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We regret that the five Every Child Matters outcomes, which the Government have rightly promoted since the Children Act 2004, do not fully spell out that primary purpose of education and the care of children. I echo the concerns of the noble Lord, Lord Dearing, and the noble Baroness, Lady Massey.
None of this is inconsistent with attention to high standards in literacy and numeracy in education. Indeed, the most disadvantaged children are those best served by that attention. Surely, education is the best and, indeed many would argue, the only real means of overcoming disadvantage. That is why the Churches have been and remain committed to promoting and providing education and why we are so pleased that the vast majority of the new Church of England secondary schools, like the academies we are promoting, serve the most disadvantaged in our society.
Baroness Buscombe: As the right reverend Prelate has just said, we entirely agree that the well-being of children is paramount. In a sense, that is why I am not minded to support the amendments. I want to explain why.
In essence, the principles and objectives behind the amendments are already covered by the Children Act 2004, and the Bill must be read in tandem with that. We fear that the inclusion of a well-being duty in the Bill could upset the balance of the Children Act, which places a duty on each children's services authority to promote the well-being of children in the
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The amendment tabled by the noble Lord, Lord Dearing, in particular, would place a target duty on local authorities. In the light of our first amendment, we do not feel minded to support that because we believe that it is the duty of schools to carry out that role. It also reduces the educational slant on local authorities' duties. We fear that it could skew Clause 1 in favour of welfare rather than educational attainment. That is the wrong set of priorities for the Bill. The Bill should focus on educational attainment.
Baroness Howarth of Breckland: I was not going to speak at this juncture, but my noble friend has allowed me to speak before him. I disagree fundamentally with the noble Baroness, Lady Buscombe, with whom I usually agree.
It seems extraordinary to me that, in the Bill, the only place where we spell out the five outcomes of Every Child Matters is under the provisions about recreation on page 6. Those are the outcomes that will underpin a child’s emotional, physical and social well-being, which are the things that enable a child to learn. The Minister has heard me say this on other occasions during discussion of other legislation, but unless we look after the emotional well-being of our children—this case has been put far more eloquently by my noble friend Lord Dearing and the noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley, than I ever could—they will never make the best use of their education.
I have spent most of my working life having what is probably a very skewed view of young people at the disadvantaged end of life and whose emotionaland physical well-being is often marred. As a consequence, they are in the schools at the bottom of the pile. Unless well-being is high on the agenda and we can take welfare to heart, education will simply not be attained by those children whom the Government so strongly aim to bring up to the same high standards that we want for all our children.
Baroness Buscombe: Perhaps I may respond tothe noble Baroness, Lady Howarth—the joy of Committee is that we can speak as often as we like, so let us make the most of it. I hope that I have explained clearly that there is an existing duty in the Children Act, which is powerful. Our concern is that reference to that duty in the Bill could weaken that, leading the courts to question why we felt it necessary to clarify that in certain cases in the Bill. I understand where the noble Baroness is coming from.
Baroness Howarth of Breckland: In one sentence, I believe that it would strengthen it.
Baroness Howe of Idlicote: Again, very briefly, I support the amendment. We have gone over this point many times, but it was felt above all during consideration of the Children Act 2004 that the educational side was perhaps not as fully involved in the rest of the services that were going to be working together, and I wish to draw attention to the fundamental point about the well-being of children.
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I am particularly concerned about special needs children, and the second part of the amendment, on promoting high educational standards, is particularly important for them. They must have the right attention and the right resources to see that they get that attention in schools. As we know from a number of reports that we have read, particularly from the National Union of Teachers, there is great concern about that. I am sorry that I, too, must disagree with the noble Baroness, Lady Buscombe. Nevertheless, on this occasion I really do think that the amendment needs to be incorporated into the Bill.
Lord Dearing: May I offer an explanation of my misdemeanour to the noble Baroness? My strong feeling, which is based on thinking about my home city, is so often that social deprivation and problems at home are a great obstacle to a child’s success in education. You cannot have what you want without considering this. It is a fundamental building block. That is what I am trying to get across. This is fundamental to the educational objective.
Baroness Warnock: I support what my noble friends Lord Dearing and Lady Howarth have said, and remind your Lordships how things have come on since the 1970s when the committee on special educational needs was set up. The members of that committee were expressly forbidden from asking whether social deprivation was connected in any way with special educational needs. We shall prove how much we have advanced since then if we can have right at the front of the Bill the need to consider the well-being and welfare of the child alongside educational considerations. I believe that there is no one who does not understand that a child is not in a position to learn if their welfare and emotional needs are not considered. The two things go closely hand in hand. I very much support any amendment that would spell this out and make it absolutely clear.
