Lifelong Learning: “University of the Air” White Paper

Richard Baker Excerpts

Tuesday 16th June 2026 Westminster Hall

[Robin Swann (South Antrim) (UUP)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Desmond. I thank and congratulate the hon. Member for Southport (Patrick Hurley) on securing this debate. I should also declare that I am a graduate and alumnus of the Open University, so I recognise many of those of its attributes that he mentioned. Unfortunately, I did not take the same speedy course that he did; in fact, it took me eight years to obtain my Bachelor of Science (Open), doing a 30-point level 1 to a 60-point level 3, with the odd 10-point thrown in in between—former graduates will know exactly what I am talking about.

The hon. Member talked about the changes we have seen in the Open University. I started when everything was tutor-marked assessments, which meant you had to post them to my tutor, and I finished when everything had to be submitted over the internet. There was always that panic when you pushed the send button at five minutes to midnight, hoping that your internet stayed connected until the tutor had received your full assignment. However, I do not go back to the times when members were setting video cassette recorders to record lectures on BBC Two at 2 am, as was necessary then.

The hon. Member talked about the Open University giving students the ability to learn while they were working. It also instilled deep-seated personal management skills, because students had to meet deadlines, while maintaining a work-life balance and family interaction. It is right that we recognise that on this 60th anniversary of the “University of the Air”. But we should also recognise the other things the Open University has done with regard to learning and education, including the “Green Planet” TV series, an environmental series co-produced with the BBC and narrated at that stage by Sir David Attenborough.

In terms of the opportunities offered by the Open University, I think everybody in the Chamber will recognise that there are four Northern Ireland MPs here today—that is four out of 11 or, as one of my maths courses taught me, 0.3636 recurring, as the decimalisation of the representation here from Northern Ireland. The hon. Member for Southport talked about the value of the regions, and the Open University is greatly recognised and valued in Northern Ireland, because of its ability to deliver courses across the regions and across abilities as well.

[Richard Baker (Glenrothes and Mid Fife) (Lab)]

In Scotland, we are very proud that Jennie Lee, the architect of the Open University, came from Lochgelly, which is in my constituency. The hon. Gentleman rightly touched on the importance of the devolved Administrations working with the Open University to create higher education opportunities for people who would not normally have them. In Scotland, 30% of students at the Open University have a disability support need. Does the hon. Gentleman agree that that is just one reason why it is important that the devolved Administrations, like the Westminster Government, work closely with the Open University to ensure that it can play its full role in lifelong learning?

[Robin Swann]

I fully support the Member’s contribution. In fact, one in five Northern Ireland students is registered as having a disability. So the Open University opens up not just geographical and regional abilities but all abilities to lifelong learning.

Other Members have spoken about Jennie Lee, but I would like to diverge at this point and to take the opportunity to pay tribute to another individual, John D’Arcy, who was the director of the Open University in Ireland. John served 16 years in that post and just recently retired. I was working with him and through him, and his promotion of the Open University was testament to how we were able to produce it and forward it in Northern Ireland. It was very much his skill, his interaction and his time there that shaped the Open University as a public service. He did that with ambition and innovation and, above all, by always keeping people at the centre of it. We were grateful to John for all he brought to the university and that role.

One of John’s phrases was that the Open University in Northern Ireland was one of its best kept secrets, because the Open University was in fact the third university in Northern Ireland. It was during that time—I suppose from being a graduate of it—that I recognised that ability, and we were able, when I was Health Minister, to bring the Open University together with career progression and skill shortages and to marry the two up. At that point, we had 65 Open University undergraduate nursing places; currently, more than one third of Open University students in Northern Ireland are studying science, technology, engineering and maths subjects, and nearly 600 are training as nurses. One thing that was done was to allow people working as carers, but who did not have the opportunity to go to university to become nurses, to train in their workplace. What that did was bring a loyalty to many of the hospitals and wards, because people were being built up in the place they worked in and with the people they worked with. That was then able to be expanded into social work. The Open University was working with trusts and with our Department as well.

It is right and timely that we contribute to this debate, because now is the time to invest in high-quality, flexible higher education. I also see a call there for the Northern Ireland Executive to introduce more flexible financial support for part-time students and to progress a higher education funding review to reform the higher education funding model. In that way, they can properly support lifelong learning at a time when Northern Ireland needs to grow skills, improve productivity and widen opportunity, and we can realise the full potential of the Open University and those who have not had the opportunity, as the hon. Member for Southport indicated, to access third-level education, which many employers are now looking for. It is with great pleasure that I support this motion.

