School Pupils: English Speakers
Baroness Jones of Whitchurch Excerpts(10 years, 3 months ago)
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Baroness Jones of Whitchurch (Lab)
My Lords, will the Minister join me in celebrating the role that teaching assistants can play in helping these particular children integrate quickly, particularly if the teaching assistants are drawn from the local community and share the child’s first language as well? Will he reassure all those hard-working teaching assistants around the country that the Government do not have any plans to phase them out?
Lord Nash
The noble Baroness is quite right that teaching assistants can play a vital role, particularly in this area. As we have discussed, the use of teaching assistants can sometimes not be done well—but, properly used, they are vital. We believe that it is for the head teachers to decide how they employ teaching assistants. It is entirely a matter for them.
Schools: Arts Subjects
Baroness Jones of Whitchurch Excerpts(10 years, 4 months ago)
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Baroness Jones of Whitchurch (Lab)
My Lords, is the Minister aware of just how disillusioned the arts community is with the Government’s education reforms? Certainly, in all the meetings that I have with the arts community, it consistently sends out a message about how it feels that arts education in schools is marginalised and devalued. I think that the Secretary of State bears some responsibility for this. Going back to the noble Earl’s original Question, when is the Secretary of State going to champion the arts, speak up for them and recognise the massive contribution that they make to our economy and society?
Children and Families Bill
Baroness Jones of Whitchurch Excerpts(10 years, 4 months ago)
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Baroness Howarth of Breckland (CB)
My Lords, my name was also on the original amendment tabled by the noble and learned Baroness, Lady Butler-Sloss. I regret that the phrase,
“the welfare of the child”,
has not been retained. I am pleased that the Government have taken this as far as they have. Emotions run very high during divorce and separation proceedings and where children are used as chattels in the battle. For all the reasons that the noble and learned Baroness has already outlined, there is still a perception that it means shared parenting. I encourage Ministers to continue the battle—with the media, if you like—to ensure that that message does not go forward.
As a previous chair of the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service, I know how strongly some fathers will battle on, even if they really do not want care of the child. I say that as someone who has a strong belief in having two parents and had a wonderful father of my own. I always think it is important to say that because, if you are talking about difficult fathers, you need to make it clear that you are pro-fathers. I hope that the Government will do all they can to ensure that it is the welfare of the child that will count when this amendment moves forward.
Baroness Jones of Whitchurch (Lab)
My Lords, first and rather belatedly, I welcome the Minister. I can tell him that he missed a lot of very interesting discussions in his absence, but I am sure that he is well acquainted with where we have reached with the Bill. We look forward to working with him on these issues in the future.
Our names were also added to the amendment in Committee and on Report, so we feel we have a little ownership of it. The noble and learned Baroness, Lady Butler-Sloss, put it very well: there seems to be an established procedure that our wording can never be quite good enough and that it has to be corrected. We accept that the current wording is marginally better in terms of tidying up, so we are grateful for that. As the noble Baroness, Lady Howarth, and the noble and learned Baroness, Lady Butler-Sloss, have said, the important thing now is how this is communicated because there was some miscommunication before. We are grateful to hear the plans that the Minister has for publicity because we would stress how important it is to get the message out there by whatever means necessary. Having said that, we are pleased to support the amendment.
Lord Faulks
My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Baronesses, Lady Jones and Lady Howarth, and to the noble and learned Baroness, Lady Butler-Sloss, for their contributions. Nobody claims exclusive possession of this amendment. It has been very much a joint effort and I include the Opposition in that. We take on board what has been observed about the importance of the message getting through. We will undertake to share the information with Families Need Fathers, both for accuracy and tone so that there can be no misunderstandings. The information will also be made clear to parents at the mediation stage in identical terms. I accept that the dissemination of this information is crucially important so that nobody can be under any misapprehensions, as were discussed in earlier debates on the Bill.
Children and Families Bill
Baroness Jones of Whitchurch Excerpts(10 years, 4 months ago)
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Baroness Howarth of Breckland (CB)
My Lords, I had not intended to intervene on this at this late hour, but I am tempted to, as I thought that every school had to have a bullying strategy and that there was a code. It may sit dustily on a shelf in the headmaster’s study but it is supposed to be there. I thought schools had to have a practice and some sort of plan to involve children and young people in that strategy. ChildLine has certainly produced peer programmes down the years where young people have worked together to prevent bullying themselves, through their councils. Much as I support the noble Baroness, Lady Brinton, in her efforts, it is my understanding that this should already be in every school.
Baroness Jones of Whitchurch (Lab)
My Lords, I did not want our relative silence on these Benches to be interpreted as meaning that we were not in full support of the noble Baroness’s amendment. She will know that we have consistently worked with and supported her on these issues. Because of the lateness of the hour, I do not intend reading the speech that I had prepared, but will simply say that we think that having a national anti-bullying strategy combined with the code of practice, in the way that is described in this amendment, is a sensible staged approach to dealing with this very sensitive and growing issue. We accept that head teachers and teachers must have some discretion, as I think the Minister said in Committee, but they also need help and support. This package is the right combination for that and I hope that the noble Lord is able to persuade us that the Government are taking this seriously going forward.
Lord Nash
My Lords, I am grateful to all noble Lords for their contributions to this debate and assure them that we take this matter very seriously. I thank in particular my noble friend Lady Brinton for bringing her experience and expertise to bear on these issues. I also thank my noble friend for meeting me recently and for helping me to better understand her very legitimate concerns about the impact bullying can have on the lives of children and young people. I know that she is aware that we share those concerns.
Although I am not persuaded that legislation is the right approach, those discussions have proved extremely useful in identifying gaps in our advice to schools and in helping us to understand how we can do more to address these important issues. As a direct result of the debates in this House and discussions outside it—with both my noble friend and other experts, notably the Anti-Bullying Alliance, which has always provided us with helpful and constructive input in the development of our approaches—we are committed to enhancing our advice to schools. I will say a bit more about precisely what we are doing in a moment.
The Government take a zero-tolerance approach to bullying and our advice to schools on this is clear and firm. I acknowledge that there is a place for legislation. All schools are required to have a behaviour policy which contains measures to tackle bullying, and we think that this approach is the right one. The noble Baroness, Lady Howarth, talked about these policies being on shelves but I do not think that, in the modern world, with the kind of pupils and inner-city issues that we have, any school can afford to have any of these policies on shelves. They are right at the forefront of practice and I know that bullying is something that all good schools take very seriously indeed. However, the national strategy that the amendment proposes could focus schools’ attention on complying with it as a tick-box exercise at the expense of allowing teachers to exercise their professional judgment, creativity and energy to tackle bullying as it presents itself in their particular school.
We had a question earlier today about Islamophobic bullying. Shortly after 9/11, outside Pimlico Academy in Lupus Street, which my wife and I sponsor, there was a fight between 200 non-Muslim and 200 Muslim pupils who just went at each other. It was basically a riot. There were police on horseback and ambulances. It was quite dreadful. Such issues are not easily sorted out by dusting bits of paper off shelves. I am not saying that having a strategy is not important, but that school has worked hard over a long period and I am pleased to say that racism there is a thing of the past. This is essential to all good schools.
However, it is important that schools are held to account for their effectiveness in tackling behaviour and bullying. That is why we reduced the reporting requirements for school inspections in 2011 to focus on the core business of a school: four core areas, of which one is behaviour and safety, instead of the previous 27. In setting out how inspectors should judge this, Ofsted’s inspection handbook includes explicit reference to considering types, rates and patterns of bullying. The noble Baroness, Lady Howarth, also referred earlier to friendship groups. School inspectors must consider how schools prevent and tackle bullying, and where necessary prompt schools to improve. This approach encourages schools really to focus on behaviour and bullying.
I know that concerns were raised in Committee that inspectors do not always see schools as they really are. Since the first Ofsted inspections in 1992, there has been a steady journey towards unannounced visits. Initially schools received more than a year’s notice of inspectors turning up. Over time, this shifted to eight weeks, and from 2005 to around two days. Under this Government, this has been reduced to almost no notice, with inspectors calling head teachers the afternoon before an inspection takes place. In December, launching his annual report, the chief inspector announced that where there were concerns about pupils’ behaviour, including bullying, schools could be subject to visits with no notice at all. I believe that these measures ensure that inspectors see schools as they really are; we no longer hear stories of pupils being sent to the ice rink for the day or asked to stay at home.
Our approach and strategy provide the right balance between requirements in law, flexibility for schools and strict accountability. My noble friend also proposed that a comprehensive definition of bullying be developed. We agree that there is a need to provide clarity for schools, but this is best done through advice rather than legislation. I know that noble Lords expressed concerns in Committee that the advice that we currently outline to schools does not include a reference to the imbalance of power present in many instances of bullying. I confirm that we are working closely with the anti-bullying organisations, and can reassure my noble friend and other noble Lords that we will incorporate an appropriate reference to the imbalance of power in our advice to schools.
In the light of previous debates in this House and subsequent discussions, we have identified how our advice could be further enhanced to address the concerns raised. We are creating an online fact sheet to inform schools about how they can support bullied children. This will include all the relevant information about and links to what steps can be taken to support children who are severely affected by bullying. It will incorporate information about in-school provision, SEN support and alternative provision for children severely affected by bullying. I hope that practical steps such as this will be welcomed.
I hope that noble Lords will recognise that the Government have done a great deal to address the issues around bullying, but we can go further—by acknowledging more explicitly, for example, that severe bullying can have a clear impact on a child or young person’s mental health. Therefore, I am happy to confirm to my noble friend that we will make it clearer in Special Education Needs: Code of Practice, which is a critical document for schools and other bodies, that bullying is one thing that might lead to a child or young person having special educational needs and that, where it does so, schools must take appropriate action. This can involve support from external agencies, if needed, whether or not a child has an education, health and care plan. In addition, we will make appropriate cross-references between the bullying guidance and the SEN code of practice to ensure that schools are clear about this point.
“(4AD) For the avoidance of doubt, a direction made pursuant to the provisions of subsection (4A) as amended by subsection (4AA) shall not have the automatic effect of transferring the functions of the Director of Children’s Services and the Lead Member of Children’s Services in sections 18 and 19 of the Children’s Act 2004 to the Secretary of State’s nominee.
(4AE) Before giving a direction to an authority pursuant to the provisions of subsection (4A), the Secretary of State must give the authority 14 days’ notice in writing of the proposed direction.
(4AF) The proposed direction shall include a determination as to which functions shall be exercised by the Secretary of State or a person nominated by him and which functions shall be exercised by the authority, including those set out in subsection (4AD) above.
(4AG) The authority may make written representations to the Secretary of State about the proposed direction within that period.
