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Education and Skills Bill

My Lords, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Ramsbotham, for giving me an opportunity to do what he asks. I shall respond quickly but, I hope, comprehensively. It would not make sense for local authorities to enter into parenting contracts and apply for parenting orders in relation to themselves. I know that I am stating the obvious, and we all understand that; I shall not labour that point. There are separate means of enforcing the important responsibilities of local authorities, which have their own duties to promote participation for all young people, including children and young people in care. The Secretary of State has the power to give a direction to a local authority under Section 496 or 497 of the Education Act 1996 if they are failing in that duty, and that is the duty that we will be relying on when we are talking about the role of corporate parents. Looked-after children, including children in care, will be able to stay in their care placement until they are 18 if they want to. This is something important to have come out of the Children and Young Persons Act. We are flipping over the normal assumption. We will be encouraging children and young people to stay in care until the age of 18, and there has to be a very good reason for them to think about leaving. They will receive focused support to stay in learning and succeed. We will ensure that young people in care and leaving care receive information, advice and guidance tailored to their needs, particularly through the very important targeted youth support arrangements being introduced, and that their social worker or young persons adviser, as their lead professional, has access to information about the choices available to them. On Amendment No. 212, local authorities currently decide the composition of their schools forum, and in the vast majority of areas this happens in consultation with the forum members and includes both head teachers and governors. Current regulations, as we have heard, state that school members must be elected by members of the relevant group, and local authorities with strong associations will certainly find this easier to facilitate than those without. This amendment will not change poor practice in local authorities, and the schools forums practice guidance already states that schools forums should aim for a membership structure based on equal proportions of head teachers and governors, although this is not always possible. Officials monitor the workings of schools forums on a regular basis and can look again at the national picture of composition and the effectiveness of forums. If there proves to be a case for making stronger regulation for the proportion of governors to head teachers, the power already exists for this to happen through secondary legislation, but I assure noble Lords that we are looking at this situation. Taking into account the comments about support for looked-after children and schools forums, I hope that the noble Baroness can withdraw her amendment.