Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Bill

As my noble friend Lady Blackstone reminded us, we need to establish that making the best use of their resources is a key principle of how all public bodies do business. Subsections (4)(e) and (5) ensure that. That is in learners’ interests because if local authorities commission particular provision in a way that does not give value for money, there will be less money available to support other learners. I know that throughout this debate noble Lords have taken the view that this is somehow a get-out clause and that is its sole purpose. That is by no means the intention and I will demonstrate why that is the case as I proceed. There is a real need for us to ensure that, even in special needs provision, we are still getting value for money. It is not an attempt to say that we do not want to go down a particular route. I am sure that the noble Lord, Lord Rix, could find a number of examples of where he would have to choose between providers and might find that one offered better value for money than another. It is not an attempt to avoid responsibilities or not provide a service. We are trying to make sure that, in getting the best value for money, we can reach the widest possible group of people who need this service. We are all starting from the same intention and should not see value for money as meaning that we will deny people rights and opportunities. I would argue that it is the other way round. We are making sure that more people get the opportunities, services and support that they need. This is not about comparing the provision needed for one group of learners against the provision needed for different groups with different needs and saying that meeting the needs of one group, because it is more expensive, involves incurring disproportionate expenditure. It is about looking at the needs of young people and the provision available and commissioning the provision that meets those needs, while also providing value for money. Requiring value for money when commissioning education and training is not a new requirement. Under Section 2(3)(e) of the Learning and Skills Act 2000 the Learning and Skills Council is required to, ""make the best use of the Council’s resources and in particular avoid provision which might give rise to disproportionate expenditure"." There is no suggestion that this requirement has in any way affected the LSC’s ability to provide appropriate learning provision for young people with learning difficulties and disabilities. Indeed, one consistent message to come from the conversations that I have had with Skill, the RNIB and others in the past few weeks is that the LSC has a very good track record in this area, despite having this disproportionate expenditure criterion.