Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Bill

I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Sharp; she has revealed an interesting area, so to speak. With regard to Amendment 107, we are already doing a great deal to support and encourage young people to participate and progress in learning, to increase the post-16 learning options available to them and to support those learning choices. Education maintenance allowances, which provide up to £30 a week for learners from lower-income households, are available for learners aged 16 to 19 in schools, colleges and on certain training courses. That does not discount the noble Baroness’s latter point on the equity question, which the noble Baroness, Lady Perry, also addressed. Eligibility for EMA is based on household income. Nearly half of 16 to 19 year-olds in full-time further education currently qualify for this help on the basis of a household income assessment. Currently, families have to be in receipt of certain benefits and tax credits in order to be eligible for free school meals for their children. In addition to EMA, discretionary learner support funds are made available via the Learning and Skills Council to colleges and local authorities. This funding is provided to enable schools and colleges, using their discretion, to help individual learners facing hardship and financial barriers to learning that are not addressed through other means. That might take into account the groups of people that the noble Earl, Lord Listowel, addressed. In addition to the support that may be provided directly to young learners, other mechanisms exist to help with the costs of supporting young people aged 16 to 18 in learning, including universal child benefit. Child tax credits may be paid to parents if their child is participating. Recent increases to child benefit will provide additional support for parents regardless of income, and the increase to the child element of the child tax credit, a measure brought forward in the Budget, will provide substantial additional support to families. Given the generous support that is already made available to students who stay in learning—child benefit and tax credits, as I mentioned—and to families if their child is participating in any of a range of learning options, we do not feel that the case has been sufficiently made to extend the very specific form of support for free school meals for 16 to 18 year-olds to a wider range of premises. I welcome the return of the noble Lord, Lord Baker, to more constructive contributions, such as his point about apprenticeships and work-based learning environments. We are, however, looking carefully at all the arrangements for supporting young people, especially in the context of a raised participation age. We are taking this forward through the review into financial support for 16 to 18 year-olds that we announced in the New Opportunities White Paper. The review will take account of findings from research into the barriers, financial and otherwise, that young people may face in staying on in different learning options. Once again, I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Sharp. This is an important issue on the grounds of equity. We also do not want to do anything that deters young people from remaining in education. I hope that the noble Baroness will acknowledge that the range of what we are trying to do for young people extends beyond free school meals to how we support young people. The fact that we have increased the participation age raises once again the importance of ensuring that we do not deter young people from remaining in education. As the noble Lord, Lord Addington, reminded us, they need food for thought and we need to ensure that they can obtain it at a reasonable cost. I trust that my explanations will enable the noble Baroness to withdraw the amendment.