(4AH) The Secretary of State may modify or withdraw a direction under this section by notice in writing to the authority or authorities to which it was given.”
Baroness Jones of Whitchurch
My Lords, I move the amendment in the name of my noble friend Lady Hughes—who has asked me to speak on her behalf—and will also speak to Amendment 57F. These amendments seek to address the need for clarification and accountability in the exercise of the Secretary of State’s powers to intervene in the delivery of children’s services by local authorities.
Clause 82 amends the Education Act 1996 and the Local Government Act 1999 to the effect that when a Secretary of State intervenes in a local authority, usually in response to poor performance, any legislative provision applying to the local authority can be read as passing to a third party which has taken over the local authority’s functions and service delivery. Subsection (2) of Clause 82 applies these provisions to children’s services and subsection (3) to any best-value services across a local authority. I have to say at the outset that there is no disagreement with the need for intervention powers. It is absolutely necessary to protect services for local people.
In Grand Committee, we sought to clarify the effect of the Government’s intentions here and the Minister assured us then, and subsequently in letters to my noble friend, that the intention was simply a helpful clarification of the effect of a direction under the Secretary of State’s last-resort power and did not expand those powers. She gave the example of clarifying for a family court in the case of a care order or adoption that the court can legally recognise the decisions and arrangements of a third party which has taken over the local authority’s functions, even though that third party will be exercising legal responsibilities and powers vested in local authorities.
I am also grateful to the Minister that her officials met with my noble friend to discuss the clause in more detail. However, the Government’s clause still leaves some uncertainties about where the accountabilities lie following interventions. I apologise if this all gets rather technical, but it requires some further clarification. In essence, the clause as it stands leaves open the question as to where the statutory roles of the director of children’s services and lead member will reside after intervention and whether they, or the third party, are accountable for the way in which local authority functions are executed. Taken at face value, Clause 82(2), underpinning the roles of director of children’s services and lead member, could be read as transferring accountability to a third party. If so, the local authority would no longer be required to appoint to these positions and accountability would no longer rest with the local authority. The local authority would then effectively be severed from delivery of children’s services and accountability would reside with the Secretary of State and the third party.
These amendments do two things. First, they insert a process in which a specific decision is taken about whether the roles of the director of children’s services and lead member transfer to a third party following a direction. Secondly, they allow a local authority to make representations to the Secretary of State as to which functions are transferred to that third party and which remain with the local authority. This is a belt-and-braces amendment to ensure there will be no loose ends or lack of clarity as to where accountability resides, and for what functions, following a direction. It is necessary because while the Minister in her examples has sought to reassure us that the clause is very limited in effect, in fact the wording is very wide in scope and potentially goes far beyond the specific cases of family courts considering care orders and adoptions.
If the Minister is not minded to accept my amendment, perhaps she can explain why not and put on record the practical process that will take place, including discussion with a local authority, when a direction of this sort is under consideration. I look forward to hearing her response.
Baroness Northover
My Lords, I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Jones, for giving me the opportunity to clarify the scope of the Secretary of State’s intervention powers under Section 497A(4A) of the Education Act 1996 and Section 15(6)(a) of the Local Government Act 1999, as amended by Clause 82. Using these powers in a failing local authority would be a serious step, and it is right that we are very clear how they might be used. I hope to be able to satisfy the noble Baroness’s desire for such clarity.
Noble Lords will recall that these provisions are intended to put beyond doubt the Secretary of State’s existing powers to shift, in cases of very serious failure, the exercise of some of a local authority’s functions to a third party who will deliver them on behalf of the Secretary of State. Clause 82 clarifies the effect of the exercise of those existing powers—for example, in relation to care and adoption, and Ofsted’s powers to inspect the performance of the local authority’s functions—in whatever form they are delivered.
I will address each of the points in turn, because I know, as the noble Baroness mentioned, that meetings have been held with my noble friend, and that there is a wish that this be put on the record. That is what I shall do, if noble Lords will be patient.
Amendment 57E seeks assurance that a direction under subsection (4A) of Section 497A of the 1996 Act, as that section is amended by this Bill, would not automatically result in the transfer of the functions of director of, and lead member for, children’s services to the Secretary of State’s nominee. Amendment 57F does likewise for a direction under subsection (6)(a) of Section 15 of the 1999 Act.
I can be quite clear that a direction under the provisions in question would not result in an automatic transfer of the role of director of children’s services or of lead member for children’s services, to a third party who had taken on a local authority’s functions. That is, in part, because Sections 18 and 19 of the Children Act 2004, which set out the requirements on local authorities to appoint a director of and lead member for children’s services, are not functions which may be subject to a direction under subsection (4A) of Section 497A of the 1996 Act.
Following a subsection (4A) direction, the DCS and lead member would remain in place, although their responsibilities may be altered by agreement with the local authority as part of the transfer of functions from the local authority to the Secretary of State, or a nominee. The DCS and lead member would not, of course, exercise control over the local authority functions which had transferred to a third party following a direction under Section 497A.
Although the powers under subsection (6)(a) of Section 15 of the 1999 Act apply to Sections 18 and 19 of the Children Act 2004, I again reassure noble Lords that a direction under subsection (6)(a) would not result in the automatic transfer of those functions. If the Secretary of State wanted to transfer those functions to himself or a nominee, the direction would need specifically to set that out. I also point out that the amendment to Section 15 of the 1999 Act in Clause 82 of the Bill does not alter that in any way.
I also reassure the noble Baronesses that proposed new subsections (4AE), (4AG), (6E) and (6G) in their amendments, which are intended to ensure that the Secretary of State gives the local authority written notice of a proposed direction, are not necessary. Whenever in recent years we have contemplated issuing a direction, we have conducted initial discussions about its content beforehand. We have then formally given notice of our intention to issue a direction and formally invited representations from the local authority and other interested parties—I am glad that I am going to hand this to Hansard, so that they can make sure that the record is exactly as it is supposed to be. We will continue with the practice that I have just laid out.
Further, were we looking to transfer the exercise of some of a local authority’s functions to a third party, as these powers envisage, we would of course have to follow the provisions of employment law in respect of any employees. That would require consultation and appropriate due diligence around the terms of the transfer, which could only be done together with the local authority. In any event, in all but the most urgent cases, common-law principles of procedural fairness and good governance would require that notice of a direction be given to a council and an opportunity be afforded for representations to be made before a direction is given.
Baroness Jones of Whitchurch
I thank the Minister very much for that and I, too, will probably want to take a little time and dwell on all that in Hansard. For the moment, I am grateful to her for putting that information on the record and, on that basis, I beg leave to withdraw the amendment.
Baroness Lister of Burtersett (Lab)
My Lords, I warmly welcome the amendment and the Minister has underlined the case for it. I have two questions. What will be done to monitor the effects of the new provisions with a view to considering whether to extend them to other age groups, as the proposed new clause would allow, and what criteria will be used in considering whether to extend them? Will the Minister explain what the implications will be for the pupil premium, because eligibility for the funding of it is tied to free school meal eligibility, and if free school meal eligibility is being extended in this way does this mean that the pupil premium will also be extended?
Baroness Jones of Whitchurch
My Lords, I welcome the amendment and welcome the coalition, belatedly, to the table of the free school meals cause.
As I told the Minister the other day, I am an inaugural member of the School Food Trust, set up by Labour after Jamie Oliver’s turkey Twizzler scandal. Therefore, I do not need to be persuaded of the importance of this announcement. When I was thinking how I might respond to this debate, I was initially tempted to run back through the history of this initiative, not least the Government’s early decision to cut the funding of the School Food Trust and the associated rollout of the nutritional standards. However, in the circumstances I felt that this was rather churlish. However the transformation of policy came about, it is absolutely the right thing to do. I agree with the Minister that it will bring health, educational and social benefits to this group of children. It will, I hope, teach them good eating habits which will stay with them and encourage them to continue eating nutritional school lunches in later years. It will also provide considerable savings to hard-pressed families who would otherwise have to pay for these meals.
The challenge now is to make sure that the policy is implemented successfully for September, and I very much hope that the Children’s Food Trust is able to play a major role in assisting that rollout. There will obviously be different challenges for different schools to adapt their kitchens and dining spaces to meet the new demand. I hope that schools, and particularly head teachers, embrace this challenge positively and do not try to cut corners. The school lunch has the capacity to be at the heart of the school’s community and brings a wealth of other benefits as well. I very much hope that in a short period the policy will justify itself. I am pleased that the amendment allows scope for extending the age group via secondary regulation in due course, and I am pleased to support the amendment.
Baroness Northover
I thank noble Lords for their welcome for this proposal. I look forward to hearing the report from Dagenham. The department will be very interested in that trial. I say to the noble Baroness, Lady Lister, that pupil premium funding will not be affected by the introduction of universal school meals for infant pupils. In particular, the funding for the next financial year 2014-15 is informed by school census data collected in the January 2014 school census. This census is taking place prior to the introduction of universal infant free school meals. In subsequent years, we will be gathering the same data in the school census on the number of pupils whose families are in receipt of the relevant benefits that currently entitle the children to a free school meal. This information will be used to allocate pupil premium funding, as well as other deprivation-related school funding.
In terms of evaluating the impact of this policy, it will obviously be carefully monitored. The universal free school meals pilot provided a full and compelling evaluation of the benefits and challenges of the policy, as I have just laid out. We will be measuring the take-up of lunches via the school census and are sure that others will want to measure the specific benefits arising from this policy.
There are currently no plans to extend the universal free school meals eligibility to further age groups. It will be for future Governments to decide whether they want to do so. However, we thought that it was important, while we were asking Parliament to consider legislating on the principle of this, to include an enabling power to give future Governments the flexibility to extend the policy using secondary rather than primary legislation. This of course will still be subject to the will of Parliament.
I think that I have covered everything, although I am not sure whether I have covered all the points raised by the noble Baroness, Lady Jones. If I have not, then, given the hour, I will write to noble Lords. Once again, I thank your Lordships very much for their welcome of this policy.
Baroness Tyler of Enfield
My Lords, very briefly indeed, I lend my support to this amendment. As the noble Baroness, Lady Lister, said when she moved it so eloquently, it is a modest amendment, asking for a review in this very important area.
I do not intend to detain the House any longer—other than to say that from 2017 the number of older and disabled people needing long-term care is predicted to outstrip the number of family members able to provide it. Given that, with an ageing population, we are expecting people to work for longer, they are also going to find themselves trying to care for longer, with more family members and loved ones with more, increasingly complex, long-term conditions. Against this backdrop, it is essential that we have the review that this amendment talks about and see what more we can do to help people who are trying to face the challenge of both working longer and caring longer.
