Education and Inspections Bill

My Lords, I warmly commend the Bill’s firm commitment to the duty to fulfil every child’s educational potential. It is intolerable that in our post-industrial society, many of our citizens still go to the grave never having had the opportunity to be what they might have been. We should applaud the Government’s refusal to accept that as inevitable. But what is education? It is not, I suggest, simply to develop functional abilities to service the economy, although those obviously matter. It is to develop originality, creativity, confidence, self reliance, critical capabilities, understanding, tolerance and rational thought. Interdisciplinary studies, the humanities—especially history and geography—cultural, sporting and leisure activities, informal as well as formal studies within the context of a richly diverse and inclusive school community, are therefore all essential in the preparation for citizenship in a highly interdependent world community. With all this in mind, it is appropriate to question whether diversity should be provided within the system as a whole or whether the ideal is not to provide it within each individual school. Is it not arguable that the more specialised the curriculum, the narrower the social mix, the more pupils will be deprived of deeper learning? Is not the most teasing organisational question of all that of how to combine diversity with size that is not impersonal and forbidding to many children, especially those just making the transition to secondary education from their primary schools? A caring community in which everybody belongs is essential. Market forces which result in ever larger conglomerations as takeovers occur could surely prove highly negative in this respect. It is vital to see the issues of special educational needs on which the Bill is encouragingly positive, and concern for the vulnerable and deprived not as limited to the individual pupils themselves but as highly relevant to the responsible social education of the rest. The challenges of social exclusion are essential to the fibre of a healthy, civilised nation. They are not just an additional policy task. The teachers who work in special needs or with the vulnerable or in the most deprived and disadvantaged areas should be regarded as the heroes of the profession. They should be celebrated. They should have more than average resources, a higher teacher-to-pupil ratio, and the best equipment available. Families of vulnerable and deprived children should have assistance with numeracy and English language so they, too, can play their part in the educational process. It will be unforgivable if teachers in the front line are driven into anxiety about the consequences of market forces and the pressures for orthodox mainstream success. Existing forms of league tables are quite bad enough. I live in a rural area. Not far from where I live, in a most acceptable part of the country, there is a highly successful primary school. It scores outstandingly well on every front. When there are school occasions or parents’ evenings, it is inspiring to see the numbers of parents and grandparents who turn up. It is exactly the sort of school which is central to the objectives of Ministers in the Bill. A few miles away is the West Cumbrian coast with its acute challenges of social and economic deprivation. I know dedicated teachers there who, however much they put into it, will have only a handful of parents at similar occasions. This is the social reality out there in much of the UK. I am not convinced that this has registered with policy makers as it should. I fear that, whatever the good intentions in the Bill, it may inadvertently aggravate the problems of social failure and exclusion. Either sponsors for foundation schools will not be forthcoming or, if they are, it will be an inadequate substitute for the social and community policies which are essential to sustain success by the involvement of the whole community, not least parents. The governors will not be of the community. It is, I am convinced, for a solution to this social challenge that we should above all be striving. It will be a strategic mistake to emphasise accountability nationally when what above all is required is the nurturing of local community responsibility by developing local accountability. Education has to be an integral part of community building. It seems to me entirely sensible that LEAs should have responsibilities to challenge, intervene and support all schools, including academies and city technology colleges. More generally, it is important to consider the governance of foundation schools. How are their governing bodies comprised? What of meaningful accountability of school to governors and governors to the community? Are they dominated by representatives of the sponsors of the trust? What is the driving motivation of the sponsors? I am a member of the Church of England, but I must say that I find it perplexing that in the 21st century we have sponsors dedicated to creationism. That could, it seems to me, prove difficult to reconcile with the objective of enlightenment which must be a central task in education. It is because there are so many questions about the nature and implications of sponsorships that it seems essential that any proposals for foundation status should be endorsed by parents in a ballot, after having had the opportunity to discuss the idea at a meeting. My noble friend will, I hope, have seen the observations of the National Youth Agency. They remind us that nine minutes of every waking hour is spent by a young person in school. The