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Education and Skills Bill

I will take the points made by the noble Baroness in turn. There is an elaborate appeal process set out in the Bill, which we will discuss later. All children’s services departments are inspected by Ofsted and its reports are published. They will be inspected against their duties once the Bill is enacted. They are monitored centrally by my department. An aspect that we shall monitor particularly closely is their preparedness for making provision in a whole range of areas, not just direct provision in the commissioning of courses but the provision of information, advice and guidance, which is a crucial area for which they will take responsibility under the Bill once it is enacted. Clause 39 requires that enforcement action is taken against young people only if they are failing without reasonable excuse to fulfil their duty to participate. Jim Knight’s letter to David Laws highlights a particular instance that he believes constitutes a reasonable excuse. The letter states: "““If a particular learning difficulty has been identified and the right support to address it not yet secured or in place, it would be reasonable to expect that the young person could not begin their learning programme until that support was in place””." I hope that that reinforces the point that I have sought to make throughout this debate, which is that, in extremis or where the local authority is itself negligent in its duties and is not making the necessary provision to ensure that a young person’s needs can be met, that would constitute a reasonable excuse not to participate under Clause 39.