Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Bill

My Lords, our Amendment 39 seeks to address a concern raised by the Association of Colleges. It is worried about the powers contained in Clause 44, which allow local authorities the power to direct further education colleges to accept particular—that is, specified—students within a local authority’s area. The Association of Colleges is worried, particularly in respect of safeguarding the other students and staff of a college, if it is felt that the specified student poses a risk in any way. Can the Minister inform the House what would happen in these circumstances? Some reassurances by the Government have already been offered. A letter to the Association of Colleges, for example, stated that the power would only be used in, ""exceptional circumstance and would not allow local authorities to force 16-18 learning providers to take young people unsuited to their courses"." This, as far as it goes, is good news. However, can the Minister reassure colleges a little further? On what specific grounds will further education colleges be able to refuse to accept specific students? The Government have stated only that learning providers would not have to accept people unsuited to their courses. Can the Minister expand on what that means, perhaps by giving some examples? The purpose of our amendment is to give maximum flexibility to colleges to determine who to accept. We on these Benches feel that part of the reason for the success of FE colleges is that they are independent of local authority control. They have no catchment area; they have the freedom to determine which course they offer and which they do not, and the freedom to specialise in particular areas. They should be allowed to specialise and so be able to attract students from far and wide and not just be restricted to within the domain of their local education authority. In light of this, at the very least, local authorities should have to consult a further education college if they want the college to provide education or training to specified people. Otherwise this is a threat to the college’s independence with regard to its admissions policy. The letter from the Government to the Association of Colleges stated that they, ""would certainly expect any local authority considering using the powers to consult with the governing body of the college first"." If this is the case, why should it not be on the face of the Bill? I beg to move.