Apprenticeships

Baroness Healy of Primrose Hill Excerpts

Monday 26th November 2012 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Baroness Healy of Primrose Hill]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what funding they will make available to help young people with special educational needs to enter apprenticeships.

[Baroness Garden of Frognal]

My Lords, government funding is available for training apprentices of all ages, with full funding for those under 19 and partial funding for adults. We recognise that it may take longer for some learners with special educational needs and learning difficulties or disabilities to be ready to commence their apprenticeship, and enhanced funding is therefore available for some apprentices up to the age of 24. Additional learning support and access-to-work payments can also help with practical support. The Government have recently published an action plan to increase participation in apprenticeships by those with special educational needs.

[Baroness Healy of Primrose Hill]

Can I seek an assurance that the Government will amend their draft Children and Families Bill, which currently states that local authorities should no longer maintain an education, health and care plan for a young person if they are receiving training as part of an apprenticeship? Given the welcome proposal to replace the statement of special educational needs with the new EHC plan to cover young people up to 25 to help enable them to achieve their full potential, it would be wrong if the Government at the same time created a significant disincentive for young disabled people to enter an apprenticeship, if by doing so they lost essential support to live independently.

[Baroness Garden of Frognal]

The noble Baroness raises important points and she will be aware that we recently commissioned Peter Little to carry out a review of the accessibility of apprenticeships for disabled people and that we will be introducing the education, health and care plans in 2015 to help monitor the progress of young people on apprenticeships. We will also monitor the situation as we go on to make sure that those young people do not fall between the cracks.