Baroness Jones of Whitchurch
My Lords, very briefly, I thought that both my noble friends made very coherent arguments in favour of this and raised some very important issues. We heard yesterday from the noble Lord, Lord Nash, that he was going to do some more work on parent carers, so obviously some of these issues around carers are already going to come back at Third Reading. There will be ongoing discussions around those issues and I therefore urge the Minister, perhaps in the context of those discussions, to widen it out a little more and consider the issues that have been raised in this amendment at the same time, so that we can bring all these issues back at Third Reading and have a full debate at that stage. I hope that he will consider that seriously.
Viscount Younger of Leckie
My Lords, I appreciated the interesting and moving speeches by the noble Baronesses, Lady Lister and Lady Pitkeathley, and the brief intervention by my noble friend Lady Tyler focusing on the challenges that parents of disabled children and carers of disabled adults face in balancing their care responsibilities with their working lives.
Being a carer can have a significant impact on an individual’s life. The Government recognise that caring for an individual with a disability can be both physically and emotionally draining. Flexible and supportive working arrangements can make a significant difference to a carer’s life by ensuring that work does not add to the carer’s stress levels. This is why it is important that carers are able to adjust the way they work to allow them to stay in work, because work can be important for a carer’s well-being and income and for maintaining social contacts. As a nation, we cannot afford to lose the talent and skills of carers from the workplace. The Government recognise that caring for disabled people can be a sudden change for an individual. It may be challenging and take a great deal of commitment from an individual to deliver the care and support that is needed.
I reassure noble Lords that my department regularly collects and reviews data on carers to ensure that we are providing the right framework to allow them to participate and thrive in the labour market. The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills conducts the workplace employment relations survey and the work-life balance series of surveys which look at the effectiveness of labour market participation policies, such as the right to request flexible working, in supporting carers. The Office for National Statistics also uses the census to analyse carers’ labour market experiences.
These surveys and the evidence they provide informed the recent report on carers from the cross-government task and finish group on carers. This report highlighted the importance of flexible working and recommended that government should continue to promote the benefits of flexible working to employers. All the recommendations of this report have been accepted and are currently being implemented. An additional duty on government to conduct this research and review the provisions for carers is unnecessary because this work is already under way and government regularly collects and reviews this information.
The Government’s approach is to create a fair, flexible and efficient labour market which supports and encourages participation from all. The strategy for carers is to ensure that we create the right framework to allow them to balance their work and caring responsibilities. Clause 113 requires the Government to review the effectiveness of the right to request flexible working against the policy objectives. Supporting carers to remain in work is a key objective of the policy, and I can confirm that this review will include assessing the effectiveness of the right to request flexible working in supporting carers to participate in the labour market.
I understand the noble Baronesses’ intentions behind this amendment, and I hope I have reassured them that the Government are acting to support carers of disabled children and adults to remain in work and are continually reviewing this support to ensure that it meets the needs of carers.
Just before I ask the noble Baroness to withdraw her amendment, I wish to change the tone slightly by stating that we have almost reached the end of Report, and on behalf of my noble friend Lord Nash, I will take this opportunity to thank everyone who has spoken today and during earlier sessions on Report. We have had many thoughtful, well informed and constructive debates on a very broad range of issues, and I have welcomed the thorough approach that noble Lords have taken to scrutinising each part of this wide-ranging Bill. I hope that we can address the very few outstanding issues. I also thank the Bill team and all the officials who have supported me, my noble friend Lord Nash and colleagues across different departments for their work.
In the mean time, I ask the noble Baroness, Lady Lister of Burtersett, to withdraw her amendment.
Children and Families Bill
Baroness Jones of Whitchurch Excerpts(10 years, 5 months ago)
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“Sex and relationship education guidance
(1) The Secretary of State will, within six months of this Act coming into force, establish a working group to review and update the Sex and Relationship Education Guidance for Schools.
(2) The working group established under subsection (1) will include young people, teachers, professionals and online experts.
(3) In performing its functions under subsection (1), the working group will have particular regard to the need for the guidance to make reference to—
(a) the role of the internet, social media and mobile technology in sex and relationship education;(b) online bullying and harassment.”
Baroness Jones of Whitchurch (Lab)
My Lords, I shall speak also to Amendment 53ZAAA. The two amendments cover different aspects of sex and relationship education in schools. The first calls for guidance on sex and relationship education to be updated. The second calls for it to be taught on an age-appropriate basis in all state-funded schools. The rules of relationships and sexual contact are moving faster than we ever could have imagined when we were growing up. Universal access to the internet, social media, smartphones and music videos are sexualising children with profound and often damaging consequences. As adults, we only now are getting an insight into the secret world of children’s sexual behaviour, which often is now modelled on images that they see on the screen and in chatrooms. Some of it is innocent but much of it is not.
There is now powerful and authoritative evidence of the extent to which young people are being sexualised from a very early age. For example, a Cardiff University study of pre-teen children aged between 10 and 12 showed that, even at primary school, children were gaining status from having a boyfriend or a girlfriend and using the language of fancying them, dating them and being dumped by them. The young girls in the study often illustrated that they were putting up with verbal abuse and harassment, which, sadly, they interpreted as a sign of flirtation or affection, and under pressure to participate in activities that made them feel uncomfortable or vulnerable to being passed around and being fought over by boys.
Meanwhile, a recent study from the Children’s Commissioner found that boys are more likely than girls to seek out pornography. That is linked to negative attitudes towards women, such as viewing them as sex objects, and encouraging earlier and riskier sexual activity. This was underscored by evidence that young people are accessing online pornography to learn how to behave in a relationship, with three times as many using this as a source of information as would ask their parents. A report from the NSPCC showed that almost one in three teenage girls has experienced some sort of sexual violence. Its researchers were quoted as saying that they were,
“distressed by the level of sexual abuse and physical harassment that they had encountered”,
in the schools when they were doing the report. They pointed out that such behaviour in adults would be grounds for dismissal or prosecution.
I could go on citing more evidence, but I hope I have said enough to demonstrate that as policymakers we are behind the curve on this issue. We urgently need to catch up with the reality of changing social norms. It is not just academics and policymakers. There is widespread public concern about this issue. The Daily Telegraph has been leading a campaign for better sex education, and for sex and relationship education to be brought into the 21st century; and a new generation of young women involved in groups such as the One Billion Rising campaign to end violence against women globally, and the End Violence Against Women campaign, are calling for compulsory sex and relationship education, with a transformed content to address the reality of women’s experiences today.
In a letter to the Times yesterday this call was echoed by a diverse group which included Mumsnet, Womens Aid, Everyday Sexism, Rape Crisis, and a number of academics. These views are consistently supported by polling. For example, a Mumsnet survey last year showed that 92% of respondents thought that sex and relationship education should be compulsory in secondary schools, and 69% thought it should be so in primary schools. A similar study of parents for the National Association of Head Teachers found 88% wanted sex and relationship education to be compulsory.
Sadly, it seems that the Department for Education has been the very last group to wake up to the fact that something needs to be done. When we debated these issues in Committee, the Minister’s attitude was at best complacent, arguing that there was no need for further education or guidance. Indeed, he listed all the policies and guidance that were already in existence, to which my response is that they have been remarkably unsuccessful so far, given the scale of sexism, harassment and bullying over the same period. However, since then there does appear to have been a bit of a rethink, and the Minister has made some concessions on the issue of updating the guidance, which is the subject of our first amendment.
Amendment 53 calls upon the Secretary of State to establish a working group, including,
“young people, teachers, professionals and online experts”,
to update the sex and relationship guidance for schools, with particular regard to the internet, social media and the rise of online bullying and harassment. I am very pleased that, belatedly, the Minister has conceded that the guidance needs to be reviewed, and I am grateful for his recent letter setting out the nature of that review. We are obviously pleased that the work of the PSHE association has now been promoted and funded, and that an expert group has been established. I also welcome the fact that the department is separately preparing revised statutory guidance on safeguarding issues and personal safety. However, with regard to the review of the guidance, the noble Lord the Minister’s letter makes it clear that this will take the form of a supplement to the existing guidance rather a complete review. So while I welcome the Minister’s belated conversion, I remain concerned with all these pieces of guidance and supplements, which will be fragmented rather than being pulled together into one substantial parent document which can be easily accessed by teachers. Perhaps the noble Lord the Minister can address this issue in his response.
Our second amendment, Amendment 53ZAAA, addresses the status of sex and relationship education within the national curriculum. It would require the subject to be taught as a foundation subject in all key stages in all state-funded schools, not just maintained schools. The information provided would need to be accurate and balanced, and it would be required to be taught in an age-specific way, taking account of pupils’ religious and cultural backgrounds, and emphasising rights and responsibilities. There would be a parental opt-out for pupils under the age of 15.
For the first time, it would bring together the requirements for sex and relationship education to have a coherent pathway through primary and secondary education, paying particular attention to the role of the internet, social media and technology and addressing the dangers of online bullying and harassment. It would also include information about same-sex relationships, sexual violence, domestic violence and sexual consent.
These are the very issues that parents and campaign groups want to see addressed in a coherent and sensitive way in schools. This is not about dictating to teachers how to teach these issues, but about making sure that the right issues are taught to the right age groups. There is so much more to sex and relationship education than mechanical descriptions in a science lesson. Far more important is an understanding of respect, personal space, confidence, the right to be safe and the features of a healthy relationship. Some schools already do this extremely well, but the fact that there is so much abuse, confusion and unhappiness among young people is a clear sign that we are not getting this right consistently.
These are complex issues, but we owe it to the next generation and their parents to better equip them for the emotional challenges that lie ahead. We believe that the framework set out in this amendment addresses some of the failings of the past and brings sex and relationship education into the mainstream. This is of course only part of the solution, but an important one, so I hope that noble Lords will recognise that we need to act to break the cycle of harassment and abuse that is becoming so prevalent. We believe that updating the guidance is a step forward, but not enough, so we hope that noble Lords will take the opportunity this afternoon to give sex and relationship education the proper status that it now deserves in the national curriculum. I beg to move.
Lord Nash
My Lords, this has been an extremely thoughtful and well informed debate. I thank the noble Baronesses and the right reverend Prelate who tabled these amendments, as well as other noble Lords who have contributed and brought their valuable insights to bear on these important and very sensitive matters. I also thank all noble Lords who attended the round table on PSHE last week. We had an extremely helpful discussion, and I think that those who came to that meeting know how seriously we take these matters.
I will deal with each amendment in turn, beginning with Amendment 53 on sex and relationships. Before I explain my approach to this point, I must stress that like many noble Lords with an interest in this topic, including my noble friend Lady Walmsley, I see SRE as integral to the whole debate on PSHE, and I shall say quite a lot more about PSHE when we come to the amendment in the next group. SRE is part of PSHE, and both are part of an overall approach that schools take in helping children to build the resilience and the understanding that they need as they prepare for adult life, tailored to children’s needs and development.
