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Education and Skills Bill

We support the Liberal Democrats on the new clause on learning and support contracts, as we did in another place, and my name is attached to the amendment. I also listened to my noble friend Lord Lucas, who seems to make a great deal of sense. The learning and support contracts will be used where the young person concerned is failing to fulfil the duty imposed by Clause 2. We believe that a learning and support contract should always be considered before an attendance notice is issued. By providing a mechanism earlier, before and ideally instead of the enforcement process, our desire is to minimise the chance of enforcement proceedings taking place, because of the damaging effect that they can have on a young person’s prospects. Time and again in the evidence sessions in another place we were told that young people could be criminalised by the Bill. That is a great concern not only for the young people, but for many of the organisations that work with the most disadvantaged members of our society. Like the noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley, I have spoken to many such people in recent weeks who are greatly concerned that if those young people were stigmatised or criminalised, they could become entirely disengaged and impossible to re-engage. We are far more likely to achieve increased participation by inspiring and encouraging than by coercion and compulsion. These new contracts would provide a framework for a local authority to agree with a young person and their parent or carer how that young person was to fulfil their duty to participate and how that arrangement was to be supported. By intervening early, we hope to stave off the worst possible outcomes. For that reason I give my wholehearted support to this new clause.