My Lords, the fourth group of amendments relates to school attendance orders and independent educational institutions. I thank my noble friend Lord Lucas and the noble Baroness, Lady Brinton, for Amendments 87 and 89. However, we are concerned that these could work directly against the child’s best interests by increasing the time that a child could spend in potentially unsuitable education. We do not regard the issuing of a preliminary notice
as an extreme penalty that warrants such justifications for issuance. We believe that a local authority should be able and required to take steps to determine the suitability of education being provided where there has been insufficient or inaccurate information given.
The local authority is already legally required to consider all relevant factors in determining whether it is expedient for a child to attend school, including whether it is in the child’s best interests. I hope that reassures the noble Lord, Lord Shipley, who tabled Amendment 91. To reiterate, “expedient” in this context means that it must be
“advantageous; fit, proper, or suitable to the circumstances of the case”
for the child to attend school. Of course, as the noble Baroness, Lady Wilcox, said, it will almost always be in the child’s best interests to attend school if they are not receiving suitable education, but there may be cases in which it could be argued that another solution would be better for the child—for example, if the child is physically or mentally too unwell to attend school.
On Amendment 96, tabled by the noble Baroness, Lady Brinton, we have been clear through our recently published school attendance guidance that local authorities are expected to work closely with other services and partners, such as health services. Paragraph 79 of the guidance—I am worried that the noble Baroness is at home saying to her screen, “But who gets to paragraph 79?”, but I know that she will get to it—says that local authorities are expected to
“Build strong relationships with a range of services and partners that can help with specific barriers to attendance and how to access them.”
It then lists services that local authorities are expected to work with, which include health, children’s social care and youth justice services, to which the noble Baroness referred. I know she is concerned about what happens in cases where the guidance is not followed, and I am happy to write to her to set out our response to those situations in more detail.
As already mentioned, government Amendments 71 and 72 would prevent the school attendance order process being triggered where parents simply do not know the information required.
With regard to Amendment 88, tabled by my noble friend Lord Lucas, I must reiterate the importance of local authorities remedying the situation for any child who is not receiving a suitable education, in the shortest time possible. The introduction and reduction of timeframes in the school attendance order process will help achieve this. However, I remind the House that, as my noble friend mentioned in earlier debates, even with the timeframes set out in the Bill, a child could still potentially be without suitable education for a period of at least 51 days, without extending this any further.
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In relation to Amendment 90, in the names of my noble friend Lord Lucas and the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of St Albans, and Amendment 92 in the name of my noble friend Lord Lucas, the preliminary notice provides parents with the opportunity to evidence that their child is in receipt of a suitable education.
Where they have the evidence, they should provide it to the local authority. If parents could appeal to the First-tier Tribunal at this stage, they would still need to provide evidence that their child is in receipt of a suitable education to enable the tribunal to come to a view. This would result in duplication or additional burdens.
There are existing options for parents who want to challenge a school attendance order, and we will outline them in our updated guidance for parents, and make them clear in the new statutory guidance for local authorities, including that they should follow the recommendations of the Local Government Ombudsman. As I mentioned earlier, we are also exploring how we might further strengthen independent oversight of local authorities.
On Amendment 95, I want to reassure the noble Baroness, Lady Brinton, that the reference to a maximum custodial penalty of 51 weeks is standard drafting practice. Where the Bill refers to a maximum custodial penalty of 51 weeks, this will be read as three months’ imprisonment until the commencement of Section 281 of the Criminal Justice Act 2003, for which there are no present plans—obviously, I cannot speak for future Governments. This aligns the offence with that of knowingly allowing a school pupil to fail to attend school.
On Amendments 93A, 95A and 95B, tabled by the noble Baroness, Lady Jones, I hope that the government amendments and the points raised today sufficiently address her concerns regarding Clauses 50, 51 and 52.
I again thank my noble friend Lord Lucas for Amendment 97. In developing the new local authority responsibilities on attendance we published a full new burdens assessment, and we expect the running costs of attendance services to remain affordable within existing budgets. The Secretary of State intends to remove the current restriction on the use of money collected through penalty notices to ensure that it can be used for better support to remove the underlying barriers to attendance. We developed local authority obligations under Clause 53 in collaboration with local authority stakeholders, and 94% of local authority staff supported the measures when publicly consulted on them.
In response to Amendment 97ZA, tabled by the noble Lord, Lord Hunt, and the noble Baroness, Lady Hollins—I thank her for contacting me today about the amendment—schools are already required to record an absence as authorised where pupils cannot attend school due to sickness, both physical and mental health-related. The department’s Working T ogether to I mprove S chool A ttendance guidance, which the Bill would make statutory, sets out that medical evidence should be requested before recording an absence as authorised only when a school has a genuine and reasonable doubt, as the noble Lord quoted, about the authenticity of the illness.
The noble Lord made powerful points—as would have the noble Baroness, had she been here—particularly in relation in children with autism. The Government are committed to continuing to work to support those children to receive a suitable education, ideally within either mainstream or special schools. Like the noble
Lord, I am sure, I have been to visit special schools dedicated to supporting children with autism and know that they are remarkable places. I pay tribute to the staff working in them.
I turn to Amendment 100 in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Storey. The alternative provision statutory guidance is clear that local authorities should not commission alternative provision in settings that meet the criteria of an independent school, but have failed to register, as that is clearly a criminal offence. But I think the point he makes is a wider one.