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Children, Schools and Families

My Lords, I join others in welcoming the Statement as evidence of the new Prime Minister's commitment to education. I have two questions for the Minister. First, on page 3 when discussing the new 14 to 19 diplomas, the Statement says that: "““Details of the first five new 14 to 19 diplomas will be available within the month, ready to be introduced into schools and colleges in September 2008””." That is only a year and two months away, but the curricula have not yet been published. The QCA has been careful in terms of allowing federations of schools and colleges to go through the gateway, and a number will effectively be piloting the diplomas in the first year, but am I right in thinking that the new diplomas will not generally be available within schools until the pilots have been completed? On diplomas, will the Minister assure us that there will be sufficient careers guidance within schools early enough for young people to be able to make proper choices between the GCSE and vocational routes? That is essential because careers guidance in schools has not been up to the mark recently. It would be good to see it improved. On academies and universities, the Statement says that the Government have an, "““aspiration that every secondary school should have a business and university partner””." Does that mean that existing academies will acquire university partners and that academies sponsored by universities will acquire business partners? The language on page 7 says very explicitly that, "““every secondary school should have a business and university partner””."