Education and Skills Bill
5:00 pm
Jim Knight: Jon and Peter might want to come in on that. We have regular conversations, both directly as Ministers but also through officials, with local authorities about how they are doing and performing in a range of duties that they have to fulfil in delivering services for children. I am defining those aged up to 18 as children in this context. It would be part of our performance management system for local authorities, at the end of which—a bit like the fact that at the end of the duty for young people to participate is enforcement—we ultimately have the power to issue a notice and withdraw the service from them, and put somebody else in to deliver the service for them. We have not used that power very often, but that intervention power is there and it helps us to have a conversation.