Clause 1 - Duties in relation to high standards and the fulfilment of potential
Education and Inspections Bill
12:45 pm
Jacqui Smith (Minister of State (Schools and 14-19 Learners), Department for Education and Skills; Redditch, Labour)
We have not yet passed this legislation, although I am sure that we will. Until the Bill has passed through all the parliamentary stages, we will not be able to call local education authorities “local authorities”. My understanding is that when clause 147 comes into force, it will work back and change such references.
In proposing, in clause 1, the duty on local authorities to exercise their functions with a view to promoting the fulfilment of the educational potential of every child, we wanted to ensure that local authorities take an holistic and rounded view of children’s needs, as is envisaged by the amendment. Local authorities will scrutinise performance in respect of both educational potential and high standards. Under that new and inclusive duty, they will act to reduce barriers to learning and promote achievement among all groups of children, regardless of their backgrounds or circumstances.
We have heard some examples of what, in addition to a strong focus on higher educational standards, might contribute to ensuring that such barriers are reduced. The hon. Members for Mid-Bedfordshire (Mrs. Dorries) and for Mid-Dorset and North Poole were right to identify the importance of emotional well-being and the social behaviour skills that are a crucial part of a child’s education. Parents have a central role in developing those, but schools have an important role as well.
Primary school teachers know that a lack of social, emotional and behavioural skills can be a barrier to learning; that is why, as the hon. Member for Mid-Dorset and North Poole identified, we are investing in the roll-out of the SEAL materials across all primary schools and developing that work into secondary schools. Having social and emotional skills and knowing how to behave are a prerequisite for children’s being able to learn properly, and we have identified such skills as an important priority.
Another priority is promoting positive mental health and emotional well-being, and we are doing that through the national healthy schools programme. My hon. Friend the Member for Sheffield, Hillsborough identified the contribution of personal, social and health education and citizenship education, and that of the development of extended schools provision, not only in helping to address some of the wider issues that might affect children’s learning but in contributing to the ability to have new, personalised opportunities for learning and experiencing.
My concern with the amendments is not that I disagree with the intention behind them, but that they would, if anything, weaken the current position—not only the position under the legislation, but the one increasingly being developed by local authorities and schools.