Lord Adonis: I now realise that I am in the customary position of Ministers speaking from this Dispatch Box of agreeing with all the substantive points about policy that have been made in the debate. Indeed, I very rarely disagree with the noble Lord, Lord Dearing, who speaks such great common sense in these matters. I should say that the Government share entirely the objectives that he set out in his speech, but point out that the law does not need changing to achieve those objectives; it achieves them already.
The noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley, suggests that the Bill duplicates existing legislation in many places. I stress, because this is a crucial point about the Children Act 2004, that, where the Bill duplicates existing provisions, it repeals them, and brings them together in one place for ease of reference or consolidation. I do not believe—this is crucial to the discussion—that the noble Baroness or any other noble Lord would wish to repeal Section 10 of the Children Act 2004 and incorporate it into an education Bill. I know exactly what the reaction would be if I put that proposition to your Lordships.
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5.45 pm
Amendments Nos. 3 and 4 put forward by the noble Lord, Lord Dearing, seek to tease out the relationship between the duties placed on a local authority acting in two different but inextricably linked capacities: first, in its capacity as a local education authority carrying out functions in relation to the provision of education; and, secondly, in its capacity as a children's services authority, carrying out its functions in relation to improving the well-being of children.
The objective of these amendments is to ensure that there can be no confusion between the duties placed on local authorities in this Bill and the Every Child Matters agenda. Educational standards and well-being go hand in hand and this Bill has been consciously framed—as I said in response to a previous amendment moved by the noble Baroness, Lady Buscombe—to reinforce the Children Act 2004 in respect of the Every Child Matters agenda, which is central to all that we seek to achieve for young people.
For local authorities to fulfil their Every Child Matters and educational duties effectively, they need to be as joined-up as possible in their various complementary activities. That is why we have brought together education and children’s social services departments into children’s services departments, as noted by the noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley, each with a single director of children’s services. That is a major development on the past situation where there were separate directors of the two services. It is also why we want to see one set of complementary statutory duties to apply to local authorities. I think that the noble Lord, Lord Dearing, would support that objective. It is why Clause 153 enables us to eliminate entirely the terms “local education authority” and “children’s services authority”. They would be replaced throughout legislation with the single term “local authority”, which would encompass the educational and the social services roles. That is the whole purpose of this later provision in the Bill.
We therefore are not attracted to the juxtaposition proposed in Amendment No. 4 of different duties assigned to local authorities in relation to the provision of education, on the one hand, and the provision of children's services, on the other. We want a single set of duties on authorities acting in a far more joined-up way than has often been the case, which, again, I think that the noble Lord, Lord Dearing, would support. The key issue is that local authorities take all of those duties seriously. We can
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The noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley, tabled Amendment No. 5, which would add a duty of well-being. This issue, again, is of vital importance, which is why we have already made provision in legislation for it. Section 10 of the Children Act 2004 already places a duty on local authorities which is far more powerful than that set out in this amendment. Every local authority which has education and social services functions under Section 10 is required to promote co-operation between the authority, its relevant partners and such other persons or bodies as the authority considers appropriate in order to improve well-being, as defined by the five Every Child Matters outcomes, one of which is education.
Re-stating aspects of that duty in the Education and Inspections Bill would serve to weaken the existing duty in the Children Act, as it could lead the courts to question why it was felt necessary to add it again and, in particular, whether we were seeking to qualify or circumscribe the existing wide-ranging duty by relating it mainly to educational provisions. In any event, to have the same duty expressed in two pieces of legislation is undesirable for the reasons that I have given.
As I said earlier, Section 10 of the Children Act obliges every local authority in England to promote co-operation between the authority, its relevant partners and such other persons or bodies as the authority considers appropriate. Those five outcomes are very clear: the physical and mental health, and emotional well-being, of children; protection from harm and neglect; education, training and recreation; the contribution that children make to society; and social and economic well-being. It goes without saying that these five outcomes promote not only the well-being of children, but also the best interests of the child, which is the second half of the amendment of the noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley. So we believe that Section 10 also meets this objective.
Taking Section 10 of the Children Act 2004 together with the provisions of this Bill will, we believe, meet the objectives which have been so well made in the course of the debate.
Baroness Walmsley: Before the noble Lord, Lord Dearing, rises to respond, perhaps I may make three points. First, our Amendments Nos. 5 and 22 are not like Amendments Nos. 3 and 4 which seek to repeal and amend the 1996 Act; nor would we want to repeal or amend Section 10 of the Children Act 2004. Can the noble Lord confirm that an alternative approach—it is one we might consider at the Report stage—would be to mention in this Bill the duties under Section 10 of the 2004 Act in order to emphasise the importance of the well-being and the best interests of the child without falling into the trap
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Lord Adonis: We are in Committee and so I am happy to respond immediately. I know absolutely what my legal friends will tell me on this issue: that there is no need to mention in one Act the existence of another. The law is the law and the repetition of it in one Act does not give it any stronger force in another Act. I can hear the lawyers saying that even as the noble Baroness speaks.