Before I turn to the SRE amendments, noble Lords may find it helpful for me to reiterate the progress that we have made on PSHE, as SRE is so integral to this. I am grateful to my noble friend Lady Walmsley for her kind words in relation to this progress, and I hope that it shows a positive and dynamic approach as opposed to a complacent attitude, to which the noble Baroness, Lady Jones, referred. I hope that she knows better by now—that I am never complacent when it comes to the children and young people of this country.
As I explained in my letter to Peers last week, we are establishing a PSHE expert group to support better teaching. This is the same approach that we are taking to subjects in the national curriculum and I will say more about this shortly. I am also pleased to announce that we will be funding the PSHE Association for a further financial year and it has agreed to produce a set of case studies to illustrate excellent PSHE teaching.
Turning now to specific points on SRE, I emphasised in Grand Committee that for children and young people to develop a good understanding of sex and relationships high-quality teaching is paramount, which is an issue that has been highlighted in this debate today. In order to teach well, teachers must have ready access to reliable and well informed sources of advice and materials. This includes recognition of the effects of digital technology, such as the potential for exposure online to inappropriate materials, to which a number of noble Lords have referred.
The noble Baroness, Lady Jones, referred to the pace at which technology now moves. It is moving so quickly that it is not practical for government to keep abreast by constantly revising statutory guidance to reflect the current state of the art and the latest communications breakthroughs. For instance, Snapchat, Tumblr, Whatsapp and Chatroulette are very recent sites or apps, and any guidance that we issued would be quickly overtaken by new trends and technology that will proliferate in the future. Any revisions to guidance would soon be outflanked by the next phase of innovation.
It is right that we are continually considering how to respond to these developments, and give teachers and parents the help, advice, safeguards and assurances that they need. The noble Baroness, Lady Kidron, talked passionately about the dangers of the internet when I first started to look at this matter. I spoke to many people—experts in IT and parents. The frightening thing was that the more that they knew about online and IT the more concerned they were. I am fully aware of the issues, but as my noble friends Lady Walmsley and Lady Tyler have said, the question is about which approach will work best. I believe that specialist organisations are best placed to provide advice, materials and guidance in a dynamic way and regularly update it.
I am therefore delighted to draw noble Lords’ attention to a number of organisations that are doing this, and the action that my department is taking to support and promote that work, and to make sure that it is closely linked to schools.
I welcome the work of the PSHE Association, the Sex Education Forum and Brook on new supplementary guidance that is designed to complement the SRE guidance, and will address changes in technology and legislation since the turn of the century, in particular equipping teachers to help protect children and young people from inappropriate online content, and from online bullying, harassment and exploitation. We have always maintained that specialist professionals are in the best place to provide advice to schools, so I look forward to the publication of this guidance and will make sure that we draw schools’ attention to it by, for example, promoting it through the department’s termly e-mail to schools.
I will also highlight other examples of guidance from specialist organisations that I have made sure will be promoted to schools. Guidance on the best way for teachers to tackle the dangers associated with online pornography has been provided by the Sex Education Forum. The Child Exploitation and Online Protection Agency has published a range of free educational resources—films, lesson plans, presentations, practitioner guidance, games and posters—to help teachers protect young people from the risk of sexual abuse and exploitation. The NSPCC has published guidance for parents, who have an essential role to play, on inappropriate texting. Parents can also phone the NSPCC ChildLine for advice.
We have identified action that we will take in the department to make sure that schools have the support and information that they need. As I have already mentioned we have set up a new expert subject group on PSHE and SRE. The group comprises lead professionals in the field of PSHE and SRE practice, and I am particularly pleased to say that it will be chaired by Joe Hayman, chief executive of the PSHE Association. It will clarify the key areas on which teachers most need further support, and identify the topics that can present the greatest challenge when discussing them with pupils, engaging their interest and enabling their understanding. The expert group will then liaise with relevant specialists and providers to commission or develop and produce new resources where necessary.
The noble Baroness, Lady Howarth, asked if the review would be comprehensive. I have been given the letter—I cannot read it now—but I can assure her that we will make it as comprehensive as we can. As far as the timing is concerned, I do not personally intend to stay in this job after May next year whatever happens, so I can also assure her that I shall be seeking to announce its findings as quickly as possible so that we can take action in relation to them. There is no point in setting this up unless we listen to what these people say and ask them, frankly, to get on with it. My noble friends Lady Tyler and Lady Walmsley were particularly welcoming of this expert group and they are right. We should give it time to make a real difference to practice—and it will, along with other approaches that we are taking.
Noble Lords will be interested to know that my department is currently preparing revised statutory guidance on safeguarding children in education. This will clarify schools’ statutory responsibilities to use opportunities in the school curriculum, for example through PSHE, to teach children about safeguarding and personal safety, ensuring that there is a culture of safety and that children stay safe, including when they are online. The guidance will signpost schools to further sources of advice on specific safeguarding issues, such as advice issued by the Home Office as part of its This is Abuse campaign. This supports teachers working with 13 to 18 year-olds to understand how to avoid becoming victims and perpetrators of abusive relationships.
The noble Baroness, Lady Jones, raised a sensible concern about this guidance being fragmented. We will ensure, when we highlight the additional guidance, that it is linked to the existing statutory guidance, so I am confident that it will be coherent and not fragmented. In addition, the new expert group will have an important role to ensure that the signposting of all guidance on PSHE and SRE is coherent.
Finally, the Government continue to work closely with industry through the UK Council for Child Internet Safety, which brings together representatives from industry, manufacturers, charities, academia, social media, parent groups and government. I am pleased that we will be supporting Safer Internet Day on Tuesday 11 February, promoting more widely the safe and responsible use of online technology and mobile phones, and making the internet safe for children. The House will debate this and other extensive work that the Government are doing in relation to internet safety when we come shortly to debate the amendment tabled by the noble Baroness, Lady Howe.
On Amendment 53ZAAA, which concerns statutory SRE in primary schools, the current requirement applies only to key stages 3 and 4 in secondary schools. The amendment extends the current statutory requirement to teach SRE, which applies to key stages 3 and 4 in maintained secondary schools, by legislating for all compulsory SRE in primary schools and all academies. It would mean compulsory SRE for children as young as six. Many primary schools already choose to teach SRE according to children’s age and development, consulting their parents and using age-appropriate resources. In particular, good primary schools are committed to helping children develop an understanding of positive and appropriate relationships. The new science curriculum will also ensure that pupils are taught about puberty in primary school, which is an issue identified in the Ofsted report.
We believe that this is the best approach, with the right balance between legal requirement and professional judgment, taking account of the evidence about child development and maintaining the support of parents. The amendment would disturb this balance, and remove from teachers and governors any control over their school’s approach to SRE. It would also impose on academies a new requirement, when in fact the vast majority of academies already teach SRE as part of their responsibility to provide a broad and balanced curriculum, and a fully rounded education.
I agree entirely with my noble friend Lady Eaton that this is a very good example of legislation not necessarily being the solution to life’s ills. As my noble friend Lord Storey, who has vast experience of more than 20 years as a primary school head, said, this is a matter of practice and not something that we can solve through legislation.
The other part of this amendment would require schools, when teaching SRE, to include same-sex relationships, sexual violence, domestic violence and sexual consent across all key stages. By virtue of Amendment 53ZAAA, it would mean compulsory teaching of these issues for children as young as six. The statutory guidance already covers these very important topics, and all schools must have regard to the guidance when teaching SRE.
The existing guidance states that pupils should,
“develop positive values and a moral framework that will guide their decisions, judgements and behaviour; be aware of their sexuality and understand human sexuality … understand the consequences of their actions and behave responsibly”,
and,
“have the confidence and self-esteem to value themselves and others”.
It is also important to note that the guidance includes clear references to safeguarding duties and to safeguarding guidance for schools. Supported by expert guidance and resources from specialist organisations, as I have described, the statutory guidance continues to provide a strong framework and platform on which teachers can build, using the kind of specialist contemporary advice and resources to which I have referred.
To conclude, I once more extend my thanks to noble Lords for these amendments and to other noble Lords for contributing to the debate. I hope that they will agree that we have made progress in working with others in government and with specialist organisations—in particular, the PSHE Association, the Sex Education Forum and Brook, which will announce their guidance next month—including by promoting their resources in schools. While I believe noble Lords are seeking the same outcome—the best teaching and age-appropriate support for children—for the reasons I have explained, I do not believe it would be right to introduce statutory SRE at key stages 1 and 2.
I have said on a number of occasions recently in your Lordships’ House that it would be so much better if we could agree common ground in relation to what needs to be done to improve our school system. I have been extremely encouraged by recent statements by the shadow Secretary of State for Education, which indicate that a substantial amount of common ground is emerging. We should celebrate this common ground and the common ground we have in relation to our expectations of schools in relation to PSHE and SRE. Of course, the noble Baroness may wish to take the temperature of the House on these matters, but I think it would be better if we continued to work together outside the confines of the Bill to achieve our common end. That approach has stood us in good stead during the passage of the Bill, and I urge the noble Baroness to withdraw her amendment.
Baroness Jones of Whitchurch
My Lords, I thank all noble Lords who have contributed to this debate. I also thank the Minister for his response. I agree that we have had a very thoughtful and well informed debate. First, I reiterate what I said at the outset: we welcome the fact that SRE guidance is now going to be amended. We acknowledge that step forward. We are increasingly coming round to the point of view that that in itself is simply not enough. My noble friend Lord Knight made the point that under the previous Labour Government, relying on voluntary steps got us so far but did not make the transformation that we wanted. That is why we were working round to the idea that PSHE should become compulsory because we had had voluntary advice and guidance for a very long time and not a lot had changed. We all welcome the involvement of the PSHE Association in updating the guidance. Today, it has issued a statement saying that guidance is not enough. It says that it supports both the amendments that have been tabled today.
The noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley, rather reluctantly acknowledged that our amendments are a step in the right direction. I welcome that. It was, of course, open to her side to table an amendment on PSHE if she felt so passionately about it, but nevertheless I hope she will acknowledge that our amendment is a step forward. I agree with my noble friend Lady Kennedy that we should rise above using this as a political football. We have much in common across the Chamber on this and are concerned about what is happening with the exploitation of young people. We need to address that and should not just try to score points on it.
