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In respect of Amendment No. 183, I assure the noble Baroness that we take very seriously the provision of appropriate Connexions services for young people with learning difficulties and disabilities. Clause 54 places a duty on local education authorities to make services available to all young people between 13 and 19, and for young people with special needs up to their 25th birthday. This duty is reinforced by the quality standards for information, advice and guidance published in October 2007, which require in Standard 48 that additional and sustained guidance and support is provided to those young people with special needs or learning difficulties and/or disabilities. The standards will be covered by the central statutory guidance under Clause 54(4). In addition, inspections under this clause will be governed by the statutory framework for inspection of children’s services under Section 21 of the Children Act 2004, which gives prominence to inspecting services for children and young people with special educational
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Finally, Amendment No. 184A would remove the sanction that wilfully obstructing an inspection in any way is an offence that is liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 4 on the standard scale. Similar sanctions with regard to inspections of local authority children’s functions already exist in other legislation. As an example, inspections of local authorities’ children’s functions under Section 136 of the Education and Inspections Act 2006, provided for in Section 140(9) of that Act, provide for a similar regime.
Similarly, Section 118 of the Learning and Skills Act, dealing with the inspection of Connexions services, which this clause will replace, also provides for sanctions for wilful obstruction. Inspectors should expect nothing less than full co-operation from those managing services under inspection and others around them. Wilful obstruction of inspections should not be tolerated, not least because to do so is obstructing work that is to be carried out on behalf of Her Majesty. Clause 60(7) is wholly consistent with existing legislation. It safeguards those carrying out inspections and acts as a sanction for those who may obstruct that work. As I said in my opening remarks, I entirely agree with the noble Baroness, Lady Perry, that only in the most exceptional circumstances should it be necessary to use powers of that kind.
Lord Lucas: Have they ever actually been used in any circumstances in any legislation that the noble Lord is calling on as a precedent?
Lord Adonis: I am not sure, but I will check and come back to the noble Lord and the noble Baroness on that.
Baroness Perry of Southwark: I am very grateful to the Minister for his reply and for his understanding of my concern. The legislation that he quoted from comes in much more from children’s services and social services than from the education field. This is a new precedent in terms of inspection of schools. To my knowledge, there has never been any need to pursue any kind of formal action against any teacher or lecturer who may, for a temporary period, have felt any resentment at inspection. I am grateful to the noble Lord for his answer. No doubt we shall return to this discussion.
Baroness Verma: I thank the Minister for his thoughtful response, and I thank all noble Lords who spoke on the group of amendments. I understand that the Government are moving towards outcome-based services. I shall read carefully what the Minister said. It is, of course, reassuring to know that inspections can be triggered if a need is felt by users. It would be useful to know that a consistent working of inspection was in place. It is quite worrying that no inspections have taken place since 2004, which seems quite a long time.
I echo what my noble friend Lady Perry said on her amendment—that this is a matter best left to discretion and common sense, not to the police and the prosecution service. What benefit would Clause 60(7) bring if a
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Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.
[Amendments Nos. 183 to 184A not moved.]
Clause 65 [Assessments relating to learning difficulties]:
Baroness Morris of Bolton moved Amendment No. 185:
(a) a young person is on the special needs register of his school, and(b) the local authority in England in which the young person lives”The noble Baroness said: I shall also speak to the other amendments in my name in this group. Our amendments to Clause 65 are intended to make it easier for children who may have learning difficulties to obtain an assessment under the clause. I shall raise again the problems of those children who have special educational needs, and I make no apology for doing so. Far too often, they fall first from the education system, often because their needs have gone unrecognised.
Amendment No. 188 deals with young people who leave school unexpectedly, possibly because of disappointing GCSE results or to pursue an alternative option. Those young people will not have had the assessment in their final year of education that is required by the clause, as it is assumed that they will continue their education. Our amendment would add a new subsection (2)(a) to proposed new Section 139A of the Learning and Skills Act 2000, by providing that an assessment should be arranged for them. The amendment ensures that children who leave unexpectedly do not slip through the net.
Our Amendment No. 189 is inspired by concerns raised by the National Autistic Society, which we share. The amendment would include children who are subject to school action and school action plus programmes and, therefore, fall short of qualifying for a full statement of special educational needs under the clause. I am sure that noble Lords are aware of the terrible difficulty that parents can face in obtaining a statement of special educational needs for their child. The amendment would ensure that children who did not qualify for an SEN assessment would nevertheless be given one. I beg to move.
