Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Bill

I support this group of amendments and take this opportunity to spell out the importance of the learning disability assessment for young people with learning difficulties. I am president of the organisation Skill, the National Bureau for Students with Disabilities. It has expressed concern about the learning difficulty assessment, as that will determine the route that young people take in their post-16 education and training. Whether or not a young person has a learning difficulty assessment will determine the level of support and provision that they receive and their entitlement, as well as whether they are the responsibility of the YPLA or the Skills Funding Agency. There are also concerns about how all disabled learners, particularly those who have not been formally assessed, will be identified as in need of assessment and subsequent support. I hope that the Minister will be able to give us an assurance that learners without a learning difficulty assessment will not be disadvantaged in post-16 provision and support. Statutory guidance on Section 139A and 140 assessments has only recently been published and is open to public consultation until July. The draft guidance does not refer to the new agency responsible for funding disabled learners, specifically the YPLA. Instead, it refers to the Learning and Skills Council, which will cease to exist from 2010. This is of concern, as we want to be sure that the guidance is fit for purpose before the Bill receives Royal Assent. I referred to this point at Second Reading. Disabled learners’ experiences of transition in post-16 learning and their ability to make informed choices will depend largely on the final form that the guidance takes, so we want to be sure that there is robust, relevant and coherent guidance in place that delivers appropriate learning choices for all disabled learners aged 16 to 25. In the case of Alloway against the London Borough of Bromley, the judgment concluded that there needs to be tighter control over the quality and compliance of Section 139A and 140 assessments. Ensuring high-quality assessments is critical, as they determine the provision and support that young people can access and, in turn, their learning outcomes and the possibility of progression. The YPLA, I want to suggest, needs to establish a quality control framework that underpins the Section 139A and 140 assessment process. The quality control framework must include disabled learners, parents and organisations representing disabled learners in framing the provision and support that is to be made for individual disabled learners. A robust quality control framework would ensure a high standard of professional expertise and experience without being prescriptive about the specific qualifications that professionals undertaking these assessments will be required to have. It is important that there is a framework of accountability for the quality of Section 139A and 140 assessments. Senior managers within the local authority or the commissioning agency, such as Connexions, should be responsible for the final sign-off of Section 139A and 140 assessments. This is particularly important in the light of the Alloway case, which concluded that Bromley and Connexions had not met their statutory duty properly to assess the learning and support needs of Stephen Alloway. A quality control framework would ensure that the assessment process was equitable for all disabled learners in need of it and would ensure consistency across local authority areas. Moreover, without such a framework in place to control assessments of disabled young people, judicial reviews will increasingly be sought by parents and those with responsibility for disabled young people. Implementing a quality control framework is beneficial for disabled young people and their families and for local authorities to ensure that they are meeting their new statutory duties under the Education and Skills Act of last year and under this Bill once it receives Royal Assent. The duties and powers that LEAs have to arrange and provide an assessment must be highlighted to ensure that learners who need an assessment receive one. Currently, many disabled learners face difficulties receiving an assessment, which poses a barrier to their participation in post-16 education and training. Assessments are intended to be holistic, addressing a range of individual needs from learning support to transport provision. It is important that we get an assurance that statutory guidance on the Section 139A and 140 assessments highlights that, where a local authority believes that an assessment would benefit a learner regardless of whether the learner has been assessed or supported before, it will arrange for an assessment to take place. I am seeking from the Minister an assurance that the assessment will cover the wider transition planning for disabled young people, including the learning and support needs of the given individual, such as their transport needs. To sum up, we need the following assurances from the Government today. First, we need to know that disabled learners without a learning difficulty assessment will not be disadvantaged in post-16 provision and support. Secondly, we need to know that there will be a robust quality control framework that will underpin the Section 139A and 140 assessment processes. Thirdly, there must be a framework of accountability for the quality of Section 139A and 140 assessments, in which, specifically, senior management within local authorities or the commissioned agency, such as Connexions, will have responsibility for the final sign-off of these assessments. Fourthly, we want to know how local authorities will identify and assess which disabled learners need an assessment and ensure that there are sufficient qualified staff to undertake them. Fifthly, the assessment must cover the wider transition planning for disabled young people, including the learning and support needs of a given individual, such as their transport needs. Sixthly, we need clarification on how local authorities will identify young people who are not in education, employment and/or training as in need of an assessment. Finally, professionals working with disabled children and young people in offender institutions should begin the assessment process of particular individuals who require it and have regard to statutory guidance relating to Section 139A and 140 assessments. I hope that the Minister will be able to reassure us on at least some of these points.