Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Act

The Act will give greater powers for the government to intervene in failing schools coupled with powers to ensure local authorities intervene early to address underperforming schools.

Junior minister for the Department for Children, Schools and Families, Baroness Morgan of Drefelin, opened the second reading of the Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Act.

Baroness Morgan said: "We want to ensure that services for children and young people work together across disciplines to offer the best possible network of support, that all young people are given every opportunity to become fulfilled adults."

Referring to last years Education and Skills Act which raised the participation age in education, employment or training to 18 from the year 2015, she said the Bill would devolve responsibility for the education and training of all 16 to 19 year-olds to local authorities, along with £7bn of funding.

Baroness Morgan added “A light touch national body, the Young People’s Learning Agency, will support authorities in this role, and the new Skills Funding Agency, working closely with the sector skills councils, will create a stronger demand-driven system for adult skills, more responsive to the needs of employers”.

The Act will build on action already being taken to bring “apprenticeships back from the brink of extinction, with their number increasing from just 65,000 to a quarter of a million this year”.

The Act would ensure that schools that are “free to teach, accountable to the parents and communities that they serve, and safe, so that teaching and learning can take place without disruption,” Baroness Morgan said.

This would be achieved by giving Ofsted the power to publish health check statements. “This will mean that inspection is targeted on the schools where it is most needed, while the best schools benefit from a lighter-touch regime,” the Baroness said.

The Act will support the development of a good curriculum and qualifications system. By establishing Ofqual, the Baroness said, “we want to create a strong, respected and independent regulator so that standards are maintained and are seen to be maintained.

“Ofqual needs to make judgments about standards without fear or favour, so, like Ofsted, it will report directly to Parliament. The Bill will give Ofqual all the powers that it needs to safeguard standards of exams and tests and to speak out if standards come under threat”.

Referring to Lord Laming’s report in March on the protection of children, Baroness Morgan said the Bill responded to recommendations by giving the secretary of state the power to set children’s services authorities in England statutory targets for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children in accordance with regulations.

Opposition spokesman for children, schools and families, Lord De Mauley, welcomed some of the provisions but criticised the "apparent convoluted tangle of institutions and policies, which suggests the creation of a bureaucratic muddle".

Lord De Mauley argued “We have to ask ourselves whether this Bill is symptomatic of a government who are frantically hurling semi-formed policies at problems, desperately trying to legislate for higher standards of education”.

He added: "We see the attractions of creating an entitlement to apprenticeships. But we don't see that merely legislating for it will make it happen." And he foresaw difficulties in enforcing the right, without creating a "lawyer's charter".

Lord De Mauley also sought assurances that the new exam regulator Ofqual would be independent of ministerial interference; and he questioned whether there would be any savings from devolving the Learning and Skills Councils work to local government.

He told peers: "We aim to help the government to find some substance and concrete policy to underpin some areas (of the Bill) to help construct a Bill based solely on 'education, education, education' rather than on 'quangos, bureaucracy and targets'."

Baroness Walmsley, Liberal Democrat spokeswoman for children, schools and families, argued that allowing teachers to search schoolchildren for drugs, alcohol and stolen property will "do nothing for teacher-pupil relationships", the government was warned tonight.

"And no teacher should be expected to search a child without good quality training," she added.

Baroness Walmsley, a former teacher and an "ambassador" for the NSPCC, said teachers should first have training in "managing potentially inflamed situations, de-escalation techniques, risk assessment and how to calm things down".

Baroness Walmsley acknowledged schoolchildren needed to be protected, adding: "The principle of the power to search should always be the safety of the children. Teachers should not be seen as an extra arm of the Ministry of Justice."

Searches should be conducted in such a way as to avoid harm to the child being searched as well as unfounded allegations of "improper behaviour" by the teacher.

Baroness Walmsley said the Bill "has neither theme nor vision and appears to be from a Government on its last legs".

Baroness Walmsley also warned of cross-party moves to limit the government's powers to appoint Ofqual's board members and its chairman and chief executive. "We will work with others to ensure that we have the Ofqual that we need," she said.

Baroness Morgan concluded: "I make no apologies for the Bill's broad range. We need to take a holistic approach that makes sure that the structures are in place to support parents, teachers and schools and, most importantly, individuals to achieve their ambitions."

Progress

House of Commons

First reading: February 4 2009 [HC Bill 55]

Second reading: February 23 2009

Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning public bill committee:


Report stage:

Third reading: May 5 2009

House of Lords

First reading: May 6 2009 [HL Bill 42]

Second reading: June 2 2009

Committee stage:

Report stage:

Third reading: November 10 2009

Consideration of Lords Amendments: [HC Bill 167]

Royal Assent

Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Act

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