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Education and Inspections Bill

I shall speak to Amendments Nos. 222, 246 and 239 in the group. First, I have never understood why pupils have been allowed for some years now to leave the school premises in the lunch break, which is what Amendment No. 222 is about. It is not intended to restrict children’s movements for any arbitrary reason. Indeed, its primary purpose is not even to ensure that children stay in school to eat good school meals as an addition to the great progress that has been made in recent months on the awareness of the need for good nutrition for children. We believe that it would contribute to the safeguarding of children while at school, to a strengthening of the work ethos and to a stronger sense of the school as a community if the children were to remain there during the school day. I stress that this is very much an enabling amendment. I note from my experience all those years ago and from more recent experience as a school governor that children leaving the school premises during the lunch break are much more likely to become disruptive, because their day in the school environment has been broken and they are much more likely to find it more difficult to settle back into the afternoon if they are allowed to leave the school premises and have no discipline and no cover during that break. The amendment would give head teachers a vital legal entitlement to restrict the hours when children can leave school during the day. That statutory weight would be required where a head teacher comes under pressure not only from pupils but from parents for such a decision. We must remember, however, that it is the responsibility of a head teacher to ensure the safety of children during all school hours. Currently, teachers are forced to spend a large amount of their time filling out risk assessment forms. Notably, schools already have to fill out a risk assessment form on the safety of the school playground and on the likelihood of abduction and street crime. It seems only sensible that head teachers should be given the legal capability to put measures in place to combat that risk. We are talking not only about the risk of crime from external sources but from children finding themselves on the conveyor belt to crime if they can leave the school premises and, in some circumstances, misbehave during the day. The regulatory impact assessment states that the new disciplinary measures, "““would also have symbolic force, in reaffirming the publicly recognised powers of school staff to discipline pupils””." I therefore hope that the Minister will be able to accept our amendment and, in so doing, make another symbolic statement in favour of safeguarding children in our schools. Amendment No. 246 is a probing amendment in that it would allow children who have been excluded and who are not allowed to leave their home during the day some way of leaving their home for the same period as a lunch break while they are excluded. As I say, the amendment is purely probing. We want to ask the Minister what the current arrangements are for ensuring that excluded children are supported by their schools during exclusion, and what measures exist to ensure that those children act within statutory obligations during that exclusion. Amendment No. 239 is another probing amendment intended to clarify who exactly will be able to implement a school’s discipline policy. The Bill enables teachers to designate a prefect as a ““member of staff”” with regard to discipline policy. If the Government intend to allow prefects to implement the body of governors’ disciplinary provisions, that should be clear in the Bill. We on these Benches are not opposed to the idea that prefects should be given more responsibility than other pupils in the school, but we would object strongly to wording that allowed prefects to help with discipline as if masquerading as members of staff. We do not quite understand the meaning of this part of the Bill. Will the Minister explain the precise framework for the disciplinary policy in the Bill and the exact legal status of ““lawful control”” used in the Bill to describe the nature of the responsibility of the disciplinarian for the pupil? Can a prefect or any volunteer have lawful control? The regulatory impact assessment states that head teachers will be able to, "““extend powers to adult voluntary helpers as appropriate””." I hope the Minister can inform me whether this loose definition would mean that parents on school trips and other volunteers will be defined as members of staff where it is convenient for teachers. If it would, I hope the Minister can tell the Committee what implications there will be for the need to carry out CRB checks and so on. If a parent were to be assigned as a member of staff for discipline purposes, presumably the school, as a regulated activity provider under the provisions of the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Bill, would have to carry out a CRB check on that person. I have to make it clear that we are not against that in principle. It is a very good idea. I have had experience as a parent on school trips, which I found extremely difficult. I was not there, in a sense, as a parent—my children would be too embarrassed to think of me being there as their parent—nor was I given the power to discipline the children. So parents are there, but they are unable to act. In principle, we are very much in favour of what we think the Government are trying to achieve. Using the misnomer as a definition, or making ““member of staff”” the only possible legal definition, will generate huge problems for schools. Albeit that we are not against the system of prefects, in using that terminology, conflicts may arise if students are given a different legal status from their classmates. I hope that the Minister will provide clarity on this and my previous points.