Education Maintenance Allowance

Charlotte Leslie Excerpts

Wednesday 19th January 2011 Commons Chamber

[Nadhim Zahawi]

Your words of wisdom are taken on board, Madam Deputy Speaker, and I apologise to you.

If we are to have a credible debate, we must look at this issue in the round, and that means that we must look at the economic legacy we inherited from the previous Government. Our structural deficit is one of the largest in the world, and it is simply unsustainable. We are having to borrow £500 million a day. Every time we go to sleep and wake up in the morning, we rack up another £500 million. The debt interest—the money that we have to pay in interest to foreign banks and foreign countries to build their own hospitals and schools with—is £120 million a day, every single day.

I come from a rural constituency with some areas that have no post-16 provision, so I am all too aware of the additional costs that students will have to bear. Shipston high school in my constituency has lobbied me very hard on this subject, as has Martin Penny, the head of Stratford-upon-Avon college—a fantastic institution in my constituency with 5,000 students and 450 staff. I addressed the students during the week of the tuition fees debate, and after we had cut through the misinformation they understood why we were having to make these decisions.

[Charlotte Leslie (Bristol North West) (Con)]

I apologise for missing the beginning of this very important debate.

I thank my hon. Friend for setting out the economic realities. Does he agree that when there is a dire economic reality, the correct moral thing to do is not to bury our heads in the sand and carry on spending unsustainably, which will end up damaging the very people we want to protect because in the long term it will do the country no good, but to be really rigorous and focused in ensuring that the resources that we do have are absolutely focused on the most vulnerable?

[Nadhim Zahawi]

That is exactly right. In fact, the right hon. Member for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath (Mr Brown), when he was Prime Minister, hoped to pay for EMA by reducing the debt on the young people of this country.

Transport is an important issue that was raised with me by Martin Penny from Stratford-upon-Avon college and has been aired by Members on both sides of the House. As my hon. Friend the Member for Nuneaton (Mr Jones) said, it is an issue not only for rural constituencies but for urban areas too. I am pleased that the Secretary of State has made some encouraging remarks about opening up the discretionary fund to allow such colleges as Stratford-upon-Avon college—which are best placed to judge because they are closest to students and their families—to target some of that money on those who most need it.

In the spending review, the Government committed to refocus the support, because all the data show that the £560 million spent on EMA every year was not well targeted. I am pleased that the Secretary of State confirmed in his opening remarks that the Government will target the money on those with special educational needs. I was a governor of a special educational needs school that was shut down by the previous Government and I know how important it would be to those families if the money was targeted in that way.

I ran a research company for 11 years, and I am passionate about evidence-based strategy. The National Foundation for Educational Research report commissioned by the previous Government, which we have heard about today, found that almost 90% of young people who receive EMA would have completed their education or training course if they had not received it. In an interview, the shadow Secretary of State admitted that some of the money went towards students buying drinks and partying. He therefore probably agrees with me that the money is not well targeted. I see him leaning forward, and am happy for him to intervene.

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[Emily Thornberry (Islington South and Finsbury) (Lab)]

City and Islington college in my constituency is a great college: Ofsted believes so and gave it a Beacon award for excellence in 2005. Perhaps more importantly, young people in north and east London know it to be a great college, which is why they go there if they get half a chance. On Monday, I went along to the college to speak with eight politics students. I asked them about their backgrounds. By coincidence, six of them had received free school dinners when at secondary school. I asked them about EMA and the effect that the cut would have on them. They were a cross-section of the college. Henry, a sixth-former currently taking his A2s, wants to be a pilot. He works hard, has good grades and sits on the college board. Because of his efforts he was offered an assessment day at Oxford aviation academy, which is the best place in the world to become a pilot, but how did he pay the fare to get there? He paid with his EMA.

Asheen is from Leyton and comes to City and Islington college because, as I have said, it is one of the best colleges around. She does not travel by bus because they are unreliable at that time in the morning, so she needs to go by train and, lo and behold, needs her EMA to do so. Ismail is studying computer science and relies on his EMA to pay for his core textbooks. The “Learning Java” textbook, which is absolutely necessary for his course, costs £30. He cannot rely on his parents to be able to pay for it, so how would a boy from his background be able to pay without his EMA? Those are real students at the City and Islington college who will have their EMA taken away. Zaynab is doing four A-levels and is also one of the children who received free school dinners.

[Charlotte Leslie]

Will the hon. Lady give way?

[Emily Thornberry]

No, I will not give way.

