Education Institutions: Autonomy and Accountability

Baroness Sharp of Guildford Excerpts

Tuesday 24th June 2014 Grand Committee

[Baroness Sharp of Guildford (LD)]

My Lords, I am grateful for receiving permission to speak in the gap. I was interested in speaking in this debate because at the moment, as the governor of a fairly newly converted primary academy, I am in negotiations with our academy chain over the scheme of delegation between the local governing board and the academy chain. That has thrown up an interesting conundrum about the role of the local governing board in relation to the academy chain.

That is first illustrated by who appoints the head. If the academy chain appoints them, and delegates responsibility for management and organisation of the school to the head, the local governing body has very limited responsibilities; it becomes a very largely advisory body. Yet when Ofsted comes along, it will look to and examine the local governing body, which will be held responsible. Therefore the relationship between the local governing body and the academy chain is an extremely important one.

If one takes the traditional local authority model, the local governing body appointed the head and was responsible. It set the scheme of delegation and had broad strategic responsibility. However, if the head did not perform, the local governing board had to make sure that it was accountable. When Ofsted came along it would examine the local governing board for doing that. If, however, the academy chain is to appoint the head, and sets the scheme of delegation and organisation, there is a very considerable fuzziness there, and it is not clear whom Ofsted should examine and hold responsible. You also lose the link between them, as the local governing body represents the local community. That is an interesting issue, and not one that we have fully resolved, although we are discussing it. However, I thought it was worth raising in this debate.

Education: Vocational Education

Baroness Sharp of Guildford Excerpts

Monday 3rd March 2014 Lords Chamber

[Lord Nash]

I am grateful for that question. We are looking closely at the attainment targets for FE colleges and we will be focusing, with Ofsted, much more closely on this.

[Baroness Sharp of Guildford (LD)]

My Lords, does my noble friend agree that high-quality careers education and properly trained careers advisers are necessary so that young people in schools know the full range of opportunities available to them from vocational education?

[Lord Nash]

I agree that they are extremely helpful, but my noble friend will have heard me say before that the technology has moved on from the careers adviser being the gold standard. The gold standard must be the active involvement of all schools with business so that all their pupils have a clear, direct line of sight to the workplace.

Children and Families Bill

Baroness Sharp of Guildford Excerpts

Tuesday 28th January 2014 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Sharp of Guildford (LD)]

My Lords, I will just say a word about the “E” in PSHE. I pay tribute to the Minister and the degree to which he has listened to a lot of the comments and discussion that have taken place about PSHE. The “E” does not stand for education but for economics. As the noble Baroness, Lady Perry, mentioned, schools already have a duty to contribute to pupils’ spiritual, moral and cultural development. How do they prepare young people for adult life? That preparation includes financial and economic education—it is a very important part of it. We have talked about the internet, but it is extremely important to know when people are phishing and trying to con you on the internet in financial terms. One hears too frequently these days about people who have been conned. It is a very good thing to give young people a broad understanding of how to manage their own finances and how to cope with the very complex world we face these days.

[Lord Northbourne]

My Lords, I apologise to the House because I have a problem with my inner ear and I may have failed to hear some of the things that some noble Lords have said, although I am doing my best. First, I want to say how much I support the amendment in the name of the noble Baroness, Lady Massey. I intended to put down my name to it, but alas, I was too slow, as an appropriate number of names had already been put down. I can say only that I support it. If I speak to my amendment, which is grouped with it, it will probably cover some of the same ground.

In a society like ours today, with an increasing number of broken and dysfunctional families, the role of schools in personal and social education becomes increasingly important. As your Lordships will remember, 3 million children are growing up in lone-parent families in this country today. My amendment is about giving young people, as they grow up in school, a better opportunity to acquire and to develop the soft skills, those social, emotional and communication skills which they will need in life, and to develop what Demos, in its important 2009 report, called “character capabilities”. All these are essential skills which they will need as they grow up and move into adult life. The so-called soft skills, including resilience, self-confidence, empathy, emotional intelligence, concern for others, communication and relationship skills, are all important. Soft skills are important in every walk of life, and without them it is difficult to succeed in adult life.

In an important article in the Sunday Times on 5 January, Camilla Cavendish made a strong case for the importance of “grit” in the labour market today. She asked:

“Why is it that this country has 640,000 young people not in employment, education or training?”.

Could it be, she asks, that too many do not have the grit to stick to a project and see it through? Grit may not sound like a very soft skill, but it is certainly one that all people will need in life. Other soft skills are also important for employment, and particularly in the family. I will quote from the same article, on the subject of teenagers:

“We tend to forget the desperate fragility of the teenage years: beset by hope and fear in equal measure, uncertain of who you are, let alone what the world can offer, awkward, proud, and easily put off. It is a time when things can go very wrong”.

Why, oh why, can the Government not see that this is an important moment in each child’s life, when they should get more help from their secondary schools? Today many of them are not getting the help they need.

I emphasise, once again, the importance of parenting, which is rather my subject. It is incredibly important for a child to have in their life a strong, loving and supportive relationship with at least one and preferably two parents and, whenever possible, the opportunity to belong to a supportive family. I return to David Attenborough, the penguins and all the other animals you see, and the wonderful relationships they have. In a curious way the reward is partly sexual excitement, but an even greater reward is seeing the child grow up. I speak as a grandfather of 11, so I know a bit about that.

Developing the soft skills is also very important if we want more social mobility in our society. The ability to communicate and to empathise is crucial for promoting social mobility. We all know that the best schools understand the importance of preparing tomorrow’s parents and workers with what they need. The best schools already give their pupils the opportunity to acquire these important skills as they grow up through the school, not just in the classroom but through a whole range of other extra-curricular opportunities, through literature, talks, challenges, working in groups and guided discussion, always exploring their objectives and what kind of adults they hope to be, learning the skills they will need to succeed.

All schools are different, which is why the noble Baroness, Lady Massey, and I, both decided that it was much better, rather than trying to spell out in detail what schools should do, to say to them, “You get on with it and think about it; decide what your programme will be and take advice where you want to. Having made up your mind, you must publish a clear statement of your objectives and of how you hope to achieve them so that the public, parents, Ofsted and anyone else who needs to know can see what you are trying to do”. This will enable the schools that are doing well to acquire credit, and the schools that are doing less well will see where they are falling short and will probably be led to do better.

My Amendment 53ZAA is designed to make it absolutely clear that schools are expected to give guidance to pupils and to explore with them the challenges they are likely to encounter as they move into adult life. It also requires schools to consider how they can help pupils to develop personal, social and communication skills. It emphasises that the best way to achieve these objectives may often be through guided discussion in school and through extra-curricular activities such as, for example, the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award scheme, team games, and so on.

Children and Families Bill

Baroness Sharp of Guildford Excerpts

Tuesday 7th January 2014 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Perry of Southwark (Con)]

My Lords, I can imagine myself as a parent of a child with special educational needs; I have listened to the debate trying to put myself into that person’s shoes. I can imagine taking my child along to discuss with the local education authority what provision could be made and being told, “I am sorry that you may want this, that and the other, and your child may have that particular set of needs, but we’re meeting the minimum standards set down. They do not happen to suit your child, but I’m afraid they are all that we can afford”.

My noble friends Lady Eaton and Lord Storey passionately described the dangers of minimum standards and the stifling of any innovation or adaptability to the local needs of parents and their children. They also described the danger of saying, when money is tight, “We are sorry we can’t help those other parents and children, but we are meeting the minimum standards. That is the regulation, so that is all there is”. You do not encourage response to people’s needs or collaboration between a local authority and the parents and children in its region by regulation and by national minimum standards. You encourage it by leaving local authorities and parents free to talk together.

I note that the Bill carefully states that the comments received from parents and from the local community must be published every year. That is a strong system of accountability, and is much better than trotting out a bit of inspection from time to time and issuing that report. To coin a phrase, it seems a triple lock if parents’ comments about the provision that they receive from the local education authority, with their own deep and often tragic experience of children with special educational needs, must be published in a form that all can see. Local authorities will be required to respond to local needs, and it gets us away from this dreadful idea: “A minimum standard is all that we can afford and therefore, even if it does not suit your child, that is all that you will get”.

[Baroness Sharp of Guildford (LD)]

My Lords, I return to the introduction that the noble Baroness, Lady Howe, gave to Amendment 25E and the issue of accountability. Government Amendment 33C is good so far as it goes, but it puts the onus on parents and young people using the service to police the sufficiency of the local offer. Perhaps my noble friend the Minister could correct me if I were wrong, but so far as I know there is no obligation on local authorities to publish the findings of their own reviews, which, as was emphasised by the noble Baroness, Lady Howe, they are obliged to make under Clause 27. Therefore, there is not the obligation to proactively improve their services that might arise from looking at whether their own reviews were sufficient, and acting on that. That picks up the point made by the noble Baroness, Lady Morris, that there are ways and means whereby innovation comes organically and internally. Equally, she made the point that for most parents there is not the opportunity to move authorities: whether they like it or no, this is the authority that they have to work with.

Again, I pick up the point made by the noble Baroness, Lady Howe, that, when we are talking about special educational needs, we do not mean only the few who have statements and will have the EHC plans now—about 3% of pupils. Something like 15% of pupils are regarded as having special educational needs and are treated under school action and school action plus.

It is now the schools’ responsibility to meet the needs of these pupils. We shall be talking later about the training that is necessary for SENCOs, and so forth. Most schools rely very much indeed on local educational specialists being available. One of the problems with the situation at the moment is that if there is no follow-up on whether or not there is a sufficiency of provision, there is a great danger that local authorities, whose finances, as we know, are being squeezed at present, will not find it necessary to provide outside the needs of those who actually have EHC plans, and that specialists in language, communication and behaviour will not be available to schools for them to be able to recruit to help them with the problems that they meet.

So I am somewhat concerned. As I say, the government amendment is good so far as it goes, but it is unfortunate that it does not follow through to requiring action on the reviews that the local authorities themselves have to make of their own provision.

