Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Bill

My Lords, in moving the amendment I also speak to Amendments 235 and 270. I am speaking on behalf of the noble Lord, Lord Low of Dalston, who very much regrets that he cannot attend the Committee today. These amendments would introduce a sixth objective into Clause 125(1), that of promoting equality standards. Clause 125(1) currently contains five different objectives: qualification standards, assessment standards, public confidence, awareness and efficiency. However, the principle of equality is not there. Examinations and qualifications are often designed with little thought given to accessibility and inclusivity for disabled students. This results in three main outcomes. First, there is the use of retrofitted "reasonable adjustments", as they are called, which result in some form of compromise or, often, disadvantage for the candidate. Secondly, there is the creation of a list of disallowed reasonable adjustments. For example, if a blind student sits an English exam, they are required to be physically able to read the text. A reader or voice software is not acceptable. If the text is in Braille, it is obviously acceptable. Alternatively, a disabled candidate would be exempted from a section of the exam if they could not complete it due to the rigidity of the reasonable adjustments lists. Where exemptions are given, this is indicated on an examination certificate, which is called "certificate indication" and implies that, for example, a blind person cannot read despite having adaptive technology that allows them to do so in real life. This would clearly put a disabled person at a disadvantage with employers. The Government’s central argument is that Ofqual will be covered by the equality duty and will have to produce an equality scheme in accordance with work going on in the Equality Bill. They also argue that adding this objective will not substantially add to the Bill or give any extra meaning to the regulator. The objectives of Ofqual include a public confidence objective, which we have been talking about at length during the latest batch of amendments. Maintaining public confidence has been the root cause of, and main justification for, discriminatory approaches to examination and assessment. We are concerned that Ofqual will have to give primary consideration to this objective, as outlined in the primary legislation that creates the organisation, and then give secondary consideration to its duties under the Equality Bill. The Government’s argument that an equality objective is unnecessary is based on the fact that the Equality Bill would require exam boards to make reasonable adjustments. The RNIB believes that this argument lacks strength, especially given that the Special Educational Needs and Disability Act 2001 has been in place for some time now and examination boards still fail to adjust. It could be easily argued that the regulator has as much responsibility to ensure that qualifications and assessments are of a decent standard and that the public are aware of, and have confidence in, exams, and delivers all of this while providing good value for money without having specific objectives. Otherwise, why have a regulator? The Government’s insistence at not having an equality objective while maintaining a specific "public confidence objective" is worrying, especially in light of the way in which public confidence—in the form of maintaining standards and not dumbing down—has been used to justify not reasonably adjusting exams and assessments for disabled learners. I beg to move.