I thank my noble friend Lord Lucas, the noble Baronesses, Lady Wilcox, Lady Chapman, Lady Brinton, Lady Bennett and Lady Garden, and the noble Lord, Lord Knight, for their amendments in this group. I shall speak to Amendments 136 to 143, from the noble Baroness, Lady Garden, and Amendments 136A and 137A, tabled by my noble friend Lord Lucas. We have worked closely with a group of local authorities in developing the timeframes set out in the Bill. As we discussed in previous groups on school attendance order timeframes, we want to ensure that the school attendance order process is as efficient as possible, so that any child not receiving a suitable education is placed in adequate provision swiftly and can benefit from the full-time education to which they are entitled.
Amendment 143D, tabled by my noble friend Lord Lucas, would bypass the existing procedures under the Children and Families Act 2014 and associated secondary legislation for amending an education, health and care plan. Clause 49, as drafted, does not prevent a parent seeking to have the name of a school changed or removed from their child’s education, health and care plan, in line with the existing process and timescales set out in the Act. Following that process, a parent may apply for the school attendance order to be revoked as normal.
I thank my noble friend Lord Lucas and the noble Lord, Lord Knight of Weymouth, for their Amendments 140A, 143A and 143C. If local authorities were required to revoke orders simply on the grounds that a child has moved to a new area, the continuity of the child’s education and the local authority’s duties to safeguard children—and to satisfy itself that every child is receiving a suitable education—would be impeded.
When a child leaves the local authority area, including, as in the example given in Amendment 140A, to move to Wales, we expect both local authorities to work together to co-ordinate and facilitate the movement of children and parents subject to school attendance orders. We expect local authorities to facilitate this swiftly and efficiently, given the importance of ensuring that all children have access to suitable full-time education,
in line with their common-law obligation to act within a reasonable timeframe. We will set out further details on this issue in future guidance.
On Amendment 143E, tabled by my noble friend Lord Lucas, I assure him that school attendance orders already apply only to children of compulsory school age. This is included under new Section 436J(4), introduced through this Bill.
On Amendments 143G and 143H, tabled by the noble Baroness, Lady Whitaker, and my noble friend Lord Lucas, Clause 50 as drafted already allows the court to use its discretion to rule that a school attendance order ceases to be in force in the event of an acquittal for breaching the order. This discretion is valuable, as there may be circumstances where there are clear reasons for the order to remain in force.
If the court finds that a parent has had their child registered at the school named in the order, they would find the parent not guilty of the offence, but there may be individual factors making it important for the child to continue attending that school and, therefore, for the order to remain in force; for example, if there had been a previous pattern of school attendance orders being required in respect of that child.
Amendment 143IA, tabled by my noble friend Lord Lucas and the noble Lord, Lord Knight, would create duties on Ofsted to oversee local authorities’ exercise of their functions in relation to electively home-educated children and school attendance in a way that encourages a positive relationship between the two. As your Lordships have heard me and my noble friend say several times this evening, that is absolutely our goal. Ofsted already covers both elective home education and children missing education as part of its children’s social care remit; local authorities are held to account in relation to those functions.
On school attendance, through recently published attendance guidance, which we intend to put on a statutory footing through the Bill, local authorities are expected to provide attendance support to pupils who face barriers to attendance prior to considering any legal intervention. As I said earlier, in response to the question asked by the noble Baroness, Lady Wilcox, it is “support, support and support” before there is any kind of enforcement. We understand that the reasons children may not be attending school are often very complex and support is almost always the right answer.
On Amendment 137D, tabled by the noble Baroness, Lady Brinton, local authorities are already required by law to take account of relevant factors when making decisions, including on preliminary notices. They should have the necessary in-house expertise to make these decisions but, as we have heard from the noble Baroness, that is not always the case. If local authorities do not have the expertise, they are able to consult an external expert. Parents are able to ask local authorities to take account of expert advice when making decisions, and the local authority must consider this external evidence and any other relevant considerations in line with public law.
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Similarly, on Amendment 143IB, again tabled by the noble Baroness, Lady Brinton, our recently published school attendance guidance makes it clear that local
authorities should work together with other services and partners such as health services, youth justice services and children’s social care to unblock the barriers to attendance. This will include considering the individual needs of children with specific barriers to attendance and working together to put in place appropriate support so that they can attend school regularly. We expect local authorities to build strong relationships and meet regularly with these services, which should share their expertise and build effective data-sharing opportunities to make sure that the response is consistent and joined up across the local authority for the benefit of the child.
Moving to Amendment 143J, tabled by the noble Baroness, Lady Whitaker, and the noble Lord, Lord Knight, the Equality Act 2010 protects pupils with certain characteristics, including race, disability and religion, from unlawful discrimination in their educational setting. Schools already have clear duties under the Act, and we expect schools to develop all policies, including attendance policies, in line with those duties.
On Amendment 144, tabled by the noble Baronesses, Lady Chapman and Lady Wilcox, and the noble Lord, Lord Knight of Weymouth, through the aforementioned school attendance guidance, academy trust boards and governing bodies of maintained schools are expected to ensure that school staff receive appropriate training to fulfil the school’s duties on attendance. This includes training on the importance of school attendance, and the strategies and procedures for tracking, following up and improving attendance.
Finally, I turn to Amendment 146, tabled by the noble Baronesses, Lady Chapman, Lady Wilcox and Lady Bennett. The Government share their desire to ensure that pupils receive support to attend their education setting, and it is the intention that these reforms move away from the punitive action by default that, as the noble Baronesses know well, is happening in some areas of the country. Clause 54 is central to that ambition. The Government are clear that fixed penalty notices should be used only where all supportive approaches have not been successful, or were not engaged with or appropriate, such as an unauthorised holiday in term time. We will continue to work closely with local authorities to ensure that support is always considered before punitive action, including through the department’s regions group. We will also consider what more we can do as a department to ensure that local authorities are held to account for delivering on this important matter.
Based on those arguments, I ask the noble Baroness, Lady Garden, to withdraw her amendment and other noble Lords not to move the amendments in their names.