[Baroness Howarth of Breckland (CB)]

My Lords, I support the noble Baroness, Lady Sharp, in what she was saying. I was rather taken by the government amendment because of its involvement of parents, children and young people themselves, but I could not see the follow-through. What we are looking for is an interrelationship between the legislation, the code and how it is applied and then how that is reported back, so that you have a virtuous circle and you can measure against what you are attempting to do.

In order to do that, you have to have absolute transparency. That is why I am also concerned about the phrase,

“it expects to be available”.

Unless families know with absolute clarity what is available and have some idea of what the local authority might be planning to make available—that might be what the “expects” is trying to achieve—how can they be engaged in a debate with the local authority in some sort of forum to move things forward in an innovative way? Being involved in two charities that work nationally, I know how very different the provision is across the country, but I still have grave anxieties about setting minimum standards, having also worked in a local authority that was strapped for cash in the 1970s, where we looked for any area of legislation where we could move back and save money. At this time, as I have said several times in this debate, we have to be absolutely open with families about what is and is not available. It is only if they are absolutely clear about that within the constraints of the finances that are available that they will be able to campaign, if you like, for an alternative that would better meet their needs. I encourage the Minister to look again at the phrase, “expects to be available”.

I find it far more difficult to know how I would vote on any of the other amendments, recognising the sheer complexity of the discussion that we have been having. I happen to have more faith in local authorities, and believe that if they have the opportunity and the resource they will do their best for the people that they want to serve.

--- Later in debate ---

[Baroness Cumberlege (Con)]

My Lords, I am delighted to be able to support my noble friend on these amendments which remove the requirement for local authorities to have regard to age when making decisions about the education, health and care plans for young people.

Amendment 173, which I proposed in Grand Committee and in which I was supported by the noble Baronesses, Lady Hughes and Lady Jones, aimed to achieve the same end that has been put forward in these amendments. As my noble friend said, it removes Clause 45(4). I applaud the Government for recognising the force of our arguments and for putting forward these very important amendments, which will make a significant difference not only to the Act when it is passed but to the young people concerned, which clearly is the most important part of this amendment.

Like many other noble Lords, I pay a personal tribute to my noble friend Lord Nash, who has been generous in the time he has spent discussing this aspect of the Bill with me and many other noble Lords and in the determination that he has shown to get it right for young people at what many of us consider to be the most important time of transition in their lives. I am very grateful for his recognition that some young people with special educational needs require more time to complete their education beyond the age of 18. Of course, that has now been translated into the amendment in the Bill. This requires local authorities to consider whether the young person requires additional time to complete his or her education or training. That is a very good thing indeed.

My noble friend will know from the amendment that I proposed in Grand Committee that I believe that local authorities should be required to have regard not only to whether education and training outcomes have been achieved but to whether,

“health and social care outcomes have been achieved”.

The Government did not support that amendment. Nevertheless, I welcome the proposed amendments to Clauses 44 and 45 which will require local authorities, when reviewing a plan or considering whether to propose the cessation of an EHC plan, to have regard to whether the education or training outcomes specified have been achieved. Focusing on outcomes is much more important for young people with complex special educational needs. Their chronological age is far less relevant than whether they have achieved the skills that will enable them to make a successful transition to adult life.

I have one remaining concern, however, and a request to my noble friend. I am worried that some people may mistakenly interpret the phrase “education and training outcomes” in too narrow a way and relate these primarily to formal accredited learning and qualifications. I know from my noble friend’s visit to the Chailey Heritage Foundation that he understands that, for some young people with complex needs, the learning educational outcomes they achieve will not be appropriately assessed and recognised through the usual formal accredited qualifications. It would be most unfortunate if local authorities sought to stop EHC plans for young people with complex needs because the outcomes they wanted to achieve post-18 were not ones that could be formally accredited.

The code of practice should be explicit about the full range of educational outcomes that might be legitimately included in an EHC plan. I therefore ask for assurance that the code of practice will make clear that the educational and training outcomes in these clauses will be considered in the wider sense and not restricted to accredited learning or formal qualifications.

[Baroness Sharp of Guildford]

My Lords, my name is attached to many of these amendments and I am delighted to support them all. I also pay tribute to the Minister for having listened to the arguments that we put forward in Committee.

First, it was suggested in Committee that some young people over 18 might not need the help and support they had been getting. That would provide local authorities with an excuse for dropping such support after 18 by using those words “to have regard to age”. Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, it was said that the wording was too flexible. We all know that circumstances can vary enormously and that some young people with SEN are ready by the age of 18 to stand on their own and that—partly thanks to the help and support they have received—they are well able to cope without further support. However, others mature later and need to be given extra help and support. Indeed, they often need to take longer, as the noble Baroness, Lady Cumberlege, indicated, over the process of learning and acquiring skills and qualifications. The Minister agreed with those arguments and stated very clearly in his response that the provision of continuing support was not a matter of age but of whether the young person concerned was ready to move into adult life. He was not prepared to move initially in Committee but he said that he was very willing to meet us. The amendments that he has introduced today very largely meet the points that we made then and show that he has very much heeded those arguments. The new wording introduced today meets our requirements.

The first of the two key amendments is Amendment 34D to Clause 36. The wording,

“have regard to his or her age”,

will be changed to,

“consider whether he or she requires additional time, in comparison to the majority of others of the same age who do not have special educational needs, to complete his or her education or training”.

In Amendment 39B to Clause 44, “his or her age” will be omitted and the words,

“whether the educational or training outcomes specified in the plan have been achieved”,

will be inserted. As the revised wording implies, the clear intention is that local authorities should be flexible in their approach, and should above all consider whether the young person has reached a point where they can do without the extra help and support that an EHC plan would give them. It is clear from the various case studies provided to us by those who are anxious to see the wording changed, that many young people need and will benefit from this flexible approach. I again thank the Minister and the Bill team for their readiness to listen to our arguments and to make these changes.

However, there is some unhappiness among those providing education and training to over-18s with special educational needs about the current wording of the draft code of practice. In particular, they think that there is a degree of inconsistency in it. At some points the draft code rightly emphasises—as the wording of the amended Bill does—the needs of the individual, whether the outcomes specified in the EHC plan have been achieved and whether the young person is ready to enter and cope with adulthood. At other times the code seems to point to the cliff edge—that once a young person reaches the age of 18, it is no longer necessary to maintain the plan. Could the Minister and his officials, having now amended the Bill, make sure that the code of practice fully reflects the amendments that we have made?

In general, I reiterate how very grateful those for whom I have been speaking in relation to these issues and I are to the Minister and his officials for listening to us, and for amending the Bill.

[Baroness Howarth of Breckland]

My Lords, I add my thanks and make two brief points. First, this will convey a message to the young people themselves. It is not often that legislation matters to the recipients so directly in sending a message. Transition is a very difficult time for people with special educational needs and severe disabilities. Added to all the difficulties that they have of movement of placement and, often, of changes to the personnel involved in their care, has been the suggestion that their age mattered. To them, it does not matter to the transition that they will make to the adult world, because they are not like everyone else who is 18; they are all difficult, but certainly not like most 18 year-olds. This will mean that, in the words of the noble Baroness, Lady Sharp, the needs of the individual will be met. That is a really important message.

I am concerned, as is the noble Baroness, Lady Cumberlege, about the link to health and social care, because it simply cannot be avoided. I am sure that there will be issues around the code of practice. If you are admitted to a residential college because you have severe learning difficulties and physical disabilities, combined with the residential placement will be a series of health provisions. That will all be part of the package, so you have to have regard to all that as well. The Minister may say that that will come anyway because commissioning will be expected for that—but this is something that still worries a number of providers and families as well as individual youngsters, who need very specialist healthcare in their placements and are concerned that that might not continue beyond their 18th birthday, even if their education does.

--- Later in debate ---

Moved by

[Baroness Sharp of Guildford]

34F: Clause 37, page 31, line 10, leave out subsection (4)

--- Later in debate ---

[Baroness Sharp of Guildford]

My Lords, my name is also attached to the amendment. I endorse what has already been said by the noble Lords, Lord Rix and Lord Low, and by the noble Baroness, Lady Hollins.

As currently drafted in the Bill, special educational provision has to be secured by local authorities. In Committee in the House of Commons, the Government tabled an amendment that places health commissioners under a duty to arrange any health provision set out in the plan. It leaves social care as the only element of an EHC plan that is not enforceable. However, if you create an education, health and care plan, it does not make sense if there is no specific duty to provide the social care services for young people set out in the plan. As the noble Lords, Lord Rix and Lord Low, indicated, there is already provision in Section 2 of the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act 1970 for a specific duty to provide social care services for disabled children.

That picks up on a point made by the noble Baroness, Lady Cumberlege, when we were debating the previous amendment, about her worry that there was no enforcement mechanism to make sure that the social care provisions, which need to be integrated with the education and health provisions, are there. That point has been made time and time again by the noble Baroness, Lady Howarth. It is not logical that we have enforcement mechanisms for education and health but none for social care.

[Baroness Howarth of Breckland]

My Lords, I want briefly to say what I have said several times. If you have a package for education and health, you cannot fail to include the social care element. What I am hoping is that the Minister will give the same answer that he has just given on my previous point—that such provision is contained in the Care Bill. Having looked at the progress made in the way that these services are delivered, that Bill will ensure that the social care element can be provided along with the health element. That is really important because the three are inseparable in the provision of services, particularly for very severely disabled young people. I therefore hope that the answer will be that such provision is already there in another piece of legislation.

--- Later in debate ---

Moved by

[Baroness Sharp of Guildford]

39F: Clause 45, page 35, line 41, leave out subsection (4)

--- Later in debate ---

[Lord Ramsbotham]

My Lords, I warmly support the intent behind the amendment in the names of my noble friends Lady Wilkins, Lady Howe and Lord Low of Dalston. However, as a former chief inspector, I have to admit that I am a little concerned about the confusion between inspection and regulation that is implied within it. Three separate functions are involved in oversight: audit, regulation and inspection. They are all different and are carried out in a different way. An audit can be a largely internal activity. Regulation must involve somebody directing that something has to happen. Inspection, if it is to mean anything, should be both independent and objective and therefore able to consider all the nuances of what is to be inspected. I note with interest that the current lack of accountability, which was described as weak accountability by my noble friend Lady Howe, has already been mentioned many times during the course of this debate.

