Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Bill

As the Minister said, I have my name against Amendments 137, 138 and 140, along with that of the noble Baroness, Lady Sharp. As noble Lords will be aware, I am president of Skill, the National Bureau for Students with Disabilities, to which the noble Baroness referred. Skill has had a long-standing concern that there should be a duty on local authorities to provide the transport that students with learning difficulties aged 19 to 25 might need to take part in their educational programmes. We have moved amendments on that in this House in preceding sessions. As the noble Baroness has made clear, considerable work has taken place. Last year, when we moved these amendments, the Minister undertook to do further work to see how far the spirit of the amendments could be delivered. I am delighted that a lot of further work has taken place. Ministers have listened and I pay tribute to them, to the Bill team and to my own assistant, William Moy, who has undertaken much liaison between myself and the Bill team, for the work that they have all done and the way that they have listened. The result is that it should be possible to withdraw the amendment this evening. Over the years, we have sought to improve the legislation in four respects. In respect of current legislation, we wanted to see an amendment to Clause 55 that ties the duty to provide transport in the clause to the reasonable needs of disabled learners aged 19 to 25—not just what the authority considers necessary, but along the lines of the wording in Clause 40. Secondly, we wanted to see statutory guidance to support the duty in Clause 55. Thirdly, we wanted a robust complaints procedure to support the duty—one that mirrored the transport complaints procedure available to sixth-formers. Finally, we wanted clarification that the duty in Clause 112 on the chief executive of the Skills Funding Agency to have regard to the needs of persons with learning difficulties aged 19 or over includes transport. Having listened to what the Minister has said, I think that we have got pretty well all that we were asking for—and more than one often has a right to expect on these occasions. The Minister referred to the thinking on producing statutory guidance. She hopes to return with something further to say on Report, and we welcome that. As regards the complaints procedure, we very much welcome Amendment 140B and associated amendments. The Minister has undertaken to ensure that guidance establishes a link between the wording in Clauses 40 and 55, and we look forward to hearing what she says on that on Report. We very much welcome progress so far. If it is possible for the Minister, as she has indicated, to draw that link in the Bill, so much the better—we will welcome that all the more warmly. The Minister said that she hopes to return to the issue of statutory guidance on Report. We welcome that. I have already welcomed the amendments relating to the complaints procedure. All that remains is for the Minister, when she winds up, to clarify that the duty in Clause 112 on the chief executive of the Skills Funding Agency to have regard to the needs of persons with learning difficulties aged 19 or over includes transport. If she were able to do that, I would feel that my cup runneth over.