Baroness Sharp of Guildford: I shall speak to Amendments Nos. 186 and 187. Amendment No. 186 mirrors exactly Amendment No. 189, spoken to by the noble Baroness, Lady Morris. I seek clarification from the Minister, because I understand that the guidance being drafted by his department incorporates a change from the existing arrangements, which will ensure that young people with or without a statement who the
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Only 3 per cent of young people have statements of special educational needs, whereas 15 per cent of young people are regarded as having special educational needs. That is a large number, and it is important that those who by the age of 15 remain under school action or school action plus, who do not want to pursue an academic route and who need help as they want to move into the world of work, have an assessment of what they can and cannot achieve and of the sort of guidance that they need. Along with that change, there will need to be a duty on local authorities to have regard to the assessments, since they will be responsible for funding provision for those young people in the post-16 world.
It is important also to separate the duties of the local authority to provide an independent assessment of the young person’s needs from that of providing appropriate learning, once those duties are devolved to local authorities from the LSC. Since local authorities are required to meet these learning provisions from their funds, there is an inherent conflict of interest where an assessment may indicate a level of need which the local authority may consider to be too expensive. One constantly sees similar inherent conflicts of interests as regards statements of special educational needs, which is why many local authorities drag their feet and spin out the period before they have to issue statements.
In addition, staff carrying out the assessment should be competent to carry out the task. They will require a detailed knowledge of local and national opportunities for learning, in addition to the skills appropriate to working with this client group, their families and support networks. Equally, emphasis should be placed on the need to ensure that post-16 providers are aware of assessments and take account of their contents in planning and developing learning programmes for young people with learning difficulties. That explains our Amendment No. 187, which adds at the end of new subsection (2), which specifies that the assessment must be carried out, that the local authority should also,
3.45 pm
Baroness Howe of Idlicote: I support the amendments. I am reminded more than anything else of the point that the noble Lord, Lord Elton, stressed a day or so ago—that the earlier these assessments are done, the better. However, if the Minister is not able to tell us that the points made just now are adequately covered by the Bill or by adequate instructions, I certainly hope that changes will be made.
Lord Adonis: I shall deal, first, with Amendment No. 185, moved by the noble Baroness, Lady Morris. I entirely agree with her that everyone who needs an
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It is very important to read new subsection (2) in conjunction with new subsection (5). New subsection (2) provides that for those who already have a statement a local authority,
- “must arrange for an assessment of the person to be conducted at some time during his last year of compulsory schooling”.
However, new subsection (5) gives local authorities a power “at any time” to arrange for an assessment to be conducted in respect of all the categories of young people set out in new subsection (6)—that is, any young person who is,
- “in his last year of compulsory schooling, or is over compulsory school age but has not attained the age of 25 ... appears to the authority to have a learning difficulty within the meaning of section 13, and ... is receiving, or in the opinion of the authority is likely to receive, post-16 education or training or higher education”.
As ever, my department stands willing to assist authorities in interpreting their duties. New subsection (7) provides:
“In exercising its functions under this section an authority must have regard to any guidance issued by the Secretary of State”.
The noble Baroness can be assured that not only are we intending to issue guidance but we already have guidance in draft on how local authorities should interpret their responsibilities in this area. This draft guidance has already gone to a number of organisations with expertise in the area and I am told that we are taking on board a range of useful comments. We will consult much more widely on the guidance once the Bill has received Royal Assent.
Furthermore, the published quality standards for information, advice and guidance, which I am circulating to Members of the Committee and to which local authorities are obliged to have regard, require that additional and sustained guidance is provided to young people who have specific needs—that is, standard 4.8. Another standard, 5.5, requires that,
- “stereotypes and limited career aspirations are challenged, for example through the use of positive actions activities, taster sessions, the use of appropriate role models and work placements”.
Therefore, we believe that the Bill, with the back-up of the guidance to which I have referred, is very robust in the area of concern to the noble Baroness.
Baroness Sharp of Guildford: I understand what the Minister says, but I notice that new subsection (5) has “may” as distinct from “must”. New subsection (2) states that, where a young person has a statement of special educational needs, the authority “must” arrange for an assessment to be made, whereas, where they are believed to have special educational needs under the school action and school action plus programmes, the word used is “may”, and therefore that is at the discretion of the local authority.
Lord Adonis: The noble Baroness is absolutely right that it is at the discretion of the local authority. However, new subsection (5) will need to be interpreted by local authorities in conjunction with new subsection (7), which states:
“In exercising its functions under this section an authority must have regard to any guidance issued by the Secretary of State”.
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As I said a moment ago, our guidance to local authorities will state that every young person with learning difficulties who is likely to benefit from an assessment should receive one.
There may be a dispute about young people who are likely to benefit; that, I fear, is the state of affairs in the pre-16 statementing process. One of the grounds for appeal to SENDIST is refusal to carry out an assessment. As always in this area, there will inevitably be room for argument over how a local authority should exercise its discretion. The guidance from the Secretary of State, however, will be clear that authorities will be expected to carry out an assessment in respect of every young person with difficulties who is likely to benefit from one.