This amendment is really a plea to the Government to think very carefully about how they are going to ensure oversight of an essential local authority provision, because currently there are no inspectors capable of carrying out that function. I refer the Minister to a precedent which might be followed—namely, the inspections of the safeguarding of children which were carried out by the old Commission for Social Care Inspection, which was abolished by the previous Government. It consisted of inspectors from Ofsted, the prisons inspectorate, the Department for Education and the Audit Commission, because it had a responsibility to look at local government and, of course, healthcare. The reports that were produced on safeguarding children are models that could be followed in this case as they covered many aspects which Ofsted does not have the skill to cover given that it is essentially concerned with education and a lot of the relevant provision concerns either healthcare or social care. Ofsted is not responsible for healthcare and I do not believe that it is very good at social care either.

The other thing that has to be remembered is that when we are talking about special educational needs, we are talking not just about the under-18s who come under the school regime but about the age range of nought to 25, as was mentioned earlier today in connection with detention. Therefore, we have to consider the inspection of local government provision for people other than those at school. The review that has been announced for next spring, carried out by Ofsted, should be stopped as I do not think that it is adequate. What the Government should do is consider very carefully a much wider examination of who is needed to conduct the oversight of all the activities that have been mentioned at various stages of the Bill. Unless they do that, not just the accountability but the oversight of something as important as this, on which we have made so much progress thanks to the way that the Minister has handled the Bill, is in jeopardy of being lost. That would be a tragedy.

[Baroness Sharp of Guildford]

My Lords, I have some sympathy with the amendment. Earlier today we rejected the notion of minimum standards being laid down for local authorities but we made it very clear in that debate that this was a matter for local authorities and that we wanted to see them use their discretion and compete with each other to provide high-quality services for those with special educational needs. Equally, in discussing the local offer, we were concerned not just with those classed as having special educational needs but with the wider community of children who have special educational needs. That is a very large number of children, as has been mentioned already. Some 1.4 million children fall into that category and are served by their schools but depend very much at the moment on local authority services to supplement what the school SENCOs and the school staff can provide.

There is enormous variation between what local authorities do in this regard. Picking up the point made by the noble Lord, Lord Ramsbotham, I believe I am right in saying that Ofsted currently inspects children’s services within local authorities. In so far as it is inspecting children’s services, including protection services, it would not be so difficult for it to take account also of the special educational needs services provided by local authorities. It seems to me that this is not an impossible situation and that the point that the noble Baronesses, Lady Wilkins and Lady Howe, made on accountability, and the need for it, is very important.

[Lord Nash]

My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Baroness, Lady Wilkins, for tabling the amendment. Earlier today we discussed the government amendment to Clause 30(6) to strengthen transparency and accountability for the local offer. Local authorities must publish comments from disabled children and young people, those with SEN and the parents of such children, about the local offer, including the quality of the provision available and about any provision that is not available in their area. We make clear in the draft SEN code that when local authorities publish their response to comments this includes the action local authorities propose to take. Amendment 33C makes this explicit in the Bill. Local authorities cannot simply publish their response to comments but then ignore them. They must say what action they intend to take. As with every other part of the development of the local offer, children, young people and parents will be involved in discussions with local authorities about the action they propose to take.

When we debated the local offer, I emphasised that we are not yet clear about whether inspection is necessarily the best way to encourage a good local offer. I hope that the confirmation that we have asked Ofsted to deliver a study to identify best practice in preparing for the SEN reforms, and consider particularly whether there is a need for an inspection framework to drive improvements, is reassuring. It has been asked to deliver the study this summer, not next spring. I hope, too, that the noble Baroness, Lady Wilkins, is reassured that the study will include local authority specialist services supporting children and young people with special educational needs and those who are disabled, and say how Ofsted intends to monitor those services. The study will focus on the extent to which local areas ensure that children and young people with SEN and those who are disabled are identified and their needs met. It will look for improved outcomes and the satisfaction of parents and young people. It will establish a baseline from which to evaluate progress in implementing the reforms; provide guidance to local authorities about the development of effective practice and advice about aspects requiring further development; and consider how, if required, effective accountability could take place.

The study will consider how local authorities identify and assess social care needs and ensure that those needs are met, look at how local authorities will work with clinical commissioning groups to identify and commission the range and sufficiency of specialist services required to support the needs of children with and without EHC plans, and evaluate the effectiveness of these services. The study will also consider arrangements for personal budgets, transition to EHC plans and how school and college inspection and other inspection activity could provide ongoing information about the effectiveness of the local area’s arrangements.

This is a comprehensive study. Should Ofsted recommend that an inspection framework is needed we would, of course, take that very seriously. If it does not make such a recommendation, we will consider what further action is necessary. I should make it clear that we have not ruled out inspection by Ofsted of local authority support services.

In terms of accountability, schools are ultimately responsible for the progress of all pupils where additional support is needed. Schools should use their best endeavours to ensure that those needs are met. The Ofsted inspection framework introduced in September 2012 places a clear emphasis on meeting the needs of disabled pupils and those with SEN. Inspectors must consider the quality of teaching and the progress made by these pupils. Where a school has a specialist resource base or integrated unit, these are covered as part of the inspection. Ofsted also inspects special schools, which provide support for sensory impaired children and others who may currently have a statement of SEN. This means that any deaf child in a mainstream or specialist school would have their education inspected as part of the Ofsted Section 5 framework. I want to stress that the SEN reforms will provide legal protections for families wanting to challenge councils through their involvement in determining local provisions. Not only do the SEN reforms in the Bill provide legal protections, they will also establish a better system for identifying need and commissioning services across education, health and social care to ensure that services provided match local needs as accurately as possible and so that families do not have to battle to get those services.

Of course, the success of the reforms will depend on changing culture and practice locally. We cannot just pass this Bill, walk away and hope that things happen. I agree entirely with the point made by the noble Lord, Lord Ramsbotham, about ensuring that local authorities perform. That is why my department is monitoring closely the readiness of local areas to implement these reforms in preparation for September 2014. There is already a package of support for implementation delivered and co-ordinated by our strategic delivery partners—the Council for Disabled Children and pathfinder champion lead via the pathfinder support team at Mott MacDonald. The Minister for Children and Families has written to all chief executives of local authorities and clinical commissioning groups about the reforms. We will be monitoring local authorities’ progress in implementing the reforms from September 2014. We will consider what further steps may be needed in the light of this information and the findings of the study being conducted by Ofsted into local authority practice in preparing for and taking forward these reforms. I will certainly ensure that we look at the prior art to which the noble Lord referred and that we take seriously the whole issue of ensuring that delivery happens on the ground.

I hope that I have been able to reassure noble Lords about the measures that we have taken to improve transparency and accountability for the local offer. I also hope that what I have said about the Ofsted study and the approach we will take to monitoring the implementation of the reforms in some way reassures the noble Baroness, Lady Wilkins, that we will consider the issue of inspection carefully once we have the findings from that study, and I urge her to withdraw her amendment.

Children and Families Bill

Baroness Sharp of Guildford Excerpts

Tuesday 17th December 2013 Lords Chamber

My noble friend is reluctant to test the opinion of the House on this when it is clear that the Government share his concerns. I understand that he has discussed his offer to host a seminar on the subject early in the new year, at which the Minister kindly offered discussion with officials from both the Department of Health and the Department for Education—to which he would like to add someone who can speak with authority about local authorities. I should be grateful, therefore, if the Minister would expand on what she has in mind when she replies.

[Baroness Sharp of Guildford (LD)]

My Lords, I have much sympathy with the amendment, particularly the point raised by the noble Baroness, Lady Howe, about those who do not have EHC plans. As she rightly said, we are talking about a large number of children—a much larger number of children than will have EHC plans—and it is important that there are facilities to meet their needs. The onus is now on schools to provide those facilities, but we know that traditionally, schools have relied considerably, first, on local authorities to help provide them and, secondly, on health authorities and, for that matter, social services to supplement them.

At the moment, there seems to be a void in the Bill on the question of how more specialist facilities are to be provided. The joint commissioning arrangements, as identified in the Bill, are fine, but at the moment they are targeted at those with EHC plans; there is no mention of those without them. I think that the idea is that what is available will be spelled out in the local offer—I look forward to what the Minister has to say when we discuss the local offer. At the moment, there are a lot of loose ends and, given the number of children and young people involved, I hope that the Minister will take the matter seriously.

[Baroness Hughes of Stretford]

My Lords, briefly, I support the amendments, especially Amendment 19. I do so because Clause 26, which deals with joint commissioning arrangements, is an extremely important part of Part 3 and the new apparatus that the Government are constructing. I support the amendments because they are aimed at strengthening the joint commissioning arrangements. They need strengthening because of the wording of the Bill. We discussed this in Committee. Clause 26 seems to provide that local authorities and health and education authorities must set up arrangements so that they can have a discussion about what needs to be provided in an area, but it does not say that they must secure the provision that they think is needed. That is an odd omission. Amendment 19, in particular, would create an obligation to secure the provision for children and young people who have not got the education, health and care plans agreed under Clause 26(3)(a). That is a very important amendment to make to the Bill.

As the clause stands, it says that the local authority and its partner bodies “must make arrangements”. The omission to do with “securing” is particularly important with regard to health. As we said in Committee, potentially they can use other legislation for absolving themselves from improving on the provision available, on the ground of cost. It would be very helpful if the Minister could put on record the Government’s intentions in Clause 26 in relation to securing the provision that is identified as being needed through the joint commissioning arrangements, particularly, but not exclusively, in relation to health.

Given that Amendment 19 seeks to strengthen Clause 26 in relation to that securing and, as the noble Baroness, Lady Sharp, has said, identifies the rather insecure position at the moment of children and young people without plans, I support it and hope that the Government are sympathetic.

