I thank the noble Lord, Lord Hunt of Kings Heath, for hotfooting it over here from the Grand Committee. I also thank him and my noble friend Lord Lucas for their Amendments 80, 82 and 83, which I will speak to together.
I mentioned earlier that the Government are already seeking the power for the Secretary of State to give local authorities in England statutory guidance that they must have regard to. Local authorities will not be able to diverge from it unless there is a coherent reason to do so.
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It is expected that the statutory guidance will be used to set out operational and day-to-day processes for how local authorities should implement their new duties under new Sections 436B to 436G. There is a risk that placing this level of detailed guidance in legislation could result in guidance for local authorities becoming more rigid and less able to be adjusted to better support operational need. For example, we intend to outline in the guidance how local authorities should work with home educating families, but it may be that there are circumstances where a local authority needs to diverge from these guidelines, such as where a home educating family expresses particular preferences on how they should be engaged with based on their specific circumstances. We think that level of flexibility
is important, but I assure noble Lords that if the department received reports that local authorities were not following the guidance, that would be followed up as a matter of urgency.
As mentioned, the guidance will be developed in close collaboration with local authorities, home educators and safeguarding partners. I reassure my noble friend Lord Wei that we will ensure that we engage a wide range of people in that process. We think that is the appropriate level of scrutiny, given the likely operational and technical nature of the content.
I thank the noble Lord, Lord Hunt, for Amendment 81. The department has recently published new attendance guidance, Working Together to Improve School Attendance, which we will make statutory through this Bill. This guidance is clear that local authorities and schools should work together, and with pupils and families, to understand the barriers to attendance and to put measures in place to support regular attendance. As the noble Baroness, Lady Chapman, said, there is already really good practice in schools, taking a holistic look at this. To elaborate slightly further, under the new guidance schools are expected to support pupils with health conditions by developing a whole-school culture that promotes the benefits of attendance. While recognising the interplay between wider school strategies on health and well-being, schools are also expected to have sensitive conversations with pupils and families with health conditions. These conversations should avoid stigmatising pupils and parents and instead work with them to understand how they feel and what they think would help improve their attendance.
Additionally, schools are expected to ensure that pastoral care is in place for pupils who need it and refer pupils to support from other services and partners, such as the local authority and health services, in a timely manner. We heard from the noble Lord about the availability of those wider support services. We have discussed previously the need to improve the availability of those, and steps are under way to do so. We acknowledge that there is much more to do in that space.
The guidance also sets out that, for local authorities, this means working with schools to identify pupils with barriers to attendance at an earlier stage, putting in place appropriate supportive interventions in collaboration with other services and partners, including mental health services. I hope that gives noble Lords some reassurance.
On Amendment 119 from my noble friend Lord Wei on the human rights implications of the children not in school measures, I reassure him that a full and thorough assessment on the compatibility of the measures in the Bill with the European Convention on Human Rights has been undertaken and published by the Government. This assessment was considered by the Joint Committee on Human Rights, which did not raise any concerns about the Bill’s compatibility with the convention. Parliamentary process already affords adequate opportunity for scrutiny, and it is right that scrutiny on whether the provisions strike the right balance of individual rights takes place here in Parliament before the Bill receives Royal Assent rather than afterwards, as this amendment seeks to achieve.
On the question about Royal Assent, we understand that if the Bill ends up not getting Royal Assent until 2023 then references to the “Schools Act 2022” will automatically be updated to the “Schools Act 2023”. I will double check that that is the case, but I am sure that, if any tidying up needs to take place, we will do so. My noble friend is right that the intention of the government amendments, which I am about to come to, is to have that procedure in place for the first set of these regulations.
I move on to those amendments and the importance of scrutiny, which is a common thread through all the government amendments. I and my noble friend Lady Barran have listened to concerns, and I hope that through Amendment 86, in the name of my noble friend, I can offer some reassurance that Parliament will be afforded ample opportunity to scrutinise the regulations to be made in relation to the registers ahead of their implementation. This amendment would ensure that the regulations prescribing information to be recorded, how registers are maintained and what information is shared with the Secretary of State are subject to the affirmative procedure the first time they are made, and the regulations prescribing those with whom information can be shared subject to the affirmative procedure each time. This will provide for greater parliamentary scrutiny at the points at which there will be the most impact, while avoiding disproportionate checks and balances on technical details that could, in turn, delay or disrupt the running of the registers.
Amendments 98 and 99, in the name of my noble friend, make corrections to Clause 60. Amendment 99 would permit the Secretary of State to apply legislation that was made before or in the same Session as the Schools Act 2022—or 2023—rather than, as in the clause as currently drafted, before or in the same Session as the Education and Skills Act 2008. This supports the Government’s objective of ensuring that all children receive a safe and suitable education by ensuring that independent educational institutions can be brought fully into the purview of other legislation which applies to independent schools in England.
With that, I ask that the noble Lord, Lord Hunt, withdraw his amendment and that other noble Lords do not to move theirs.