Baroness Sharp of Guildford: The Minister rightly says that there can be disputes with local authorities over what is and is not needed, and how far they should go. In speaking to Amendment No. 187, I made the distinction that there must be Chinese walls: a clear separation in local authorities between those who make the assessment of special educational needs and the carrying out of this assessment. There is an inherent conflict within an authority, and is important that local authorities should make that separation of function clear.
Baroness Morris of Bolton: I thank the Minister for his reply. Yet again we are asked to take what is going to be in guidance on trust, although I was pleased to hear that draft guidance is now available. It would be interesting to know when the Minister thinks that they may have consulted on that, and whether we might—
Lord Adonis: I have here 31 pages of the draft guidance, which I shall be happy to circulate to the noble Baroness immediately after these debates. My department is not to be found wanting on the provision of guidance.
Baroness Morris of Bolton: I am sure that we all look forward to receiving it. Like the noble Baroness, Lady Sharp, I circled the word “may” in proposed new subsection (5). I admit to being still somewhat at a loss as to why it is a duty to assess a young person with a statement, but only an expectation, however strongly it may be worded in guidance, if a young person is on a school action or school action plus programme. Again like the noble Baroness, I worry that any financial constraints faced by a local authority could make all the difference as to whether a young person can expect an assessment or not, especially as the LGA, in its briefing to the other place, said:
“It is conceivable comments may be passed on the adequacy or otherwise of local authority SEN provision/ assessments under existing regulations”.
When we have read the draft guidance, we will see. For now, however, I beg leave to withdraw the amendment.
Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.
[Amendments Nos. 186 to 189 not moved.]
Clause 66 [Careers education: information and advice]:
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Baroness Morris of Bolton moved Amendment No. 190:
The noble Baroness said: I also speak to the other amendments in my name in this group. Clause 66 amends Part 7 of the Education Act 1997, which requires state schools to provide all pupils with a programme of careers education, appropriate information and up-to-date reference materials related to career options. I have spoken of my belief that good careers advice is a must if we are to help all young people realise their potential. Our aim with these amendments is to provide impartial, professional advice which will be tailored to suit the needs of the young person.
Amendment No. 190 would leave out paragraphs (a) and (b) of proposed new subsection (2B) to Section 43 of the 1997 Act. This would leave the clause more succinct, and still say everything that it needs to say; that is:
That would allow the young person to weigh up in his or her own mind which option may suit him best. Similarly, Amendment No. 191, which should be viewed as an alternative, would merely remove paragraph (b) because, if careers advice is both impartial and promotes the best interest of the pupil, it must logically not be promoting the interests of a particular school or institution. I hope that I have demonstrated our commitment on these Benches towards ensuring that straightforward, impartial advice is given to young people.
Amendments Nos. 192 and 193 suggest that the advice that is given to young people in respect of their educational options should include encouragement to consider academic options, when appropriate, to study one or more A-level courses, provided that such courses would be in the best interests of the pupil. Amendment No. 193 deals with Oxbridge. As I said, advice should be impartial, but it must also contain information about different routes that a young person can take so that the pupil is fully informed.
I mentioned Oxford and Cambridge by name because they are widely regarded as being the best universities in the world. Yet there appear to be alarming misconceptions in state schools about the opportunities for pupils to go to Oxbridge. Much more must be done to dispel the myth that is prevalent among many young people, and those who advise them, that Oxbridge is not for them. It becomes something of a vicious circle. We are all aware that there is an imbalance in terms of the socio-economic background of students at those institutions, but those from disadvantaged backgrounds seem to be reluctant even to consider applying. I have suggested this amendment in an attempt to stimulate equality of aspiration.
Amendment No. 196 is straightforward. Clause 66(4) is about discharging a relevant duty. The school,
There is a difference between “must” and “may”. “Must” implies that the Government tell schools exactly
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The Chairman of Committees (Lord Brabazon of Tara): I should point out that if this amendment is agreed to I cannot call Amendment No. 191.
Baroness Sharp of Guildford: In general, we on these Benches disagree with the thrust of most of these Conservative amendments. It is clear that at present many young people are not getting good or appropriate careers advice. That stems partly from the breakdown, which we have already discussed, in the careers service since Connexions was established in the early part of 2000 and the deliberate decision at that time to concentrate on the group of pupils who were dropping out of school or college at the expense of the general run of young people who stayed in education and training. I am aware, as the Minister has stressed, that funds going to Connexions have been doubled in the past couple of years and that there has been a substantial improvement in the general service provided to the pupils who stay in school as distinct from the NEET group who were concentrated on earlier. As evidenced by the clause, the Government are anxious to ensure that young people get better careers advice.
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