Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Bill

My Lords, I shall speak to Amendments 141, 142 and 142A. I speak also on behalf of my noble friend Lady Sharp. I thank the Minister for the government amendments, and for the very recent letter that I retrieved an hour ago on this topic, which is very helpful and addresses some of the issues mentioned earlier. These were in response to concerns raised particularly by the Association of Colleges that some local authorities may not fulfil their statutory duty to produce appropriate transport plans for 16 to 19 year-olds and implement them effectively. The Minister covered these points very effectively in her statements, and also with her assurance that we will return to this on Report. The particular concern of Amendment 141 is that the powers of the Secretary of State that extend to a local authority to review its transport policy could also extend to a general overview of transport across the country, rather than to the specific locality. It was not clear, after the abolition of the Learning and Skills Council, which organisation would take general responsibility. We welcome the moves that the Government have made, the statements on complaints from 16 to 19 year-olds and their parents, the other points in the letter and the amendments. Amendment 142 has been covered, but I would like to speak to Amendment 142A, which links local authorities’ transport policies to the funding that they receive from central government. The local government financial report sets out the level of the revenue support grant payable to local authorities in that year. Each authority receives a grant based on an amount calculated using a relative needs formula made up of seven service blocks. From those blocks, local authorities should fund transport to schools and colleges for the most disadvantaged young people in their area. By linking this to a policy where the money provided by central government goes to specific areas of service, transport assistance for poorer students would be implicitly ring-fenced, because there can be a disconnection between the local authority’s policy and the reality of students trying to access the assistance that the authority claims to offer. A recent Association of Colleges survey showed that 87 per cent of colleges were subsidising transport, at an average cost per college of £305,000. Colleges were trying to fill the gaps where local authorities were not adequately funding transport. There was an additional concern that some students were using their maintenance allowance to support attendance at college. The responsibility of local authorities would be clearer if the transport policy was linked directly to the funding allocated for it. We welcome the assurances from the Minister that we will return to this on Report.