Clause 69
9:00 am
John Hayes (Shadow Minister, Innovation, Universities and Skills; South Holland and The Deepings, Conservative)
It is not easy to contribute to the debate when we have had too few words of introduction to the amendments. Perhaps I can set them in the Committee’s mind more clearly. The amendments broaden the guidance to include young people in detention. As other amendments on detention have been passed, it is difficult to object to these. However, there are questions that should be asked. Perhaps the Minister will deal with them when he replies.
First, will the guidance be clear enough to ensure that those in youth detention have access to a coherent curriculum, and a range of qualifications consistent with that curriculum, when they move from home to host authority? The Committee will remember that we debated the difficulties of a young person being in a host authority away from their local council and the consequent difficulty of transferring information between those two local authorities.
Secondly, will the guidance ensure that a premium is placed on sharing information between those authorities, in the way that I have described? That is, after all, vital to fulfilling local authorities’ duties as set out in the Bill.
Thirdly, will the guidance ensure above all that a premium is placed on the consistency of training and education that is offered to those in detention? They are often young people who have been passed around for their entire lives. If we are to break that cycle of desperation, access to consistent, equitable and coherent education and training is absolutely necessary. I refer the Minister once again to independent and Government analysis, which suggests that a problem with training and education for those in detention—both young people and others—is the provision of a consistent diet of education that leads to qualifications which enable them to change their lives when they are free to do so.