Education and Inspections Bill

moved Amendment No. 210: Page 53, line 40, leave out from beginning to end of line 24 on page 54. The noble Baroness said: This is a probing amendment which seeks clarification from the Minister on the Government’s plans for transport for 16 to 19 year-olds. Considerable investment in transport is made by further education authorities already, not only in rural areas where the travel costs are clear, but also in the inner cities and deprived urban areas. Yet the performance of the local education authorities in providing transport and supporting further education for 16 to 19 year-olds varies widely across the country. LEAs have been forced under budgeting pressure to introduce charges or make cuts to the transport provision for 16 to18 year-olds. The Scarborough Evening News reported in March that North Yorkshire County Council was planning to introduce travel charges of up to £10 a week for 16 to 18 year-olds to. In Norfolk, the county council had planned to cut the £800,000 budget which financed transport for 5,000 students, meaning that the cost of a bus season ticket would have doubled from £200 to £400. As it stands, Clause 69 places a duty on the LEA to assess the travel needs of pupils in their area, including those ““persons of sixth form age”” travelling to or from college. Clause 76 hands more power in this area to the LSC in issuing guidance to LEAs and asking the Secretary of State to direct LEAs. This cluster of probing amendments would hand responsibility for travel to the local learning and skills councils. I am not wedded to that idea specifically. Indeed, I do not suggest that learning and skills councils have an excess of money which they can easily spend on travel for 16 to 19 year-olds. However, as the general provider of post-16 education, they seem to be well placed to ensure that transport supports the school system. I accept that there may be other ways of addressing this issue but I hope that the Minister will agree that it is crucial to the Bill as a whole that we ensure that there is a robust functional infrastructure to support parents’ freedom of choice of schools. I beg to move.