Skills and Post-16 Education Bill [HL]

Lord Lingfield Excerpts

Committee stage
Thursday 15th July 2021 Lords Chamber

I do not know whether my noble kinsman thinks that this is exactly the same thing that he is implying, but I look forward to finding out. I beg to move.

[Lord Lingfield (Con)]

My Lords, I shall speak to Amendments 43, 44, 45 and 46 and, in doing so, remind noble Lords of my registered interest as chairman of the Chartered Institution for Further Education, which is a growing Russell-type group of the most distinguished FE colleges in the country.

Briefly, this amendment adds a requirement for institutions to review, from time to time, how well they are meeting the special educational needs of students in their areas. I read the guidance published after I put down my amendment, and it makes a short reference to special educational needs and disabilities, as did the Minister, my noble friend Lady Berridge, in her reply at the end of Second Reading.

The role of further education colleges in developing SEND provision is central to ensuring that those who have the most significant barriers to learning improve their life chances and are given the opportunity to develop new skills, establish independence and contribute to the local economy.

The parents of special needs students find that the best further education colleges provide their sons and daughters with safe, productive and supportive environments in which they can have confidence. I have been struck by the readiness of FE student bodies to welcome special needs colleagues and to extend friendship and help to them.

The best colleges are very good also at progressing special needs and disabled learners into employment. These institutions encourage close co-operation with local employers to provide work experience opportunities for SEND learners, often by supported internships.

All these young people gradually become less reliant on local support services and acquire an ongoing sense of achievement and self-esteem. Many develop a special level of expertise in certain vocational areas and are welcome additions to the local workforces in their areas.

In the past few years, far more companies have become more sensitive to the needs of disabled employees. There is no regulation in this country that requires the employment of a quota of staff with special needs, as there is in certain European countries, but I know a number of firms that have made the gratifying effort to ask colleges to steer disabled students in their direction.

We tend to think of FE students with some kind of special needs as being in a very small minority. Last week, I received the statistics from four excellent colleges in various parts of the country. They support the figures quoted briefly on Second Reading of around 20% of students requiring special support, rising to 25% of those under 19 years old.

For far too long, further education has been, as my noble friend Lady Berridge underlined earlier this afternoon, the Cinderella of this country’s education service, underfunded and often neglected as it has been. Too much of its provision has become mediocre today. If that were not so, this Bill would not have been necessary. The Government have woken up, at last, to the fact that high-quality vocational education is absolutely essential to our country’s competitive performance in a post-Brexit world, and all this is very welcome indeed.

However, too many colleges have still to improve, and as special needs and disabled students’ numbers are visibly on the increase, the regular legal requirement for review of the needs of SEND students becomes even more needed. With such a considerable proportion of the FE student population in this category, it is clear that we owe them a special duty of care. It is my view that the face of the Bill should reflect this in the way my amendments make apparent.

[The Deputy Chairman of Committees (Lord Lexden) (Con)]

My Lords, the next three speakers—the noble Lords, Lord Adonis, Lord Young of Norwood Green and Lord Liddle—have all withdrawn from the debate, so I call the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Durham.

--- Later in debate ---

[The Deputy Chairman of Committees (Lord Lexden) (Con)]

I have received one request to speak after the Minister from the noble Lord, Lord Lingfield.

[Lord Lingfield (Con)]

My Lords, I am grateful to my noble friend for her reply. I understand the Government’s views. I particularly thank my noble friend and kinsman Lord Addington for his support. He is one of the House’s experts in the area of special needs and always worth listening to. However, it is a sad fact that not all further education colleges and suppliers of further education are up to the level of the very best ones, and a regular review, clearly required by the Act instead of being hidden in guidance and regulation, would be an important incentive to those that are mediocre to improve their offering to these vulnerable young people. I hope that my noble friend might think again, and I hope to return to this at the next stage of the Bill, but I shall not press my amendments.

[Baroness Penn (Con)]

My Lords, I think we are in agreement on the importance of special educational needs being included in the reviews undertaken by providers. The noble Lord, Lord Watson, asked what the point of the provision of this clause is. The regular production and publication of these reviews might enable noble Lords and others to hold colleges more easily to account on how they have taken on that guidance, which is clear that the special educational needs of students have to be taken into account, and how they have taken that on in the conduct of their own reviews. I am sure that many colleges do an excellent job in that respect, but the additional transparency of having these reviews produced and published on a regular basis will aid in that job.

Secondary Schools: Arts Subjects

Lord Lingfield Excerpts

Monday 7th June 2021 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Berridge (Con)]

My Lords, in relation to input, DCMS recently did a taking-part survey and well over 90% of students have taken part in some kind of cultural activity, ranging from carnivals to music. It is a specific criterion of many programmes, such as the National Youth Dance Company and the national youth music orchestras, to include children with special education needs.

[Lord Lingfield (Con)]

My Lords, is my noble friend aware that, whereas 85% of independent schools have a school orchestra, only 12% of state schools do? Will the Government ensure that the £76 million provided annually to so-called music hubs is spent more effectively to allow more young people to play classical music together? I declare an interest as chairman of the English Schools’ Orchestra.

[Baroness Berridge (Con)]

My Lords, as the noble Lord just heard me outline, we fund through many of these projects, such as the national youth music orchestras. The forthcoming national music plan, with its one-year extension to the music hubs, will take the matters that the noble Lord outlined into account.

