Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Bill

My Lords, I rise as someone whose working life has been influenced more by the experience of the shop floor than the classroom. First, I declare an interest. I carry the responsibility of chancellor of Staffordshire University. I am a product of one of the excellent FE colleges in Birmingham, about which the noble Lord, Lord Baker of Dorking, spoke earlier. I hasten to add that mine was not Matthew Boulton College; it was Handsworth Technical College, and I am proud of it. It did a lot for my misspent youth. This Bill has much to commend it and much to be supported. However, there is much about which I need to be convinced. We can all agree that the Bill covers a vast number of areas. My criticism is that it is neither targeted nor focused and, as such, may achieve too little by trying to achieve too much. The Bill has three prime functions: first, the protection of children; secondly, the creation of a framework of skills development; and, thirdly, the strengthening of the qualification regime by legislating for a new structure of quality, delivery and funding. There are, of course, areas of the Bill that deserve universal support. For example, the statutory right of those in work to request time off for training will, and should, receive a general welcome. However, this right should be extended to part-time and agency workers because they reflect today’s real economy. Temporary and part-time workers sometimes have longer service than full-time workers. Therefore, the exclusion of part-time workers is an anomaly which will be tested in Committee. In light of recent events, any proposal to strengthen the accountability of those responsible for children’s services is to be welcomed. Also welcome is the proposal to establish a new parental complaints service, and the proposal for a new negotiating body for pay and conditions for school support staff is a good idea, whose time has come. I pause to say a few words as a member of the Joint Committee on Human Rights. In its recently published report on the Bill, the committee welcomed many of its aspects because they enhance human rights. Positive measures include provision for the education of young offenders, guidance on the use of force on young people, the obligation to record the use of force, and a commitment to ensure that children and young people are consulted when plans for their future and interests are being drawn up. The Joint Committee also made one recommendation. We believe that the Bill provides a real opportunity to improve the United Kingdom’s implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. As the noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley, reminded us earlier, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child recently expressed concern that the United Kingdom has not done enough to realise the principles, values and goals set out in the UN convention. The Joint Committee therefore recognises that this opportunity should be taken. The committee believes that, to embed the UN Convention on the Rights of Child in UK laws and practices, the children’s trust boards should have a duty, in the development of their plans, to pay due regard to the need to implement the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Again, we trust that there will be no need to test this principle in Committee. I turn to some of the areas of real and deep concern. Much has been said about the various proposed structures provided for in the Bill. One change about which I remain to be convinced is the proposal to transfer responsibility for funding education and training for 16 to 18 year-olds to local authorities. That seems to take the clock back to where we started. Here, again, I agree with the noble Lord, Lord Baker of Dorking, about the pressures and spending priorities that local authorities face day in, day out. I am not sure about the number of 16 to 18 year-olds whose training institution will be located in a different local authority area from where they live. Not to be too pessimistic, I can nevertheless see multi-layers of bureaucracy as local authorities dispute who is responsible for making the necessary payment. My biggest fear is the possibility that the proposed funding structure could effectively lead to the break-up of further and adult education. We must not allow adult education to be detached from the rest of the education sector. If we do, the curriculum will suffer and the loser will not be the individual student, but wider society. I am also concerned that courses will only be funded if they supply the narrow skills acceptable to employers. What happens to personal self-development? Lifelong learning and vocational training should not simply be opportunities in life; they should be opportunities throughout life. Clearly, the Bill was conceived and drafted before the global recession. Arguably, what we need in the current environment is not just upskilling, but reskilling. The Bill appears to do little or nothing to address that. Given the current recession, education funding based purely on the needs of industry could also be a hostage to fortune. People should have the right to lifelong learning as a means of improving their minds and lives. Surely that is the way to build not only a better economy, but a better society.