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Ms Ryan: I do not want to delay the House, but I want to say what a joy it was to work at the William Morris academy, and what an excellent education establishment it is--not least because of the commitment shown by the principal, the staff and the local education authority. I know that my hon. Friend played a considerable role in the authority before he became an MP. The academy's commitment to raising standards shows that it can be done.
Mr. Coleman: I do not want this to turn into a mutual admiration society, so I shall try to make some progress with my speech.
The academy provides a truly comprehensive service, catering for young people of all abilities and backgrounds, and adding value for all of them. Its history since its establishment six years ago constitutes an increasingly encouraging success story. When it was established, Hammersmith and Fulham fell between two stools in terms of sixth form provision. The authority had surplus
places, and the local secondary schools were too small to run effective sixth forms. The LEA undertook a review, as a result of which schools, parents and governors agreed that the five local secondary schools should give up their sixth forms in the interests of making a better offer to the young people of the borough aged 16 and over in the form of an LEA sixth form college.
Unfortunately, the intervention of the Further and Higher Education Act 1992 meant that the academy would be taken away from the LEA and put under the authority of the FEFCE. To our dismay, owing to the policy of the Conservative Administration at the time, the proposal was turned down and the LEA was left to arrive at the imaginative and, as some of us thought, rather dangerous approach that created the current structure of the academy, providing services for 16-to-19-year-olds for and on behalf of its five feeder schools.
The former Conservative Secretary of State ordered an investigation by the FEFCE of the academy's status. The investigation, which took some years, involved visits to the academy by many individuals and agencies, including two FEFCE inspections. I am happy to say that, as a result, everyone concluded that--as local people already knew--the William Morris academy was providing an excellent education for its students. The FEFCE recommended to the Secretary of State that it should not be incorporated as an FEFCE institution.
I am delighted that clause 99 will regularise the academy's position and secure the benefits that it confers to its feeder schools, to students in Hammersmith and Fulham and to the many six-formers from the wider community in London who choose to attend it. I hope that it will continue to provide high-quality sixth form education in Hammersmith and Fulham for many years.
Clear lessons can be learned from the history of the William Morris academy for the purposes of our operation of provision for 16-to-19-year-olds. The academy can give students the benefits associated with both colleges and school sixth forms. The advantages of a college atmosphere are both the independence that a school would not provide, and the benefit of wide curriculum choices and contact with a large number of fellow students. Students also have access to the pastoral care that would normally be associated with schools, and can benefit from close links with feeder schools and the local community.
That is especially relevant to the environment in which the academy operates. The feeder schools from which students come--some of which work in a very challenging inner-city environment--would not otherwise have been able to sustain the quality of sixth form education that allows students to progress in this way.
Collective sixth form provision is a vital option for many communities, but this successful experiment would not have been possible unless the LEA had chosen to function as a good LEA should. The local authority worked in partnership with the schools, the parents, the community and, most importantly, the pupils to secure the most appropriate provision.
Mr. Tim Collins (Westmorland and Lonsdale):
It is a particular pleasure for me to speak soon after my right hon. and learned Friend the Member for Folkestone and Hythe (Mr. Howard), because I had the great privilege of working as his special adviser for two years while he was Employment Secretary, when he drove through with immense energy and dedication the creation of the national network of training and enterprise councils. I hope that he will forgive me for saying that I doubt whether any other Secretary of State could have created that network as rapidly and as successfully. He was right to point out that although the TEC system was imperfect, as all systems are, it had many historic achievements to its name and it is much to be regretted that the Government appear determined to sweep aside so much good work rather than bringing the worst up to the standard of the best.
I shall make a few general observations and then a constituency point. The subject of learning and skills is important and the Government are right to address it. They have rightly recognised that we cannot stand still. There has to be a process of constant improvement--indeed, to use a new Labour word, modernisation. These things have to change all the time. Businesses are particularly conscious of the fact that arrangements have to be altered and qualifications need to change.