Queen’s Speech

Lord Lingfield Excerpts

Wednesday 12th May 2021 Lords Chamber

[Lord Lingfield (Con)]

My Lords, I welcome entirely the Government’s aspiration to enhance the available provision of technical and vocational skills training so that first-class courses can provide a prestigious alternative to degrees for many young people. I remind your Lordships of my registered interest as chairman of the Chartered Institution for Further Education, which is—in shorthand terms—a growing, Russell-type group of the best FE providers in the country.

The Queen’s Speech mentions the lifetime skills guarantee; this comes at exactly the right time, as companies build back business as the pandemic comes to an end. The Government are right to emphasise that the system has to be realigned with the needs of employers, and a new workforce industry exchange programme will very much help to alleviate a serious problem which even our best colleges have. Let me take as an example a highly qualified automobile engineer who worked, say, until 2015 for a large car manufacturer and decided instead to lecture in further education. He or she liked the new job and became an excellent teacher. However, there is a good chance that the skills they impart today are five years old and getting more out of date each year, to the detriment of the students and the industry concerned. Some industries have first-class practical links with colleges to alleviate this; I pay tribute to the excellent partnership between Toyota and Burton and South Derbyshire College.

The new exchange programme will, therefore, be extremely important, but it is essential that three things happen to make it effective. First, it is important that as many small and medium-sized businesses as possible are encouraged to take part, as well as the large companies, which are always rather better at supporting such initiatives. These smaller firms often have skills which are in short supply and increase students’ employability. Secondly, it is crucial that this is not just a two or three-year project but that it becomes embedded for good in this country’s work practices, creating a much closer and permanent relationship between further education and the employers it serves. Thirdly, it is vital that FE teaching staff who take pains to update themselves by regularly revisiting the skills of their industries should have their professional development and experience recognised by an appropriate high-level award. By virtue of its royal charter, the Chartered Institution for Further Education is developing with a group of employers its associateship, licentiateship and fellowship this year, which will fulfil exactly that function.

We are all aware that the future will require most adults to return to learning throughout their lives to enable them to respond to an ever-changing economy. However, the state of adult education in this country is very worrying. A survey from just before the first pandemic lockdown reveals that government spending on adult learning, excluding apprenticeships, had fallen by 47% in the previous decade. In 2019, the engagement rate had fallen to a record low, with those lower down the social scale less likely to have been involved in any adult job-related training at all. These are exactly the people to whom we need to give opportunities. Many have not been in a classroom since their teenage years and are therefore often very anxious about a step back into education. From the new funds promised, we need urgently to spread the development of community learning centres, especially those linked to colleges of further education, for these can be a friendly and welcoming path back into gaining vocational skills.

I welcome the Government’s new commitment to further education, for which we have been waiting a long time. It is absolutely essential that we get this right if we are to develop here in the United Kingdom the flexible and constantly reskilled workforce that we shall need to meet the challenges of the post-Brexit commercial world.

Educational Opportunities: Working Classes

Lord Lingfield Excerpts

Thursday 5th March 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord Lingfield (Con)]

My Lords, I too thank the noble Baroness, Lady Morris, for this important debate, and remind your Lordships of my education interests. She spoke mostly about schools, but there are of course educational opportunities for young people from working-class backgrounds outside of schools, and I want to consider a major one this afternoon.

I am the chairman of a charity called CVQO, the Cadet Vocational Qualifications Organisation. Its whole reason for existence is to provide opportunities for teenagers—who often could be failing at school—to take BTEC levels 1, 2 and 3, in a variety of subjects, in their spare time and with the assistance of volunteer cadet officers and instructors. Most of these qualifications lead to greater employability. Each year there are about 11,000 young people on our books; most qualify for free school meals and many are from areas of multiple deprivation. Each July, I bring to the House of Lords, for lunch in the Cholmondeley Room and a presentation, the dozen most successful of these young people, smartly dressed in their uniforms, with their parents and the commandants of their cadet forces. In the past six years, these have come not just from armed services cadet forces, but from the police and fire service cadets and St John Ambulance Cadets. We arrange for this group to go, a month after coming to Westminster, to Africa to have a wonderful experience there, working together to help in a village school.

It is worth recounting the story of just one of our past winners, who had spent years in care, after his father had been stabbed by his mother. He was encouraged by the police to join the cadets. A misfit at school, he blossomed in the Army Cadet Force and took the qualifications I have described. He was entirely successful, and now proudly holds down a good job in the NHS.

One of our qualifications applies especially to music. Each year, some 500 young people attend cadet music courses, each lasting a week away from home. These are run by the Colonel Cadet Music and enable talented but poor youngsters to learn an instrument in a disciplined but fun environment. The tuition and the loan of the instrument are at no cost to them. Our research shows that only 5% of these children have the opportunity to play an instrument at school. Of course, many schools have to charge for music lessons nowadays, and inevitably a large number of homes simply cannot afford this. Additionally, evidence suggests that the number of school orchestras has fallen dramatically over the past few years. Our courses enable young people to play together in a large number of bands, some of which cater for beginners and others for the most accomplished, who may go on to study at one of the colleges of music.

I am pleased to say that all these activities receive funds from government sources. Close observation during the decade in which I have been involved shows that this money is extremely well spent and goes a long way, because the teachers and instructors we use are volunteers who give up a great deal of time on behalf of the young people we serve.

It is hugely important that the work of these organisations continues to receive support. For many children from backgrounds of the kind that the noble Baroness, Lady Morris, described to us so well, they are a route away from impoverishment and to social mobility. I commend them all to your Lordships.