Schools: Substance Abuse Education

Debate between Lord Brooke of Alverthorpe and Lord Nash

Monday 2nd February 2015 Lords Chamber

[Lord Nash]

I agree entirely with my noble friend that parents have a role to play. We have our CANparent trials. One thing that is very important for parents to instil into their children is a sense of routine, particularly in the evenings and late at night.

[Lord Brooke of Alverthorpe (Lab)]

Is the noble Lord aware that, according to the latest figures, the number of young people presenting with alcohol problems at A&E has increased? Is he also aware—and this is hearsay—that people who do talks at schools say that when they make approaches to speak on drugs, alcohol and other mental health problems, they often get a warmer reception and greater welcome in the private sector than at state schools, where their approaches do not get a similar response?

[Lord Nash]

It is true that figures show that alcohol abuse among young people of school age is down, but that may not be the case for those in their late teens or early 20s. On the noble Lord’s point about the private sector, we are trying to make sure that all state schools have an active extracurricular programme so that these kinds of extracurricular courses are well attended.

Schools: Free Schools

Debate between Lord Brooke of Alverthorpe and Lord Nash

Wednesday 14th May 2014 Lords Chamber

[Lord Nash]

I take note of the noble Lord’s point. I think it is very unlikely that my two noble friends to whom he referred would ever get prematurely overexcited. However, I note the point that he makes on timing.

[Lord Brooke of Alverthorpe (Lab)]

The Minister said that if a free school fails the Government will take swift and decisive action. Can he tell the House what that would be?

[Lord Nash]

Noble Lords will know that we have closed one and a half free schools with a total of 200 pupils and we have created so far 150,000 new free school places, and so this needs to be seen in that context. We have also brought other management into one particular free school.

School Pupils: English Speakers

Debate between Lord Brooke of Alverthorpe and Lord Nash

Monday 3rd March 2014 Lords Chamber

[Lord Nash]

The noble Baroness is quite right that teaching assistants can play a vital role, particularly in this area. As we have discussed, the use of teaching assistants can sometimes not be done well—but, properly used, they are vital. We believe that it is for the head teachers to decide how they employ teaching assistants. It is entirely a matter for them.

[Lord Brooke of Alverthorpe (Lab)]

The House will be grateful to the noble Lord the Minister for the statistics that he has given us. More importantly, what is the estimate of the number of children who are now going to school who cannot eat properly, have not been toilet trained properly and cannot cope with healthy foods by comparison with what they are accustomed to eating? What are the Government doing to help parents to train those children to make sure that they have a better standard and to stop the closure of the Sure Start centres, which were aimed at trying to prevent that difficulty?

[Lord Nash]

The noble Lord is quite right that we unfortunately see an increasing number of pupils entering primary school with very challenging social skills. Primary teachers and assistants have to spend several terms socialising them. Meals are very important, which is why we have introduced compulsory meals. On early years training, in fact we have invested substantially in early years and continue to support childminding.