Zaynab must spend £20 a week on travel. She said:

“The Government says that we should eat healthily, but how are we supposed to do that? It comes at a price.”

If she spends £25 a week on food and £20 on travel, how does she pay for her textbooks? How much does she need EMA? She needs it strongly, yet the Government are about to take it away. Those are illustrations of real children at colleges in Islington, and they show that the Government are completely detached from reality. I am pleased to have heard from the Secretary of State that he will visit City and Islington college and I can assure him that we will hold him to that promise—we have a reputation for determination and single-mindedness in my area, which he will see when he visits.

The Government’s amendment to the motion states blithely that they are committed to

“working with young people, schools and colleges and others…on arrangements for supporting students in further education and improving access to, enthusiasm for and participation in further and higher education.”

That sounds good, but why are they cutting entitlement funding? We will also want to talk with the Secretary of State about that. Entitlement funding allows the kids at City and Islington college the sort of help that they really need, such as one-to-one tuition, or having someone sit down and help them sort out UCAS forms. It allows them to be taken to see colleges and the sort of work that they might be able to do. It allows trips to the theatre or places related to their courses. Those students are here today and have sat upstairs doggedly throughout the debate. That is the sort of entitlement and enrichment that my college gets, and I am proud of it. When the Secretary of State comes to visit City and Islington college, he will be proud of it too. If he comes with an open mind, he will change his mind.

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[Angela Smith (Penistone and Stocksbridge) (Lab)]

I am pleased to be able to contribute to this debate in the context of a series of attacks by the Government on young people and their aspirations. The Government’s policy on EMA represents a particularly dangerous attack on young people, because over the past few years the allowance has acted as an incentive—a really effective intervention—at a key stage in life, encouraging young people to stay on at college to gain the necessary skills to succeed in an increasingly competitive labour market.

As an incentive, EMA has been effective. Contrary to what Government Members have said, participation rates have increased by more than 7% for young women students and more than 5% for young males. Research is unequivocal in indicating that the allowance has reduced the drop-out rate by more than 5%. As somebody who worked in FE for more than 10 years as a lecturer, I know that that key statistic means everything in terms of the chances of young people succeeding not only at college but in life.

It is therefore astounding that the Government have even thought about axing £500 million from the EMA budget. As my hon. Friend the Member for Liverpool, West Derby (Stephen Twigg) said, that is a massive 85% cut in funding support for young people. It is on a par with other cuts to Government funding and support for higher education, which is why Labour Members feel so strongly that this Government are determined to focus all their attacks on public spending on young people.

[Charlotte Leslie]

Will the hon. Lady give way?

[Angela Smith]

I will not.

The impact on my constituency will be particularly stark. Just under 60% of young people who attend Barnsley college receive full EMA, and more than 30% of those students have indicated in an independent survey that they would not have started their courses had EMA not been available. Much was said by my right hon. Friend the Member for Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough (Mr Blunkett) and my hon. Friend the Member for Sheffield Central (Paul Blomfield) about the story relating to Sheffield. All I would add is that in the last academic year the success rate for students receiving EMA at Sheffield college was 79%—5% higher than for those who were not receiving it. If ever a statistic outlined the importance of this allowance, that is it.

If Government Members do not want to listen to my arguments, perhaps they would like to listen to my constituent Steve Hanstock, who tells me that his son Tim would not have been able to access full-time higher education post-16 had he not received EMA. A female student from Sheffield college has just gained a place at the university of Sheffield. She is adamant that she would have pursued her studies without EMA—I admit that—but she is clear that it enabled her to complete her course, alongside a relatively small amount of part-time work. The allowance enabled her to concentrate her mind on her studies in order to achieve her remarkable success. That underlines the experience that I had as a lecturer when I had to deal with students coming to college in the morning unable to study or participate in class because they had done a night shift at Tesco. That is exactly why EMA is such an important allowance—it enables students to focus on achievement and not to have to worry about whether they can buy the books, get to college or feed themselves.

I want to refer to some of the statistics bandied about by the Government. The right hon. Member for Sheffield, Hallam (Mr Clegg) and a Conservative MP have sent literature to their constituents stating that EMA costs £924 million and that only 400 more students on free school meals have accessed further education than would have been the case without the allowance. Those stats are wrong. The figure for free school meals students staying on in education is 10,000 and the reduction in the budget is £580 million. The Association of Colleges is very perturbed by the use of these stats by MPs in these letters. It says that they are wildly inaccurate and should not have been used without being properly sourced. The Government are pulling the wool over our constituents’ eyes.