remaining 51 minutes are spent outside the classroom. The agency welcomes Clause 6 of the Bill, which deals with what is often referred to as the personal and social development of young people and which it sees as the core purpose of youth work. However, while also welcoming the distinction in the Bill between educational leisure time and recreation and noting that it refers to ““positive leisure time activities””, the agency regrets that it does not embrace the full range and need for youth work in all its forms, including street-based activities or work with homeless and unemployed young people. The agency seeks an assurance that forthcoming statutory guidance will build on the framework and delivery of Resourcing Excellent Youth Services, as published by the Department for Education and Skills in 2002, in particular to define youth work in respect of local responsibilities for the personal and social development of young people, and to secure youth services, funding, performance management and inspection regimes for youth services that are stable over time and that adapt and innovate to respond to emerging and changing local needs, albeit within a national framework. Noting the laudable reference in Clause 6 to recreational facilities for children under 13, the agency asks whether this clause could not also refer to provision for the 13 to 20 age group and, indeed, to certain others between 20 and 25, and whether there might not be specific reference to youth clubs, youth centres and other places in the Bill. It also quotes assertion in the recent Church of England report, Faithful Cities, that,"““the statutory nature of the Youth Service must be reinstated and properly funded by local authorities””." Will my noble friend assure the House that he will make available a considered response to those recommendations? I serve on the Joint Committee on Human Rights. We have given a good deal of time and thought to this Bill in the context of our remit. There has been correspondence between the committee and Ministers and there has been at least some helpful reassurance from Ministers. However, would my noble friend take the opportunity of this debate to put on record in this House the Government’s position on the following matters? Why, if in Scotland there is a legally enforceable right to education, are there only target duties for the Secretary of State and local education authorities in England and Wales? Should there not be a duty on local education authorities to identify the, arguably, most vulnerable of all who are not receiving education in custodial care, psychiatric units or immigration and remand centres? If it is the case, as Ministers argue, that there is in any way an obligation for that to be provided, there is no guarantee that that is happening. Should there not be a duty on local education authorities to identify children informally excluded from school and who are not receiving education? In terms of the Human Rights Act and the Education Act, are foundation schools, academies and city technology colleges, all public authorities and maintained schools, entitling pupils to all the relevant statutory protections? If not, why not? And why is all of this not covered in the Bill? In welcoming the strengthening of the admissions code, why does the prohibition of interviewing not also explicitly cover less formal meetings that could be used to circumvent the provision? Will the provisions apply to academies and CTCs, and if not, why not? Why, on school transport, does the Bill refer to lack of religion or belief, but not to the convictions of secularists, humanists and atheists? In the Bill’s altogether commendable concern to improve discipline, why is there not more specific detail on the rules governing the use of force, and the confiscation of property and the responsibilities for that property? Although we all welcome the strengthening of duties to the excluded, why has the opportunity not been taken in the Bill to reduce the number of exclusions that occur in the first place? Is it not the case that the impact on single parents and those on lower incomes of a duty to ensure that an excluded pupil is not in a public place during school hours will prove to be disproportionate, unrealistic and even counterproductive, in view of the financial and employment penalties involved and their consequences? Are the Government prepared to spell out more imaginatively and fully how obligations under Article 12 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child can be fulfilled in enabling children to express their views on matters which concern them? I conclude by emphasising three points: first, that, in our concerns to monitor, we should give far more priority to monitoring progress in learning; secondly, that we must break free of the soul-destroying pass/fail culture for our schools and make it a culture of helping schools to succeed; and, thirdly, that above all else the quality of our teachers matters most. They must be afforded in social attitudes and in tangible recognition the special status that they deserve. Our future depends upon them. There should be the best possible professional education for teachers, with ample opportunities for sabbaticals and in-service development. Having inspired, imaginative and confident teachers in good morale, is a national imperative. Stressed, alienated and over-pressurised teachers, weighed down by top-heavy structures, constant monitoring, market forces and in low morale is not the way to achieve educational success. We must all start talking up the profession. Stability is essential.