Multi-academy Trusts

Debate between Lord Agnew of Oulton and Lord Foulkes of Cumnock

Wednesday 10th July 2019 Lords Chamber

[Lord Agnew of Oulton]

My Lords, an academy trust is a single legal entity, so the individual schools are part of that. But the noble Baroness is quite correct that there is a full external audit carried out on academy trusts every year. That is unlike local authority schools, where the average frequency of audit is about every four years, so I can assure her that the scrutiny is far higher than for local authority schools.

[Lord Foulkes of Cumnock (Lab Co-op)]

My Lords, what arrangements have the Minister’s department made to ensure that assessment of the financial arrangements and auditing of the Inspiration Trust are fully independent?

[Lord Agnew of Oulton]

My Lords, for those who do not know, I was the founding chairman of the Inspiration Trust, so I am fairly familiar with it. When I took on this post, I agreed with both the ethics committee in the Cabinet Office and with the Department for Education that I would have no say in any decisions made about that trust. I resigned both as a trustee and as a member and have had nothing to do with any governance decisions from the department. The noble Lord shakes his head; I am afraid he is absolutely wrong. I have had no oversight of that trust since I became a government Minister.

Social Mobility: Regional Attainment Gap

Debate between Lord Agnew of Oulton and Lord Foulkes of Cumnock

Tuesday 26th February 2019 Lords Chamber

[Lord Agnew of Oulton]

My Lords, we are investing more in child care support than any other Government—around £6 billion for the year 2019-20. This includes funding for our free early education entitlements, on which we plan to spend £3.5 billion this year alone. The noble Baroness will also be aware of the great efforts we are making around phonics, which are leading to a dramatic improvement for young people. Some 163,000 young children are now able to read at a higher level; that is more than the population of Norwich.

[Lord Foulkes of Cumnock (Lab Co-op)]

Can the Minister investigate how this country is being held to ransom by a number of dangerous former pupils of a school called Eton College?

[Lord Agnew of Oulton]

I get the sense that the noble Lord does not approve of that great institution—but even his party has had many leaders from it.

Apprenticeships: Disabled Students

Debate between Lord Agnew of Oulton and Lord Foulkes of Cumnock

Monday 15th January 2018 Lords Chamber

[Lord Agnew of Oulton]

My Lords, at the heart of the reforms that we have introduced over the past year has been listening to the needs of employers: they have a strong voice in the way in which the apprenticeship courses are created. We now have a system of standards that has a much higher level of rigour than existed beforehand. We have end-point assessments, which mean that employers are able to see that the quality of individual apprenticeships is to a standard that meets their needs. This is assisted by the new institute that we have created, the Institute for Apprenticeships, which has a direct mandate to listen to employers. In relation to disadvantaged groups in society, one of the most impressive statistics is that there are 530,000 more disabled people in work today than in 2014.

[Lord Foulkes of Cumnock (Lab)]

My Lords, do the Government provide any apprenticeships for Ministers before they are appointed to the Lords?

[Lord Agnew of Oulton]

My Lords, unfortunately not—and I speak from experience. More broadly, the Government have mandated that 2.3% of all employees who go into government should come from apprenticeships, and are leading the charge in the programme. I was not one of them, unfortunately.