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Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Bill

I will just take some inspiration. Yes, we can be clear that that will find its way into the guidance. I hope that that will further reassure noble Lords. As the Joint Committee on Human Rights said in its report on the Bill, it is not necessarily practical for all the duties imposed on local authorities by the education Acts to apply to the education and training of detained children, because of the constraints imposed by custody and the length of time for which children are usually detained. The constraints pose a challenge, but we are 100 per cent committed to delivering special educational needs support for these young people. As regards Amendment 117, I reassure noble Lords—this is an important issue for the noble Lord, Lord De Mauley—that language difficulties are already encompassed in the definitions of special educational needs and learning difficulties that apply to the clause. Speaking English as a second language, as the noble Lord, Lord Elton, reminded us, is not a special educational need or a learning difficulty, as defined in the Bill; but it is a reasonable need, and as such is covered by the general duty in Clause 47. I hope that it will help the noble Lord if I put that on the record. For the avoidance of doubt, we will be explicit on this in guidance. We are already working with the Communication Trust and other relevant organisations to improve services in the youth justice system for young people with speech, language and communication needs. This includes working with practitioners in both the secure estate and young offending teams to help them recognise and meet the needs of young people. As regards Amendment 129, I will also reassure noble Lords that the provisions in Clause 49 have been drafted specifically to ensure that the home authority must have regard to the young person’s needs. It would be impossible to comply with a duty to promote fulfilment of a person’s learning potential without having regard to any special educational needs or learning difficulties that the person may have. That is a point of clarification. Therefore, the effect of Amendment 129 is already implicit in the Bill. Again, for the avoidance of doubt, we will make this explicit in statutory guidance. I should have spoken to Amendment 120, tabled by the noble Baronesses, Lady Garden and Lady Sharp, which deals with enabling young people to enter for accredited qualifications. This would be covered by the general duty in new Section 18A—I should have said that at the start. For the avoidance of doubt, we will make that clear in guidance. I will speak finally to government Amendment 323 to Clause 261—which at the moment feels a very long way away. This allows young offender provisions in Clauses 47 and 50 to be commenced, as far as they relate to Wales, by Welsh Ministers. Clause 51, as noble Lords will know, was inserted as a new clause on Report in another place. The amendment that we are tabling simply updates the corresponding commencement clause to allow Welsh Ministers to commence implementing Clause 51. If I were to fail to do that, my fellow Welsh Ministers would be very upset. If noble Lords will bear with me, I will answer some points that came up in the debate. I am happy to take forward the concerns of the noble Earl, Lord Listowel, about social workers in secure settings: I will talk to him about that. The noble Baroness, Lady Sharp, was concerned about whether local authorities will get the money to do the job. My answer is: absolutely. Host local authorities will get additional funds to secure suitable provision. They will also be able to recoup the cost of making extra provision to meet the person’s special educational needs, as set out in the SEN statement. In the same way as we have undertaken to write about commissioning, it may be helpful if I write a short note to noble Lords about how the funding arrangements will work between government and the YPLA, and about how the funding formula and the expectations will be set out. This is very much about promoting consistency across the system and driving up standards—a matter about which the noble Lord, Lord Ramsbotham, was very concerned. The noble Baroness, Lady Sharp, was looking for assurances about best endeavours. She asked whether they were strong enough to meet the needs of young people. I think that I have already said yes, so I hope that I have given that undertaking. Again, perhaps I may be very clear about the guidance. I emphasise that this is about creating consistency across the system in the juvenile secure setting and driving up standards of education. The guidance that we have produced will be extremely important in doing that. If I have missed any points of detail, I shall write to noble Lords. I close by saying that the department is very aware of the proposal that the noble Lord, Lord Ramsbotham, talked about, and we are following its developments with great interest. I also concur with noble Lords who talked about the need for Ministers and for noble Lords, in particular, to go out and see what it is really like out there. I have done that myself and it makes a difference when you can see the challenges. Those involved are often big young boys learning to read and write, some of whom have great challenges in their lives. This is a step towards giving them all a much better education and a much better opportunity.