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Education and Skills Bill

My Lords, I am delighted to add my name to that of the noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley, in support of this group of amendments. I am sure that the whole House will agree that the voice of pupils and young people is extremely important. As my noble friend Lord Young, the Under-Secretary of State with responsibility for skills and apprenticeships, said on Report, the Government are committed to involving young people as widely as possible in matters that affect them. That is why, in the Education Act 2002, we required schools to have regard to statutory guidance about consulting pupils in decisions that affect them. However, on Report, noble Lords made persuasive arguments for us to go further and set out the merits of placing a duty on schools to listen to the views of pupils. These included benefits for young people such as the opportunity to develop critical thinking, advocacy and influencing skills, thereby helping every child to fulfil his or her potential. I fully support the views expressed by the noble Baronesses, Lady Walmsley, Lady Howe and Lady Verma, and I very much hear the words of caution of the noble Lord, Lord Elton, about a litigious society. The new duty in these amendments sends a clear message about the importance that we place on the involvement of pupils, which the Children’s Rights Alliance for England also eloquently advocates, in matters that affect their education and school life. Through regulations, we intend to require governing bodies to invite views on a core set of policy matters. As a minimum, schools should seek and take account of pupils’ views on policies on the delivery of the curriculum, behaviour, the uniform, school food, health and safety, equalities and sustainability, not simply on what colour to paint the walls. We are not minded to require governing bodies to take account of pupils’ views on matters such as staff appointments or the school budget. I am sure noble Lords will understand that. As the Government have said previously, we are also keen to ensure that a duty on schools does not end up with centralised prescription. Schools will not be restricted in the matters on which they can invite the views of pupils. The regulations will simply set out the issues on which they must invite views. If they want to go further, they can. Key to the success of this amendment will be effective implementation. We intend to consult schools, schools’ representative bodies, and children and young people on the matters that will be in the regulations and on which governing bodies should invite and take account of pupils’ views. We will of course satisfy the concerns of the noble Baroness, Lady Howe, about consulting children and young people effectively. In line with the spirit of this amendment, it is important that time is taken for proper consultation on the regulations. We plan to undertake this during the spring term, which I believe means soon in Civil Service language. The amendment tabled by the noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley, on Report included a duty on local authorities to consult children when exercising their school functions. It is important that local authorities take account of young people’s views, as they are already required to do when preparing their children and young persons’ plan. The Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007, which your Lordships’ House spent many hours considering last year, introduced a duty on local authorities to involve local people in decisions—the duty to which the noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley, asked me to point. This means that, from 2009, local authorities in England will be required to involve local people in the discharge of their functions where they consider it appropriate. The statutory guidance produced alongside this duty makes it clear that local people include children and young people, and that information should be produced in a way that is accessible for different groups. Given this new duty, and the fact that we do not want to impose overlapping duties on local authorities, we do not believe that a new duty is required specifically for local authorities’ school functions in England. The duty is already there for matters at a local authority level. The Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act does not apply in Wales, so Amendment No. 6 would leave on the statute book the duty, in Section 176 of the Education Act 2002, on local authorities in Wales to have regard to any guidance issued by the National Assembly for Wales. I want to be clear about the strength of this new duty. The noble Baroness asked whether the duty to ““consider”” is as strong as duties to ““have due regard to”” the views of children in other legislation. I reassure her that it is, and that governing bodies must do more than simply solicit pupils’ views. In drafting the new duty, we have sought a balance in defining a responsibility that is both unambiguous and manageable for school governing bodies. After all, that is what we need to do for it to have the desired effect. To this end, statutory guidance made under subsection (5) of the proposed new clause to be inserted by Amendment No. 5 will help schools to understand the scope of the new duty and will set out examples of how best to involve pupils and invite their views. School self evaluation, which informs Ofsted inspection, features the role pupils play in decision-making within the school as part of the school’s discharge of its duty. The department is working with Ofsted to produce a set of indicators which will be consulted on shortly—in fact, I think that they are being consulted on now. They will form the basis for monitoring and tracking how schools discharge their duty on a consistent and systematic basis. The noble Baroness, Lady Howe, asked how we would make schools aware of these new developments. We intend to reissue the guidance, Working Together: Giving Children and Young People a Say, to all schools, with a letter from my honourable friend Sarah McCarthy-Fry, the Minister responsible for citizenship, setting out how the new duty reinforces our policy commitment to engaging pupils’ views and involvement, and inviting schools to participate in the consultation on the regulations, which will underpin the new duty. I am also advised that we will bring it to the attention of schools via email. I think that I may have not answered a question.