Education: Contribution to Economic Growth

Baroness Sharp of Guildford Excerpts

Thursday 5th December 2013 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Sharp of Guildford (LD)]

My Lords, I, too, thank the noble Baroness, Lady Morgan, for initiating this important debate. I also thank the noble Lord, Lord Sherbourne, for his extremely interesting maiden speech, in which he attributed to me a particular interest in modern languages. I assure him that, although I chaired the all-party group yesterday, I am not a specialist in modern languages. Rather, I share his interest and the view that we, as a country, are the poorer because we do not put more emphasis on people being able to speak foreign languages. I am very anxious to see that we encourage the study of modern languages in our schools.

I am an economist, not a language specialist, and first came to be interested in the relationship between education and growth when I worked in the National Economic Development Office at the end of the 1970s. I came across the work that an economist called Sig Prais, whose name some noble Lords may remember, was doing at the National Institute of Economic and Social Research. I remember in particular a study that he did of two engineering companies involved in machining, comparing a German and a British company. As it happened, they both used exactly the same type of German machinery, which had been installed at the same time—there was no difference in the capital equipment used by the two companies. Nevertheless, productivity in Germany was twice that of the British firm. He wanted to know why productivity was so much higher in the German firm so he began unpeeling, if you like, the skins of the onion.

He discovered that the main reason why productivity in Britain was so low was that the machinery was down for a lot of the time and not being used. Why was it down? Because the build-up of iron filings in the machinery grew to such an extent that the machines just gave up the ghost. Why did this not happen in Germany? Because every Friday afternoon, the apprentices in Germany stripped down the machines, cleaned them all up and cleaned away all the iron filings. The machines therefore worked practically all the time and were never down. Why did this not happen in Britain? It was because there were no apprentices to do the work. They used to have to call the engineer, just as you do when the Xerox machine breaks down; and, just as when the Xerox machine breaks down, the engineer could not always come the next day. The machine might well be down for two days while they waited for the engineer to come along and fix it.

In Germany, on the whole, the operatives who ran the machines were sufficiently trained to be able to repair the machines on the spot if and when they broke down. Why could we not train British apprentices or operatives in the same way? It was discovered that they had tried to train them but the training programme involved an element of mathematical training. On the whole, the British operatives had not got the basic maths to be able to cope with the fairly elementary training programme that was required. The result was that the British organisation, so to speak, meant that we were the poorer for it.

This led me to have a very considerable interest in this link between education, productivity and economic growth. Quite clearly, these things were very important. That was 30 to 40 years ago and since that time we have taken on board and understood the message mentioned by the noble Lord, Lord Baker. We have seen a series of educational initiatives of one sort or another since then that have tried to address that particular problem, including all the initiatives on apprenticeships of one sort or another, which perhaps are beginning to pay off. However, there is a very real question as to why, 30 to 40 years later, and knowing the importance of it, we are still lagging in these PISA studies.

One answer is that, of course, others have been moving faster than we have. Another answer is that we should not neglect what we have achieved over that period. The noble Baroness, Lady Morgan, spoke about the number of young people achieving five As to Cs at GCSE; but it is not just that. We have quadrupled the number of young people in universities; we are turning out many more graduates than we were at that time. Something like 12% of the age cohort went through to university; it is now 40%. There are many achievements that we can think about.

Secondly, we should realise that it takes time. Within the Sure Start initiatives we have put a lot of emphasis, particularly in terms of trying to cope with the issue of the gap between the advantaged and disadvantaged, on early start and early years education. Your Lordships should remember that those who were in Sure Start when we had the expansion of that in the early 2000s are only just 15 now. We need to be watching the achievement of our 15 year-olds. Back in the 1970s, the Americans had a programme called Head Start that did precisely the same. They wrote it off after 10 years but discovered, 25 years later, that it had had a major influence on the young people who had benefited from it. It takes time for these programmes to work their way through.

Thirdly, we should recognise that it takes two to tango. In my preparation for this debate I was interested to see the work from the UK Commission for Employment and Skills. It pointed out that there is a demand as well as a supply side. It is not just the Government funding apprenticeships and so forth; we have to look at what industry is doing and see that there is a demand. I am conscious of the fact that, in two respects, the UK lags behind here. One is that industry fails fairly considerably in its spending on research and development. The second is that, similarly, although it spends £49 billion a year on what it claims to be education and training, much of that goes to high flyers and a lot of it is concerned with the wages of those concerned.

What do we need? Above all, we need consistency. The noble Baroness, Lady Morgan, mentioned that in London the message is one of success, in some senses; we have managed to turn it round. However, if I look only at vocational education, I see the failure of the number of initiatives we have had over this course of time—TVEI, TOPS, WOPs, academic or vocational GCSEs, vocational A-levels, diplomas—and a failure to pick up, for example, on the Tomlinson report. I congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Baker, on UTCs, which are a very good answer to this. At long last, we have achieved something there. Nevertheless, there has been total inconsistency. On teacher training, the noble Baroness, Lady Donaghy, mentioned how important the quality of teaching is. Yet what have we done? We have turned the whole thing upside down, just when we were beginning to achieve something.

I echo so much the plea made by my noble friend Lord Storey that there should be consistency. As the noble Lord, Lord Nash, mentioned on Tuesday, we should stop throwing stones at each other. There is political consensus on what we want to achieve. We ought also to try to create political consensus on how we achieve this and commit ourselves to pursuing a programme consistently over 10 or 20 years, not chopping and changing.

Children and Families Bill

Baroness Sharp of Guildford Excerpts

Wednesday 6th November 2013 Grand Committee

[Lord Touhig]

My Lords, no one in this Grand Committee could doubt that the noble Lord, Lord Addington, has won the argument. He has been passionate and powerful; it is simple, common sense and perfectly logical. I say to the Minister: be bold. He should set aside the brief that his officials have given him and say that he simply agrees with the noble Lord, Lord Addington. I promise that the sky will not fall in, and the Government will not continue to be in the position of defending the indefensible.

I will now say a few words in support of Amendment 192. Clause 62 refers to using the best endeavours to secure special educational provision, and Amendment 192 would reinsert the graduated response. The key is ensuring that children get the support that they need to access the curriculum, whether this is through a single category or a more graduated response. The system that we are losing is popular and is understood and trusted by parents and educators. It ensures that children and young people get the support that they need. As I understand it, the draft code of practice replaces school action and school action plus with a single SEN, the SEN support. As I understand the Government’s argument, they see the creation of a single SEN category as a way of improving the identification of SEN youngsters. If we accept that, will the Minister explain how this will improve the educational outcomes for children and young people with SEN?

The Government’s preferred route will be hugely disruptive, with teachers and SENCOs being diverted from their core role of providing high-quality education. I echo the words of the noble Lord, Lord Low of Dalston, and want to see clear evidence that this will improve outcomes for children. If there is no evidence, why do this?

[Baroness Sharp of Guildford (LD)]

My Lords, I also support the noble Lord, Lord Low, in Amendment 192. While the new draft code of practice certainly indicates that the responsibility is for schools to individualise the provision that they make for those with special educational needs, the old categories of school action and school action plus were nevertheless useful in identifying and putting down some precise markers in this graduated response.

It is perhaps useful to quote the old SEN code of practice on what school action plus was:

“At School Action Plus external support services, both those provided by the LEA and by outside agencies, will usually see the child, in school if that is appropriate and practicable, so that they can advise teachers on new IEPs with fresh targets and accompanying strategies, provide more specialist assessments that can inform planning and the measurement of a pupil’s progress, give advice on the use of new or specialist strategies or materials, and in some cases provide support for particular activities”.

There is particular concern about the readiness of SENCOs within schools to take on the role of the outside specialist. Schools can still pull in and employ outside specialists, but the number of specialists available through local authorities has been much decreased because of pressure on local authorities, and so it is not always possible for them to access this outside speciality these days.

If we look at the pathfinder results, there were frequent references to the need for further workforce development and support for the cultural change that the noble Baroness, Lady Morris, referred to. That highlights the fact that there needs to be support for teachers. Appropriate support is vital. Training for teachers is vital, too, but training also takes resources, not least because when teachers go on training courses they need somebody to replace them in the school. I ask the Minister to look favourably on this amendment, which makes a lot of sense.

[Lord Storey]

I want to make a few points on both these amendments. I do not particularly like award ceremonies, but if there was one, the award for the most persistent Lord—the “dog fighting for a bone” award—would have to go to the noble Lord, Lord Addington. No sooner had I become a Lord than he was on at me about how important this matter is. From time to time, we should applaud each other’s efforts. I very much applaud his efforts on this.

The point made by the noble Baroness, Lady Perry, about the support that universities and schools give was important. I know that we do not particularly like giving anecdotal tales, but I will give one. A close friend of mine has a daughter who has mild cerebral palsy. She is dyslexic and dyspraxic. The support that she had at school was amazing. She went on to the University of Leeds, where she was given a scribe to help her work and so forth. When she had difficulty in her first year, the university let her repeat the year. She repeated a term and has now passed and—guess what—she is doing a master’s degree. If we can give that support in higher education and schools, we should give it for apprentices as well.

[Baroness Sharp of Guildford]

I would just like to point out that the support given in further education colleges, which provide much of the off-the-job training for apprentices, is also considerable. They also provide scribes and so forth. The problem is the accreditation procedures that are required for apprenticeships. It is a very narrow issue and it is quite absurd that we have not been able to solve it.

[Lord Storey]

I thank my noble friend for that.

I now turn to the graduated approach. We have come a long way in special educational needs, have we not? Schools must have SENCOs and a written policy. That is all to be applauded. The code of conduct clearly says that there has to be a qualified teacher working at the school, and that a newly appointed SENCO must be a qualified teacher and have the appropriate qualifications. Of course, we have SENCOs in schools who do not have those qualifications and we may need at some stage to visit that issue. The SENCO is important. You can have all the policies in the world but the SENCO makes them happen.

When we were talking about this—and I have experience of school action, school action plus and IEPs—I was quite alarmed. I said, “Man the barricades”. But the code of practice is a realistic response. It is clear in all sorts of ways. It states, on initial identification:

“As part of a graduated approach to tackling need … reviews of progress should be held once a term”.

Maybe that “should” should be “must”. It continues by stating that,

“there should be a plan that focuses on what outcomes are expected and the support that the school, college and any relevant agencies will provide”.

I applaud the document and I am more relaxed about the issue.