“Sex and relationship education in maintained schools
(1) In section 84(3) of the Education Act 2002 (curriculum foundation subjects for the first, second and third key stages), after paragraph (g) insert—
“(ga) sex and relationship education”.(2) In section 85(4) of the Education Act 2002 (curriculum foundation subjects for the fourth key stage), at the end insert “, and
(d) sex and relationship education”.(3) In section 74(1) of the Education and Inspections Act 2006, which (when brought into force) will substitute a new section 85 in the Education Act 2002, in subsection (4) of that substituted section (foundation subjects for the fourth key stage), at the end insert “, and
(d) sex and relationship education.”(4) Before section 86 of the Education Act 2002 insert—
“85B Sex and relationship education
(1) For the purposes of this Part, sex and relationship education (“SRE”) shall include information about same-sex relationships, sexual violence, domestic violence and sexual consent.
(2) The National Curriculum for England is not required to specify attainment targets or assessment arrangements for SRE (and section 84(1) has effect accordingly).
(3) The Secretary of State for Education shall set out guidance to schools and colleges to ensure that a coherent approach to sex and relationship education is developed, including between primary and secondary schools, paying particular regard to the need for such guidance to make reference to the role of the internet, social media and technology in sex and relationship education and online bullying and harassment.
(4) It is the duty of the governing body and head teacher of any school in which SRE is provided in pursuance of this Part to secure that guidance issued under subsection (3) is followed and that—
(a) information presented in the course of providing SRE should be accurate and balanced;(b) SRE is taught in a way that is appropriate to the ages of the pupils concerned and to their religious and cultural backgrounds, and reflects a reasonable range of religious, cultural and other perspectives;(c) SRE is taught in a way that endeavours to promote equality, celebrate diversity, and emphasise the importance of both rights and responsibilities.(5) In the exercise of their functions under this Part, so far as relating to SRE, a local authority, governing body or head teacher shall have regard to any guidance issued from time to time by the Secretary of State.”
(5) Section 403 of the Education Act 1996 (sex education: manner of provision) is amended as set out in subsections (6) to (10).
(6) In subsection (1), for the words from the beginning to “at a maintained school” substitute “The governing body or other proprietor of any school to which this section applies, and its head teacher, must take such steps as are reasonably practicable to ensure that sex and relationships education is given to registered pupils at the school and that”.
(7) After that subsection insert—
“(1ZA) The schools to which this section applies are—
(a) maintained schools;(b) city technology colleges;(c) city colleges for the technology of the arts;(d) academies.A reference in this section or section 404 to the governing body of a school, in relation to a school within paragraph (b), (c) or (d), shall be read as a reference to the proprietor of the school.”(8) In subsection (1A)—
(a) for “when sex education is given to registered pupils at maintained schools” substitute “when sex and relationship education is given to registered pupils at schools to which this section applies”;(b) in paragraph (a), after “, and” insert “learn the nature of civil partnership and the importance of strong and stable relationships.”;(c) paragraph (b) is omitted.(9) In subsection (1C), for “sex education” substitute “sex and relationship education”.
(10) In section 579 of the Education Act 1996 (general interpretation), in the definition of “sex education” in subsection (1)—
(a) for “sex education” substitute “sex and relationship education”;(b) at the end insert “but does not include education about human reproduction provided as part of any science teaching;”.(11) In section 405 of the Education Act 1996 (exemption from sex education) for “If the parent of any pupil in attendance at a maintained school requests”, substitute—
“(1) If the parent of a pupil under the age of 15 in attendance at a school in England to which section 403 applies requests that the pupil may be wholly or partly excused from receiving sex and relationship education at the school, the pupil shall be so excused accordingly until—
(a) the request is withdrawn, or(b) the pupil attains the age of 15.(2) If the parent of any pupil in attendance at a maintained school in Wales requests.””
Baroness Jones of Whitchurch
I do not want to rehearse what was a very good argument. I believe that the argument was definitely on our side. I therefore wish formally to move the amendment and to test the opinion of the House.
Schools: Independent Schools
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Lord Nash
My Lords, I know that my noble friend is passionate about social mobility through education and I look forward to the Independent State Schools Partnerships conference next Monday, at which we are both speaking—a conference designed to promote partnerships between independent and state schools. As he said, the independent sector has a long history of increasing social mobility through bursaryships, scholarships and collaboration. In 2013, it provided more than £300 million worth of assistance, benefiting 40,000 children, and we absolutely applaud this. However, our priority is to invest our resources in making sure that all state schools provide an excellent education for their pupils, which in the end will be the greatest means of achieving much higher levels of social mobility, which I know all noble Lords wish to see. Our reforms are particularly focused on poorer children through, for instance, our pupil premium and Ofsted’s focus on the progress that pupil premium pupils make.
Baroness Jones of Whitchurch (Lab)
My Lords, does the Minister agree with Sir Michael Wilshaw that private schools should be doing much more to collaborate with, and support, the state school sector, rather than, as he described it, being guilty of just giving the “crumbs off their tables”?
Education: Academy Chains
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Baroness Jones of Whitchurch
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what controls are in place on the disbursement of public funds by academy chains to their directors and trustees or private contractors linked to them.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Schools (Lord Nash) (Con)
My Lords, the relevant rules that academies must abide by are quite clear and have been considerably tightened under this Government. No individual or organisation with a governing relationship to an academy can make a profit; any goods or services delivered by these parties to these academies must be delivered transparently and at no more than cost; and proportionate and fair procurement processes must always be followed. As charities, academies are required to adhere to accounting standards. These require the full disclosure of related-party transactions, and independent auditors check those disclosures every year. Unlike local authority schools, academies produce and publish annual third-party audited accounts.
Baroness Jones of Whitchurch (Lab)
My Lords, I thank the noble Lord for that reply and of course I accept that the accounts of these firms are audited. However, is the Minister concerned by reports of excessive sums of taxpayers’ money being paid to academy chain directors for travel, subsistence, consultancy and legal services? Is he also concerned that many of these businesses are employing members of their immediate family to provide services for the academies, and does he accept that academy chains lack the involvement of parents and the local community, which could provide a degree of independent scrutiny and governance for the academies? What more is his department planning to do to get a grip on the situation, which seems to be one of prioritising the expansion of the academies over the protection of public money?
Children and Families Bill
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Baroness Jones of Whitchurch (Lab)
My Lords, I shall speak to Amendments 30 and 31 standing in my name and in the name of my noble friend Lady Hughes of Stretford and also to Amendment 33D standing in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Low, to which my noble friend Lady Hughes of Stretford has added her name. We also add our support to the amendment proposed by the noble Baroness, Lady Howe, and to the arguments she eloquently made in proposing it. There is a compelling case for local authorities to be expected to take action where education and care provision is judged to be insufficient and it is important that we have adequate means to address that.
Our amendments relate to Clause 30, which introduces the concept of the local offer and places a duty on local authorities to publish the local offer for children and young people with special educational needs, to keep it under review and to revise it periodically. Obviously, we welcome the principle of the local offer, as does most of the sector, but our concern is to make the local offer tangible, accessible and responsive. One concern which our amendments seek to address is that the wording of subsection (1)(a) requires the local authority to set out in the local offer only what it “expects to be available”. We believe that this wording is ambiguous and could be used by local authorities to duck out of their responsibilities to deliver a quality package of services.
Parents, children and young people have expectations that the local offer will be an improvement on what has gone before, but, understandably, they want a more formal understanding with the local authority about the service that they can rely on being provided. Many parents have spent their lives fighting for basic support for their children and are naturally suspicious of wish lists. We believe that our amendments to replace “expects to be available” with “which is available” will give those parents the added guarantees they desperately need.
When this was discussed in Grand Committee the Minister said:
“The local offer should enable local people to see what services are available, how they can be accessed, who provides them and where to go if things do not work out”.—[Official Report, 30/10/13; col. GC 612.]
We agree with that statement. That is what we are all trying to achieve and we believe that our wording is a better reflection of this aspiration than the current wording in the Bill. In Grand Committee the Minister also made the point that families need to be informed about,
“what provision the local authority expects to become available in the near future, possibly from new innovative practices”.—[Official Report, 30/10/13; col. GC 613.]
We very much welcome a culture of innovation in this sector and families will, of course, be interested in being kept informed of newly developing services. This should all be part of a greater commitment to information sharing and dialogue between families and the local authority. However, information about innovation and good practice is very different from the function of the local offer, which should be about what is available to families and what they can access now with some degree of certainty.
The Minister also drew our attention to the draft code of practice, where more detail is provided. Again, it is useful to have this additional information for parents. However, it does not answer our central concern about the status of the local offer and the extent to which it can be relied on. In fact, while the draft code of practice contains good supplementary guidance, it continues to use the phrase that the local authority should provide information about services which it “expects to be available”. Also, as we have debated before, it is important to have the fundamental principles set out in the Bill and we believe that this is a key feature which will give parents, children and young people confidence in services for the future. This is more than an argument about semantics. Our amendment will help to make the local offer a real, living commitment that will help to make the new proposals a success.
My noble friend Lady Hughes of Stretford has also added her name to Amendment 33D standing in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Low, who, I am sure, will speak on it shortly. The amendment seeks to give families confidence in the quality of the local offer by requiring the Secretary of State to lay regulations specifying the standards and quality of education, health and social care provision which local authorities must meet. These regulations would need to be approved by both Houses. In addition, it would require the Secretary of State to issue guidance on how to meet the regulations and publish information on the regulations on the department’s website. The amendment addresses the continuing concern in the sector that services across the UK will be patchy and that a postcode lottery of services will develop. Without the amendment, families will be at the mercy of local authority budgets, with all the uncertainty of provision that already occurs as a result of budget cuts, and so what starts out as a promising new regime of integrated services may quickly descend into a fight to retain any kind of minimum provision. There is the added challenge that there is little incentive for local authorities to develop high-quality provision as it will simply attract clients from other areas, letting the poorer providers off the hook.
Our amendment also addresses the knowledge gap that arises from Clause 21(1)(a), which defines SEN provision in a local area as being relative to all mainstream schools in England. However, without minimum national standards, all a local authority can do is define the offer relative to its own local provision. When we debated this issue in Grand Committee we explored whether setting minimum standards of provision might be the answer, but we accept the limitations of this solution, which is the danger that minimum standards might become the norm. Therefore, our new amendment seeks to address this problem in a different way, allowing scope for services to be different around the UK to meet local and individual needs but nevertheless requiring that they meet overall quality standard benchmarks.
These standards could provide the framework for the Ofsted and CQC inspections currently being considered by the Government and would build on the recommendations of the Ofsted study into how this can be delivered most effectively which is currently taking place. Perhaps the Minister can update us on progress in developing this suggested framework of standards. They would also be a measure against which parents could judge the acceptability of local services if they wish to challenge the provision or ultimately appeal. Therefore, this amendment is the final piece of the jigsaw which will give parents confidence in the new provision and guarantee the success of the new regime, the principles of which, as I have said, we all support.
