Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Bill

My Lords, several of the government amendments in this group are designed to respond to our amendment tabled in Committee, now Clause 49, which asked that a reading assessment be carried out on those subject to youth detention. The Minister has brought forward a new amendment to replace ours. Barring one objection, she will be pleased to hear that we are gladly able to accept those amendments. As she has described, she has expanded the assessment so that the initial assessment will be of both literacy and of numeracy. We welcome this change, and thank the Government for having seen the merit of our amendment in such a favourable light as to expand on it. We also welcome the Government’s intention to expand the requirement that the information from the assessments be used to help determine suitable educational provision. We also agree that if a recent assessment is available, then a further assessment should not be required. However, I ask the Minister to clarify two matters. First, how does new Section 562DA link to the provision which requires information to be taken into account when determining what constitutes suitable education? My reading of the Bill, and the amendments, suggests that it is only new Section 562E which is taken into account. I would be grateful if she would consider and clarify that. Secondly, can the Minister offer us some reassurance that there will be some statutory guidance in place relating to the amount of time which would be considered appropriate for it to be concluded that a further assessment was not necessary? We agree that it is important not to overassess detained people, but it would be unfortunate if subsection (3) of the new Section 562DA were to be exploited so as to render it meaningless. I was interested to hear the Minister respond to the amendments of the noble Lord, Lord Ramsbotham, before he spoke to them. His response to that response was very compelling, and we share his concerns about the complexity of this Bill. My German is non-existent, but clarity of mission is essential, and my noble friend Lord Baker has rather colourfully, and I am afraid accurately, illustrated how unclear that mission is. We welcome in particular Amendment 52 in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Ramsbotham. While the government amendments are acceptable replacements for our own Clause 49, we feel that it remains important to have an assessment in place for when the person leaves youth accommodation, as well as when he enters it. We have taken on board the Government’s concerns that a short sentence could mean that assessments were unnecessary, so we are supportive of the amendment, which requires the second assessment to occur only when the person has been detained for six months or longer. I very much hope that the Minister will look favourably on this amendment, as it reflects the concerns which were behind Amendment 124D when it was accepted by the Committee. Moreover, we concur with the desire of the noble Lord, Lord Ramsbotham, that the assessment should be made available to the home authority. This allows for a coherent approach to education, which should mean that progress made while in detention can be carried forward thereafter. In this light, I hope the Minister will look favourably on Amendments 53 and 54, which have been tabled by my noble friend Lord Lucas. I think she said that she did. These amendments have at their heart a desire to ensure that information is provided to those detained in youth accommodation in a coherent way. The host authority, the home authority and the providers of education should all be aware of what each other has been doing and what progress has been made. It should be a duty to ensure that such a consistent approach is taken. All the good intentions which the Government have here will be to no avail if one side is not aware of what the other is doing or has achieved.