Memorandum submitted by The Association of
Directors of Children's Services (E&S 18)
Supplementary written
evidence
1. This
supplementary evidence has been produced in the light of the questioning and
responses at the meeting of the Bill Committee on 22 January. The supplementary
evidence does not indicate a change in the ADCS position but is intended to extend the arguments and, where
possible, to provide relevant up-to-date information. The supplementary
evidence covers:
· information systems
· the issue of compulsion
· literacy, numeracy and employment
skills
One
further point is raised relating to the eighteenth birthday and the arbitrary
relationship of that date with the end of education and training courses.
Information systems
2. Our
written evidence stated that "Clause 12 will require local authorities to
have systems in place, including cross-boundary systems, that both record the
education and training provision being accessed by all relevant young people,
and identify those young people who are in, or become in, breach of the duty.
These systems will need to build on existing systems recording pupils under the
age of 16, ContactPoint, Connexions databases, employment databases, and school
and college databases for young people aged between 16 and 18; developing
either a national system or local systems will require considerable effort and
care to be fit for purpose."
3. The
CCIS database will be the central system for identifying children and young
people who need support with respect to participation post-16. The CCIS
database will enable direct support to young people from personal advisers, and
provide the necessary information to
local authorities to promote participation.
4. ADCS
will continue to work closely with the Department to ensure that the CCIS
database provides the necessary information to enable timely and effective
support to the individual young people who need it.
5. In
addition to the CCIS database, it has become clear in discussions with the
Department that ContactPoint will provide some, but not all, of the information
needed by local authorities. ContactPoint will therefore be a supportive
adjunct to the CCIS database.
6. ContactPoint
will be a universal system for all children and young people up to the age of
18 and will include an 'educational setting' field as well as basic identifying
information. (ContactPoint will also have other fields and purposes but these
are not relevant to the present discussion.) Local authorities will be able to
run reports from ContactPoint which will identify all those children and young
people who have no educational setting recorded; this will help local
authorities to identify children missing education. ContactPoint will not
however identify children and young people undertaking training.
7. The
'educational setting' field in ContactPoint will be fed by local authority data
systems for schools, and by local authority data systems fed in turn by college
systems for colleges. Where possible, data in ContactPoint will be updated in
near real time; the actual updating period depending on the nature of the
system providing that data and its connection to ContactPoint.
8. Subject,
therefore, to local authority and college systems being updated as needed, both
at the start and the end of courses, and during courses when students change
provision or go off-roll, ContactPoint will provide the information necessary
to enable local authorities to comply with the requirements of clause 12 with
respect to educational settings.
9. Clauses
13 and 14 will ensure that all providers will have a duty to inform the local
authority.
10. Clauses
15, 16 and 17 will ensure that other public bodies have a duty to provide
relevant education to the local authority, which will help confirm the position
of individual young people who have already been identified as probably not
meeting the requirements of clause 2, and enable local authorities and their
Connexions services to provide tailored support to the young people concerned.
11. The
regulations which govern the operation of ContactPoint, the Children Act 2004
Information Database (England) Regulations 2007, allow for ContactPoint to
record 'education otherwise than at an education setting', that is, somewhere
other than a school or a college. Discussions with the Department are underway
to ensure that ContactPoint will properly record the 'educational setting' for these
children and young people.
12. The
identification of employers who are in breach of the requirements set out in
clauses 19 onwards will follow from the identification of young people who are
not meeting their clause 2 duty but who are in employment.
Compulsion
13. The ADCS written evidence highlighted the need for:
· a cultural change towards a norm of participation in
education and training;
· an effective
programme of information to children and young people, their parents and
employers;
· effective
and unbiased information, advice and guidance, including careers advice; and
· a new
curriculum approach that motivates and engages those young people for whom the 'traditional'
curriculum is not motivating.
14. All of these are necessary, and, as
stated in the ADCS written evidence, "The
principal aim should be that national and local programmes are effective in
securing voluntary compliance."
15. However,
these approaches are not, in the ADCS view, sufficient in order to secure full
participation.
16. On the other hand, compulsion of itself
will not secure willing engagement; compulsion must be a last step when all
else has failed.
17. The
ADCS therefore supports the position taken by Barnado's in their written
evidence at paragraph 3.2: " ... if steps are taken to find the right course
for a young person and to put in place the necessary support, then it is fair
to expect them to participate - if necessary through some system of
enforcement, including powers for local authorities to prosecute as a last
resort."
18. The
ADCS believes that the negative (and well-documented) effects of custodial
sentences are almost certain to outweigh their benefits if they were to be
proposed as part of the sanctions against non-participation.
19. To
reiterate the ADCS written evidence: "While there are always
likely to be a few young people who are difficult to engage, and thus for whom
one of the orders or notices might be appropriate, local authorities will need
carefully to assess on an individual basis the action that is most likely to
secure the desired outcome."
Literacy,
numeracy and employment skills
20. It
is clearly vital that young people leave education and training with at least
adequate levels of literacy and numeracy, and of the 'soft' employment skills
such as team working.
21. Where
children and young people are not achieving at an adequate level in literacy
and numeracy, local authorities and schools, supported by the National
Strategies, are working hard to ensure that they catch up as early as possible
and before the age of 16.
22. Diplomas
and other developments will enable schools and colleges to deliver literacy and
numeracy education in new ways for young people post-14.
23. But
if young people have not achieved the literacy and numeracy they need by the
age of 16, their post-16 provision must include an initial focus on these key
areas.
24. Work-based
learning, including work experience and other links with employers, is an
important means of ensuring that young people know about the world of work and
can acquire the skills that they need to enter employment.
25. Local
authorities work with support from the Learning and Skills Council to develop
effective local partnerships between business and education, in order to
support schools and colleges in working with local businesses to deliver the
skills expected and required by local employers.
The 'Eighteenth
Birthday' issue
26. Young people are presently required to remain in full time education
until the end of Year 11, whenever in that year their birthday falls, so that
all young people are required to complete their course of study.
27. The
definition of 'children' in the Children Act 2004 excludes young people over
the age of 18 but who have not completed a course of study, with some
exceptions for those with special needs and in the care of Councils. Local
authorities statutory duties therefore do not extend to ensuring that this
group of young people complete their course of study where that completion
takes place after their eighteenth birthday.
28. Similarly
ContactPoint will not operate after a young person's eighteenth birthday.
29. The
ADCS believes that there is a case for considering the extension of the
definition of 'children' in the Children Act 2004 for the purposes of education
and training, to include all those whose birthday falls before the end of their
course of study in that year.
February 2008