However, none of that detracts from the point that qualified professionals have a very important role to play in offering support to pupils that raises their aspirations and guides them on to a successful path. Clearly, many schools will choose to bring in support from qualified advisers at particular stages or to give advice to specific groups of pupils The Government’s position is that we should trust the professionals to deal appropriately with matters such as access to careers guidance or other support services, including the sorts of partnerships referred to by the noble Lord, Lord Griffiths of Burry Port, without recourse to legislation. We should trust them to make sensible decisions about how pupils receive careers guidance. Noble Lords know that the Government’s general position is to try to reduce the burden of guidance from the centre. However, listening to this debate, I recognise that it would be sensible to allow the scope for some short, focused guidance to be issued to schools to support them in fulfilling their new duty. We are retaining the provision in Section 45A of the Education Act 1997 to require schools to have regard to statutory guidance issued in respect of the new careers duty, and we will consider what guidance might be helpful in advance of the new duty being commenced. Transition is clearly an important point and was raised by a number of noble Lords. The Government have set out their expectations of schools and local authorities and have issued statutory guidance to the latter under Section 68 of the Education and Skills Act 2008. We are keen to encourage the exchange of good practice between local authorities and will shortly be hosting, with the Local Government Association, a summit on shared good practice. Following that summit, we will set out clear milestones to help local authorities plan their own transition arrangements—a point raised by the noble Baroness, Lady Jones of Whitchurch. We have also had important contributions about monitoring the impact of the Government’s proposals. We should ensure that we do that when making these changes. My noble friend Lord Boswell will know that a post-legislative review will be conducted in three to five years following enactment. He suggested that we should do it in three years—I think we should aim to do it in three rather than five. The evidence of whether schools are succeeding will be demonstrated through pupil achievement and, crucially, through the data on progression to further learning or employment provided by the destinations measures that we plan to publish and that we are working up. Noble Lords will know that we want school inspections to focus on overall results rather than specific inputs, but we should look closely at how schools are fulfilling this duty. We intend to ask Ofsted to carry out a thematic review of careers guidance, as recommended to us by the Careers Profession Task Force. If this shows that there are serious issues, I would expect the Government to review the position in the way that my noble friend Lord Boswell suggested. That review should also look at the issues raised by the noble Lord, Lord Low. Overall, the arrangements for careers guidance that the Government propose are based on trusting professionals and freeing schools from bureaucracy, trying to give them the opportunity to secure the specialist support they need from the market, which is characterised by choice and diversity of provision. Points have been raised about age, which we will reflect upon, about reporting and about quality. I hope that noble Lords will recognise that we are taking those steps and that the underlying point of moving responsibility to schools, originally recommended to the Government in reports and which has been widely welcomed, will help take that forward. On the basis of that further information, I hope that the noble Baroness, Lady Jones, will feel able to withdraw her amendment.