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Education and Skills Bill

My Lords, I am sure that the whole House will agree with the noble Baroness, Lady Howe, that the voice of pupils and young people is extremely important. This Government are committed to involving young people as widely as possible in matters which affect them. We make decisions that impact on children and young people every day. Ensuring that their views are heard and valued not only has the potential to improve services for young people, as the noble Lord, Lord Elton, pointed out, but has a positive impact on the school environment and the local community. Through effective pupil participation, schools give young people the opportunity to develop critical thinking, advocacy and influencing skills, helping every child to fulfil their potential. This is clearly very positive, and the Government seek to encourage it. The amendment, however, places a direct duty on school governing bodies to establish a school council or other mechanism and to have regard to the ascertainable views of all their pupils on matters that affect them. I do not agree that amending primary legislation is the most powerful or effective way of bringing about the improvements that we all seek. Research shows that more than 95 per cent of schools already have a school council—I can point to my own experience as a governor of a local primary school, where we have an effective school council that ascertains the views of its pupils. We have updated and strengthened guidance, which should serve to encourage the introduction of school councils in the few schools which do not have them and support those schools which run them well and use them as one of a number of ways of listening to their pupils. I echo some of the points made by the noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley, who gave another example of an effective means of involving and empowering young people. We have a powerful lever, which we should not underestimate, in Ofsted inspections. They evaluate how well schools take account of the views of children and young people. The value of inspection is that it involves dialogue with the school about improving where necessary and recognising its strengths. Section 176 of the Education Act 2002 already provides for the consultation of pupils on issues that affect them. It provides for statutory guidance, to which local authorities and governing bodies must have regard, about consultation of pupils when decisions affecting them are taken. We have just reviewed and strengthened the guidance, Working Together, to help schools effectively to put the principle of pupil consultation into practice. Furthermore, we have ensured that school inspection arrangements assess how well schools take account of the views of children and young people. The current arrangements offer a non-prescriptive approach, allowing schools to find the best way of involving young people. A rich variety of methods is being used by schools in addition to school councils. Supporting schools through guidance enables them to develop approaches that work for them and to adapt them over time as circumstances change. The amendment would require all schools to consult all pupils in all circumstances. This is against our drive to free schools up, within boundaries—provided, in this case, through guidance—to take their own decisions. We want to avoid introducing a broad statutory requirement that is likely to cause schools difficulties. I shall answer some of the understandable concerns expressed by a number of noble Lords. The noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley, and all noble Lords who entered into the debate, talked about the legal obligation and the current provision not giving children the right to be consulted, as required by Article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. We continue to embed in practice the spirit of that resolution in a meaningful way for children and young people. Listening to children is an important outcome for all children, in Every Child Matters. We are ensuring that Ofsted inspectors look at how local authorities, as well as schools, are doing. It has also been said that we are not meeting the obligations under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Although that has no direct legal force, and the detail of implementation is left to individual states, we think that the guidance is in the spirit of the convention and will provide a helpful mechanism in allowing schools effectively to listen to the views of their pupils. There is no difference between us on the need to ensure that schools involve and empower their young students and pupils. This is really about whether we need something in the Bill. We do not believe that we do—we believe that we have enough effective powers already. I could not help smiling at the two references to height made by the noble Lord, Lord Elton, as my colleague and I are a bit sensitive to that, being somewhat vertically challenged. He made a point about consultation on the architecture and design of schools. That is a point very well made, but do we really need it in the Bill? We think that we have demonstrated in what we have achieved so far, with the guidance and Ofsted inspection, that current provision is more than sufficient. We hope that noble Lords will take that into account and that the noble Baroness, Lady Howe, will withdraw her amendment.