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Further Education and Training Bill [HL]

I also tried but failed to get the Public Bill Office to accept an amendment. It was not in exactly the same terms as the right reverend Prelate’s amendment, nor was there any connivence between us in the matter, as I did not know that he was trying to do so. I intended to introduce an object clause before Clause 1 and was frustrated in that objective by the Public Bill Office. I thank the noble Lord for sending me the Keeling schedules, which unfortunately arrived only yesterday evening. It occurs to me that I might, at the next stage of the Bill, table an amendment requiring all FE colleges and the Department for Education and Skills to set homework at least three days before it is due to be handed in. The problem with this Bill is that it has no mission statement. The Bill creates a powerful quango to control further education, and it gives the Secretary of State power to direct a great many things on what that quango shall and shall not do. The noble Baroness, Lady Sharp, referred to the Bill being bereft of declaratory duties. The noble Viscount, Lord Eccles, pointed out in speaking to Amendment No. 19 that the Secretary of State seems to have unfettered powers, subject to no clear, stated parameters. That is my fundamental problem, because there is a danger of misunderstanding here. Traditionally, further education has been environment-oriented by teaching skills for the job, providing mainly adult education and for those coming out of school at 16 and in need of further specific skills for employment. Now I understand that the Government’s vision for further education, and rightly so in my view, includes a new element: those young people aged from 14 to 19 who have rejected, fallen out of or have been excluded from the school system. They hope that these young people may be drawn back into mainstream education, citizenship and employment. That is a wholly desirable objective. It is, however, a significant development in the concept of further education. My concern is that the Bill should ensure that the LSC and the Secretary of State provide adequately for the needs of young people who have fallen out of the school system, particular those who have done so because of family dysfunction, which has left them inadequately prepared to cope with adult life in terms of lack of self-confidence, lack of social and communication skills or, to put it another way, a lack of emotional literacy and relationship skills. What the Bill does not do is to spell out the mission or objectives which should inform the policies of the LSC and the Secretary of State. I believe that the Government’s objectives for the Bill are twofold; indeed, I hope they are. The first is to continue to help as many individuals as possible between the ages of 14 and 65 to obtain gainful employment. The second is to pick up young people over the age of 14 for whom the school is not well suited and to help them learn to cope with the challenges and opportunities of adult life, including, but not restricted to, gaining employment. That would include, for example, the challenges of becoming a good citizen and a good parent, so breaking the cycle of deprivation to which their families have been subject. This latter objective particularly concerns me because so many of these young people have needs which will not be adequately addressed by the traditional further education model. As often as not, young people who fall out of the school system do so because they have not learnt within their families the emotional and relationship skills they need to cope with school. They are in the main deeply frustrated and angry at their own inability to succeed in a competitive society, and they are going to need help. It is crucially important that further education colleges should have facilities in the form of pastoral care and tutorial systems that support these young people in loco parentis, helping them to catch up on their socialisation and building their self-confidence, as well as learning specific skills. This may be their last chance. I ask the Minister to agree to the inclusion in the Bill of a clear statement that further education institutions will have these duties. Following points I made at Second Reading the Minister was kind enough to write to me about all the things the Government are doing in respect of effective PSHE. I strongly commend the Government on what they are doing, but I think there remains a need to express clearly in this Bill the objectives of further education.