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Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Bill

Amendment 314 proposes to add "community cohesion" to the objective of promoting the economic and social well being of a local area, to which further education corporations should have regard, similar to the duty on governing bodies of maintained schools in England, set out in Section 21 of the amended Education Act 2002. We are working with the further education sector on how the duty to have regard to the promotion of well being will be implemented. I can assure noble Lords, and especially the noble Baroness, Lady Sharp, that we will ensure that any guidance that relates to this makes it clear that the definition of economic and social well being of an area encompasses the important concept of "community cohesion". We recognise the importance, as the noble Baroness, Lady Sharp, stressed, of larger colleges and their role in the community. We see the cohesion of communities in the local area as a significant contributor to their social and economic well being. We have already established a group of champion college principals to drive work on this and we will look to our champions to work with colleges on how best to fulfil their new duty. With these reassurances, I invite the noble Baroness to withdraw the amendment.