Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Bill

My Lords, we are having a very interesting debate about the committee, which the noble Lord, Lord Lucas, described as a secretive and shadowy body. I will be delighted to shine some light on its activities through my remarks. The noble Baroness, Lady Verma, made some assertions about the international baccalaureate, suggesting that funding for it has been removed. I can reassure her that that is not the case: funding for the international baccalaureate in state schools has not been removed. I turn to her amendments. Of course people should be able to choose from a range of high-quality qualifications, as she suggests, to help them to achieve their potential and to recognise what they have learnt. Of course the qualifications offer should be kept under review, as it is. Of course noble Lords will be interested in the Pre-U, but the Pre-U and the baccalaureate are already available in the state sector. They are regulated by interim Ofqual, so we can be sure that those qualifications will be of high quality. The noble Baroness, Lady Perry, was also concerned about the IGCSE but, as I have said in this place once before, the IGCSE has not yet been submitted to interim Ofqual. It is not accredited and its processes for maintaining standards are not monitored. That is not to say that it will not be in future, but it would be self-defeating for Parliament to set up an independent regulator and then, in the same Bill, ask the Secretary of State to review whether maintained schools should be able to use qualifications that have not been submitted to the regulator for accreditation. We must have a system and stick by it. Taking a step back from that, we know that the current learning offer for young people is confusing. I have taken that point from many discussions in this House. Too many qualifications fail to support the progression from learning to skilled employment and higher education that we all want to see. That is why we are looking to streamline the qualifications offer in the maintained sector into four main routes: GCSEs and A-levels, diplomas, apprenticeships and foundation learning. We believe that qualifications outside those routes should be available where they meet a need that cannot be met within the four main routes. It is also why we have made a commitment, which noble Lords are keen to see, to review the entire publicly funded pre-19 qualifications offer in 2013. By then, we will be in a position to look at all qualifications in the offer and the contribution made by each. Limited reviews focused on individual qualifications before that date would not enable us to make sound, objective judgments. I assure noble Lords opposite that all regulated qualifications will be considered in that review. I shall speak briefly about Amendments 263 and 274 on JACQA and the funding of pre-19 qualifications in schools and colleges. We believe that it is right that the responsibility for taking decisions on funding eligibility should remain with the Secretary of State. I appreciate what the noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley, said, but we have to disagree. It is an important principle that Ofqual’s regulatory decisions should be kept separate from the policy role that the Secretary of State takes. Decisions about what qualifications to fund are policy decisions, as the noble Lord, Lord Lucas, made clear. It is for the Secretary of State to decide whether a qualification is appropriate for use in the state sector, and whether it is consistent with the national curriculum and with his or her wider strategy for qualifications. Government has a responsibility to our young people to ensure that the qualifications they study for are coherent—we will come on to that word—and provide good progression routes into further study or employment. Government also has a responsibility to the taxpayer to make sure that qualifications provide good value for money. As the noble Lord, Lord Lucas, said, the Joint Advisory Committee for Qualifications Approval—JACQA—has been established to advise the Secretary of State on which pre-19 qualifications should be eligible for public funding. That decision remains with the Secretary of State under the Learning and Skills Act 2000. JACQA’s membership has been set to ensure that views of key stakeholders—employers, universities, schools, colleges and learners—are taken into account in the advice to the Secretary of State on which qualifications should be eligible for public funding. The aim is to ensure transparency in the process, so I am delighted to have the opportunity to talk about this on the record. The published criteria set out the basis on which decisions about public funding eligibility will be made. These criteria, along with a full explanation of its evidence-gathering and decision-making processes, are included in a new JACQA handbook for awarding organisations, which will be published later this month. I will ensure that, when it is published, it will be made known to Members of the Committee. The Secretary of State’s decisions are similarly published. JACQA will also publish an annual report on its activities; the first will be in December. I can confirm today that the annual report will include a summary of those qualifications not recommended for approval and the reasons for those recommendations. I hope, having been able to help JACQA to come out of the shadows, and with the assurances that I have given noble Lords, that noble Lords will feel able not to press their amendments.