My Lords, this is my first opportunity to welcome the Minister to her new role, and, indeed, the noble Baroness, Lady Chisholm, to hers. In my own role as chair of the National Society—which I declare as an interest—I look forward to working with them both on many matters relating to education and the Church of England’s place as a major provider.
Turning to Amendments 44 and 46, which I was pleased to add my name to, I thank both noble Baronesses for the time they gave us recently to discuss them. The need for specific provision to be made to better meet the needs of students with specific learning needs and disabilities at all levels has been made—not for the first time—with great expertise by the noble Lord, Lord Addington, and I wholeheartedly support these amendments. Given the range and varied nature of the learning needs among FE students, their lecturers, tutors, assessors and other staff must have the skills to recognise those needs to be able to adapt their own approach to teaching, learning and assessment, and to be able to promptly and appropriately refer students for more specialised or intensive support.
Amendment 44 does precisely what is required and, in addition, poses a challenge. Such high-quality support is very widely available in HE, often in the departments of FE colleges which deliver HE provision and from which it might be made more widely available. Is it not both educationally and ethically desirable that those on FE programmes should have the same access as their fellow students in HE?
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Amendment 46 is also carefully drawn. It would require special needs awareness training that is relevant to students of ITT FE courses within an institution. It may be said that, in contrast to ITT provision for schoolteachers, the content, assessment and delivery of teacher training in FE is very different and that such a degree of prescription is inappropriate and much is already being done. In other areas, such as funding, governance, qualifications and many more, there is no such hesitation. In this particular field, the need for a strong lead from government and the investment it requires are, I think, fully recognised by Ministers, officials and the sector. I sincerely hope that the Government will be open to accepting these amendments.