Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Bill

I thank the noble Earl for initiating this debate. The amendment would require, wherever possible, specified public bodies in England to ensure that a minimum of 10 per cent of their apprentices were care leavers between the ages of 16 and 25. I assure the Committee that the Government are totally committed to ensuring that apprenticeship opportunities in both the public and private sectors—we should not ignore the private sector—are open to care leavers. We know that some young people in care have a complex set of problems that may mean that they take a bit longer to adjust to the demands of the workplace and so may not be ready by 18 to take up an apprenticeship place. That is why we have already made an amendment to the Bill in another place to extend the apprenticeship scheme to suitably qualified care leavers aged 18 to 21. That will extend to the age of 24 once an amendment made by the Children and Young Persons Act 2008 to Section 23CA of the Children Act 1989 is commenced. I understand the intention behind Amendment 74, but we consider that its operation would be flawed. The 10 per cent target, as a number of noble Lords have commented, is unrealistic given the number of care leavers in relation to the number of public sector apprenticeships. I recognise that the public sector has an important part to play in ensuring that opportunities are available for care leavers, as for other young disadvantaged people. I also agree that the public sector does not yet provide enough apprenticeships. Currently, the public sector employs about 20 per cent of the national workforce but has less than 10 per cent of its apprentices. We are keen to address this imbalance, which is why we are looking for the public sector to provide at least 21,000 additional apprenticeship places in 2009-10. The noble Baroness, Lady Sharp, rightly extolled the work of Rathbone and Barnardo’s in relation to people with learning disabilities and preparing them for apprenticeships. We have said already that we shall consider how we can respond to the concerns around Rathbone and Barnardo’s and come back to them on Report. We can include a little of what we are discussing now as well. Every secondary school has a designated teacher to promote the interests of looked-after children. To help care leavers to find apprenticeships, we are working with the National Care Advisory Service on a national employability initiative, which aims to develop and test models of support for care leavers entering employment and apprenticeships in local authorities across all nine Government Office regions in England. Among other things, this initiative aims to develop a national career support model for young people leaving care, including a national network and register of private, public and third sector employers who will sign up to a commitment to develop employment support initiatives for young people in and from care. I share the view of the noble Baroness, Lady Morris, that we need not just pushy parents but pushy authorities and corporates. We have not yet modelled the apprenticeship demand for those young people entitled to care-leaving support under age 18. However, we estimate that there are around 500 care leavers a year aged 18 to 24 who would want and have the ability to undertake an apprenticeship. Many of them would be employed in the private sector. As your Lordships can see, there is a disparity in the relative numbers and it will be impossible for most public authorities to reach the 10 per cent target. I will certainly commit to draw it to the attention of public sector employers and the departmental ministerial apprenticeship champions that care leavers up to the age of 25 are eligible for a place under the entitlement and ensure that prospective care leavers have access to information about apprenticeship opportunities in both the public and private sectors. In conclusion, we share the concern not just of the noble Earl but of all those who have contributed to this debate. It is in the interests of all of us—in society’s interests—to ensure that these care leavers do not become part of the NEET population, and that we make every effort to ensure that they get their share of apprenticeships. We encourage all local government departments to play their part in achieving this. I hope that in the light of those comments the noble Earl will be prepared to withdraw the amendment.