Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Bill

Amendment 2 would insert a new clause that would place the National Apprenticeship Service on the face of the Bill, changing its status to a non-departmental public body. The NAS would no longer be a discrete service within the Skills Funding Agency, and would have powers and duties in its own right. I understand that in part the amendments have been inspired by concerns among some bodies, including members of the Special Educational Consortium, that the apprenticeships programme be established under a single entity. I must admit that we were puzzled: given the criticism that we have faced for the number of public bodies that the Bill already creates, I hope noble Lords will forgive me for expressing some mild surprise that we are being encouraged to establish yet another one. That said, I can assure the House that establishing the NAS as a separate NDPB was certainly one of the options that we considered when framing the legislation. We discounted it because we believe that there are significant benefits from housing the NAS within the Skills Funding Agency. In particular, it will ensure that apprenticeships form a key part of the overarching skills agenda managed by the Skills Funding Agency. That connection may be lost if the NAS has the level of independence and status conferred by being a separate NDPB, and would create the potential for the NAS to separate itself from the overarching aims and objectives of the Skills Funding Agency. It should be a part of that, not something separate. We understand the need to focus on apprenticeships, but apprenticeships must be part of a skills and training programme that is helpful to our policy aim of achieving a more coherent system for learners and employers. In creating the Skills Funding Agency, a key design principle has been to ensure a much stronger employer and learner focus, and that it why it will house a number of discrete client-facing gateways. As well as the National Apprenticeship Service, these will include Train to Gain, an employer skills service including the National Employer Service and the Adult Advancement and Careers Service, ensuring that all of these gateways offer a coherent package to learners and employers. Within this structure, the National Apprenticeship Service will have a significant level of operational independence, as its activities will be managed by its own chief executive who will be directly accountable to the Secretaries of State for Business, Innovation and Skills and for Children, Schools and Families, bearing in mind that we have a range of apprenticeships from those age ranges covered by the DCSF and post-19. This structure will also enable more streamlined funding arrangements for colleges and other providers, as contracting for apprenticeships will be managed through an account management system which will sit within the Skills Funding Agency. I understand that there are concerns about whether the Skills Funding Agency, and by extension the NAS, will be covered by discrimination legislation—a concern expressed by the noble Lord, Lord Low—such as the Disability Discrimination Act and the new Equality Bill. I can reassure the Committee that, as a government agency, the Skills Funding Agency will be covered by a single equality duty which will be placed on the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills by the Equality Bill when it comes into force. However, we also want to follow the spirit of this legislation, and following the practice of other agencies such as Jobcentre Plus, we will expect the Skills Funding Agency to have its own Single Equality Scheme. That requirement will be set out in the framework document that will underpin the relationship between the department and the Skills Funding Agency. We will discuss the reasons for establishing the Skills Funding Agency as an agency rather than an NDPB at a later point in our consideration of the Bill, so I will not go into detail here. Suffice to say that it strikes an important balance between making the Skills Funding Agency, including the apprenticeships programme, responsive to evolving policy and giving it the legal accountability we would expect would accompany a budget of this scale. The noble Baroness, Lady Sharp, said that we were micromanaging. I find that strange because many of these powers existed and needed to exist with the LSC as well. We had to have the ability for the Secretary of State to direct where necessary. For example, we do not regard as micromanagement the Secretary of State's powers to direct that certain key documents be produced, such as the specification of apprenticeship standards in England. This is all about delegating powers away from the Secretary of State. There is absolutely no chance of the Secretary of State wanting to intervene and micromanage as has been suggested. I would be interested to know a Secretary of State who had the time to do that, let alone the inclination. We have already established the National Apprenticeship Service with its own chief executive already doing a good job in focusing on the important need for more apprenticeships and ensuring that we set the right standards. It is already functioning. There is no question of micromanagement in those circumstances. Will it be accountable to Parliament? Yes, it will be through its chief executive, who will be named in legislation and will be an accounting officer in their own right. If Parliament wants to hold the CEO of the Skills Funding Agency to account, it can do so. We believe that we have got it right. We would not say that the structure is simple, but we have tried to ensure in the new arrangements that we are devolving, which is the opposite of centralising. Part of the criticism of the current arrangements of the Learning and Skills Council is that it is a large, central body. We have been trying with this policy to push that power down towards local authorities and make the agency more responsive to employer demands, which is something that those on the Opposition Benches normally applaud. We do not believe that creating yet another NDPB is the right solution in the circumstances. I hope that I have addressed the points of concern raised by the noble Lord, Lord Hunt. I have dealt with the question of the chief executive of the NAS. On the role of the sector skills councils, the nature of that relationship is fundamentally important. The most important part of the sector skills councils’ job will be to work in conjunction with the employers—who, after all, make up the sector skills councils—on the design of the apprenticeship framework and to ensure that we sustain the largest number of apprenticeships possible. The role of the SSC will continue. The only thing that we have done is to enable the National Apprenticeship Service to be the body that issues the certificates and we believe that that is right. Again, we are ensuring that there is one standard apprenticeship certificate to ensure that there is a quality brand. As I acknowledged in the previous debate, the particular sector skills council logo will form part of that certificate. I cannot accept that we have created a scenario where there is constant micromanagement by the Secretary of State. There are occasions where, I suggest to the noble Baroness, Lady Sharp, we would want the Secretary of State to have some power to direct if the circumstances changed—as they did on the question of apprentices being made redundant, for example. Powers would be exercised as they currently are only in urgent or necessary circumstances. There is no question of micromanagement. Again, I hope that that reassures the noble Baroness and that she will consider withdrawing her amendment.