Clause 8
Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Bill [Lords]
10:00 am
Tim Loughton (Shadow Minister (Children), Health; East Worthing and Shoreham, Conservative)
Perhaps I might respond on amendment No. 137. I am not entirely convinced by what the Minister said. He did not respond to the specific example that I gave. The amendment is designed not to cover various health institutions that happen to have governors but to expand the definition of an educational establishment that does not offer full-time education, as the clause puts it, “exclusively or mainly”.
The example that I gave might be rare, but there will be such examples. I do not think that the institution involved could be classified—one could certainly make a strong case that it should not be—as being
“exclusively or mainly for the provision of full-time education”.
There appears to be a kind of halfway house, which falls between two stools, that provides education but predominantly provides care, therapy and therapeutic services to severely mentally and physically disabled young people. I do not think that the Bill covers the governors of such institutions, which could be run as small private charities not subject to the normal attention from the local education authority, for example. We need to ensure that people cannot effectively hide in just that sort of institution, obtain a position of responsibility and then abuse.