Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Bill

My Lords, I want to make it very clear that the intention here is very much to be in step with the aspirations of sixth-form colleges. As noble Lords will be aware, sixth-form colleges have always had a distinct character and ethos, and I am sure they would argue better than me that concentrating on their core functions of providing 16-to-19 education and training has given them the focus that has allowed them to do tremendously well, as the noble Baroness, Lady Howe, said so eloquently. I support the noble Baroness’s assertion that it is important that institutions that look after children and young people of the same age are judged on a similar basis. This is what we are trying to achieve; I have already referred to the framework for excellence that is being developed in consultation with BIS, the DCSF and professional partners. The Government respect the independent status of sixth-form colleges, and designation as a sixth-form college will not change that status. As they are now they will remain: as incorporated colleges run by their college corporations, not by the local authority. These powers of intervention, on which the probing amendment tabled by the noble Baroness, Lady Howe, focuses and would remove, are currently held by the Learning and Skills Council. The LSC has used the powers that are being incorporated in this Bill extremely infrequently, but they remain necessary as a tool of last resort because the implications of those extremely rare cases of educational failure or institutional mismanagement can be dire for the life chances of learners. We intend to transfer the responsibilities that the Learning and Skills Council now holds for sixth-form colleges to local authorities and the YPLA, with the same safeguards that are in place now. Local authorities will be able to consider intervention only if certain thresholds that are set out in the Bill and to which noble Lords have referred are met. Local authorities will be required to follow a national intervention policy which the YPLA will consult on and publish. The YPLA will also submit that policy to the Secretary of State. If he approves it, it will be laid before both Houses of Parliament. The noble Baroness, Lady Howe, asked specifically about the criteria that the Skills Funding Agency would use in an intervention. I put on the record that in deciding whether to intervene, criterion D in new Section 56E of Schedule 8 allows the local authority to judge how the sixth-form college is performing. This must take account of the circumstances of the college. The same duties are placed on the Skills Funding Agency in respect of FE colleges that it performance-manages. Therefore, we will apply a consistent approach across all sectors, which I know the noble Baroness is keen to achieve. The noble Baroness also asked about the role of the YPLA. The YPLA’s powers of intervention, which mirror a local authority’s powers, are, as I have said, a fallback only. The YPLA could intervene in a sixth-form college only when two conditions have been met: first, if it was already intervening in the relevant local authority because the authority was failing in its core duty; and, secondly, if a sixth-form college in that authority was behaving in a way that caused the YPLA to conclude that one of the high-level conditions set out in Schedule 8 has been met. This would be an extremely rare set of circumstances. The noble Lord, Lord Lucas, was concerned that sixth-form colleges could do nothing in response to this process. There is a detailed process of discussion between the local authorities and sixth-form colleges in subsections (4) to (6) of new Section 56E, which he has already probably found his way to, but, again, in the interests of clarity, I will write to noble Lords in my best handwriting, or even using a typewriter, about how that could work. I will be absolutely clear: we are advised time and time again that the sixth-form colleges are keen to move forward with this. With the reassurance that I may have been able to offer the Committee, perhaps the noble Baroness will feel able to withdraw her amendment.