My Lords, when the Government are asked to have a long-term look at something, the usual answer is, “We are”. That is what generally comes out with all these different things, but the advantage of the right reverend Prelate’s amendment, which I have signed, is that it puts it in one nice solid place and gives us three good bases to start from.
I was initially attracted by the support for special educational needs, and I remind the Committee yet again of my interests in that particular part of the playground. But looking at things regularly, over a long period of time, is essential if a policy is to develop. To go back to special educational needs, there was a long development of saying, “Of course you can, but a requirement on the way in”—I have an interest in dyslexia—“is that, by the way, you have to pass a written test in English, despite your having God knows how many other qualifications.” I remind the Committee of how many hours I have burned on that subject over the years. If you have a way in, how do you maintain that person? Does that maintenance pattern keep up with both the understanding and the technology out there at the moment? That is a pattern of development that comes one after the other and will change over time.
2.30 pm
I hope that when the Minister responds, if only on that aspect of the amendment, she will be able to say, “This is the review process, this is where we are going and this is where we are looking at it”, because I am getting fed up with saying, “By the way, you can do this a different way”, and the Government going, “Oh, really?” A series of rows then goes on, with amendments and government time taken up before they realise. Allow yourselves to be only moderately reactive for once, as opposed to being dragged. Everybody does that to an extent and a degree of moderate reaction is probably understandable, but making sure that you look across this regularly to find out what is possible will probably help. Most other forms of disadvantage come in there as well. The same types of principles apply for general training.
Can the Minister give us an idea of how regularly they are doing this? It should not be the case that they have a look occasionally when something goes wrong or is dragged to them. That really will mean that you have this horrible process of trying to dig out why something has gone wrong, being given an example, saying, “Oh, really? It’s been there a while”, and then coming back to it. Some way of doing what is suggested in this amendment on a regular basis without requiring politicians to dive in, jump up and down and cause the Government to have a look—all Governments have been guilty of this—is what I would like to come out of this, because it addresses a real and ongoing problem.