I say to the noble Lord, Lord Low, that I thought that IEPs were a real step forward, but my experience of them is that in many cases, sadly, they have become paper-writing exercises and increase the bureaucracy. What is needed is a much more focused and realistic approach, which is why I like the fact that the code states that the teacher has to meet the parents once a term and discuss the progress that has been made, presumably outside the normal parents’ evening.

I am slightly relaxed about the concern about school action and school action plus. What is in a name? It is not about a name. It is about an approach, an ethos, a culture and a doing mentality. I am sure that the progress we are making on that will help towards it.

--- Later in debate ---

[Earl Attlee]

My Lords, I have already said that I am not entirely satisfied and have some sympathy with the points made by my noble friend Lord Addington. However, I have not finished my speech and have not reached the point about apprentices.

I return to what we have achieved already. Personally, I was not aware that such welcome advances have been made. I hope I have convinced my noble friend Lord Addington that there is not a legislative gap in relation to such technology, and that there is good progress and continued willingness to work together to eliminate the practical and technical issues that remain.

Amendments 190 and 194 taken together would require apprenticeship providers to use their best endeavours to secure support for SEN. I recognise the concern of my noble friends Lord Addington, Lady Sharp and Lady Walmsley that young people with SEN may need additional support during their apprenticeship. I should like to make it clear that young people with EHC plans are able to attain their plans during their apprenticeship with all the support that they set out. Where a local authority has agreed with a young person who has an EHC plan that an apprenticeship is the best option, arrangements to support them should be built in at the point at which the place is commissioned. For example, if the local authority commissions a place from a private apprenticeship provider, the terms of that contract should include any SEN provision required. If that is not possible, the local authority should not place them there.

[Baroness Sharp of Guildford]

I apologise for interrupting the Minister and thank him for giving way. This particular problem does not apply to the training processes as such; it applies only to the passing of a particular group of tests known as the functional literacy and mathematical skills tests. It is a narrow problem, and one that my noble friend Lord Addington has identified and kept banging away on for a very long time. It should not be impossible for help to be provided during those tests. At the moment, those who have dyslexia are not allowed to have someone act as a reader to them for the tests. That is narrowly the problem.

[Earl Attlee]

My Lords, I am grateful for the noble Baroness’s comments. I was asked about support for apprenticeships. We amended the Bill following pre-legislative scrutiny to ensure that young people on an apprenticeship could receive support through an EHC plan. This puts people in apprenticeships on the same footing as those in further education.

--- Later in debate ---

[Baroness Hughes of Stretford]

My Lords, I support Amendments 207, 208 and 209, to which I have added my name. I think we are all very clear that the code of practice is a very important document, as the noble Lord, Lord Low, has just said. It will determine the detail of implementation of the Government’s legislation in a very marked respect. Therefore, the mechanism by which the code is approved, and then subsequently revised, is also very important.

We have been round the houses somewhat with the mechanism of approval. There was a great deal of pressure from the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee in response to the Government’s initial proposals that the code of practice, even in its first iteration, should be subject to the negative resolution procedure. As the noble Lord, Lord Low, has just said, the Government have conceded that the first iteration should be subject to the affirmative procedure. That is very welcome. However, as he also said, the most recent report from the DPRR Committee said that although that is welcome,

“there is nothing in the Government’s response to suggest that revisions to the code will necessarily be of any less significance or importance so as to warrant a lower level of scrutiny. Accordingly, we remain of the view that the case has not been made for applying the draft negative procedure, and for this reason we consider the draft affirmative procedure should also apply where the code is being revised”.

That is what Amendment 209 would achieve.

I will just briefly mention Amendments 207 and 208, because they also deal with some aspects of the Bill that are not being redrafted by government Amendments 210 and 211. Clause 68(2), in particular, says that, in putting forward the code or any revisions:

“The Secretary of State must consult such persons as the Secretary of State thinks fit”.

We think that it should not be the decision of the Secretary of State as to who he or she consults about the code but that there should be a public consultation lasting 90 days, which is what Amendment 207 in particular would also achieve.

[Baroness Sharp of Guildford]

My Lords, my name is attached to Amendments 206, 207 and 208 and I will just say a few words about both sets of amendments. In relation to Amendment 206, the current draft code of practice is actually written in fairly good, plain English, as far as I am concerned, and is relatively understandable. I commend those who put it together because it is a very good document and meets many of the comments that I know were made at an earlier stage. It is still subject to consultation and obviously there is still room for improvement.

In relation to Amendments 207 and 208, I will just endorse the words of the noble Baroness, Lady Hughes. Rather than there just being consultation with those whom the Secretary of State thinks appropriate, the code should be publicly available for consultation. That is something on which we would all put a lot of emphasis.

[Lord Nash]

My Lords, I shall speak to this group of amendments on the SEN code of practice for 0 to 25 year-olds. I thank the noble Lord, Lord Low, the noble Baronesses, Lady Hughes and Lady Jones, and my noble friend Lady Sharp for tabling these amendments and raising this important matter. I am also grateful to all noble Lords who have spoken. I have listened carefully, and it is important that we ensure that there is a good understanding of and confidence in the code of practice. It is vital to the success of the new system. I hope I can reassure noble Lords in my response.

Turning first to Amendment 206 tabled by the noble Lord, Lord Low, we are in complete agreement with the intention behind it. I think all noble Lords would agree that if the new code of practice is going to be a useful document and one which parents, young people and professionals can work with it needs to communicate its meaning clearly and be readily available. While any document which has to describe the law accurately may contain some text which has to be read twice, the department has striven to make the draft code as easy to read as possible.

We trust that we have abided by the principles of plain English as much as possible, and I am grateful to my noble friend Lady Sharp for her comments, which I will pass on to all officials who have been involved in its drafting. However the draft code is currently out to consultation, and we are keen to receive suggestions for making any parts of the text easier to understand and will look carefully at any text which readers say they find difficult. Noble Lords may be aware that the current code of practice is accompanied by a Plain English Campaign Crystal Mark publication Special Educational Needs (SEN)- A Guide for Parents and Carers. We intend to publish a similar document for parents and young people along with the new SEN code of practice.

Turning to the second element of this amendment regarding the availability of the code on the internet, publication on the internet is now the department’s main method of publication, and I can reassure noble Lords that the new code will be available on the internet. We will also make sure that the code, like the consultation draft, is published in a web-accessible format, so that, for example, readers with visual impairments will have access to it.

I now turn to Amendments 207, 208 and 209 which relate to Clause 68, which is headed,

“Making and Approval of Code”.

The SEN code of practice is fundamental to the SEN framework and the noble Lord, Lord Low, is right to raise the issue of its approval, an issue which I know is of great importance to SEN organisations and many noble Lords. As noble Lords will be aware, ahead of the introduction of this Bill into the other place, the Education Select Committee carried out pre-legislative scrutiny on Part 3. One of the recommendations of the committee was that the code should be approved by Parliament through the negative procedure. We were in agreement, fully recognising the importance of parliamentary scrutiny of the code of practice, and we accepted the Select Committee’s recommendation. Indeed, we are now going further in response to a recommendation from the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee. We have tabled Amendments 210 and 211 to ensure that on the first occasion the new code is approved, it will be through the affirmative procedure, and for subsequent revisions, it will be through the negative procedure, recognising the significance of the new code in reflecting the new legal framework we have been debating.

Children and Families Bill

Baroness Sharp of Guildford Excerpts

Monday 4th November 2013 Grand Committee

[The Deputy Chairman of Committees]

My Lords, if Amendment 137 is agreed, I cannot call Amendment 138 by reason of pre-emption.

[Baroness Sharp of Guildford (LD)]

My Lords, I shall speak to Amendments 138, 146, 166, 174, 205AA and 205AB, which are all in my name and in this group.

Amendments 138, 146, 166 and 174 pick up the issue spoken about by the noble Lord, Lord Touhig; namely, they are about age and the wording that one sees in, for example, Clause 36(10). Rather than eliminating Clause 36(10), we seek to replace,

“have regard to his or her age”,

with,

“ensure that he or she will have sufficient time and support in education to make a successful transition to adulthood”.

There is in fact a slight mistake in the Marshalled List, which reads “transfer” rather than “transition”. The amendments have the support of the Association of Colleges, Ambitious about Autism and the Association of National Specialist Colleges, Natspec.

The view of those organisations, and my view, is that the Bill genuinely wants to ensure that young people with special educational needs have all the opportunities that they need to get the best out of education. The publicity around it has made much of the nought-to-25 system that is being introduced. It has also made much of the need for personalisation, which the amendments reflect. The aim of the amendments is therefore to ensure that the individual needs of the young person are recognised through the planning process, and that decisions about continuing their learning are made on the basis of need rather than an artificial link to their age.

One of the points mentioned by the noble Lord, Lord Touhig, is that there has been something of a tendency to think that, because the ages 18 and 25 are mentioned, these are the appropriate points rather than anywhere between those two ages. We are concerned that parents will feel that they have to battle to get a place beyond 18 in order that their son or daughter may stay until they are 25, setting up perhaps inappropriate expectations that they will continue through to 25 when it might be more appropriate for them to move into looking after themselves at an earlier age.

There are many reasons why a young person with special educational needs might need to be in education beyond the age of 18. Their learning difficulty may mean that they take longer to learn, practise and consolidate their skills. They may need additional time to become more autonomous learners, moving away from a situation where support is very hands-on to support that promotes their independence. They may need to learn how to use technology that can support this autonomy. Young people with special educational needs often mature later than their peers, and it is not until they move into a more adult environment that they really make a step towards more effective learning and taking on greater responsibility.

They may acquire the information and understanding to make informed choices about their future only once they have moved beyond school. Take, for example, the case of Chris, who has Asperger’s syndrome and major communication issues. He switched to college at the age of 16. In supported learning at college, Chris gained the confidence and skills required to progress into mainstream education. He has completed the bronze Duke of Edinburgh award, which he started when he first joined the college. He also started, in supported learning, on a next steps course for two years, progressed to a level 1 foundation course in IT, has steadily worked his way through level 2 and level 3 and is now completing his UCAS statement, with the aim of going to university next September.

