My Lords, I shall respond to the noble Baroness, Lady Greengross, who moved the amendment on further education institutions. I thank her for explaining her intention behind them.
I fully agree with the noble Baroness on the importance of special educational provision in colleges, and I am pleased to have this opportunity to explain why we have not extended the duties in Clauses 64 and 65 to the further education sector and to reassure noble
Lords that this does not undermine the 0 to 25 coverage of the new system, which has been warmly welcomed by many during the debate on this part.
The Bill creates a reformed SEN system spanning the age range from 0 to 25 and extends important new rights to young people. Within that context, we must acknowledge that settings are not all the same. Schools and FE colleges differ in the experience that they offer their students, in their size, the breadth of their provision and in the age range they cater for.
I turn first to Amendments 198, 199, 200 and 201 which would place a new duty on FE institutions to tell young people if they are receiving special educational provision. It might be helpful to clarify for the Committee that the duty on schools in Clause 64 was originally put in place to ensure that parents were made aware when their child was in receipt of special educational provision. As noble Lords will know, this Bill gives new rights to young people once they are over compulsory school age—generally speaking those who are 16 and over—rather than their parents. Any new duty on colleges would therefore require them to inform the young person that they are in receipt of special educational provision and not their parents.
Young people in further education typically follow more tailored, individual study programmes than they had at school. Colleges will discuss with young people directly possible study programmes and the support they will need to complete those programmes. Discussion about that support may or may not include an explicit reference to SEN.
The noble Baroness talked about young people not quite being children and not quite being adults. For some young people, taking up a place at college is an opportunity for a fresh start, particularly if they felt a failure at school. The label “SEN” might be unhelpful in some circumstances, and the college will want to be sensitive about handling this. The Association of Colleges has expressed concern about this amendment, saying that it,
“risks treating young people, many of whom are sensitive about their educational achievement, the same as children”.
It goes on to say that,
“colleges go to great lengths to handle such issues sensitively by providing an initial assessment for all students to provide education that fits people’s individual needs”.
The AoC is also concerned about the sheer numbers involved. For example, one college in Essex reported to the AoC that it considers that 1,800 of its students are receiving special educational provision. That is a very significant additional burden on colleges.
The noble Baroness suggested that Clause 64 creates an anomaly. Young people in FE colleges do not need to be told that they are receiving SEN provision, but young people in sixth form must be told. She suggested that that was unfair. I understand the noble Baroness’s point in that regard. The Bill creates a distinction between young people in school and young people in college. There are two reasons why that is so. First, in the further education environment, a young person is more likely to find the label “SEN” unhelpful, and colleges are used to using their professional judgment about labelling support.
Secondly, we have sought not to place duties unnecessarily on the further education sector. School sixth forms are already under a duty to inform parents where a child is receiving special educational provision. Clause 64 changes this duty so that they must inform the young person directly.
I now turn to Amendments 202 to 205, relating to the requirement for FE institutions to publish an SEN information report setting out information about their policies for children with SEN and disabilities. Clause 65 replaces Sections 317(5) and 317(6) of the Education Act 1996 and is a well established duty on schools, but there are no existing similar legal duties on colleges, and we do not believe it is necessary to legislate for a new duty in this area. As the Association of Colleges points out, this information is readily available, as colleges already produce it for their websites and prospectuses. It is also the case that colleges will have to produce this information as part of their local offer. Colleges are under a duty in this Bill to co-operate with local authorities to produce a local offer. This includes details of their approach to teaching young people with SEN, how they adapt their curriculum and learning environment, how facilities can be accessed and what support is available to young people with SEN. More detail is set out in Schedule 1 to the draft local offer regulations.
I hope I have provided the assurance that the noble Baroness seeks that we have good reasons not to place those additional duties on further education colleges. I hope she will feel able to withdraw her amendment.