Education and Inspections Bill

I rise to support the noble Lord, Lord Dearing, and the noble Lord, Lord Best, who is not in his place, on Amendments Nos. 3 and 4 and to speak to Amendments Nos. 5 and 22, which are tabled in my name. The Bill is about education, but when putting duties on local authorities and schools in order to improve standards, we must continually emphasise that that must always be done in the best interests of the child and to promote his well-being. That is what we say in Amendments Nos. 5 and 22. It could be that to cram a child for exams might improve his grades, but at the same time, it could make him ill. That would not be in his best interests and that is not what we want schools to do. Subsection (1) of the new clause inserted by Amendment No. 3 will ensure that the Bill, and the role of the local authority outlined within it, work towards the improvement of the five well-being outcomes for children set out in the Children Act 2004, not just educational attainment in isolation. Subsection (2) of the new clause stresses the importance of education in supporting the wider Children Act outcomes. Local authorities have already embraced the provisions in the Children Act 2004 that created integrated children’s services and gave them a duty to improve outcomes for all children. More than 130 local authorities now have directors of children’s services and local authorities are in the process of developing children’s trusts to deliver better and more integrated services for children. Integrated services are also being reflected in the inspection regime through joint area reviews and the creation of the single inspectorate in the Bill. If that approach is to be embedded within all children’s services, the Bill needs to support the Children Act explicitly and reflect the joined-up approach being taken on the ground at local level. When amendments related to Every Child Matters were moved in Committee in another place, the Government stated that the Children Act 2004 is sufficient to ensure that schools co-operate in the delivery of Every Child Matters. Practitioners tell me otherwise. They tell me that unless they have a proper, explicit duty, they just pay lip service. We on these Benches tried very hard to get schools included in the duty to promote well-being, but the Government resisted our efforts. Practitioners tell me that they regret that we did not succeed in our efforts. However, Amendments Nos. 5 and 22 reflect the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which enjoins all governments at all times to give priority to the best interests of the child. I believe it is a good thing to have the duties explicitly set out in Clauses 1 and 3. In another place the Government told us that the provisions are not necessary as Section 10 of the 2004 Act already places a duty on local authorities that is far more powerful than the one our amendment proposes. The Bill focuses on schools and not just on other children’s services, so it really should be explicit. If the Government have an abhorrence of duplication, perhaps they should remove about half of the Bill, which re-enacts measures, powers and duties which schools and local authorities have. When the matter was being debated in the Commons, my honourable friend Sarah Teather, Member of Parliament for Brent East, said that schools are about preparing well rounded young people for life. From a personal point of view, she very much regretted that she had missed out on some of the things that schools can give to children when she was concentrating on the academic things to achieve her very high grades. She pointed out that those who run schools should have at the front of their minds the well rounding of young people. Therefore, I believe that we should have these words right at the front of our Bill.