Clause 2
Education and Skills Bill
10:30 am
Jim Knight (Minister of State (Schools and Learners), Department for Children, Schools and Families; South Dorset, Labour)
I agree with some of the witnesses that I have quoted. The Association of Directors of Children’s Services, for example, has said that the provisions will certainly have an effect on participation. We were putting in place measures to achieve our target of 90 per cent. participation, but they will not be sufficient to have an impact on every young person in the country, which is the clear aim of the legislation.
The Learning and Skills Council already has a duty to ensure sufficient and appropriate provision for all 16 to 19-year-olds. The Bill does not affect that duty. From this year, we implemented the September guarantee everywhere—guaranteeing for the first time an offer of an appropriate learning place for every young person leaving year 11. We have also announced that we will introduce an “age 17” guarantee. We are improving the choices that young people have at 16 by increasing access to apprenticeships, which we know are popular with young people, and introducing new diplomas. From 2013—the year that the legislation first takes effect—all young people will be entitled to study for a diploma in any one of 14 lines at three levels. From the same date, any young person who wants to and who meets the entry requirements will be able to pursue an apprenticeship.
We are developing the foundation learning tier—I have been through these things with this Committee before—and we announced in the children’s plan that we will be piloting a new return to learning programme, which I will talk about more when we discuss clause 4. Young people have access to financial support to participate in learning through the education maintenance allowance. Evaluation shows that the EMA has had an impact on participation and attainment.
The combination of clauses 2 and 10 ensures that local authorities must support and enable young people to participate. Amendment No. 4 adds nothing to that—but it would remove the crucial ingredient. Compulsion is the catalyst which ensures that the duties, the reforms and the programme of change transform the operation of the system, so that the system understands that every young person must be engaged, every need must be met and no-one must be left out. Without the requirement on young people to participate, the incentive on the system to engage the hardest to engage is removed, and the requirement to get a full entitlement in place for every learner is reduced. The urgent need to support every young person—no matter how great their need—is lost.
As long as we have an optional system, the young people who are least likely to choose to participate are those who are most disadvantaged and most marginalised already, yet it is they who potentially have the most to gain from continuing their learning. I have consistently argued that it cannot be acceptable for any young person to be deemed to be too hard to engage. We must raise our expectations of these young people and their expectations of themselves.