Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Bill

I thank the noble Lord, Lord Addington, for raising these very important concerns. I am sure I speak for both sides of the Committee when I say that we would not wish there to be any situation where an education provider would be discouraged from accommodating students, in the way that the noble Lord described, because they might risk a reduction in funding. We are looking to the Minister for some reassurance on this matter. Like the noble Lord, Lord Addington, I have seen the arguments from ALLFIE, the Alliance for Inclusive Education, which argues that, ""education providers who would like to give greater opportunities for disabled learners wishing to access mainstream educational opportunities are financially penalised if the learners are unable successfully to complete the qualification"." What we are looking for this evening is an assurance from the Minister that this will not happen under the new organisation. I am sure that the Minister will assure us that the Government have no intention of allowing disabled students to be discriminated against in this way. I will just say that even a perception of disadvantage accompanying accepting disabled students could be very damaging. That would be very worrying indeed. We look forward to hearing from the Minister, just to reassure education providers that this will not be the case.