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‘only to provide advice in relation to careers education or training’.
Amendment No. 68, page 10, line 12, at end insert—
‘(6A) Information supplied under this section may not be used by a local education authority for the purpose of enforcing the duty to participate in education or training under the provisions of Chapter 5 of this Part.’.
Amendment No. 69, page 10, line 22, leave out ‘Part’ and insert ‘Chapter’.
Amendment No. 19, in clause 21, page 11, line 37, leave out from ‘applies’ to end of line 11 on page 12 and insert
‘who has not either attained a level 3 qualification or who is not in certified or in-house education or training.’.
Amendment No. 70, page 12, line 13, at end insert—
‘(4) For the purposes of this section, the steps that an employer is expected to take to fulfil its obligations in subsection (1) shall not include contacting a college of further education to verify—
(a) that the young person is enrolled,
(b) that the young person is attending courses, or
(c) the number of hours of attendance the young person’s course requires.’.
Amendment No. 71, in clause 34, page 19, line 16, at end insert—
‘(7) The provisions of this section shall not come into force until the recommendations of the review of the national strategy for carers have been implemented.’.
Amendment No. 72, in clause 39, page 22, line 8, at end insert—
‘(7A) In this section, “reasonable excuse” includes circumstances in which a young person—
(b) has health problems, including temporary illness, long term disability or ongoing mental health issues,
(d) has secured a place on a course which does not start until the following month or the following term,
(e) is recovering from giving birth,
(f) has caring responsibilities, or
(g) has particular learning difficulties for which support has not been put in place.’.
Amendment No. 73, in clause 40, page 22, line 17, leave out ‘and’.
Amendment No. 74, page 22, line 20, at end insert ‘and
(d) all other measures have been undertaken by the local authority to encourage the young person to fulfil the duty imposed by section 2.’.
Amendment No. 22, in clause 41, page 23, line 23, at end insert
‘, having regard to a person’s age, ability, interests, aptitudes and needs (if any) for personalised support and personalised learning opportunities.’.
Amendment No. 75, page 23, line 23, at end insert—
‘, having regard to a person’s ability, prior educational attainment and special educational needs.’.
Amendment No. 76, page 23, line 23, at end insert—
‘, having regard to a person’s needs and circumstances.’.
Amendment No. 78, in clause 42, page 23, line 37, leave out second ‘a’ and insert ‘an independent’.
Amendment No. 77, page 23, line 37, after ‘panel’ insert ‘of three people’.
Amendment No. 23, page 23, line 38, at end insert—
‘(1A) The regulations shall provide for a duty on local authorities to make available independent advocacy services for those young people who would benefit from such services.’.
Amendment No. 79, page 24, line 7, leave out ‘chairs’ and insert ‘is a member of’.
Amendment No. 80, page 24, line 7, after ‘member’ insert ‘or employee’.
Amendment No. 20, in clause 43, page 24, line 29, at end insert—
‘(4) In considering an appeal the attendance panel must invite the young person who is appealing against the attendance notice, or the young person’s nominated representative, to make representations to it.’.
Amendment No. 81, page 24, line 29, at end insert—
‘(4) Regulations made under subsection (3) shall provide that a young person making an appeal may attend the attendance panel appeal hearing and, if they wish, may be accompanied by an advocate or friend.’.
Amendment No. 24, in clause 45, page 25, line 19, at end insert—
‘(2A) It is a defence for a person charged with an offence under subsection (1) to show that he or she is—
(a) in treatment for a serious medical condition,
(c) caring for a family member who is seriously ill, or
(d) unlikely to benefit from the education, training or service offered.’.
Amendment No. 25, in page 25, line 21, at end insert—
‘(4) No offence under this section will have to be disclosed by a person who is convicted of the offence of failing to comply with an attendance notice.’.
Amendment No. 82, in page 25, line 21, at end insert—
‘(4) A conviction under this section shall be regarded as spent on the date the young person convicted of such an offence reaches the age of 18.’.
Amendment No. 83, in page 25, line 21, at end insert—
‘(4) A conviction under this section shall not be—
‘(a) a recordable offence under the National Police Records (Recordable Offences) Regulations 2000 (S.I 2000/1139), and
(b) disclosed in Criminal Records Bureau checks.’.
Amendment No. 84, in page 25, line 21, at end insert—
‘(4) A conviction under this section shall be regarded as spent after 12 months.’.
Amendment No. 85, in clause 46, page 26, line 3, after ‘45’, insert ‘and an advocate or friend’.
Amendment No. 86, in clause 47, page 26, line 15, after ‘notice’ insert ‘for the payment of £50’.
Amendment No. 26, page 26, line 28, at end insert
‘, provided that such penalty does not exceed £50 or the weekly amount of maximum educational maintenance allowance.’.
Amendment No. 21, in clause 48, page 27, line 19, at end insert—
‘(4) In considering an appeal the attendance panel must invite the young person who is appealing against the penalty notice, or the young person’s nominated representative, to make representations to it.’.
Amendment No. 87, in page 27, line 19, at end insert—
‘(4) Regulations made under subsection (3) shall provide that a young person making an appeal may attend the attendance panel appeal hearing and, if they wish, may be accompanied by an advocate or friend.’.
Amendment No. 88, in clause 54, page 30, line 7, leave out ‘services’ and insert
‘information, advice and guidance about education and career opportunities’.
Amendment No. 89, page 30, line 9, at end insert—
‘(1A) Services made available under subsection (1) shall be appropriate to the needs of the young person, including those young people with special educational needs.’.
Amendment No. 152, in clause 59, page 33, line 16, at end insert—
‘(c) the provision, in response to requests by young persons and relevant young adults with visual impairment, of text books and educational course materials, capable of enlargement and enhancement by electronic means.’.
