Covid-19: Children

Lord Shipley Excerpts

Thursday 17th June 2021 Lords Chamber

[Lord Shipley (LD) [V]]

My Lords, I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Morris, for the opportunity to have this debate today and for her very persuasive explanation of the issues in her introduction.

I am genuinely puzzled by Treasury attitudes towards catch-up funding. I do not understand why the Treasury opposed the £15 billion levelling-up money recommended for the next three years, instead agreeing to only £1.4 billion for the first year, with the vague suggestion that the forthcoming spending review might allocate more. Why did the Treasury decide not to address the immediate and serious learning loss for so many disadvantaged school pupils? I wonder whether the Minister is in a position to tell us.

The National Audit Office has reported that £372 billion was spent by the Treasury on measures announced between February 2020 and March 2021 to counter the pandemic. That puts into context the comparatively small sum for educational catch-up funding refused by the Treasury. A difficulty with its decision is that it is not clear what expertise the Treasury has in matters of detailed educational policy. Perhaps it should consult the Education Policy Institute, which has published a fully costed recovery plan for schools amounting to £13.5 billion over three years, based on learning loss.

As it is, there will be extra spending of only £50 a pupil in England, so this summer 90,000 children transferring to secondary school will be significantly behind in basic literacy skills. Perhaps the Minister might be able to explain why catch-up funding seems so much higher in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales than in England. The Education Policy Institute reports that spending is around £200 per pupil in Northern Ireland and Scotland and around £300 per pupil in Wales, compared with only £50 in England.

There is a broader issue. The Government’s understanding of levelling up seems to relate primarily to infrastructure funding and investment in places, but surely levelling up also means creating opportunities to level up individuals who suffer disadvantage, many of whom live in those left-behind areas. In the end, success in levelling up will be led by people.

For example, take digital skills. In my home region, the north-east of England, the Office for National Statistics and Ofcom estimate that there are 55,000 families without access to a laptop, tablet or desktop computer at home. We must get all pupils connected from their homes.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies has estimated that there could be as much as £350 billion in lost lifetime earnings for this generation of schoolchildren, yet there would seem to be long-term benefits to the Treasury if catch-up spending was seen as capital investment because it could generate a return in future tax stream growth. As we have heard, too many children live below the poverty line, of whom half are in working households. Child poverty is rising, as we know from this morning’s announcement on increasing demand for free school meals.

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation has warned against a two-tier recovery: those who own their own homes and have a secure income should be fine, and those who rent and have insecure incomes may not be. In this context, the need for social housing is becoming increasingly acute, yet it does not seem to be a government priority. It should be.

In 2019, before the pandemic, pupils from the poorest backgrounds were more than a year behind their fellow pupils, and that gap has been widening because of the pandemic. This is worst disruption to education since the Second World War. Pupils need interventions to close that widening gap. This needs a catch-up recovery plan. For it to be achieved, a will, right across government, for it to happen is essential.

Skills and Post-16 Education Bill [HL]

Lord Shipley Excerpts

2nd reading
Tuesday 15th June 2021 Lords Chamber

[Lord Shipley (LD) [V]]

My Lords, I thank the Minister for her introduction to the Bill which, in many respects, I welcome very strongly. It has a sense of direction; the Government have clearly been listening to the advice of employers and the education sector. I very much look forward to hearing shortly the maiden speech of the noble Baroness, Lady Black of Strome.

I cannot recall a time when there has not been a skills shortage or a skills crisis. This is inevitable because the needs of our economy are constantly changing. However, there is a substantial difference today: the needs of our labour market, post Brexit and post Covid, are changing quickly. As an example, we do not have enough technicians or engineers, and there is a need to develop greater strength in digital skills at all levels. As a further example, the pandemic has resulted in a reduction in the number of apprenticeships available. There are not enough generally, nor at degree level.

The lifelong loan entitlement could be a boost to both individuals and employers, but I hope that, as the noble Lord, Lord Bichard, said, the Government will not try to bolt it on to the current system of funding and will instead make it part of a reformed system of financial support. The Government’s forthcoming consultation should reflect the fact that loans by themselves may not be an attractive proposition to some adults, as indeed the noble Lord, Lord Willetts, pointed out a few minutes ago.

Recent government policy towards the FE sector and part-time higher education has led to both being treated as the poor relation of traditional academic learning. Funding per student has been lower in FE for too long. There has been a very worrying drop in participation rates in part-time higher education in recent years, caused by funding cuts and the HE loans system. It is vital that the silos between higher, further and adult education and apprenticeships are reduced. Further education and higher education should not have to compete against each other for resources. The ambition should be a unified skills system with expansion of the FE sector, apprenticeships and part-time higher education, with parity of esteem between these and traditional full-time, non-vocational academic routes.

I would like to make a point about progression routes. I welcome national skills funding to help adults have free access to level 3 qualifications through some 400 courses, but there is no mention of any qualifications below level 3, yet it is these which promote progression to higher levels. Six million adults were identified in the Augur review as not having qualifications at level 2, yet the total number of adult learners has been falling in recent years. If we want people to reach level 3 and above, more of them need to achieve level 2. I wonder if the Government have a plan.

The Government’s ambition to put employers at the centre of skills development is welcome. But the test of the new approach will come in how effective the forecasting of future requirements is for industries that are in the early stages of development. Long-term investment in the green economy, for example, will require new skills sets at all levels. As the Bill progresses through the House, I hope we can examine whether the Government are putting in place structures that will effectively identify skills needs five years and 10 years ahead and how our education system as a whole should adapt to deliver them.

I spoke earlier of the lifelong loan entitlement, and I understand that a consultation will start this summer, but secondary legislation can be expected only in 2024, with implementation in 2025. Given the impact of the pandemic, what is happening over the next four years to ensure that all those who need to access training can get it, in addition to meeting the needs of employers post Brexit? Does it have to take so long—four years—to effect this change?

The lifelong loan entitlement may be a crucial part of future plans, but a lot more detail is needed on the extent of entitlements, on the funding of modular systems, on repayment terms, on whether modular study will be permitted for all subject areas or just those defined by the Government, on whether students can get the same support for their costs irrespective of their method of study, and on whether existing graduates can use it to retrain.

Finally, I hope that we will take a close look at how local skills improvement plans will work in practice. It will not be the first time that such planning has been localised. That said, I wonder if the Government have a plan for bringing together the information from all the local skills improvement plans to shape national workforce planning? It will be extremely important to do so.

[The Deputy Speaker (Baroness Garden of Frognal) (LD)]

I welcome the maiden speech of the noble Baroness, Lady Black of Strome.