Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Bill

I should declare an interest as a former governor of Hills Road College, which has been mentioned as one of the most excellent sixth-form colleges in the country and is constantly at the top of the league tables. I also declare a very different sort of interest: I made my maiden speech in this House welcoming the reforms that gave the further education colleges their freedom from local authorities. Exactly as both my noble friends have emphasised, that has resulted in an extraordinary explosion in both the status and the effectiveness of the further education sector. The part of Clause 40 that most concerns me and rather gives the negative answer to the question asked by my noble friend Lord Baker about catchment areas is subsection (4)(d) of new Section 15ZA, which says that, ""a local education authority must … take account of education and training whose provision the authority think might reasonably be secured by other persons"." That is, presumably, because some college 50 miles away is providing something that is considered to be useful. That is the negative power that the Bill gives to a local education authority to tell a further education college what it may not do. Not only is there a list of things that it has the power to tell the FE college and the sixth-form that they must do, this is a negative power to tell them what they cannot do. I find that extremely worrying. My noble friend referred to one college—which may be the one that sprang to my mind, namely Lewisham College in south London—which has been working voluntarily and extremely fruitfully with its neighbouring local authorities to provide 14 to 16 education. It is wonderful example of free co-operation between three local authorities and one absolutely free sixth-form college. That is the sort of thing that I fear would be cut. I see the Minister shaking his head, but of course it would be. Once they have the power, local authorities will begin to restrict things to what is in their own interests, particularly if they are footing the bill. I would very much like to see some absolute assurance from the Minister—which I am sure he will get from his briefing—that while the local authority will fund the colleges, it will not necessarily control them. I am afraid that the whole of Clause 40 is about control and I find that absolutely wrong in view of everything that I have seen happen in the past 20 years.