Time spent to ensure that young people are well prepared to move into adult life pays dividends for them, their families and, ultimately, for the public purse. The National Audit Office report, Oversight of Special Education for Young People Aged 16-25, which was published in November 2011, stated:

“Equipping a young person with the skills to live in semi-independent rather than fully supported housing could, in addition to quality-of-life improvements, reduce these lifetime support costs by around £1 million. Supporting one person with a learning disability into employment could, in addition to improving their independence and self-esteem, reduce lifetime costs to the public purse by around £170,000 and increase the person’s income by between 55 and 95 per cent. If properly focused and effective, therefore, investment in special education should provide long-term returns”.

I cite the example of Shaun. Shaun first studied on an ACE course, which is a transition programme, at college. He had very low self-confidence and complained about being bullied. Although matters were resolved, Shaun requested a move to another college. Shaun started off very quietly at the new college, but gradually built up his confidence and became more sociable and responsible through the year. After completing his year on the ACE course, he was confident enough to join a mainstream course. He then completed an entry award in motor vehicles, went straight into full-time employment in motor vehicles and is now self-supporting.

This set of amendments ensures that local authorities and others taking, or helping to take, decisions on behalf of those young people will focus on outcomes that support the transition to adulthood—the point made by the noble Lord, Lord Touhig. There is much evidence to show that a successful outcome is linked to an effective learning programme geared to the needs of the young person, not artificially linked to age. I believe that that is the basic intention behind the Bill and, in that respect, this set of amendments is wholly in line with it. I very much hope that the Minister will be sympathetic to them.

Amendments 205AA and 205AB relate to Clause 66, which enables the Secretary of State to collect and publish information on children and young people with special educational needs who are under the age of 19. The amendments would extend that provision to the age of 25. Once again, it is a question of recognising that many young people with special educational needs need help and support through to 25. If the Government are genuine in their intention to create a comprehensive nought-to-25 system, it must include arrangements to monitor the outcomes for 19 to 25 year-olds. Indeed, the success or otherwise of the Government’s policies in this area will ultimately be accurately and appropriately measured only in the education, employment and independent living achieved by young people in that age group.

Officials have suggested that the reluctance to include 19 to 25 year-olds is driven by a desire not to increase administrative burdens on colleges, which is a particular policy concern of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. However, the Association of Colleges, which has asked me to table the amendments, has stated its willingness for the age range to be extended. It is not clear that the extension would necessitate any new data collection, as it asks only that colleges report on existing data collected under the individualised learning record.

[Baroness Cumberlege (Con)]

My Lords, I have three amendments in this group. As this is the first time that I have taken part in Committee, although I took part on Second Reading, I have been told that I should declare my interests, which are in the Lords register. In particular, this afternoon, I should like to declare my non-pecuniary interest as the chairman of the trustees of the Chailey Heritage Foundation. The foundation is a non-maintained special independent school with a registered children’s home. It works in partnership with a clinical facility, run by the NHS on the same site, and it has just launched a transition service for 19 to 25 year-olds. Some of these young people will continue from Chailey and others will come from a much wider area. This is the group to which my amendment refers.

Seeing is worth a thousand words, so I am particularly grateful to my noble friend who, during the very precious Recess, came to meet the children, young people and staff at the foundation. His visit had a profound effect on those he met, and I think it is fair to say—I hope the Minister will agree—that the occasion was of mutual benefit. My noble friend met some very severely disabled young people. I was interested in the examples given by the noble Baroness, Lady Sharp. The young people at Chailey are not of that sort at all: they are much more severely disabled. However, they do well at school, within the limits of their disabilities; some have 15 or more medications a day and none of them can walk or power their wheelchair unaided. Our ambition for these young people is that, having had a very worthwhile, stimulating education, which Ofsted says is outstanding—something that we are very pleased about—they should then benefit from this education.

They have some understanding but very limited, or no, speech and have learnt to communicate through different means, often using sophisticated modern technology. They have acquired some knowledge of how to operate in society. We believe that they should participate in their own lives and not be consigned to a wasted life in a nursing or residential home. Despite their very complex needs, we have plans for four of our young people to move into assisted living and we are seeking some sort of employment for them, although we realise that it will be very limited. The noble Baroness, Lady Sharp, mentioned the National Audit Office review. I agree that saving money in the long term depends on the initial education of these young people. Semi-independent, rather than fully supported, housing can save considerable money in the long term.

I am grateful to the noble Lords, Lord Patel and Lord Low, and noble Baronesses, Lady Jones and Lady Hughes, for supporting Amendments 170, 171 and 173. I was hoping to see the name of the noble Lord, Lord Nash, on these amendments when we looked at today’s Marshalled List, but that may come in time. The amendments are very similar to others on the Marshalled List this afternoon. We all wish to see education, health and care plans continue, where appropriate, to the age of 25. I was encouraged by the follow-up letter, written by my noble friend after Second Reading, in which he recognised that some people with special educational needs require more time to complete their education beyond the age of 18: as we all know, they generally learn more slowly than other young people. Having been a Minister, I appreciate the Government’s concern about legislating.

We understand that there could be an expectation that every young person with SEN would have an entitlement to education up to the age of 25, regardless of whether they were ready to make or had already made a successful transition into adult life. Those of us who have brought up children, or worked with children and young people, know that our task is not complete by 19. The years between 19 and 25 are also very formative; it is a time of experimentation, finding limits and testing boundaries. We do not expect a 19 year-old to settle down into adult life or decide where they are going to live for the rest of their life. Young adults with complex needs are different, in that they require very intensive support. They have to make this transition and develop a sense of themselves as adults and what it means to be an adult. Creating the right environment to achieve an understanding of adult life is an important part of supporting development, and we believe that it is “educational” for those with complex needs.

--- Later in debate ---

With the reassurances that I have given on these issues, I hope that the noble Lord will feel able to withdraw his amendment.

[Baroness Sharp of Guildford]

My Lords, I am not totally happy with what the Minister has said. The funny phrase,

“must have regard to age”,

is used in quite a number of clauses. He seems to be saying, “We do not want to look at age, we want to look at a successful transition into adulthood”. I do not understand why the Minister prefers his wording to actually saying that we want a successful transition to adulthood. The Minister has made the point that it is not a question of going through to 25, it is a question of when, between the age of 18 and their 25th birthday, it is appropriate for them to move into independence. I therefore do not understand why he is rejecting an alternative form of wording.

On Amendments 205AA and 205AB, I need to go back and have a look at this more carefully. My understanding is that at the moment it is not proposed to collect the data, so I was interested to hear the Minister say that they will be collecting data. I thought that they were making a distinction between schools and colleges and that they were not proposing to collect the data from colleges.

Finally, in relation to the code of practice mentioned by the noble Baroness, Lady Wilkins, my understanding is that it is not very helpful. If the Minister could have another look at it, I would be grateful. I thank him for his reply and hope perhaps that he can reassure me that he might look again at the wording.

[Baroness Cumberlege]

My Lords, I echo what the noble Baroness, Lady Sharp, has just said. Try as I might, I am afraid that I am not totally reassured, but I am extremely grateful that the Minister has agreed to meet with those of us who have these concerns. I am sure my noble friend will appreciate that there is a very strong coalition across the Committee—I do not mean in government terms, but across the parties—and that he gets the feeling that we need to go a bit further on this. I look forward to meeting him in due course.

--- Later in debate ---

[Baroness Howarth of Breckland]

My Lords, I understand exactly what the Minister means about Section 17, but I cannot understand how that relates to this piece of the Bill. When we were discussing education with the previous Government, I remember being very forceful in saying to them, “You’re saying, ‘education, education, education’, but without ‘welfare, welfare, welfare’, children will not learn”. Unless we attend to the social care needs of children, particularly those children with disabilities, we know that they will not have the facility to learn. We know that unless there is help from specialists or social workers, if you have a child with serious behavioural problems at home, they will never get into ordinary school or even be able to survive properly in remedial school, and will end up in specialist residential care. That whole range of services will be needed as part of the social care package for those children.

As the noble Baroness, Lady Hughes, said, we are encouraging the Government to look at the whole, to get the thing together, to look at welfare alongside education and to look at how the two things interrelate. Those children will all have healthcare needs as well; very few children with those sorts of disabilities will not have healthcare needs. I thought that the Government wanted to pool all those services together in the interests of those young people.

Under Section 17, one would certainly not want children needing protection or suffering from neglect falling into a different priority; the local authority must look at them across the piece. I think that the word “must” helps them to do that, but having something in the Bill for those young people at least encourages local authorities to look at the whole.

[Baroness Sharp of Guildford]

My Lords, I have added my name to Amendment 164 and I endorse what has been said on this issue by the noble Baronesses, Lady Hollins, Lady Hughes and Lady Howarth. The aim of the Bill is to create not just a special educational needs statement but something that embraces health and social care as well. It is absolutely right that we should put social care on a par with health. Clause 42(3) states:

“If a plan specifies health care provision, the responsible commissioning body must arrange the specified health care provision for the child or young person”.

The other place insisted that this subsection should be included, so it seems right that social care should be put on a par with healthcare and education in the Bill.

[Lord Nash]

My Lords, I would like to respond to this group of amendments regarding the placing of a legal requirement on local authorities to secure the social care provision specified in EHC plans. I welcome the opportunity to debate this important issue and I understand the desire to ensure that our most vulnerable children and young people receive the support that they need and are able to seek redress where necessary. I thank the noble Lord, Lord Low, my noble friends Lady Gardner and Lady Sharp and the noble Baronesses, Lady Hollins, Lady Hughes and Lady Howarth, for speaking on this matter. However, as my honourable friend the Minister for Children and Families noted in the other place, there are already important protections for children and young people aged under 18 in the existing legislative framework for social care support. That is provided in Section 17 of the Children Act 1989, and for disabled children under Section 2 of the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act 1970. Both these Acts will still apply alongside the measures being introduced in the Bill.

--- Later in debate ---

[Lord Nash]

I am grateful to both noble Baronesses for their interruptions. As I said in my letter—and will now elaborate on a little—the reason is that we do not wish to imbalance the system so that giving children EHC plans results in deprioritising other children, given a climate of limited resources, which we all know —I hope—that we live in.

