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Education and Skills Bill

My Lords, those of us who stressed the importance of placing listening to the voice of the child in the Bill are extremely grateful to the Government, particularly to the Minister, for supporting the well argued, detailed amendment tabled by the noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley. She is particularly to be congratulated on her persistence, and I thank her for the kind comments she made about my part. Noble Lords will, like me, wish to thank many organisations, such as Participation Works and the Children’s Rights Alliance for England, for their invaluable briefing. It is good to know that they are equally pleased with the Government’s decision, which the Minister will be pleased about. The amendment is clearly necessary. The recently published Ofsted/DCSF survey of nearly 150,000 children and young people across 145 local authorities shows that when asked, ““How much do you feel children’s and young people’s views are listened to in the running of your school?””, 34 per cent of them replied ““not very much”” or ““not at all”” and a further 7 per cent had not got a clue one way or another. The amendment, if implemented effectively, should ensure that significantly more children are involved in decisions that affect them in their education. Above all, it brings us much closer to implementing the provisions of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. I may be going over the same ground as the noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley, but the Government will be drafting further regulations about issues in which children should be involved. Perhaps I can raise one or two points that the Minister may be able to address. First, when are the regulations likely to be issued? Secondly, does she agree that regulations should be broad in their nature? Will they cover the wide range of school functions, including matters related, for example, to the curriculum and schoolwide policy? Thirdly, the amendment specifically allows governing bodies to consult a representative group of pupils. Would that include, for example, school councils or other collective mechanisms in schools? Lastly, what moves do the Government intend to make to ensure that school leaders and children are aware of the new duty?