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Education and Skills Bill

I have two minutes. If I give way, I will not be able to answer the question. Paul Head, principal of North East London college, said:"““The reason I welcome compulsion is that it changes the nature of the terms of the debate. You no longer ask, 'How do we work our way up to 85 or 90 per cent.?' You actually start asking, 'Why are we not at 100 per cent.?'””" That is the critical difference. We are ambitious for every young person, not just some. Our approach to the Bill is to ensure that school, college, work with training or an apprenticeship are available to all. We start from an assumption of 100 per cent. Rather than starting from 80 or 85 per cent. and working up, we want to ask, ““Why don't we have 100 per cent?”” That is our approach. The system can be galvanised, as Barnardo's, Rainer, the Prince's Trust and the principal of North East London college say, by starting from an assumption that that is universal for all. That is why we have consistently said that we should have a universal system for all. Compulsion as a last resort is necessary. I urge Opposition Members to change their minds, support excellence for all, not just for some, and back the Bill.