Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Bill

I thank the noble Lord, Lord De Mauley, for moving the amendment and facilitating the debate. Before responding to the amendment, I want to say a couple of things about the Connexions service, because the noble Lord praised its work to begin with. It would be helpful to put on the record some important feedback that we have had about the Connexions service, which provides such an important source of advice to schools and directly to young people. The Connexions service does an important and good job. We have heard the views of young people and other stakeholders in past surveys, and they have been positive. We have had 28 Ofsted inspections of Connexions partnerships, of which 89 per cent were rated as satisfactory or better, which is encouraging. The 2008 Connexions Direct user survey found that 92 per cent of users reported that they were "satisfied" or "very satisfied" with the service, a slight increase from 89 per cent in 2006; it is clearly going in the direction of further improvement. There were particularly high ratings for ease of use of the internet services, about which the noble Lord was concerned when we discussed this in our previous debate. There were high ratings for the website and the user-friendliness of the advisers. Ninety per cent of those surveyed are likely to use Connexions Direct again. I wanted to inject that into our deliberations now. Amendment 72 calls for an independent review of the quality of careers advice and guidance provision and of the appropriateness of introducing an all-age careers service in England. As noble Lords are aware, we are already putting in place an ambitious set of policies to ensure that young people are provided with information, advice and guidance, and that they develop the skills they need to plan and manage their careers. This is important from the beginning of PSHE careers education, which we all know will be statutory. These policies have been informed by good practice, identified by such key delivery partners as the National College for School Leadership, the Training and Development Agency for Schools and the Learning and Skills Improvement Service. They seek to address what noble Lords have in the past described, perhaps rightly, as the patchiness of current provision, which ranges from excellent to unsatisfactory. We will also put in place new statutory guidance for schools and local authorities, which will set out improved accountability arrangements for bodies responsible for the provision of information and advice on learning and work. These are key in driving up standards. These further developments will be set out in our forthcoming information, advice and guidance strategy, which will be published later this summer. Since we effectively have a break between Committee and Report, I hope that the noble Lords opposite will be able to have a good look at the strategy. No doubt we will discuss this further. The strategy has been developed in close collaboration with a wide variety of stakeholders. The new Adult Advancement and Careers Service will provide a seamless service, drawing together a full range of advice and support on such issues as jobs, skills, childcare, housing, and financial and personal issues to address the broader needs of adults. It will be fully operational in England, as noble Lords are aware, from August 2010. It is very important that young people are provided with the help that they need to move from services aimed at young people to those for adults. There is no question about that; it is extremely important. We want to ensure that vulnerable young people are protected as they grow older and start to receive support from adult-orientated services. There are strong advantages to that. This calls for strong cross-organisational working between providers of IAG for young people and adults, which puts the individual at the centre of delivery and ensures that the quality of support is maintained as individuals progress from one delivery organisation to another. My department is therefore working closely with the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and the Department for Work and Pensions to provide closely co-ordinated services for young people and adults that provide individuals with the support that they need through an effective all-age strategy. This will be published in the summer. It will ensure that data-sharing and other arrangements are improved, securing smooth transitions. I hope that will meet some of the noble Lord’s concerns. For example, from autumn 2010, all 19 year-olds will have the choice of using either Connexions services or the Adult Advancement and Careers Service, so there will not be that cliff edge, which I am sure the noble Lord would be concerned about. We believe that we have in place—or are soon to publish—an effective all-age strategy that will support young people moving between services and provide greater efficiency and value for money. On that basis, I hope the noble Lord will consider withdrawing his amendment.