Education and Skills Bill

moved Amendment No. 2: 2: After Clause 59, insert the following new Clause— ““Review of initial operation of Chapter (1) The Secretary of State must appoint a person to conduct a review of the initial operation of this Chapter. (2) The person appointed must make a report to the Secretary of State on the review within a reasonable period after the school leaving date for 2016. (3) The Secretary of State must lay a copy of the report before Parliament. (4) The Secretary of State may pay to the person appointed such remuneration and expenses as the Secretary of State may determine.”” The noble Baroness said: My Lords, this amendment is a commitment to undertake a review of the enforcement process for young people who do not comply with the duty to participate so that we can be clear that the system is effective in reinforcing compulsion, and so that we may learn any lessons to improve the system. I shall also take the opportunity to reassure noble Lords about the design of the enforcement process and to reiterate some of our commitments to ensure that young people do not enter the process if they have unmet needs and that they receive all necessary support to help them participate. We are absolutely clear that the voices of young people should be heard throughout the process and that they should be offered appropriate support and a real learning option before any enforcement action can be started. If young people are failing to participate, a local authority must engage with them, find them an option which suits them and help them to take up learning again. This will be monitored by an independent panel—independent because it will be chaired by someone outside the local authority. The panel will scrutinise the local authority’s actions and can overturn an attendance notice if it thinks that the local authority has not offered enough support. We have given a commitment that young people will be able to make representations to these panels at every stage and bring someone with them or even send someone in their place if they are not able to attend. I reiterate that, even after enforcement action has been formally started, there will be a process of administrative sanctions, support and dialogue with a young person before anyone can reach the youth court. If a young person re-engages in learning or has a reasonable excuse at any stage, all enforcement action will cease. I will set out the process again for clarity. If a young person has got to the stage of being issued an attendance notice, they will have to fail to fulfil that without a reasonable excuse before being given a fixed penalty notice. If the young person pays the fixed penalty notice, they will not proceed to prosecution in the youth court. If they do not, only then could the local authority even consider bringing a case to a youth court. The young person can appeal to the independent panel at any stage and, whether they appeal or not, the local authority would need the panel’s explicit agreement to take the case to a youth court. No young person will be able to reach this final stage without refusing to participate, in full knowledge of the consequences and rejecting all the support offered at every stage. It is our firm belief that very few young people will ever reach the final stage of the enforcement process. The purpose of the review to which we are committing in the amendment is to confirm that this is the case and to make sure that the support and enforcement system achieves what we want it to, which is making sure that young people participate so that they can achieve, progress and reach their full potential. We will, of course, trial the system over the next five years, working with local authorities and other key stakeholders to test non-statutory elements such as how the independent panels should work, what experience their members should have and what types of training they should be given. The amendment makes clear that we will also review the whole enforcement system after the legislation comes into effect, and the amendment places this commitment on the face of the Bill. We have said that the review will be complete by 2016, which will allow it to consider the experiences of the first cohort of young people to be required to stay until they are 18. The review will be chaired by an independent person to ensure that it is robust. I hope that noble Lords who have raised concerns about the enforcement system will welcome the amendment, which provides for a full review of its operation soon after commencement. I beg to move.