Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Bill

My Lords, I, too, have a question for the Minister. I know that the Government are genuinely committed to flexibility in education—to people being able to take up education at any time in their lives and to flow in and out of education and training as well as work and so on. Does the Minister feel that the separation of these two different bodies will help or hinder that kind of flexibility? I have never known a funding agency, or any body with powers of funding, that did not become very independent and pretty bossy over the course of its life. No doubt those two agencies will begin to develop quite different policies on how and on what basis they fund and on how much per unit they will offer. Some individuals, particularly the often forgotten part-time students who are in full-time employment and studying part time, could very well find themselves switching from one kind of funding to another while they are on the same course and pursuing the same qualification. That is quite apart from the difficulties, which my noble friend Lord Hunt and the noble Baroness, Lady Sharp, have highlighted, for institutions that have all these different streams of funding. It could be a very bumpy ride for individuals as they pass the age of 19 and find themselves in a completely different funding regime. I would very much like to hear how the Minister feels this particular agency, which is independent from the SFA, will help that kind of individual flexibility for learners.