Multi-academy Trusts

Lord Foulkes of Cumnock Excerpts

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

Lord Foulkes of Cumnock Excerpts

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.

Education and Training

Lord Foulkes of Cumnock Excerpts

Monday 15th October 2018 Lords Chamber

[Lord Watson of Invergowrie (Lab)]

My Lords, one of the issues on which the Government’s ongoing post-2018 review of education will focus is how to deliver the skills the country needs as we enter unknown terrain when we leave the European Union.

[Lord Foulkes of Cumnock (Lab)]

If we leave.

[Lord Watson of Invergowrie]

I defer to my noble friend Lord Foulkes. In a debate in your Lordships’ House in July, the Minister’s colleague, the noble Viscount, Lord Younger, said that the review panel’s interim report would be published at some point this year. Can the Minister be more specific about when we can expect to hear the initial thoughts of the people charged with the important task of mapping a route that links schools, apprenticeships, further education, higher education and industry with a view to filling the skills gaps now and into the future?

Apprenticeships: Disabled Students

Lord Foulkes of Cumnock Excerpts

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.

Fire Safety: Schools

Lord Foulkes of Cumnock Excerpts

Monday 3rd July 2017 Lords Chamber

[Lord Nash]

My noble friend makes an extremely sensible suggestion. We will have to wait on this, but the DCLG has set up an independent expert advisory panel to advise the Government on any immediate measures needed to make buildings safe. That panel met for a full day last Thursday.

[Lord Foulkes of Cumnock (Lab)]

My Lords, what discussions has the Minister or any of his colleagues had with his counterparts in Scotland to exchange experiences north and south of the border and advice? Here is another sensible suggestion: if he has not had any meetings so far, will he do so now?

[Lord Nash]

We have had conversations on this, particularly in relation to recent events and to universities, but I will look more closely to see whether there is more we can learn.

Academies: Sponsors

Lord Foulkes of Cumnock Excerpts

Thursday 21st July 2016 Lords Chamber

[Lord Nash]

To be clear, academies have exactly the same duties over admissions and exclusions in relation to pupils with SEND as every other state school, with no evidence to show that academies are any more likely to act against the interests of SEND pupils and prospective pupils than any other maintained streamed schools. It is perfectly clear that a great many academy sponsors are involved simply because they wish to benefit those less advantaged pupils. Where evidence is presented to us, we will take the matter very seriously and investigate.

[Lord Foulkes of Cumnock (Lab)]

My Lords, now that the Minister has been in post for quite a while and has been reappointed as Under-Secretary of State at the Department for Education, will he explain to the House how he is managing to reconcile the potential conflict of interest between his role as a Minister and his and his wife’s roles as directors of the Future Academies trust?

[Lord Nash]

We have a very clear protocol established with the Civil Service which means that I am not allowed to be involved in any decisions that may directly affect the Future Academies trust.

Schools: Free Schools

Lord Foulkes of Cumnock Excerpts

Monday 26th October 2015 Lords Chamber

[Lord Foulkes of Cumnock (Lab)]

My Lords, will the Minister declare whether he has any interests in this matter?

[Lord Nash]

I have great interest. It is my job and I am also chairman of an academy chain which has sponsored a free school.

Schools: Academies

Lord Foulkes of Cumnock Excerpts

Monday 27th October 2014 Lords Chamber

[Lord Nash]

I am confident of that. Since this Government came into power we have halved the cost of running the Department for Education, halved the cost of building schools, and reduced by more than one-third the cost of opening sponsored academies.

[Lord Foulkes of Cumnock (Lab)]

My Lords, since we have time, could the Minister now try to answer the question posed by my noble friend Baroness Jones?

[Lord Nash]

I believe I did answer that question.

Education: Black British Students

Lord Foulkes of Cumnock Excerpts

Tuesday 8th April 2014 Lords Chamber

[Lord Nash]

As I say, I would like to think that this was a thing of the past. However, in order to improve teaching leaders—

[Lord Foulkes of Cumnock (Lab)]

Reading!

[Lord Nash]

One could say that was a fair cop, but I think I am entitled to. The Teach First programme, which we have quadrupled, the Teaching Leaders scheme and the Future Leaders scheme, along with the Talented Leaders programme that we are shortly to introduce, should all ensure that we raise the standard of teaching and that any prejudice in this regard is a thing of the past.

Education: Academy Chains

Lord Foulkes of Cumnock Excerpts

Wednesday 15th January 2014 Lords Chamber

[Lord Nash]

I entirely share my noble friend’s sentiment. We should be praising philanthropists like my noble friend Lord Harris and encouraging more of them into the academies programme, as we are attempting to do. In 2013 the Audit Commission carried out a survey of annual detected fraud and corruption within local authorities and reported 191 cases of fraud in schools. My department is considering what we can do about improving procedures in local authorities in relation to this.

[Lord Foulkes of Cumnock (Lab)]

My Lords, what are the arrangements for the trustees and directors of these companies declaring their interests?

[Lord Nash]

My Lords, it is absolutely clear that both trustees and directors of these companies must declare their interests in the accounts.