Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Bill

I support the amendment to which I have added my name. Noble Lords have already said why it is important, but I should like to add my voice. The Bill does not make sense in terms of consideration, and the notion that anyone should have the legal power to consider whether someone should receive factual information is not realistic in an internet world, let alone a civilised society. If we consider the opposite of that situation, with someone deciding that an individual was not entitled to receive factual information, it shows that the Bill gives an inaccurate impression. I support the noble Lord, Lord Baker, in his plea for technical colleges for 14 to 19 year-olds—whatever we call them. What makes sense is that we have a school system that goes from ages five to 14 and 14 to 18. I would not want it to be five to 11, 11 to 14 and 14 to 18. The Government missed a trick in abolishing key stage 3 assessment tests. They should have abolished key stage 2 and boosted key stage 3; then we could have had a strong 14 to 19 system, part of which was vocational technical colleges. However, that is probably not in the amendment that we are considering. We worry about careers education every time we talk about it. No matter what the legislation says and no matter what our efforts, there is a feeling in the House and in our nation that children are not always in a position to make the right decision about their careers. I suppose we arrive at that conclusion because we see the consequences of inadequate decisions or of opportunities missed. We try to put into legislation factual information which children need to receive. In this debate, we have spoken a lot about the importance of the careers education service being the outside body which does not have a vested interest in children taking any one pathway and in giving them information. I support that wholeheartedly. That is the importance of the Careers Service. I am supportive of some of these amendments, although not all of them are in great detail other than the one to which I have put my name. I worry that they are not sufficient. There are two parts to the process of what ends up with the child; namely, the young person who receives the information and the young person who makes a decision. Receiving information is not the same as making a decision. On sex education, obesity, health and safety or whatever it may be, you can hear members of the public say, "Haven’t they been told about that at school?". Of course children have been told, but they have not absorbed it and it has not led them to make the decision we would wish them to make. On the whole of this agenda, including children and young people making decisions about their future, I would like some acknowledgement that, as important as these amendments are, children and young people have a right to impartial information. The real thing that we do not do effectively is enable them to make a decision. The Careers Service essentially is one careers officer going into a school now and again to give information and then often leaving the school. Other people are left with the children and young people while they make their decisions. Schools have a vested interest in making them stay on, although we should not give inaccurate pictures of the behaviour of teachers. Most head teachers act in the interests of young people. There are parents who do not know about apprenticeships or other options and some of them do not have aspirations for their children. The amendment is right because it makes sense and removes the bit of Clause 35 that does not make sense. But no matter what these amendments say, we still have a job to do in moving on to the next stage of careers advice, which is, having given the factual information, how we support a child in making a decision that is in their best interest. That decision is theirs and theirs alone, and not that of the careers officer. That opens up the whole debate on aspiration, opportunity and work experience, and who will guide and mentor those children and young people. Certainly, I give my wholehearted support to the amendment proposed by my noble friend Lord Layard.