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Further Education and Training Bill [HL]

In the absence of my friend the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Southwark, who is unable to be here today, I wish to oppose Clause 6. As the Minister is aware, it was the hope that amendments would be moved from the Bench of Bishops to ensure that the duties of the LSC and colleges included securing provision for the spiritual, moral, social and cultural development—SMSC in its shortened form—of young people in further education colleges on the same basis as those in schools. At the very minimum, we had hoped to ensure that the entitlement of all 16 to 19 year-olds to provision for their spiritual and moral welfare was extended to and guaranteed for those in FE colleges. I shall not repeat in full the arguments put so eloquently by colleagues on the Bench of Bishops in earlier debates, but the anomaly I am addressing now is due, I realise, more to historical circumstances than to any intention on the part of governments to exclude young people studying in colleges from this important area of educational provision. At the time when much of the legislation governing further education was introduced, the majority of students were apprentices receiving day release technical training in colleges, but as we all know that is far from being the case today. Some 43 per cent of the age cohort of 16 to 19 year-olds are in colleges, and the vast majority of those are on full-time courses. They are young adults, just as sixth-formers are young adults, and subject to exactly the same pressures as sixth-formers. Indeed, because of the different social and ethnic profile of FE students from those in schools, they are likely to be under more pressure as a result of deprived or disadvantaged backgrounds, and they are also more likely to be from different ethnic or faith backgrounds, which may mean that there are added community or intergenerational pressures. The present lack of entitlement is, in my view, selling these young people short. As a questioner to the Secretary of State put it at the Association of Colleges’ annual conference last November, ““Don’t FE students have souls?””. I believe they do, and I think that many noble Lords will agree. After discussions with many interested parties, including FE college principals, the National Ecumenical Agency in Further Education and the Faiths in FE Forum, as well as with the Government advisers on this Bill, my Episcopal colleagues developed amendments in two alternative forms in order to offer options which would keep as close as possible to the spirit of the Bill and the White Paper that preceded it. Our first option was to make it a duty on the governing bodies of colleges to ensure that provision for students’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development was made. The other option focused on the entitlement of FE students to SMSC and on the role of governing bodies in securing this entitlement. When it came to tabling such amendments, the advice given was that this Bill is a technical measure effecting certain changes to the structure and funding of FE, the LSC and colleges, and that such amendments would fall outside the scope of the Bill. That is a pity. The Bill is surely designed to put into effect the provisions of the White Paper, which referred to students’ faith needs. Our proposed amendments were designed to ensure that students’ faith needs are met, including their broader spiritual and moral needs. The extension of SMSC to FE is also incidentally supported by the British Humanist Association, as well as leaders of other faiths. The Minister’s officials helpfully made available to us the draft statutory guidance relating to the duty of consultation under the Bill, which refers to students’ spiritual and faith needs. However, that reference is made only in the context of pastoral provision. Effective provision for students’ spiritual and moral development should influence the whole learning and skills experience of students in colleges. It is therefore essential that there is some statutory underpinning for this entitlement. Therefore, I ask the Minister to look very seriously at this question and to explore the possibility of amendments along the lines of those we have suggested. If the proposed addition after Clause 5 is not acceptable, perhaps an amendment to Clause 6 on diversity of provision, or to Clause 7 on consultation, would be considered. The truth is that we would welcome the Minister’s guidance on all these matters. Recent speculation about the Government’s future intentions for education policy has focused on the possible raising of the effective leaving age for compulsory education and training to 18. For certain students, often from less privileged backgrounds, to continue to be deprived of care for spiritual and moral development in such circumstances would be more than an anomaly; it would be a scandal. I hope that the Government’s concern, as expressed by the Minister in his speech at Second Reading, for the SMSC needs of FE students, can find practical expression in the framework of what my colleagues and I believe is in almost all other respects an excellent and ground-breaking Bill.