Finally, I would like to say a few words on the government amendment in this group. In Grand Committee we raised the concern, shared by many, that the obligation on local authorities to publish comments on the local offer from parents, children and young people did not sufficiently hold them to account or require them to be responsive to the views expressed. Giving a more powerful voice to those, often isolated, individuals struggling to access services ought to be at the heart of these improvements. That is why we welcome the government amendment, which would require local authorities to publish the action they intend to take in response to the comments received. However, picking up on the theme of the amendment of the noble Baroness, Lady Howe, there is a further stage to be addressed if we are serious about making change, which is that the local authority should also be required to work with those who have been consulted to produce an action plan to address any identified failings.
It would be helpful if the Minister could explain how this additional challenge will be addressed. It may be that the requirements could be included in the regulations, but we need to be assured before we make a final decision today that the Government are addressing this issue and the concerns raised by the noble Baroness, Lady Howe.
Lord Pearson of Rannoch (UKIP)
My Lords, perhaps I may just caution—I think that the noble Baroness has just touched on this—that it is all very well asking children and young people to take decisions but if there is any doubt that they are capable of taking those decisions in their own best interests then it is very important to consult the family, especially when the family is a supportive one. Your Lordships will know that I speak from personal experience on this subject.
Baroness Jones of Whitchurch
Very briefly, we also welcome the fact that the Government have recognised that children need to be involved in decision-making that affects their lives and, as the noble Baroness, Lady Howe, has said, this is in keeping with UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and was clearly set out in Clause 19. It was Clause 32, however, where there was an inconsistency in this approach and this was where we had tabled amendments to ensure that the clause also included the right for children to be involved in decision-making. It was this inconsistency that we were keen to address. We are very pleased to hear from the Minister that the Government are now prepared to amend the Bill to rectify that inconsistency.
However, there is still an ongoing issue about the wording in the code of practice and the regulations that sets out local authorities’ responsibility to involve children and young people in decision-making. Unfortunately, these documents still do not consistently reflect the framework set out in Clause 19. Therefore, although I welcome the steps that the Minister and the Government have taken on this matter, it would be helpful if the Minister could also confirm, in the spirit of the previous debate, that the regulations will be updated to ensure that those rights of the child are consistent throughout the Bill. With that challenge back to her, we very much welcome the amendment.
Baroness Northover
My Lords, I thank noble Lords for their welcome for these amendments, particularly the noble Baronesses, Lady Howe and Lady Howarth, and my noble friend Lady Walmsley. I understand what the noble Baroness, Lady Howarth, and others have said about implementation and, as the noble Baroness put it, the form and method of delivery. We certainly take her points.
I remind the noble Lord, Lord Pearson, that this is about the provision of information and the participation of children where appropriate, as I said in my introductory remarks. I am sure that the code will be carefully examined to ensure that it is consistent with the decisions made on Report, as evidenced by these amendments. I hope that noble Lords will be willing to support these amendments.
Baroness Jones of Whitchurch
My Lords, I support these amendments in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Addington. I echo the comments that have been made about his diligence and determination in pursuing these issues. He has today, in his usual style, made a compelling case for the quality of special educational needs co-ordinators in schools to be ensured though appropriate professional development and training, and for all teachers to undergo an SEN module.
That would ensure that all teachers were aware of the range of SEN characteristics that could be identified and the range of services available to support and assist all young children. It would also avoid the SEN responsibility being given to a member of staff who was not prepared to undergo the training to carry out the functions seriously. In other words, it would protect children from the possibility of it becoming a box-ticking exercise in which the school could claim that the requirement had been met without anyone with the requisite skills actually being available. We feel that this ought anyway to be a feature that Ofsted routinely inspects in schools.
We rehearsed these arguments in Grand Committee, and the case was well made then for the importance of early identification and intervention to support children with special educational needs; that can make all the difference to the child’s subsequent education and life chances. The requirement in the Bill to have a comprehensive range of SEN co-ordinators is of course a good step forward, which we welcome, but these amendments would build in the extra requirement for skills and quality, which we also think are important.
The Bill talks of possible regulations in this area and obviously some of the detail of these requirements could, quite rightly, be included in regulation. However, the principle of qualifications and training for what is a specialist field is too important simply to be left to regulation, so we support this requirement being in the Bill and hope that the Minister will be able to reassure us that this will be the case.
Lord Nash
My Lords, I thank my noble friend Lord Addington for tabling these amendments and leading the debate on this important issue of ensuring that schools and other institutions have the right expertise within their workforce to support children and young people with special educational needs. I cannot disagree with my noble friend’s intentions. Ensuring that we have a well trained workforce is essential, and is something that this Government are committed to doing. I hope that I can reassure my noble friend that it is possible to achieve this aim without placing requirements in the Bill.
Schools and other institutions that support children and young people with SEN must build the appropriate skills for their staff, and the draft 0-25 SEN code of practice makes that clear. Chapter 6 of the draft code requires schools to make sure that teachers’ ability to meet SEN is included in the school’s approach to professional development and in their performance management arrangements for all teaching and support staff. The chapter also requires schools to review teachers’ understanding of strategies to identify and support vulnerable pupils, and their knowledge of the special educational needs most frequently encountered. This would particularly cover issues such as dyslexia, which my noble friend has spoken passionately about on a number of occasions.
I mentioned in Committee that the latest newly qualified teacher survey, which at that point had not yet been published but was nevertheless giving off strong signals, reveals that teachers feel that the quality of their training in SEN has improved significantly in recent years. Just 5% of newly qualified teachers surveyed this year rated their training in SEN as poor, while 69% of primary teachers and 74% of secondary teachers rated their training as good or very good in helping them to teach pupils with SEN. That compares to as few as 45% in secondary in 2008. I am sure that noble Lords will agree that this is a significant improvement, and I am sure that we all welcome it.
Furthermore, initial teacher training courses must ensure that they enable trainee teachers to meet the Teachers’ Standards. These standards define the minimum level of practice required of teachers, and no trainee should be recommended for qualified teacher status until they have met those standards. Teachers’ performance is then judged against these standards throughout their career.
The Teachers’ Standards state that teachers must,
“have a clear understanding of the needs of all pupils, including those with special educational needs”.
Teachers must also be able to adapt teaching to the needs of all pupils, and have an understanding of the factors that can inhibit learning and how to overcome them. Of course, noble Lords will know that this Government have a strong drive to have more ITT in schools, and many more teachers are now coming through who have been trained in SCITTs, some of whom are at special schools particularly appropriate for training teachers in SEN.
Ofsted has an important role here as well. It inspects both the quality of initial teacher training and the quality of teaching in our schools. These standards and the ability to adapt teaching to meet special educational needs are central to these inspections.
With regard to further education, chapter 6 of the draft 0-25 code of practice sets out that colleges should ensure their curriculum staff are able to develop their skills and knowledge, and that colleges should have access to specialist skills and support when required to help students with SEN to progress. As autonomous bodies, FE colleges are responsible for ensuring that their staff are properly equipped. To support the development of the FE workforce, we are investing £1 million for the existing workforce to undertake the specialist diploma in teaching disabled learners. We are also providing initial teacher-training bursaries of up to £9,000 to help to attract high-calibre graduates to specialise in teaching students with SEN in FE.
Schools and other institutions have very clear duties to ensure that their staff are equipped to support children and young people with SEN. I do not think that it is necessary to introduce a skills audit in addition to these very clear requirements. The Department for Education is funding a range of specialist organisations covering autism, communications needs and dyslexia to provide information and advice to schools on implementing our reforms. The Dyslexia-SpLD Trust, for example, is providing an online professional development tool for teachers to help to assess their current knowledge of dyslexia and access further training. It will also be providing a toolkit to help teachers to identify and respond to literacy difficulties and dyslexia.
I hope that I have made clear that the Government recognise the importance of good teaching for pupils with SEN and that, through the changes in the code and the requirements of the Teachers’ Standards, there are clear requirements on all schools.
I turn to Amendment 46A. When Clause 63 was debated in Committee, I made clear that the appropriate regulations—the Special Educational Needs (SEN co-ordinators) Regulations—continue to require that the SENCO is a qualified teacher, and that SENCOs new to the role must study for the National Award in SEN Co-ordination. This should ensure that SENCOs have a thorough grounding in the knowledge and skills that are required for the role.
My noble friend Lord Addington’s amendment would go further than that in requiring that these skills are kept up to date and that schools ensure that their SENCO has adequate support and opportunities for training. I entirely agree with that aim but do not believe that the amendment is the best way to achieve it. Schools could fulfil the proposed requirement by providing the bare minimum opportunity for further training, and I fear that it would fall short of my noble friend’s intention.
Instead, I propose revising the section of the SEN code of practice that deals with the SENCO role. We will set out that schools “should ensure that the SENCO has sufficient time, training and resources” to carry out their role. This will place an ongoing expectation on schools to ensure that the SENCO is sufficiently supported and trained. As qualified teachers, SENCOs are also judged against the Teachers’ Standards. The code of practice already makes clear that the quality of teaching for pupils with SEN should be,
“a core part of the school’s performance management arrangements and its approach to professional development for all teaching and support staff”.
I hope my noble friend would agree that, taken together, this should deliver what he is seeking to achieve.
On the point made by the noble Baroness, Lady Howarth, about governance, since I came into office governance has been at the top of my list of priorities. As things stand, it is true that governing bodies should have a governor with specialist responsibility for SEN.
I hope that I have reassured the House and my noble friend that the Government are committed to ensuring that our teaching workforce is well trained in identifying and supporting children and young people with SEN. Continual professional development and training is essential for the whole workforce but it is particularly important for the role of the SENCO and, as I have said, I am committed to ensuring that the code of practice goes further than before to adequately reflect that. On that basis, I urge my noble friend to withdraw his amendment.
Baroness Jones of Whitchurch
My Lords, we are very grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Addington, for raising these concerns about the access of apprenticeship trainees to SEN support. As he pointed out, they already have some entitlements that were laid down in previous legislation, but the rights and provisions are not being supplied consistently. This is leading to otherwise excellent trainees failing particular modules of their training because their learning support needs have not been properly identified. It seems that once again apprenticeships are in danger of being the poor relation in the education hierarchy.
There are two ways that these inconsistencies can be addressed. First, all employers and trainers need to be aware of their responsibilities to make proper provision. This echoes the point the noble Lord is raising here. Secondly, apprentices themselves should have greater awareness of their rights, how to access the help they need and how to appeal if they are unhappy with the provision made.
