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Further Education and Training Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 5: 5: Clause 2 , page 2, line 42, at end insert ““which must include duties to— (i) promote high standards, (ii) ensure fair access to educational opportunity, (iii) promote the fulfillment of the educational potential by every person participating in courses funded by the Council, and (iv) co-operate with further education colleges and representatives of employers in their area and any local authority as defined in section 1(a) of the Local Government Act 2000 (c. 22) any area of which is in the area of the regional learning and skills council.”” The noble Baroness said: My Lords, when we debated this amendment in Grand Committee, it had an additional paragraph at the end about promoting the well-being of members of the local community, which, to say the least, did not command the support of the Committee. We removed it, therefore, before tabling the amendment again so as not to detract from the virtues of the rest of it. In moving the amendment, my noble friend Lady Sharp commented that the Bill, which radically changes the responsibilities of the Learning and Skills Council, lacked a declaratory statement about the objectives of the council. In replying the Minister claimed that the Act that set up the LSC, the Learning and Skills Act 2000, did not lack declaratory ambition and that, anyway, the recent grant letter to the LSC from the Minister in another place laid out clearly what was expected of it. My noble friend admitted that there was little between us in what we would like to see from the LSC but expressed the opinion that such things needed to be in the Bill, not in a private letter from a Minister. It is in this spirit that we have retabled the amendment. We believe that a mission statement similar to that which was applied to schools by the Education and Inspections Act 2006 should be imposed on the LSC for post-compulsory learning. We believe that the learning funded and organised by the LSC is of such fundamental importance to the success of our economy that legislation needs to make quite clear the standards and partnerships which should apply. I beg to move.