It is expected that any social care service specified in the EHC plan will be provided. We do not want to create a situation where local authorities specify only a bare minimum of services, because they cannot know the precise resource constraints that may apply in the future.

Noble Lords will be aware that the Bill places a duty on health commissioners—taking the point of the noble Baroness, Lady Howarth—to deliver the health elements of an EHC plan. As part of the SEN reforms, the Government have agreed to take specific action to protect children and young people with EHC plans within the newly reformed NHS. The education and health services are universal and it makes sense that there should be equivalent duties to provide the services in EHC plans. On the other hand, social care support for children in need is targeted only at those with greater needs, of whom disabled children form a significant proportion. As I said in my letter, to which the noble Baroness, Lady Hughes, referred:

“There is a greater risk that an individually owned social care duty for children with EHC plans will adversely affect other vulnerable children whose needs could be deprioritised, such as those needing child protection services or young carers”.

Social workers must be free to consider family, educational, social and environmental circumstances and local eligibility criteria when determining which services to provide. Local authorities with finite resources must be able to prioritise appropriately those children and young people with the greatest needs, whether or not they are disabled or have SEN.

[Baroness Sharp of Guildford]

I apologise for interrupting the Minister again. The amendments concerned say that it is where the plan specifies social care; it is not an open sesame to any sort of social care. If what is specified can be overruled anyhow, what is the point of having a plan that specifies it?

[Lord Nash]

As I have said, there are very significant duties around disabled children. The plan is not intended to affect that. Amendments 162, 163 and 164 would prevent such local decision-making, to which I have just referred, creating an individually owed duty prioritising the social care needs of children with SEN over the social care needs of other children in need.

Similarly, Amendments 143 and 144A should not stand. Social care provision is defined deliberately broadly in the Bill. Clause 21(4) includes any provision required under the Children Act 1989 or the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act 1970 and therefore will be included in the design of the local offer. It is only where that provision is reasonably required by the learning difficulty or disability of a child or young person that it will have to be included in the EHC plan.

Amendments 143 and 144A would require any services provided under the 1970 Act to be included in the EHC plan. However, the vast majority of services for disabled children that are provided under the 1970 Act will be reasonably required by the learning difficulty or disability of the child and therefore must be included in the EHC plan anyway.

On Amendment 143, moved by the noble Lord, Lord Low, we are not convinced that there should be a requirement that all services provided under Section 2 of the 1970 Act must be included in EHC plans regardless of individual circumstances. EHC plans are for children and young people with learning difficulties or a disability that gives rise to special educational needs. Where this also gives rise to health and care needs, that must be included in plans so that a co-ordinated approach can be taken across services. Where there are unrelated health or social care needs, it may or may not be appropriate to also include them in an EHC plan, for example, depending on whether the child or young person would benefit from a co-ordinated service response. I believe that those decisions should be left to local professionals, in full consultation with children, their parents and young people.

At the same time, Amendment 144A would remove the important discretion the Bill gives to the local authority to decide whether provision made under Section 17 of the Children Act should be included in the plan, where it is unrelated to the child or young person’s learning difficulty or disability. This discretion is essential as there may be circumstances where the children’s interests that we are trying to meet require that we do not bind the hands of local services in this respect—for example, where there is provision related to child protection, which is highly sensitive and is not always appropriate to include in an EHC plan. Whether or not social care provision is linked to the learning difficulty or disability of the child or young person, it will continue to be provided in accordance with existing legislation.

Concerning my noble friend Lady Gardner’s point about there being a possible gap between adult and children’s social care, I reassure her that young people aged 18 and over who are eligible for adult social care will, under provisions set out in the Care Bill, have a statutory care plan. For young people with SEN, our intention is that this should form the care element of the EHC plan. Both Bills contain provisions that will significantly improve the transition between children’s and adult social care. In view of what I have said, I urge the noble Lord to withdraw his amendment.

--- Later in debate ---

[Lord Lingfield]

My Lords, I have one amendment in this group, which is to Clause 37(5). It is to provide a standard form of education, health and care plan rather than use the more discretionary wording of the Bill. At the moment—and this touches on the point made by the noble Lord, Lord Touhig, concerning passports for special educational needs—statements are in a standard form. If there is no similar standard form for education, health and care plans they will surely be subject to each local authority’s drafting preferences. As a result, EHC plans may not be in a consistent format and may vary widely in their level of detail. This could cause confusion and difficulty for parents and young people, especially if they move from one local authority to another. Relocation of this kind, under current economic circumstances, is becoming extremely common.

Your Lordships will have noticed, in relation to Clause 30, and the local offer, that there are strong arguments for a consistent national framework for the key tenets of the new system of assessment and provision brought in by the Bill. In addition—as the Minister reminded us when we debated Amendment 71—in his appearance before the Education Select Committee on 6 November last year my honourable friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families stated:

“The first thing I want to be absolutely clear about is that the current protections that parents and young people have in the current statementing system are intended to be carried forward into the new system”.

In the spirit of this, and as I sought to express in this amendment, I believe that these key duties relating to statements should remain the same for EHC plans, and that, in particular, the requirement for a standard form, and the duty to be specific about provision, should remain. I hope that the Minister will be sympathetic to this.

[Baroness Sharp of Guildford]

My Lords, my name is added to that of the noble Baroness, Lady Howe, for Amendment 147 and I endorse what she has said on this issue. Statements for special educational needs require an educational psychologist to endorse them and it is obviously sensible and important that this should be extended to the post-18 age group. I probably also should have put my name to Amendment 168 because the argument there is just as cogent and important.

While I am on my feet, I should say that I have a lot of sympathy with the amendment in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Lingfield. As he said, as we have a set format for statements of special educational needs, it would seem sensible for it to be carried forward in relation to the EHC plans.

[Lord Addington (LD)]

My Lords, perhaps I may very briefly add a few words of support, particularly to the last amendment in this group. Good transference of these provisions around the country would be an opportunity for the Government to deal with a fairly ancient wrong. It has always been difficult and has always been seen as too difficult, but if we can embrace it now we will go forward and take on board something which runs through a lot of this legislation; namely, that it has genuine cross-party awareness and support at heart. Even if this amendment is not perfect—even the noble Lord can make an error in drafting—I hope that we can say something positive in this regard. If we can go forward and see how it can be addressed in the future, that would help everyone and would probably make people’s lives a little bit easier.

--- Later in debate ---

Moved by

[Baroness Sharp of Guildford]

176: Clause 49, page 36, line 14, leave out “must” and insert “may”

[Baroness Sharp of Guildford]

My Lords, I shall speak also to Amendments 177 and 179 in my name. In Clause 49, we move to the issue of personal budgets and direct payments. The purpose of these amendments is to probe issues concerning direct payments and personal budgets. The Bill provides an entitlement for schools or colleges to make representations to the local authority when it is considering making a direct payment to a child or a parent. The amendment provides an alarm for local authorities to be able to exercise a judgment about whether to make an individual payment.

Clause 49 gives the parent a statutory right to require the local authority to prepare a personal budget and to meet direct payments, even in circumstances where the school or college does not think that this would be sensible or justified in terms of efficiency or economy. This is not to disparage the vital contribution that parents make, but to suggest that there will be occasions when their wishes would not necessarily be in the best interests of their children or reasonable in the context of an efficient and cost-effective system.

The case has not been made in the pathfinders that the introduction of direct payments to parents will help children with special educational needs. The evaluation of the pathfinders shows that the demand for direct SEN payments to parents has been extremely low. The evaluation states that many commentators are apprehensive about the extent to which this testing should be rolled out to a wider population. Of the 290 direct payments across the 14 case study sites in the pathfinders, 270 out of 290 dealt only with school personal transport. That means that there has been no investigation of the feasibility or desirability of making direct payments to parents for educational elements of the provision, such as the deployment of a special teaching assistant.

The pathfinder information pack acknowledges that personal budgets are more established in social care and health settings than in educational settings. The pathfinders themselves found that schools, colleges and parents were often confused about which elements of funding, in an educational context, could be used as a personal budget to give families more choice and control. The reasons cited for poor take-up are the challenges and complexities in the direct payments offer. Personal transport budgets were in fact by far the easiest to disaggregate. The pathfinder information pack acknowledges that it is essential to have a good market development strategy in place.

A remaining concern for teachers is that the fragmentation of budgets will have a detrimental effect on the viability and quality of services which pupils need to access, and will lead to a lottery of appropriate SEN provision. Teachers are also concerned about the loss of the quality assurance role carried out by local authorities and do not believe that giving individual packets of money to individual parents is the most cost-effective way to deliver the provision to meet needs. The case for direct payments, they feel, has not been proven by the pathfinders.

The warning in the evaluation report that there are reservations about the extent to which testing can be rolled out to a wider population needs to be carefully heeded. Teachers continue to have significant concerns. In a recent survey, 65% of SENCOs—the special educational needs co-ordinators in schools—were concerned about allowing parents to control funding for SEN provision. That is not because teachers fail to recognise the essential role of parents, or their unparalleled knowledge of their child’s individual needs and aptitudes; it is because teachers also recognise that teachers, schools and parents must work as equal partners, with the professional judgments and expertise of teachers respected and valued alongside the contribution from families.

The pathfinders have not, it seems, proven that to be an option that parents are demanding or which teachers have confidence can work, or will benefit the children with special educational needs whom they teach. Demand for direct SEN payments has been low, and many children’s charities believe that the introduction of individual payments will further accelerate the disintegration of specialist services, such as the support services for deaf children, which the Council for Disabled Children is campaigning to save in different local authorities. The case that direct payments will support the SEN reforms in a meaningful way has not yet been proven. I beg to move.

--- Later in debate ---

[Lord Nash]

I think I will have to respond to the noble Baroness in more detail. I think the top and bottom of her point is that we will try to do it in the timescale, but I understand that that may not be possible. I will come back to her on this.

[Baroness Sharp of Guildford]

I am very grateful to the Minister for his reassurances, about the role that school or college principals might play when direct payments are proposed and it is not necessarily in the interests of either the child or economy and efficiency to proceed along that route, and that the process of decision-making will be an explicit one.

