Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Bill

My Lords, as many noble Lords have pointed out, this is a wide-ranging Bill, which has been demonstrated by the variety of contributions. I particularly welcome the fact that the needs of children with special educational needs feature prominently in the Bill. I shall concentrate on their concerns, particularly on apprenticeships and school environments. These issues have been raised with me by the National Deaf Children's Society, to which I am grateful for information. I shall be brief. The Government can be truly proud of their commitment to the school rebuilding programme, but there is one area that is causing serious concern. It is the importance of acoustics in schools. As the NDCS’s Sounds Good? campaign has revealed, new school buildings are being built in which it is very difficult for deaf children to listen and learn effectively. Children cannot learn if they cannot listen effectively, and teachers cannot teach if they cannot be heard effectively. This is true for all children, but especially so for deaf children, for whom high quality acoustics are essential. Over 80 per cent of deaf children now attend mainstream schools, so any classroom could be one in which a deaf child is learning. Research has shown that primary school children with special educational needs are disproportionately affected in reading and spelling when there is background noise in the classroom. To achieve the Government's aims of creating a highly skilled workforce, we need to make sure that all classrooms are as inclusive as possible. Billions of pounds are currently being spent on new school buildings through, for example, the Building Schools for the Future programme. We should be outraged if, after all this spending, new school buildings are being built in which the acoustics are not fit for purpose for children with special educational needs. Yet the National Deaf Children's Society has repeatedly come across examples of new schools with poor listening environments, and a wide range of organisations share those concerns. In PricewaterhouseCoopers’s evaluation of the Building Schools for the Future programme for rebuilding secondary schools, between 26 and 40 per cent of teachers from four brand-new schools stated that the acoustics were not good enough. Sadly, the Department for Children, Schools and Families has conducted no audit of acoustics in new school buildings. Government guidance exists on this, and is set out in Building Bulletin 93. The Building Regulations 2000 and the Education (School Premises) Regulations 1999 set out the need for acoustics that are appropriate for the intended use of the classroom. However, there is no mandatory requirement anywhere in guidance or legislation to conduct acoustic testing. A simple recommendation to do acoustic testing is not enough. There needs to be a mandatory requirement for testing of the acoustics in all new primary and secondary school buildings. Acoustic testing is not expensive. The NDCS estimates that it costs around 0.01 per cent of the cost of a new school building, which is a minute price to pay for ensuing that schools are inclusive. This matter was raised while the Bill was considered in the other place, and I understand that the Department for Children, Schools and Families and the Department for Communities and Local Government are currently reviewing Building Bulletin 93. I am aware that the NDCS has had a number of helpful meetings with officials. It has been told that the introduction of a mandatory requirement is outside the scope of the review. Officials have spoken about introducing a new template contract for local authorities participating in building schools for the future. However, this is just a template contract; it is not mandatory; and it does not apply to primary schools where good acoustics are vital for language development. The only way forward appears to be a legislative amendment to the building regulations or the Education (School Premises) Regulations. I should welcome a commitment from the Minister that an amendment will be considered to these pieces of legislation to introduce a requirement to make sure that acoustics are fit for purpose. Schools need to be inclusive environments for all. There is little point in building lots of new schools that look good if they do not sound good too. I turn to the matter of apprenticeships. Clause 89 establishes a new duty on the chief executive of the National Apprenticeship Service to create a scheme whereby it will secure sufficient apprenticeship places for every suitably qualified young person who wants one. Clause 93 sets out the qualifications required to take part in the scheme. This includes a GCSE in English to participate in a level 2 apprenticeship and a GCSE at grade C in English to participate in a level 3 apprenticeship. As the noble Lord, Lord Rix, has pointed out, this blanket requirement has led to serious concerns that unnecessary barriers may have been created in enabling deaf and other young people with special educational needs to participate in the scheme. For example, a blanket requirement for a GCSE in English may disadvantage a deaf candidate whose first language is British sign language. These blanket requirements will be applied regardless of whether it is a necessary competence for that individual apprenticeship. I appreciate that it is possible to conduct an apprenticeship outside the scheme. However, that is not the point. Under the public sector duty of the Disability Discrimination Act the Government have a duty to ensure their apprentice scheme is accessible to disabled people. They also have a duty to treat disabled people more favourably in order to achieve equality. A blanket requirement, which may not be relevant to all apprenticeships, will disadvantage disabled people. The duty to promote disability is not served by such requirements—and for no strong justification. I should very much welcome reassurances from my noble friend that disabled young people will be able to access the apprenticeship scheme created. Will the Minister also set out how the scheme will comply with disability equality duties to promote equality and whether a GCSE in English will be a necessary competence for every apprenticeship provided?