Clause 7
Education and Skills Bill
1:00 pm
David Laws (Shadow Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, Children, Schools and Families; Yeovil, Liberal Democrat)
I am grateful to the Minister, and I welcome you back to the Chair for this afternoon’s sitting, Mr. Bercow.
The Minister helpfully clarified some of his comments, but I wish to press him a little further. He said that if someone’s course collapses, which would mean that they were no longer compliant with the education and training requirement, they would be helped to find an alternative by the education provider. Does he accept that in a rural area, for example, there might not be an alternative provider within a reasonable distance? There is a real issue about what alternative provision might be in such a situation. The expectations of a young person who is interested in some specific course or support that was offered through a college might be different from the alternatives.
There are examples in my constituency where, on a number of occasions, courses have not got off the ground or they have fallen through part way through the year. I have received letters from people who are very upset at having lost that provision and who clearly do not feel that a reasonable alternative has been offered. I am not sure that I want those people to be pushed back into an alternative that is specified by the college or by a local authority as suitable, because that might not meet the needs of the young person.