Baroness Walmsley: That brings me nicely to my second point. The reason why it might be desirable to do so is to provide clarity for those reading the various Acts. The need to read one Act in the context of other Acts in terms of education policy is now becoming so complicated that perhaps we are reaching the point where we should have a codification of education policy, and possibly even codification of the policy relating to other services for children. Certainly regarding education, it is now almost impossible to consider the issues in any new Bill that comes before us without recourse to a great pile of other Acts on the desk beside one. I wonder whether the Minister might consider that.
Perhaps I may make my third point on an issue that I neglected to mention earlier. One of the many reasons why we wanted to put the well-being and the best interests of the child into this Bill is because of its concentration on consulting parents. The interests of the child are not always properly expressed by a parent’s response to any consultation. It is the child who should be at the centre of this. Of course parents are vitally important and should always be consulted, but the child has to come first. That is among the many reasons why we want to put these words into the Bill.
Lord Dearing: I thank the Minister for his reply and I am delighted that there is no difference whatever in the Committee on the objectives. My only concern is that when the 720 pages of this Bill, its regulations and Explanatory Notes descend on a children’s services director, he will remember that there is a Children Act 2004 as well. What do you do when 720 pages of legislation land on your desk? You have to get on with it. I worry that in getting on with this, the other legislation will be overlooked. Let us think about it.
Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.
[Amendments Nos. 4 to 10 not moved.]
Clause 2 [Duties in relation to diversity and choice]:
Baroness Buscombe moved Amendment No. 11:
The noble Baroness said: Amendment No. 11 would adjust the wording of Clause 2 to reflect more accurately the role of local authorities in carrying out their duties in relation to diversity and choice. It is not clear to me how the functions that the local authority will carry out under this clause are powers. A local authority may well perform functions or tasks which
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and as “official duties”, whereas power is described as:
This amendment seeks to establish firmly that local authorities play a functional role only in terms of local schooling. This is a drafting amendment which I sincerely hope the Minister is able to accept. I beg to move.
Lord Adonis: I may be able to deal straightforwardly with the amendment by saying that I propose to accept it. The purpose of Clause 2 is to ensure that local authorities exercise their functions under Section 14 of the 1996 Act with a view to securing diversity in the provision of schools and increasing opportunities for parental choice. I pay the noble Baroness the highest accolade possible by saying that parliamentary counsel believes that her change is an improvement to the Bill’s wording. I have never heard that said before. I am happy to accept the amendment.
Baroness Buscombe: Perhaps I may respond by saying three cheers to parliamentary counsel. I am very grateful to the noble Lord for his response and pleased that he can accept my amendment.
On Question, amendment agreed to.
Baroness Buscombe moved Amendment No. 12:
“( ) encouraging all schools to become foundation, voluntary or foundation special schools, and to acquire a foundation”The noble Baroness said: I wish we could continue in that vein but fear that we will not. I shall speak to Amendments Nos. 12, 122 and 123.
Amendment No. 12 would require local authorities to exercise their functions with a view to encouraging all schools to become self-governing and to acquire a trust. Amendment No. 123 would place this duty on local authorities and the Secretary of State. This builds directly on the wording of the White Paper which committed the Government to that at paragraph 2.5. It states:
“At the heart of this new vision are Trust schools. Trusts will harness the external support and a success culture, bringing innovative and stronger leadership to the school, improving standards and extending choice. We will encourage all primary and secondary schools to be self-governing and to acquire a Trust”.
These amendments reflect the vision of the education system expressed by the Prime Minister and Ministers over the past few years. In his speech of 24 October, the day before publication of the White Paper, the Prime Minister said:
“We need to see every local authority moving from provider to commissioner, so that the system acquires a local dynamism responsive to the needs of their communities and open to change and new forms of school provision.
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This will liberate local authorities from too often feeling the need to defend the status quo, so that instead they become the champions of innovation and diversity, and the partner of local parents in driving continuous improvement”.
This was not a new aspiration; indeed, it was the basis for DfES policy from as early as July 2004, when the Government published the five-year strategy for children and learners, which said:
“Local Authorities should recast themselves as the commissioner and quality assurer of educational services, not the direct supplier, a role which enables them to promote the interests of parents and pupils far more confidently and powerfully than the old days of the Local Authority as direct manager of the local schools and colleges”.
It was repeated in the 2005 Labour manifesto, which said:
The policy came to full fruition in the White Paper, paragraph 9.3 of which states:
“We will support local authorities in playing a new commissioning role in relation to a new school system, at the heart of their local communities, and responsive to the needs of parents and pupils. They will support new schools and new provision where there is a real demand or where existing provision is poor. This is a very different role from acting as a direct provider of school places. We recognise that in many ways it is more challenging. But it also offers the scope to ensure that communities receive the education they deserve and aspire to”.
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