These amendments go some way to addressing these issues. Amendment 46D deals more specifically with the testing regime. We would expect apprentices with SEN to have their needs identified at an early stage rather than waiting until they have failed a component. However, we would also expect provision to be made for an appeal if the failure is felt to be caused by inadequate support for their special educational needs. I very much endorse the arguments the noble Lord made and hope that the Minister will be able to provide reassurance today that these issues are being addressed so that no young apprentice will suffer because of inadequate support for their learning and skills needs.
Lord Nash
My Lords, progress on this issue has been far too slow, and I am very concerned that some individuals have been denied the reasonable adjustments that could have helped them to demonstrate what they know or can do, and subsequently to achieve an apprenticeship.
I thank my noble friend Lord Addington for bringing this very important issue to the attention of the House. He has been an assiduous campaigner for children and young people with dyslexia, and I pay tribute to the way in which he has presented his concerns in this House, particularly during Grand Committee debates. I pay tribute to his passion and persistence. Saying that I managed by my letter to take the wind out of his sails is high praise indeed. I want to take this opportunity to clarify the system allowing reasonable adjustments to qualifications and appeals, and I hope I will be able to reassure him that additional action will happen with an urgency that has been lacking.
As my noble friend knows from our discussions, I share his desire to see reasonable adjustments offered to all young people on an apprenticeship who need them, so that they have a reasonable opportunity to achieve the required qualifications in English and maths. I want to take this opportunity to clarify the clear duty in Part 6 of the Equality Act 2010 on learning providers and awarding organisations to make reasonable adjustments so that disabled people are, wherever possible, not put at a disadvantage compared to other learners. I share my noble friend’s concern that this duty should be applied in every relevant case.
Where a body breaches this duty, individuals may bring a challenge in a county court. The county court can grant any remedy which the High Court could grant in proceedings in tort or in a claim for judicial review. Available sanctions include damages, injunctions and a declaration. In addition, repeated breaches may lead us to challenge the body’s ability to deliver training or to award qualifications. Following the important points that my noble friend Lord Addington made in Grand Committee, I am pleased to be able to place on record that there is nothing in the Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Act, or in the associated specification for apprenticeship standards in England, that prevents the use of assistive technology for functional skills qualifications.
I am aware that Ofqual has for some time been working with awarding organisations and the British Dyslexia Association to continue to widen opportunities to use assistive technology as a reasonable adjustment. The Access Consultation Forum meets three to four times a year. The next meeting is on 30 January, and this will be on the agenda. Ofqual assures me that it takes the issue of equality very seriously. I understand that the BDA and my noble friend have examples of individuals who have been disadvantaged, and I invite them to provide details of the specific cases to Ofqual, via officials if that would be helpful. Ofqual has committed to investigate the circumstances of all these cases. In addition, we will include new text in the skills funding statement to remind education and training providers of their duty to support young people with learning difficulties or disabilities and of their responsibility for providing reasonable adjustments, including the use of assistive technology where appropriate.
I also agree with my noble friend that we can do more to provide straightforward advice and information on the support available to individuals with learning difficulties or disabilities, so that they understand their rights and can challenge appropriately if they are not properly supported. Noble Lords will be aware that I wrote to the noble Lord, Lord Addington—as he mentioned—on 2 December and committed in that letter to some additional steps to raise awareness of the support on offer.
I know that my noble friend is also concerned that young people should make a good transition out of school and into their next stage of learning. The system that we are replacing has not always served young people well in this respect. The nought to 25 system created by the Bill will ensure a much greater continuity of support between different phases and types of learning. Local authorities will be under a duty to identify all young people aged up to 25 in their area who have, or may have, special educational needs, and to consider whether local provision is sufficient to meet their needs. They may publish a local offer setting out the full range of post-16 education and training provision, including apprenticeships. Young people who need the most support will receive an EHC plan regardless of whether they stay at school, go to FE college or to work-based provision in the private sector, unlike the current disjointed system.
The new nought to 25 code of practice is clear about how schools and colleges should focus much more strongly on helping children and young people prepare for their transition into post-16 education and on to adult life. Chapter 6 states:
“Schools should help pupils to start planning for their future adult life as early as possible, and by Year 9 at the latest”.
This should of course include,
“the range of post-16 options which may be available”.
The draft code also explains the importance of a school sharing information about a pupil’s special educational needs with the college before the young person starts. As a result of my noble friend’s recent appeal, we are working with the Dyslexia Trust to produce clear information explaining the support available to apprentices with learning difficulties or disabilities. This will be made available through the National Apprenticeship Service website and will also include information about assistive technology and reasonable adjustments.
In response to the concerns raised by the noble Lord, Lord Addington, I also asked officials to look into the process of complaints, retakes and appeals to ensure that it is as fair and transparent as possible. Although a process is in place and is consistent with other national qualifications such as GCSEs, I believe that more could be done by centres and training providers to publicise it. My officials checked several apprenticeship provider websites, and, although there were examples of good practice, many do not provide details of their procedures. This contrasts with information on school or university websites, where it is generally very clear how to get advice about support or exam results, and about how to complain. I will ask officials as a priority to find a way to ensure that centres and provider websites publish good information about complaints and appeals on their websites in future. I hope that my noble friend will recognise that, taken together, these measures represent improvements for those undertaking apprenticeships. I hope also that the House will acknowledge the outstanding personal commitment that the noble Lord, Lord Addington, had demonstrated in bringing this about.
I move now to historic appeals for those who failed key skills tests because of failures to make reasonable adjustments. As noble Lords may know, key skills qualifications have been replaced by functional skills qualifications. The last possible date for certification was in 2013. Key skills were phased out very gradually, allowing plenty of opportunities for learners to resit them. Nevertheless, as my noble friend has so eloquently set out, we cannot ignore cases where there is evidence that legal duties have not been adhered to. I have therefore asked officials to work with the British Dyslexia Association and Ofqual to gather evidence and seek a solution to any issues identified, whether current or historic. Officials will be able to advise on specific cases or systemic issues.
I will now make a further specific commitment. Where an apprentice with learning difficulties or disabilities has previously completed all other requirements of a particular apprenticeship, but was not able to pass a key skills qualification, for example because reasonable adjustments were not made, they will be able to sit the alternative functional skills test. They will be entitled to the appropriate support and reasonable adjustments. If this test is passed at the appropriate level, the Government will enable the individual to receive an apprenticeship certificate, even if a year or two has elapsed.
I hope that this will reassure noble Lords that the issue is of great concern to the Government and that we are taking substantial and appropriate action to address it. I am grateful to my noble friend Lord Addington for his work, as I have already said, and I hope that with these assurances he will feel able to withdraw his amendment.
Children and Families Bill
Baroness Jones of Whitchurch Excerpts(10 years, 6 months ago)
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Baroness Howarth of Breckland
My Lords, I understand that the Government probably do not want to increase the level of bureaucracy in local authorities in terms of information gathering. I also understand that they possibly do not want to have centralisation when one of their main tenets is to decentralise to local government. That being said, however, successive Governments have failed to get this right. Those of us who were involved in trying to implement the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons (Amendment) Act 1976, which was a long time ago, remember that one of its main provisions was to try to get decent data on which to make strategic planning.
The only point I really want to make is that there is a conflict between that wish not to increase bureaucracy and not to be able to get consistent data on the same basis across the whole of the local authority areas in order to plan. It is not just local authorities which will be affected. I spend a lot of my time in charities. They need to plan their strategy for some very large amounts of provision. I have chaired a number of committees where we have needed data in order to make a decision as to how we are going to move resources from one area to another. If you do not have that information, you can get that wrong. I would like to know how the Minister thinks that that kind of strategic planning can be carried out when the data lack that clear underlying consistency but at the same time I recognise the difficulties that it may cause in other areas of the Government’s plan.
Baroness Jones of Whitchurch (Lab)
My Lords, I support Amendment 18C and very much echo the arguments put forward by my noble friend Lady Wilkins and other noble Lords in this short debate.
Clause 22 already sets out that it is a requirement on local authorities to identify all children in their area with SEN. The Government obviously intend this data gathering to take place and this work to be done; otherwise they would not have put this in the Bill. It therefore needs to be collected and collated in an organised and effective way. It cannot be argued that it is an extra administrative burden when the basic requirement for the information to be gathered is already in the Bill. Noble Lords have raised genuine concerns about the quality of data in the past and the challenge of improving that quality in the future. I would also like to ask the Minister how the Government, if they think that it is important for the information to be collected, intend to make sure that the quality is delivered so that a proper planning process can take place. Obviously, it is necessary to have this information as a precursor to planning service delivery for all those people with SEN in local authorities.
The amendment is partially about transparency. It is about making sure that the data are not only collected but shared in an appropriate way so that they help both planners and service users to have a more informed input into the local offer and help devise better services in the future. The data might also have the advantage of providing isolated families with the knowledge of how many other families, children and young people in their area share a similar type of SEN or disability, which may help to bring people together.
The amendment is very much in the spirit and intent of the local offer, which is designed to help parents, children and young people shape services for the future. That is part of an ongoing debate that we have been having. The data collection and the quality of that data are crucial to help make this happen. Therefore, I hope that the Minister will see the wisdom in the amendment and will be able to support it.
Lord Nash
My Lords, I would like to thank the noble Baroness, Lady Wilkins, for raising this important issue and noble Lords who have spoken on this matter. I accept noble Lords’ concerns on this. I understand that the noble Baroness’s purpose behind tabling the amendment is to put, as the noble Baroness, Lady Howarth, has said, local authorities and schools in a better position to make good commissioning decisions. Good commissioning is clearly an important underpinning to the reforms that we are making and the Bill already provides for joint commissioning arrangements across education, health and care for the provision that is reasonably required for local children and young people with SEN. That commissioning will be informed by the local joint strategic needs assessment and the data that are already available on these children and young people.
I accept absolutely that good data need to be available to inform commissioning, but I do not think that the local offer is the right place to publish that data. The purpose of the local offer is to set out what provision children, young people and families can expect in their local areas and it is to be used as a vehicle for discussion about the development of local services. It is not designed to publish information on the numbers of children and young people in the area with different types of SEN. It would not be appropriate to clutter up the local offer with such data. We accept that that information will be material to discussions about the development of provision in the local area, but that information is available elsewhere.
The department already collects data from schools and local authorities on the number of children with special educational needs and publishes this annually on the department’s website. This includes data about the number of children by type of special educational need and we will be expanding this information. At present, we publish data by type of need for children at school action plus and with SEN statements. However, as we move to the new system for school-based SEN support, we will also publish data by type of need for children who are currently at school action.
