10:30 am
Jim Knight: I would like to take the opportunity to welcome you to the Chair, Mrs. Humble, and look forward to serving under your chairmanship over the next few weeks.
In response to John’s question, what is ringing in my ears is the endorsement of the vast majority of witnesses for the measures we are taking in the Bill. It is possible to pick out one or two isolated quotes about specific elements of the Bill that people might not agree with, but that would be an unfair reflection of the substance of what witnesses told us last week about this set of measures, and there are many of them.
On the question of whether we should be doing this at this point in the economic cycle and with the recession, I am sure that Siôn will want to comment on the aspects relating to skills. As far as the 14-to-19 phase is concerned, we passed the Education and Skills Act 2008 in order to raise the participation age, and if we are to make that a reality for 17-year-olds by 2013, as the legislation sets out, we have to act now to build the capacity of local authorities to do so. Therefore, those who oppose the Bill on the grounds that the timing is wrong essentially oppose the change that was agreed by Parliament last year.
With regard to the timetable for doing this, the Committee will know that there are currently shadow arrangements between local authorities and learning and skills council staff, that the academic year starting this September is a transition year and that in April 2010 the legal responsibility will go over to local authorities. They will then be able to commission the services at the same time as running Connexions, which will be transferred by the Bill, as John knows. They will then have the tools at their disposal to commission the sort of learning that will engage every young person in their area so that that policy is a success. Having moved from the break in education from 16 to 19, it makes sense to have an infrastructure that reflects that. You need something that brokers the arrangements for local authorities so that further education colleges in particular are not having multiple conversations because the vast majority of them are commissioned from several local authority areas. That is why the Young People’s Learning Agency is necessary, as well as for the transfer of academy functions. In order to drive the growth in apprenticeship places forward, and to have a discrete agency focusing on adult skills, there is great merit in setting up the Skills Funding Agency.