Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Bill

My Lords, we support the amendments of the noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley. We agree with the intentions behind them and hope that the Minister will see sense in them. We understand the necessity for recording and reporting the use of force, as parents have a right to know what is going on in their children’s school life, and we would not wish to remove that right. Nevertheless, it is sadly the case, as the noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley, said, that there may be instances when the child would be put in greater danger if parents were informed that disciplinary action involving some force had been required while a child was at school. In these circumstances it may be more appropriate for the head teacher to exercise some discretion and make a suitable judgment about how to act in a particular situation. The Bill legislates only for a general circumstance; the head teacher will know the pupil and be aware of any particular situation. Head teachers will therefore be able to act with discretion and with a child’s best interests at heart, which will not be the case if a blanket requirement, which is stated in the Bill, is imposed. In Committee the Minister stated that it might be possible for head teachers to exercise discretion and report the use of force and send to social services if it were deemed that the child’s parents would react violently to the news that some degree of disciplinary force had to be used. We would welcome regulations that stated that fact. We think that it would be appropriate for the head teacher to decide whether the duty to report should be to the parents or to social services if it were thought necessary for the safety of the child. I wonder if we might hope to see something along those lines at Third Reading.