Baroness Morgan of Huyton: My Lords, I wish to introduce the amendments in the name of my noble friend Lady McDonagh and to speak to the amendment tabled in my name, which has a similar theme. It was after listening to the noble Lord, Lord Fowler, speaking last week about the Isle of Wight that I was minded to table my amendment. The noble Lord and many others in this House have, over many hours, talked graphically...
Baroness Morgan of Huyton: My Lords, I am very grateful for the chance to support the Private Member's Bill of the noble Lord, Lord Dholakia, today. It is clear to all of us that the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act is in need of long overdue reform. That is widely understood but has not been acted upon. The original Act was a hugely important measure that recognised that rehabilitation is essential to the prevention of...
Baroness Morgan of Huyton: My Lords, there is much to welcome in the report and it is a very comprehensive and far reaching review. Unfortunately, it was established as a means of getting extra, long-term sustainable money into the university sector and is now being used, in essence, to replace major cuts. That said, I have one specific question, picking up on something raised by the noble Lord, Lord Triesman, which,...
Baroness Morgan of Huyton: I have a question for the mover of the amendment. While I am not unsympathetic to this amendment, because in a sense it reflects some of our conversations in Committee and on Report, I am not clear whether it suggests a parallel process of monitoring that goes into all academies in the future. If it does, I am unconvinced that the department at present is able or ready to do that. I do not...
Baroness Morgan of Huyton: I agree strongly with the noble Baroness, Lady Perry, because my experience is exactly the same. Governing bodies are incredibly important and we all recognise the need for good training and for a wide range of people to be involved. However, as soon as we get into imposing restrictions and saying that we need this or that category of person, as we have done before, we often end up with...
Baroness Morgan of Huyton: I am sorry to intervene but I do not think that is right. What the noble Lord is talking about is what can be claimed to be the obsessions about narrow forms of data that dominate a lot of inspections at the moment and therefore dominate a lot of headlines. However, the intelligent use of data in terms of tracking individual pupils is something an inspector needs in addition to all the...
Baroness Morgan of Huyton: I have a certain sympathy with this amendment, although there are question marks about how it is phrased. I have most sympathy with what the noble Baroness, Lady Perry, has just described. We have got into a muddle with the role of Ofsted, of SIPs, of the YPLA-or before that, of the department-and where support starts and ends and inspection starts and ends. Rather too many people are going...
Baroness Morgan of Huyton: For the information of noble Lords, I also went to one of those schools which is now a city academy, so they can already become city academies.
Baroness Morgan of Huyton: I am concerned that there is a suspicion-I accept that this is not what we are talking about here-that an academy provider and the group running it could hand over to someone else in two years' time without being properly monitored. As I understand it, that is the concern being expressed. It is also my concern.
Baroness Morgan of Huyton: I shall speak to Amendment 25 in this group, which probably should have been taken with an earlier amendment tabled by the noble Lord, Lord Lucas-I do not know why they have been separated. The aim of the amendment is simple, and I shall be brief: it is to get a little more push in making sure that we have a little more than warm words about outstanding schools that become academies, that we...
Baroness Morgan of Huyton: I always get very nervous listening to these debates in this House-we are going through many of the same conversations that we had three years ago-because there is a real danger that we will end up falling into a shorthand of "Church of England good, everybody else bad". People listening outside to this debate could get a clear feeling that we think that you can have as many Church of England...
Baroness Morgan of Huyton: I wish to speak against the amendments proposed by my noble friend Lord Whitty, as they would take us completely in the wrong direction. It is in everybody's interests that schools should be encouraged to run and manage healthy budgets and to build up sensible surpluses if they are planning for developments perhaps two or three years ahead. I have always felt strongly that head teachers of...
Baroness Morgan of Huyton: My Lords, I declare an interest as chair of Future Leaders. I share the Minister's position on the enthusiasm displayed by many teachers who are interested in setting up free schools. I also share his belief that they are passionate about trying to deliver for the most disadvantaged children. My question is about money. We have heard about the changes in the planning rules, but that does not...
Baroness Morgan of Huyton: My Lords, it is an honour to speak in today's debate after the noble Baroness, Lady Grey-Thompson. I congratulate her on her maiden speech, which demonstrated how significant her contribution will be in this House. She is not only one of the great figures of British sport in the past 20 years, with an astonishing 11 Paralympic gold medals and six London Marathon victories, but has done much...
Baroness Morgan of Huyton: My Lords, I am sure that this is the first of many days that we will spend on this subject. I add my congratulations to the noble Lord, Lord Hill, who is, I am sure, coming back. He has a great and very important job. I declare my interests. I advise the charity ARK, which sponsors and runs city academies. I also serve as a school governor of a city academy, and chair Future Leaders, a...
Baroness Morgan of Huyton: My Lords, I, too, welcome the debate tonight. The new year feels a particularly appropriate time to look ahead with optimism towards the Olympic Games and the Olympic legacy. I declare an interest as a member of the Olympic Delivery Authority board. My first reason for optimism is the broadly strong working relationships that exist around 2012. In previous Games, one would rarely have seen...
Baroness Morgan of Huyton: My Lords, I start by declaring an interest: I advise the board of a charity, ARK, which runs city academies in inner London. Nothing is more important to the individuals concerned, their families and the country as a whole than improving the education and skills of our young people. We all want young people to be given the chance of fulfilling their potential; for many, this means opening...
Baroness Morgan of Huyton: My Lords, are there any specific plans for dealing with diabetes in children, which is a growing problem and one that the health service at the moment sometimes overlooks?
Baroness Morgan of Huyton: My Lords, the easy thing to do today, particularly if we think of the hours and days ahead of us going through the Bill, would be to drop it now, but that would be a real dereliction of duty if we want to secure a strong future for a universal service in the UK. We do not have the Bill because of the EU, as the noble Lord, Lord Stoddart, says. We have the Bill because the Royal Mail is in...
Baroness Morgan of Huyton: My Lords, I applaud the personal commitment of the noble Baroness, Lady Morris of Bolton, to the goals of equal pay and flexible working. All of us here share those goals and I welcome the chance to join in the debate. However, I have some concerns about the specific contents of parts of the Private Member's Bill and about the overall approach. In recent years, we have made great strides on...
