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Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Bill

I cannot say I find myself much reassured by that. We seem to be replacing a system that has relied on the expressed wishes of the individual learners as reflected in their applications to colleges and the colleges’ response to that with one that supposes that half a dozen people transferred from an agency in Coventry can get a grip on exactly what everybody in the local education authority’s area requires by way of 4,000 different qualifications. Moreover, they would need to take into account their, ""ages, abilities, aptitudes … learning difficulties … the locations and times at which the education … is provided"." I do not begin to understand how local education authorities are going to be capable of planning on that scale and in relation to that complexity. Can the noble Lord start by telling me what is meant by "commissioning"? If the local authority decides that it needs another 20 places for people to study hairdressing, say, how will it go about securing that? Will it issue an instruction to one of its local colleges to provide them? If it does, what happens if all those places are taken up by someone from a neighbouring local authority? How does commissioning and securing work in practice? Can the noble Lord give us an example?