Social Mobility: Careers Education

Richard Baker Excerpts

Thursday 19th June 2025 Westminster Hall

[Richard Baker (Glenrothes and Mid Fife) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve under you as Chair, Ms Lewell. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Wrexham (Andrew Ranger) for securing this vital debate.

I want to stress how important it is for disabled young people that we have careers education that supports social mobility. Nearly half of families with a disabled child are living in poverty, and just this week we learned that the attainment gap for pupils from poorer backgrounds in Scotland is still widening. It is frustrating that the Scottish Government have not done more to address that. In Scotland, we know what works in terms of support for young people to make the often challenging transition from school to work or continuing education.

Before I was elected to this place, I had the privilege of working for the charity Enable, which runs a programme called Stepping Up. The programme is delivered in 75 schools in Scotland, across 15 local authorities, to more than 1,000 young people every year. It builds confidence, life skills and employability through real-world experiences and personalised coaching. It ensures that young people are equipped not only to reach positive destinations but to sustain them. That leads to lasting change and improved educational and employment outcomes. Over the course of its work, Stepping Up has supported more than 5,000 young people, 98% of whom go to positive destination—either a job, a modern apprenticeship, training or college. Ensuring that all our young people can be supported to have confidence in themselves will be vital if we are to improve social mobility in this country.

In Lochgelly, in my constituency, one in three children lives in poverty. Careers education is vital to their life chances. The developing the young workforce programme at Lochgelly high school is making that difference. Led by the co-ordinator of the programme, Pauline Abbie, it provides 100 work experience placements to pupils every year. It gives pupils a fantastic insight into the world of work in a whole range of industries, from hospitality to engineering, as well as into opportunities in education.

The programme at Lochgelly high school has more than 50 DYW partners, including Shell, Purvis Group, Fife Fabrications and Fife college. Not only do pupils benefit, but employers do, by connecting with their next generation of workers and supporting our local community. The developing the young workforce programme at Lochgelly high school proves that a stronger community partnership between local businesses and our young people benefits the whole community.

Over the past two decades we have not made nearly enough progress on social mobility, certainly not in Scotland, but given the investment this Government are making in education and the proven success of programmes such as Stepping Up and Developing the Young Workforce, we can be confident of far greater success for all our young people in the future, and they can have confidence in themselves.

SEND Funding

Richard Baker Excerpts

Thursday 12th June 2025 Commons Chamber

[Richard Baker (Glenrothes and Mid Fife) (Lab)]

Decisions on SEND funding in this Parliament directly affect the availability of resources for additional support needs education in Scotland. One of the best experiences of my career was working with the pupils, parents and teachers at the Royal Blind school in Edinburgh when I was at the charity Sight Scotland. There we created a happy and supportive environment to help blind and partially sighted pupils to reach their goals in education, and to gain the vital life skills they need to manage their visual impairments throughout their lives.

Such support should be available in every school—in every mainstream setting—but it simply is not. That is because the presumption of mainstreaming policy in Scotland has not been anything like adequately resourced. In February of this year, Audit Scotland concluded that the Scottish Government and councils must

“fundamentally evaluate how education is funded, staffed and assessed to support all pupils”,

including those with additional support needs,

“to reach their full potential.”

The right hon. Member for Beverley and Holderness (Graham Stuart)—we very much welcome his securing the debate—has mentioned the disparities in funding between local authorities. That is an issue in Scotland as well. Repeated poor funding settlements from Ministers for our councils have resulted in a number of local authorities cutting additional support needs budgets again and again. The impact on pupils, parents and local charities has been dramatic and, frankly, intolerable. The number of pupils who need such support has gone up by 32% since 2019, but the number of specialist teachers has increased by just 2%.

Sight Scotland and RNIB Scotland have reported falling numbers of specialist teachers for visual impairment. The National Deaf Children’s Society in Scotland reports a 40% decrease in the number of specialist teachers for the deaf. The brilliant charity Autism Rocks, which is based in Buckhaven in my constituency but supports families throughout Scotland, told me that in one school, the number of support staff has been cut from nine to four. I have seen the huge difference that specialist educational support can make for disabled young people. Specialist teachers give pupils the time and skills they need to have a level playing field in the curriculum. The brilliant Stepping Up programme run by Enable, another charity that I have worked with, helps pupils to manage that difficult transition from school to further education or work.

Because of the actions of this Government, we are finally seeing increases in funding for SEND, and therefore in Scotland for additional support needs, but for two decades SNP Ministers have presided over a crisis in additional support needs provision in Scotland. It is children, families and staff who are suffering as a result—a sorry decline in a Scottish education system of which we were so proud for so long. That is why we urgently need a new direction in Scotland’s schools to ensure that all our children have the support that they need—that is their right—to achieve their full potential.