Amendment No. 150, in clause 67, page 39, line 26, after ‘includes’, insert ‘workplace based’.
Amendment No. 151, page 39, line 30, after ‘includes’, insert ‘workplace based’.
Amendment No. 91, in clause 68, page 40, line 8, at end insert—
‘(2) The Secretary of State shall commission an independent review into the effectiveness of the transport arrangements of local authorities, schools and colleges resulting from the entitlement to study each of the diploma lines.’.
Amendment No. 92, page 40, line 8, at end insert—
‘(2) This section may not come into force before the Secretary of State has published the research conducted by York Consulting into the transport needs arising from the introduction of diplomas.’.
Mr. Hayes: I rise to speak to this enormous group of amendments, mindful of the fact that the time in which to do so is very short indeed. I therefore hope that the House will forgive me if I focus on just some of the amendments, rather than try to deal with them all in detail.
New clause 6 would introduce learning support contracts, where the young person concerned is failing to fulfil the duty imposed by clause 2. Learning support contracts are modelled on the parenting contracts in clause 34. A learning support contract would contain a statement by the young person that they agreed to comply with such requirements as may be specified in the document and a statement by the local education authority that it agreed to provide support to the young person for the purposes of complying with those requirements. Parents and carers would also be involved unless the young person was living independently.
As my hon. Friend the Member for Bognor Regis and Littlehampton (Mr. Gibb) and I made clear during the earlier stages of the Bill, Conservatives believe that a learning support contract should always be considered before an attendance notice is issued. By amending clause 39(5)(b), and providing a mechanism for intervening earlier, before—and, ideally, instead of—the enforcement process, our desire is to minimise the chance of enforcement proceedings taking place, because of the damaging effect that they can have on a young person’s prospects. I accept that there is a desire shared across the Chamber to encourage participation by as many post-16-year-olds as possible, but I do not think that anyone wants to see young people being prosecuted. The new clause would help to avoid that possibility.
Time and again, we heard in evidence sessions that young people could be criminalised by the Bill. That is a great concern not only to the young people but to many of the organisations that work with the most disadvantaged members of our society. As compassionate Conservatives, we make no apology for allocating a disproportionate degree of concern, energy and intellectual capital to the defence of the most vulnerable people in our land. The experience of those who deal with young people—particularly with disengaged and troubled young people—was made clear by their evidence. They believe that, if those young people were stigmatised or criminalised, they could become entirely disengaged and impossible to re-engage.
For example, we heard from Martina Milburn, the chief executive of the Prince’s Trust, who told us that
“the bulk of the 40,000 people who we worked with last year had issues with drugs and alcohol. What do you do with a young person who is already going down the path of taking too many drugs and drinking too much...The question is how you deal with that. Do you increasingly criminalise young people and just say, ‘Right, we’re going to lock you all up,’ or do you find some way of trying to reach them and sort out some of their issues?”——[ Official Report, Education and Skills Public Bill Committee, 22 January 2008; c. 16, Q36.]
That evidence graphically illustrates that the young people in the greatest need are the least likely to benefit from a Bill that coerces them and, ultimately, if they do not abide by their duties, criminalises them. Hence our attempt at this juncture to soften the impact of the part of the Bill that might do just that, by building in an additional protection for those vulnerable young people. The Association of School and College Leaders
said in its briefing on the Bill that its preferred approach to achieving full participation was by persuasion rather than by coercion.
There is no lack of commitment among those on the Conservative Benches to the principle of increasing the participation of post-16-year-olds in education. Indeed, we regard ourselves as being at the forefront of that campaign. However, we believe that we are most likely to achieve that by inspiring, by encouraging, by moving the hearts and minds of young people, rather than by coercion.
Early intervention has long been an aspiration in the delivery of services for children and young people—
Mr. Hayes: I will happily give way when I have finished this sentence.
Early intervention has long been an aspiration in the delivery of services for children and young people, but, in reality, over-stretched budgets make it hard to achieve that in practice. I hope that the Minister will take the opportunity of this intervention to acknowledge those difficulties, to pay tribute to the people who deal with them on a day-to-day basis and to recognise the strength of the evidence that we were given when he and I listened to the people who are dealing with these problems at the sharp end.
Jim Knight: There are certainly some excellent people doing excellent work at the sharp end. The hon. Gentleman has made it clear that he supports the principle of people carrying on learning until they are 18. How does he think that we are going to bring that about in practice? If he says that the answer is simply good schools, will he also tell us when he thinks we will achieve 100 per cent. participation solely on the basis of encouragement and good schools?
Mr. Hayes: The Minister is encouraging me to be rather more critical of him than I would instinctively choose to be. However, because he has encouraged me, let me say that, when we debated the Bill in Committee, he made it clear that he believed that the vast majority of young people—including many who are disengaged—could be re-engaged not by compulsion but by the quality of the offer that the Government would seductively put before them. Furthermore, when I scrutinised his remarks closely, he acknowledged that there would always be a certain number of young people who would truant. We know that because, of the people who are currently obliged to attend school or college up to the age of 16, a proportion do not do so. We do not succeed in getting a 100 per cent. of those who are legally obliged to go to school or college to do so.
The question that I put to the Minister then—I put it to him again now; perhaps he will intervene on me to answer it—was as follows: given that he thinks that about 90 per cent. of young people might be encouraged to participate post-16, and that about 5 or 6 per cent. of young people do not attend school, is he suggesting that coercion will affect only about 4 or 5 per cent. of young people? I am simply more ambitious and more positive, and less sceptical and cynical, than he is about our capacity to engage people without coercion.
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