Education Bill

My Lords, my noble friend set out the reasons very clearly for bringing together the functions of the YPLA with Partnership for Schools and the DfE, to give us a new education funding agency from next April that will be a single body responsible for funding. As she said, it will be an executive agency of the department, which will make clear that Ministers are responsible for the success of its operation. We do not need legislation to create the new agency or to close Partnership for Schools, which is a limited company. However, the YPLA is a statutory body and closing it requires repeal of the provisions of the ASCL Act 2009. My noble friend's amendments seek to establish a panel of experts to advise on matters relating to education and training for young people. I know how helpful the YPLA has found its current board. It very much values the contributions that have been made, and I am not at all surprised by the comments that the AoC has made to my noble friend because there is a widely held view about those contributions. I have been fortunate enough to work with the board and am very grateful for the work that it has done. As we work to set up the new education funding agency, we are giving careful thought to how we could benefit from advice of that kind in the new arrangements that we will have. As I said in my letter, we are being helped by the chairmen of the YPLA and Partnership for Schools, Les Walton and Mike Grabiner. I hope that, later in the autumn, we will make clear the precise way in which we can do that. The amendments propose an advisory board whose remit will be wider than the funding matters that are the principal focus of the education funding agency. It is certainly the case that Ministers and officials have long benefited from advice from all parts of the education sector to inform policy-making. The Learner Support Consultative Forum, which advises on financial support for 16 to 19 year-old and adult learners, will continue to play a key role in advising on the operation of both the new bursary scheme and other learner support programmes. We have in place other arrangements, including standing advisory groups and formal consultation exercises, which enable others to contribute. As well as drawing on the expert advice to which my noble friend referred, there are a number of ways in which we will be able to address concerns. The noble Baroness asked whether our preference would be for legislative or non-legislative means. Given that the new agency will be non-statutory, our view is that any advisory group should also be non-statutory. We will come back to that question later. I say to the noble Baroness, Lady Howe, that I know very well the strength of feeling that she and the noble Lord, Lord Ramsbotham, have, and the work that they do, in this area. We discussed on Monday alternative provision and pupil referral units. There is an awful conveyor belt that takes too many children from illiteracy to pupil referral units, young offender institutions and prison, and then back to prison. I agree with her about the importance of trying to stop that process. That is why at one end we are reforming the education system with the emphasis on literacy and numeracy, and measures to help teachers tackle poor behaviour and set boundaries. We hope that that will start to tackle the problem at source. However, I recognise that we have to tackle the problem from the other end, too. The Ministry of Justice and the Youth Justice Board have launched a consultation on the strategy for the secure estate for young offenders. It makes clear that the provision of high quality education and training is a vital component of the rehabilitation process and should be part of trying to help young offenders to turn away from crime and lead more fulfilling lives. As the noble Baroness, Lady Howe, will know, the YPLA currently manages the contracts for the education of young offenders on behalf of the Ministry of Justice. By and large we think that those contracts operate well, but I have agreed with the Prisons Minister that the responsibility for managing those contracts should pass to the education funding agency next April when the YPLA is dissolved. Because the new agency’s staff will come largely from the YPLA, we think that they will have the capacity and expertise to fulfil its responsibilities. However, that is an interim arrangement and the Ministry of Justice is considering the arrangements in the long term. I know that the noble Baroness, Lady Howe, with the noble Lord, Lord Ramsbotham, met the Ministry of Justice earlier in the summer. I am glad that she did so and hope that she will continue to talk to the Ministry of Justice, which is the lead department on the educational side, as we go forward. I, too, am keen to talk to her about that. That is where we are on the replacement arrangements for the YPLA. With that, I hope that my noble friend will feel able to accept my reassurance. Amendment 142A agreed. Schedule 16, as amended, agreed. Clause 66 agreed. Amendments 143 to 144A not moved. Schedule 17 agreed. Clause 67 : The apprenticeship offer Amendment 144AA Clause 67 : The apprenticeship offer Amendment 144AA Moved by