Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Bill

We, too, welcome the amendments greatly. The proportion of young people in custody with low standards in literacy and numeracy and—often—with speech impediments has long been known, so it makes sense finally to address the situation. I note the Minister's reference to the United Nations convention on the rights of the child, the 20th anniversary of which is coming up. It might have taken us a long time to get to this point, but I sincerely hope that we can now move rapidly on what should be enormously important changes. There are two aspects to the assessments. We will be identifying young people who might have just missed schooling and others with specific educational needs, and both processes need a proper plan and checks on progress. We are all concerned about the enormously high rate of reoffending. I said in Committee that we have the right divide between the home authority and the host authority, but it is important to ensure that we have information sharing and full responsibility in respect of both authorities. The amendment passed on Third Reading will make a big contribution to that. I note the firm commitments given by the Minister on Third Reading that the services of the Communication Trust will be brought into play. That is really important and is welcomed. In particular, it must be recognised that many of the young people will have some form of dyslexia, so the employment of specialist teachers was an important move forward. We support the amendments, want to see action taken and sincerely hope that a big contribution is made to the lives of some vulnerable young people.