For disabled children, local authorities are already under a duty to maintain a register of disabled children and young people under Section 17 of, and Schedule 2 to, the Children Act 1989. The draft, new SEN code of practice reminds local authorities of that duty. The department also collects data on children in the early years through the early years census. For post-16, the Education Funding Agency and the Skills Funding Agency also collect data on young people in the further education sector, through the individualised learner record on a range of types of need. Requiring local authorities to publish this data in the local offer would just replicate data that is already available.
So far as bringing together these different data sets into one place is concerned, as I said, I do not believe that the local offer is the appropriate place to do this, and I do not think it is right that central government should impose on local authorities something that they should already be doing. Some local authorities may well be poor at carrying out their duties in this regard, but that is not a legislative issue: it is a matter of practice. We have made it clear in the code that local authorities have this duty.
The noble Lord, Lord Low, talked about incomplete data. It is true that SEN data from the early years census, although available on request, is not routinely published publicly, but we will make sure in future that it will be and will be linked up to the main SEN statistical publication. I assure noble Lords that the department is thinking about what the new arrangements in the Bill imply for data collection and we are seeing where there are possibilities for greater clarity and the joining up of data sets. The post-16 data that are collected by the department, the Education Funding Agency and the Skills Funding Agency are publicly available on a number of websites, and we are looking at ways to bring these together for greater clarity.
Indeed, more generally, we are looking to see how data can be brought together to reflect the new nought to 25 arrangements under the Bill. We will also consider whether there should be a collection of disability data from schools. I would be happy to discuss this further with the noble Baroness and any other noble Lords who are interested. On that basis, I ask the noble Baroness to withdraw her amendment.
Children and Families Bill
Baroness Jones of Whitchurch Excerpts(10 years, 6 months ago)
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Baroness Jones of Whitchurch (Lab)
My Lords, I speak in favour of Amendment 2, to which my name has been added, and very much support the arguments that the noble and learned Baroness, Lady Butler-Sloss, has put forward this afternoon.
Noble Lords who were in Committee will recall that we debated this in depth. It is fair to say that there was widespread sympathy for the point of view that the noble and learned Baroness has put forward this afternoon. There was a sense that we wanted to get the balance right—not overstating their importance, but recognising that ethnicity, culture, language and heritage are all factors that make up a child’s identity, which any prospective adopter should be able to respect and value. The challenge for us is how to get it right and achieve that.
The noble and learned Baroness, Lady Butler-Sloss, explained that this issue was dealt with in some detail by the adoption pre-legislative scrutiny committee last year, which took evidence from a number of the major players in the adoption sector, including Coram and Barnardo’s. We continue to believe that that is an authoritative piece of work. While no one wants children to be disadvantaged by delays being caused by the search for the perfect match, the evidence of the adoption committee seemed to show that while there are some pockets of poor practice, it is no longer a widespread issue. For example, Barnardo’s believed that the current legislation was adequate and Coram argued that while this might have been a problem in the past, the situation was improving rapidly. The committee also identified that there were several other factors affecting the placement of BME children, including having fewer prospective adopters and a failure by social workers to promote their availability. The truth is that there remains a paucity of evidence that BME children are waiting longer for placements because of the current wording on ethnicity.
In his response in Committee, the Minister referred to two pieces of research, which I have now had a chance to look at. The first is by Julie Selwyn and commenced in 2005, which is some time ago. Even so, the study did not find systematic bias or mishandling of minority ethnic children by children’s services. The second piece of research, which was by Professor Elaine Farmer, was also carried out some time ago. It commenced in 2007. It was also interesting reading, but it covered a limited sample and, as she acknowledged, it was impossible to draw definitive findings because local authority practice was changing at the very time that the research was taking place. I believe that the latest research carried out by the adoption Select Committee is probably a better reflection of what is currently happening in adoption practice rather than research carried out six or seven years ago.
While there is, no doubt, scope for further definitive research, we should in the mean time be cautious about driving major change in this area. This is why we believe that putting these factors in the welfare checklist along with other considerations strikes the right and proportionate balance in addressing this issue. It would require agencies to have regard to these factors, but they would not be paramount.
The Minister argued that, if references to ethnicity and culture were removed, they would nevertheless remain as a silent, unspoken part of the children’s characteristics and would still need to be taken into account. A similar argument was put forward by the noble Baroness, Lady Hamwee, in her amendment. The Minister also referred to the fact that indicative statutory guidance is being prepared, which we welcome. But putting those two things together, I do not think they are good enough. By removing the references to ethnicity, religion, culture and language from the Bill, the Government plan to send a deliberate message to courts and social workers. Why else would they do it? We believe that that message is disproportionate and misguided and will be interpreted in the wrong way.
As we discussed in Committee, any change in the law in this area would also be in direct contradiction to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, and in particular Article 20, which states:
“Children who cannot be looked after by their own family have a right to special care and must be looked after properly by people who respect their ethnic group, religion, culture and language”.
I am very grateful to my noble friend Lady Lister for updating us on the continued concerns of the Joint Committee on Human Rights in this regard. We continue to share those concerns. We think it is important that parents understand the identity of the child and are able to help them feel at ease with that identity. We cannot be blind or neutral to these considerations.
For all these reasons, we urge the Government, even at this stage, to agree to the amendment. We all want what is in the best interests of the child, which in this case is to have their identity respected and nurtured. We believe that our amendment sends the right message to the sector, building on their developing good practice and helping to speed up placements. I therefore urge noble Lords to support the amendment.
Lord Nash
My Lords, it seems ironic that, on a day when we have been paying tribute to probably the greatest force for racial reconciliation ever, we are having a debate about a matter relating to race. However, I am encouraged by today’s debate. It is absolutely clear that we are really not very far apart; we are all trying to achieve the same thing—the question is just how. Perhaps I could try and outline, at some length if I may, how I and the Government see the matter, our motivation, and where I believe there is considerable common ground.
The fact is that it takes two years and seven months for a child from entering the care system to be formally adopted, but for a black child it is 13 months longer—nearly four years. It takes one year and seven months for a child to be placed with his or her proposed adopters, but for a black child it takes 13 months, or 70%, longer. Of course, this conceals the fact that many children never get adopted. This is completely unacceptable and upsets me now as much as it did when I first heard about it three and a half years ago. This is not a question of the pendulum having swung too far. The pendulum has swung off the scale.
I have since I started working with children and young people felt very strongly that we need to ensure not just that the life chances of all young children are substantially improved but particularly those of the BME community, and in particular the black community, because it seems to me that we need more successful black people and more successful black role models. It defines our society to have a balance of successful people. I look forward greatly to the day when there are many more Baroness Youngs and Baroness Benjamins. Although I was scribbling some of the time, I think I agreed with everything the noble Baroness, Lady Benjamin, had to say.
There is unequivocal evidence on the negative impact of delay on children’s development and well-being. Children need to form secure and stable attachments, with one or two main carers in order to develop physically, emotionally and intellectually. Therefore, what can we do about the appalling fact that it takes black children, and other children from other minority ethnic groups, so long to be adopted? First, we are taking great steps on a number of fronts to improve the speed at which children are adopted generally. Secondly, we must seek to recruit more adopters and BME adopters and, as my noble friend Lady Hamwee said, we need to open up the system on a more national basis so that there is more scope for making the right matches. However, our research still reveals that in too many cases social workers try for too long to make a perfect match.
I have reflected deeply on this clause since Grand Committee. When children are being matched, consideration of their background and heritage plays a critical part. It is an integral part of a child’s identity and their new parents must be able to support them as they grow up. In Committee, there were moving testimonies from my noble friend Lady Perry, who spoke about Marrianna, the little girl of the Kindertransport, for whom her parents cared, ensuring that they learned about Jewish religious tradition so they could help Marrianna cherish her religious identity.
My noble friend Lady Walmsley spoke about her granddaughter Cathryn, of Chinese heritage, whose parents are learning about her heritage so they can support her. Clearly, with the right awareness and commitment, mixed-race adoptive families can be very happy and successful ones. What is crucial to making effective matching happen is good social work practice and support for adoptive parents so they can support their children, not just at the point of adoption but beyond, as the child grows into a young adult. I do not think that the blunt wording of the Adoption and Children Act—however well-intentioned and wherever it is placed—can secure that.
I am delighted to see the noble Baroness, Lady King, here this afternoon. I had the great pleasure of meeting her now probably eight week-old son the other day, and one could not wish to see a more charming baby. Perhaps the whole House can join me in congratulating her on the birth of Tullio.
Baroness Jones of Whitchurch
My Lords, I am going to propose Amendment 9. Perhaps I may do that first—I am not intending to close down the debate.
Amendment 9 which stands in my name is on the subject of maintaining sibling contact. The amendment would require local authorities to give specific consideration to enabling children in care to remain in contact with their siblings. Many noble Lords here today will remember that we had a very good, if disturbing, discussion on that in Grand Committee.
First, we were confronted with some stark statistics. Some 63% of children in care whose siblings are also in the care system are separated from them. Surprisingly, those living in children’s homes are much more likely to be separated than those in foster care. What is more, children care very deeply about this separation; 85% said that it was important to keep siblings together and more than three-quarters said that councils could do more to help brothers and sisters keep in touch with each other. Secondly, we heard a number of moving individual stories of the distress caused to children who were separated from and unable to contact their siblings. For many, the relationship was more important than that with their parents and was a particular bond when they had been through a traumatic family break-up or protected each other in an abusive family. Often the elder children felt a particular responsibility for their younger siblings and were desperate when they could not check that they were okay; they had almost a quasi-parental concern for them. Although there will be occasions, of course, when children need to be separated for very good reasons, it seems that in the remaining majority of cases a lack of priority or perhaps just practical issues have been allowed to develop as an excuse for contact not happening on a regular basis. Our amendment would make that sibling contact a priority in social work practice and would give the requirement the additional weight of being in the Bill.
When we debated this in Committee, and in subsequent discussions, the Minister showed sympathy for the problem but resisted the need for primary legislation. He drew our attention to the current requirement for children’s individual care plans to set out the arrangements for sibling contact. He has also drawn up updated guidance on sibling contact for children in care. Of course, we are very grateful for that additional work. However, the point is that the previous guidance had little effect on practice on the ground, as the statistics have shown, so it is hard to imagine that the updated guidance will be any more effective. That is why we believe that emphasising the importance of this issue in the Bill can send a stronger message to those who are currently routinely failing to nurture sibling contact.
The Minister also referred to the views of an expert group, which looked into this issue and concluded that more needed to be done to improve practice on the ground. Obviously, we agree that more can be done in terms of advice, training and good practice dissemination. I do not know when that group reported its findings, but, again, so far there appears to be little evidence of a major improvement in sibling contact as a result of this.