Clause 40
12:30 pm
Jim Knight (Minister of State (Schools and Learners), Department for Children, Schools and Families; South Dorset, Labour)
Brockenhurst college is a particularly interesting example, as it is in not only a different sub-regional group, but a different regional group. That is where the role of the YPLA can have some importance: as a national agency it has the ability, if it is not possible to have a discussion between local authorities, to broker that so that Brockenhurst college can continue to have a single conversation. One would assume that that conversation would be with officials in Winchester, because they are in the Hampshire authority area, and about the commissioning needs. That will have taken into account the needs of learners in the east of Dorset and those few who might be in the Bournemouth and Poole area. Their local authority would anticipate the demand that would need to be commissioned from Dorset, Bournemouth and Poole.
With regard to those who want to go to Brockenhurst college, that would be understood by the YPLA, which can then feed those needs into the discussion within the sub-regional groups of Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Southampton and Portsmouth about the commissioning required from Brockenhurst. Once all of that has been agreed and crunched through, facilitated by the YPLA, it will be like a serene swan: on the surface there will be one nice conversation between Hampshire and Brockenhurst college, but beneath the surface there will be a certain amount of activity between the various authorities that have learners who want to learn in that college.
I am absolutely confident that the delivery mechanism that was set out, which is not so radically different from that which we have at the moment, will be much more receptive in meeting the demands of learners and anticipating those demands so that this planned approach is more accurate than the current system, which is very much based on history, rather than a good understanding of local demand.
Amendment 118 would extend the requirement on local authorities to co-operate with providers as well as each other. Local authorities will ultimately be responsible for taking provider mutual decisions on what provision will best meet the needs of its learners, and sub-regional groupings will then have a role in ensuring that individual local authority commissioning decisions reflect the full needs of learners across local authority areas and are well planned at a sub-regional level.
We are clear that colleges and other providers will have an important role to play by entering into ongoing dialogue with local authorities through the commissioning cycle, but as I have said, it will be a question of local authorities being able to understand the supply of provision, anticipating and planning demand well. All of that must be informed by history and by other intelligence that only local authorities will have, and that will be a step forward from our current position. That brokering will then be carried out at a sub-regional basis, facilitated by the YPLA.
Amendment 119 would require the Secretary of State legally to designate the sub-regional groupings. We do not think that it is necessary to do so, because of all the flexibility we have set out. I hope that that reassures the hon. Lady on how local authorities will come together and that she will withdraw her amendment.