Clause 42
Education and Skills Bill
1:45 pm
David Laws (Shadow Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, Children, Schools and Families; Yeovil, Liberal Democrat)
The amendment deals with cost issues, but we are entitled to ask what is included in the cost estimate. As a consequence of probing that issue, rather disappointingly, we have found that advocacy services will not be a requirement for local authorities. I appreciate that the Minister’s natural instinct was to discuss advocacy under clause 43, when we will deal with other advocacy issues, but it is under clause 42(1) that the Government will provide guidance to local authorities in relation to duties under the provision.
I have had a representation from Barnado’s that covers not only some of the later clauses, but clause 42(1) and therefore the costing of it. In the context of a group that supports the Bill as a whole, Barnado’s makes it clear that it would like Ministers to provide clear assurances that statutory guidelines under clause 42(1) will require local authorities to make available independent advocacy services. When the Minister was challenged on that, he said that he would encourage local authorities to provide those services. Therefore, presumably his cost estimates are based on the assumption that only a proportion of local authorities will do so. If he is assuming that they will all do so, one wonders why the necessary provision cannot be put into regulations or the Bill.
Barnodo’s makes the point powerfully that it wants to ensure that independent advocacy services are available, particularly for young people who have learning, communication or sensory difficulties and in other specific circumstances. We can all imagine that young people who appear before such a panel under the circumstances that are envisaged would find the situation incredibly difficult, may have serious communication difficulties and may find it intimidating. Is it good enough to encourage local authorities to provide advocacy services in those circumstances? Given the Minister’s generosity in relation to the previous clause, when he said that he would reflect on some of the issues, will he reflect on the possibility of obliging local authorities to provide advocacy services for a prescribed number of conditions? If local authorities have financial constraints, it will not be good enough if, on the grounds of cost, some local authorities chose not to make advocacy services available to young people with the learning and communication difficulties to which Barnado’s refers. That seems to be a powerful point to which the Minister could usefully respond or on which he could reflect.