Of course, we will take that into consideration. I was not aware of the noble Baroness’s concerns. To echo that, there are two measures which are more substantial, which relate to secure schools and a prohibition order as part of our enhanced suite of powers to tackle unregistered schools.
I turn first to Amendments 30, 42 and 76, relating to secure schools and their particular context. Secure schools place education at the centre of the response to supporting children in custody, to reduce reoffending and improve children’s life chances. They will be established as both secure children’s homes and secure 16 to 19 academies using the academies framework as a basis for opening.
Secure schools’ funding agreements require unique provisions that reflect their context. Clause 2(6) was drafted to ensure that future new academy standards would not invalidate those unique provisions. We have now confirmed that primary legislation is not required to achieve that because new standards can be selectively applied within the standards themselves. Amendment 30 therefore removes Clause 2(6) as unnecessary to the functioning of the Bill.
Turning to government Amendment 42, Clause 8 requires the Secretary of State to provide seven years’ notice if they wish to terminate funding for an academy to ensure continuity for all year groups. Because children will generally spend fewer than two years in a secure school, Amendment 42 will modify Clause 8 to reduce the termination notice period from seven to two years for secure schools.
Amendment 76 introduces provision for secure schools covering payment termination notices as well as local impact considerations and consultation requirements. On payment termination notices, it amends the Academies Act 2010 to make it consistent with Amendment 42. Section 2 of the 2010 Act places a requirement on the Secretary of State to give seven years’ notice before ceasing payments to an academy. For the reasons I set out when discussing Amendment 42, this amendment will modify the Act to reduce this notice period to two years. Existing consultation requirements for academies include the requirement that the Secretary of State consider the impact of new academies on existing schools in the area. Given that the secure school will not be recruiting from the local area in the same way as local schools, we seek to disapply this requirement to secure schools.
The Academies Act also requires providers to consult relevant persons, such as local residents, on whether an academy arrangement should be entered into. Our
view is that there will be a wide and complex range of views on the location of a secure school that the Government will wish to engage with. A “yes or no” consultation on a secure school is less likely to promote this engagement and, instead, the consultation will focus on how the secure school will work with local partners.
I acknowledge that Amendments 76A and 76B have been tabled to Amendment 76 in my name, and I shall respond to the comments from the noble Lord, Lord German, in my closing remarks.
Amendment 40 relates to academy trust standards. Clause 7 allows the Secretary of State to replace an entire trust board with a board of interim trustees. The amendment makes specific provision for the Secretary of State to consult the relevant religious body where the trust includes academies designated as having a religious character. It takes account of the fact that religious bodies have a particular interest in the governance of academies with a religious character, as reflected in those academies’ articles of association. Where the Secretary of State intends to appoint an interim trustee board, the religious authority will rightly wish to be assured that arrangements are in place to safeguard academies’ religious character. The amendment will ensure that religious bodies are able to make representations before any decision is made to appoint an interim trustee board.
I now turn to the five amendments relating to termination provisions for academy agreements and master agreements. Amendments 43 to 46 and 48 in my name relate to the termination procedure to be followed where a 16 to 19 academy is judged by Ofsted as not providing an adequate quality of education or training, or if the Secretary of State is of the view that boarding accommodation at an academy does not meet the required standards. The effect of these amendments is to apply the termination procedure which applies when an academy is judged inadequate by Ofsted, and it ensures consistency of approach. It also replicates the termination procedure currently provided for in funding agreements in these circumstances.
Amendment 47 expands Clause 11 so that it applies to academy agreements as well as master agreements in the case of a change of control of the trust or an insolvency event occurring. This means that the termination power will apply to a single-academy trust as well as a multi-academy trust. This is a corrective amendment to ensure that the legislation accurately replicates provisions in existing funding agreements.
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I turn to Amendments 148 and 153. It is a criminal offence to conduct an unregistered, independent educational institution. Those who are responsible for these unregistered settings may knowingly expose the children in their care to a risk of harm and could be a safeguarding risk. Since 2016, fewer than 20 people have been convicted of this offence, but other measures in the Schools Bill should make it easier to identify and prosecute such people. This measure tackles what we have identified to be a risk in our current regulatory regime. There is insufficient practical impediment to those who have been prosecuted for running an
unregistered school restarting their operations immediately and, again, exposing children to risk. These amendments tackle that weakness.
Those in receipt of one of these orders will be restricted from a wide range of activities, if these are necessary, to reduce the risk of harm to children. The intent is to make it easier to target and bring prosecutions against those who, through their previous behaviour, have demonstrated themselves willing to expose children to a risk of harm. Any application of these orders will be proportionate to the threat posed. The intent is to prevent reoffending and someone reopening a previously identified illegal school.
Amendment 155 makes it clear that the teacher misconduct measure applies to independent educational institutions that are not schools. Independent educational institutions that are schools are already caught by existing legislation.
Amendment 151 corrects a consequential amendment. It amends Section 125(1)(b) of the Education and Skills Act 2008, which deals with appeal rights against decisions of the Secretary of State to refuse an application for a material change. Without it, Section 125(1)(b) would continue to refer to decisions under Section 104(1) of the 2008 Act as being appealable. However, with the changes made by paragraph 6(2) of Schedule 5 to the Bill, refusals to grant a material change approval will now be made under Section 104, not Section 104(1).
Finally—your Lordships will be pleased to hear—I turn to the exclusion provision in Amendment 96, which seeks to make consequential amendments to Section 494 of the Education Act 1996. That section currently applies only in the case of maintained schools. This amendment will mean that funding transfers between local authorities, where a pupil is excluded from a school in one local authority area and admitted to a new school in a different area, apply in relation to both maintained schools and academies.
These amendments relate to Clause 41, which gives the Secretary of State the ability to make arrangements for in-year adjustments to schools’ funding allocations where pupils are permanently excluded, and will ensure that funding can follow excluded pupils where they move between schools in different local authorities. This amendment will ensure that these arrangements can operate properly in relation to academies under the new funding system that we are establishing in the Bill. I beg to move.