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Education and Inspections Bill

I thank the Minister for what he had to say in response to this useful debate. I also pay particular credit to him for the fact that arrangements will now be in place from the fifth day. It is extremely important to ensure a continuing educational experience for young men and women who have got themselves into difficulties and have been excluded. It is a long step forward and one for which we on these Benches are very grateful. An additional factor in any issue surrounding reasonable justification needs to be taken into account, and it is hoped well before the parent appears in court, because at that point it is already far too late. I refer of course to the issue of conflicting responsibilities for parents with several children. I believe strongly that parents should face their responsibilities—in my wilder moments I have thought sometimes that people should have, as it were, to marry again before they have more children or take on a ceremony of some kind in which their full responsibilities are brought before them. Having said that, there can be situations where a parent faces an acute conflict. A teenage son may say that he has been excluded and has been told to stay in his room. He is in a rebellious state and says that if the parent leaves the house, he will break the crockery. However, it is three in the afternoon and the younger child must be collected from nursery school. No one else can meet her. That sort of situation can arise again and again in a single-parent family. No father or, in some cases, no mother can be called upon, no grandparent is available or, indeed, anyone else. This illustrates the problem for a good, responsible and conscientious parent trying to tackle an acute conflict if they have more than one child. That may certainly be the situation in many cases. Younger children require more care, so even the good parent can be put into an extremely difficult position by the way the legislation is currently drawn up. While I fully accept what the Minister has said and I will go away and think about it, I hope that he will consider this set of circumstances, which is very common.