The hon. Member for Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney (Mr. Rowlands) talked about history and the training that used to be provided by large manufacturing companies. Whatever the political colour of any Government in this country or any other modern western country, the era of the large manufacturing company is probably drawing to its close around the world. Training has to reflect that.
We have to modernise and provide training in new skills and different aptitudes. The idea that large numbers of teenagers will go to one company and stay there for the whole of their working lives is--sadly, in many ways--increasingly absent from the life cycles of people in this country. We need lifelong training. Skills that are at the cutting edge in one decade may be increasingly outdated by a second decade and wholly useless by a third. However, that should not mean that those who have acquired one set of skills are thrown on the scrap heap. On the contrary, they should be encouraged and helped by private sector enterprise and by the Government to acquire new skills so that they can contribute to the wider community for their own sense of dignity and so that the economy can take advantage of all the talents of all the people across the United Kingdom.
Given how economies and businesses are changing, it is regrettable that the Bill will marginalise much of the private sector-led success of training and enterprise councils. The Secretary of State said that 40 per cent. of the membership of local learning and skills councils
would be provided by those with business or commercial experience. The implication was that that was a great concession to the business community and in exchange he looked to them to improve their investment in training and their commitment to the development of skills.
However, that is not a great concession. There are two problems. First, why did the Government resist amendments in another place that would have written the 40 per cent. requirement into the Bill? If that is their policy, why do they resist having it spelled out in statute? Secondly, 40 per cent. representation is not what the business community is used to having on training and enterprise councils. TECs were essentially business-led and the majority of the board came from the private sector.
Mr. Boswell:
I do not dissent from what my hon. Friend has said. Does he agree that the suggestion that the 40 per cent. business involvement should include people who might have retired from business, albeit recently, is different from the situation with TECs, in which participants were required to be actively employed at a senior level in the businesses that they led?
Mr. Collins:
My hon. Friend is entirely right. I was coming to that. The nature of the business and commercial experience in question is deliberately left a little vague, whereas TECs, as he rightly said, were designed to bring active members of the local business community in to provide leadership of the business commitment to the success of the organisations. There will undoubtedly be a huge amount of public-spirited commitment from employers, who are not necessarily party political figures. They will work with any Government, whatever that Government's complexion, but senior business people have a huge amount of pressure on their time and they will want to be involved primarily with organisations in which they feel that their time is well spent and that the business ethos is in charge, not a bolt-on. I fear that there may be a presumption among local business communities that their relationship with LSCs is second class compared with the relationship that they had with TECs.
That is not an imaginary consideration. The Minister will know that the Confederation of British Industry and the Institute of Directors have said that they want majority business representation on LSC boards. We have not heard why the Government rejected that specific request from the main business organisations in the country. I hope that the Minister who replies to the debate will address that point, because it is important to understand why the Government have decided not to follow the strong request of the business community.
My hon. Friend the Member for Maidenhead (Mrs. May) talked about centralisation. I quoted the explanatory notes on that, but clause 20 is even more explicit. It says that a local learning and skills council
My right hon. and learned Friend the Member for Folkestone and Hythe will recall that when the TEC network was being established, there was constant
pressure for more flexibility, more autonomy, more of a chance to adjust from national frameworks, guidelines and specifications to take into account differing local circumstances. That will mean differences around the country. That is the point of having local autonomy and giving people the chance to innovate and experiment and try out different approaches. That is clearly what local business people who are involved in TECs want.
The Bill is a retrograde step. The Government have listened, in a way I am delighted to say that my right hon. and learned Friend did not, to the inherent bureaucratic pressure that will always argue in favour of centralisation and uniformity and stamping out differentiation. Clause 20 suggests that the Secretary of State has listened too much to the siren voices in his Department who say that if he grabs all the power into the hands of the people at the centre, they will iron out all the little differences and remove all the distinctions so that everything is the same everywhere. The United Kingdom is not the same everywhere. That is why it was sensible to have a network that delivered locally.
must perform in relation to its area such of the Council's duties--
that is, the national council--
as the Council specifies.
It also says that a local council
may exercise in relation to its area such of the Council's powers as the Council specifies.
That is a clear charter for centralisation.
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