I am also glad to have the assurance that, when decisions are made, they will take account of the pathfinders and that the process will not be put into effect until the full evaluation has been made. I welcome government Amendment 269 implementing the recommendations of the Delegated Powers Committee relating to the positive agreement of the House that we should go forward with this. In the light of this, I beg leave to withdraw the amendment.

Amendment 176 withdrawn.

Children and Families Bill

Baroness Sharp of Guildford Excerpts

Wednesday 23rd October 2013 Grand Committee

[Lord Ramsbotham (CB)]

My Lords, I, too, have not tabled any particular amendment, but I was minded to contribute by the tone of the Minister’s Amendment 241A, and what has been said about that. I entirely endorse all the positive things that have been said about what is happening, and the remarks about the noble Lord, Lord Storey, and my noble friend Lord Northbourne. I want to concentrate on the other children, as well, because this is all concentrating on one very small part of the population of the school.

I refer the Committee to Clause 19, on which the initial contribution by my noble friend Lord Low was made. It is headed, “Local authority functions: general principles”, and the next line says, “Local authority functions: supporting and involving children and young people”. Paragraph (d) refers to,

“the need to support the child and his or her parent, or the young person, in order to facilitate the development of the child or young person and to help him or her achieve the best possible educational and other outcomes”.

It does not differentiate between any of the children; we are talking about all our children.

When we are considering this Bill, special educational needs are mentioned—but if you look at the numbers with those needs, you can see that it comes to about 2.8% of our children. Another 16% are subject to school action and school action plus, which means that 81.2% of our population are not being considered by what we are doing. That worries me.

I declare two interests, one as chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Speech and Language Difficulties. We have just done a report on the link between social disadvantage and speech, language and communication needs. That follows work that I did as Chief Inspector of Prisons and, later, on the number of people in young offender institutions who were found to have speech, language and communication needs. Clause 19(d) seems to require a duty for every child to be prepared to be able to engage with education so that they can get their best possible educational and other outcomes. That of course includes all those who have problems in gaining that entry into education. It may be that there is a physical or a mental problem. Later, I want to introduce something that has come up in my second context, as chairman of the Criminal Justice and Acquired Brain Injury Group, which is doing a huge amount of work on neurodisability. That is different from learning disability, which tends to be associated with congenital conditions, whereas a neurodisability can result from all sorts of other things, including acquired brain injury and the neurodevelopment of a child.

I come to my second question for the Minister. Surely what we are talking about here comes under the overall umbrella of child development. We are talking about the problems of child development for a particular group at this moment, in this group of amendments. However, when I look at the overall conduct of child development, I am mightily confused about where the Government stand on this. Who is the Minister for Child Development? If you look at what comes later in the Bill, on the 0 to 25 pathways, you can see that only one organisation is responsible for someone from 0 to 25. That is a local health and well-being board, which has nothing to do with the Department for Education or the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, or whatever it is called, and nothing to do with the Home Office, the Ministry of Justice or the Department for Communities and Local Government. It is a healthcare organisation.

If you look at the start of the journey for child development, the early years foundation stage, that, too, is the responsibility of the NHS, which is responsible for doing the assessment on which the judgment is made as to whether a child has a learning difficulty, a learning disability or whatever. I therefore endorse entirely what the noble Baroness, Lady Brinton, said about oversight and what my noble friend Lady Howarth said about the need to have the details here. We are talking about things that concern us greatly, not just today but for tomorrow.

We must be concerned about what the Government’s plan is for the oversight and the conduct of all these things that we are talking about. I do not know whether everyone has read in detail the code of practice that came out. It is full of sentences that start, “Local authorities must…”, but there is no indication of how that “must” is to be overseen, who is to do it, who is to fund it or what the “must” is—there are just lots of “musts”. My experience as a soldier is that unless someone is actually responsible and accountable for making things happen, nothing will happen.

Judging by the content of the amendments, we are going to hear masses of good sense and good advice, all based on experience, which will make our children better. What worries me is that all that will go nowhere unless the Government have an overall construct for the oversight and introduction of all the things that we are going to talk about. I would be very grateful to hear from the Minister exactly where the Government stand on delivering that.

[Baroness Sharp of Guildford (LD)]

My Lords, my name is attached to Amendment 87 along with that of the noble Lord, Lord Low. It relates to Clause 25, which is about the integration of local authority services with health services and care services. It comes back to the whole issue of disability as well as medical conditions and so forth. This was the subject of the noble Lord’s initial presentation on Amendment 65B, which led this whole group, and it is an important issue. The problem is that Clause 25 says firmly:

“A local authority in England must”—

just as the noble Lord, Lord Ramsbotham, was saying—

“exercise its functions under this Part with a view to ensuring the integration of special educational provision with health care provision and social care provision, where it thinks that this would … promote the well-being of children or young people in its area who have special educational needs”.

Again, disability is not mentioned there. I do not want us to lose, amid the other things, the need to cater for those with disabilities, as the noble Baroness, Lady Grey-Thompson, made clear. There are features here that are very important but are not covered. They are covered better in the code of practice but the Bill itself does not mention them, and it is very important that we do not forget them.

Children and Families Bill

Baroness Sharp of Guildford Excerpts

Tuesday 2nd July 2013 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Sharp of Guildford]

My Lords, I, too, welcome the broad thrust of this Bill. It is a wide-ranging Bill with much in it to welcome. As always, the devil is in the detail. As the Minister made clear, it is a Bill that, unusually, comes to us having had considerable scrutiny in the other place, partly as a result of the work done in this House by the Select Committee on Adoption Legislation, and the adoption clauses have taken much that it recommended. Parts 6, 7 and 8, on paternal leave with flexibility and so forth, mentioned by my noble friend Lady Perry, owe a great deal to my honourable friend Jo Swinson in the other place.

As is the case with many noble Lords, my interest in the Bill centres on Part 3 and special educational needs. This is because I have been for some time a governor of a primary school in Guildford with responsibility for special educational needs. As such, I shared the frustration of my honourable friend Sarah Teather when she was the Minister responsible for special educational needs at the Department for Education and published the Green Paper, Support and Aspiration, which preceded this Bill. She said that the aim is to stop the agonising battle that parents face in going from pillar to post to get the support they need.

Now we have these education, health and care plans which are to replace statements and aim to provide the joined-up thinking and action that have so often been absent in the present policies. These plans are now, where appropriate, to apply to all children from pre-school through to 25, an extension which I welcome particularly because we all know that early intervention, if possible, can be the most effective action. Many of us have seen cases of young people leaving school or college at 16 or 18 who have sorely needed extra support and help and have not had it.

I am concerned, however, about the group of children who are currently classed as having special educational needs but do not merit a statement—those who are under school action or school action plus, as it is called. They are in the majority because of the 1.4 million children in this country classified as having special educational needs, 85% are under school action or school action plus and will not get statements. Can the Minister clarify the situation? My understanding is that, as now, the school will be responsible for providing services for these people and, in particular, it will be for the SENCOs mentioned by the noble Baroness, Lady Morris, to make sure that these young people receive the services they need.

Many primary schools, such as my own, concentrate now on individual learning plans and some very good, school-based plans are put into action. However, this puts a great deal of emphasis on the training of the SENCOs and teachers in schools to be much more knowledgeable about special educational needs, a point mentioned by my noble friend Lord Storey. We need to be aware that these young people will still have needs that need to be addressed by the school and that the school will not necessarily receive the support from the local authority that it has had in the past. I understand that schools will be able to use the local offer outlined in Clause 30 but that local authorities do not have any longer a responsibility for providing specialist services to the schools which have backed up the SENCOs. I wonder whether this will cause some gaps in services that we ought to be aware of and consider.

Like others, I welcome the idea of joined-up thinking and the bringing together of health, social care and educational needs. In the past, in my experience, there have been many letdowns on the health side. We have not had the speech therapy or educational psychology support that we have wanted from the National Health Service. I am delighted that it now has a duty. I echo those who have suggested that there ought also to be a duty to provide on the social care front and I would like to see that.

I am worried about the local offer under which the local authority has to set out information about the education, health and social care services it expects to be available locally. However, there is no requirement on local agencies to provide these specific services and I share the doubts expressed by many of those who have been briefing us as to whether, given the financial pressures on local authorities and the general running down of their education departments, local authorities will be in a position to offer a comprehensive spread of services. The Select Committee in the other place called for minimum standards to be put in place for this local offer and I wonder whether the Minister can tell us whether the department is minded to heed this recommendation.

I am particularly concerned about the position of further education, where there seems to be a number of barriers in the way of creating the seamless transition to which we all aspire. One such barrier is finance. The new funding system which came into play this year is proving exceptionally difficult and complicated to deal with. Many colleges are finding it extremely time consuming. They often have to negotiate funding on an almost student-by-student basis. This is very awkward, especially when they are dealing with a number of local authorities. Can the Minister give any assurance that these funding issues will be resolved before the new education, health and care plans come into operation next year?

There is also a question as to why the words “must have regard to the young person’s age” are used several times in the Bill in clauses relating to financial decisions about support for those over 18. The danger with such words is that they provide, as some have put it, a get-out clause for local authorities in denying a young person the particular support services that they need—for example, special support on transport or something of that kind.

I wish to say a brief word about specialist colleges—the group of colleges, residential and non-residential, which provides specialist services for people with specific disabilities, such as the deaf and the blind. They are often centres of excellence in dealing with disabilities which require high levels of support. They are pleased to see Clause 41, which places responsibility on the Secretary of State to draw up a list of accredited independent and specialist providers that young people and their parents can choose to access. Can the Minister provide any details about when this list will be drawn up; what criteria will be used in selecting who is on it; and whether there will be any appeal procedures for those institutions that do not appear on the list but feel that they should?

Finally, I am not clear why higher education has been excluded from these proposals. If the education, health and care plans are to apply to all those studying in further education up to the age of 25, why do they not apply to students in higher education? There would be many benefits if these plans continued through university, including avoiding the need for further reassessment and assuring everyone that co-ordinated support continues for young people even when they move away from home. It is entirely logical for universities to be included within the same framework.