Moved by
That the Bill do now pass.
(Con)
My Lords, I am honoured to have been chosen by my honourable
friend to take this Bill through.
It is seemingly small but it will benefit a lot of people in a
very important way. I must say that for 30 years in this House it
has been my ambition to achieve that; Mr Jenkinson has achieved
it in one short Bill. I therefore congratulate him and I am
grateful to the Government for their support. I beg to move.
(Lab)
My Lords, we welcome the Bill and congratulate the noble Lord,
, on continuing the good work of
the honourable Member for Workington. I particularly welcome the
fact that the Bill includes academies, which is an important
aspect of increasing its chances of reaching the maximum number
of children to begin their preparations for a career and the
world of work. For so long we have been told that academies are
often literally a law unto themselves, and the terms of their
funding agreements mean that in many aspects of their provision
they cannot be told what to do. The Bill demonstrates that in
fact they can and that all that is required is a stroke of the
Secretary of State’s pen. A precedent has thus been created.
I will not rehearse the powerful arguments advanced by my noble
friend Lady Wilcox at Second Reading on the need for effective,
regular, independent careers guidance. However, I feel that I
have to draw something to the attention of the Minister—if her
eyes roll as I start this, frankly, I would not be surprised,
because it is about the consistency of government policy again.
Yesterday I raised with her the fact that the Levelling Up White
Paper talked up mayoral combined authorities at the same time as
she was advancing a government position that effectively talked
them down in terms of local skills improvement plans. We had the
Chancellor talking up the need for an apprenticeship levy review
just a month after the Government had voted down a Labour
amendment in another place asking for just that. This Bill talks
about year 7; it lowers the start of career guidance from year 8
to year 7. Yesterday the Minister said:
“We question the value of provider encounters in year 7, before
those students can act on them”.—[Official Report, 24/3/22; col.
1139.]
That is what this Bill does. I may not be alone in being not just
perplexed but slightly irritated at the Government’s apparent
inability to present consistent policy. It is absolutely right
that year 7 should be where it starts, but it was right yesterday
in our discussions on the skills improvement Bill as well and I
very much regret that that was not accepted.
Finally, the concession on the skills Bill that the Minister made
this week in respect of the noble Lord, Lord Baker, and his
clause, shows that the Government have finally determined that
they will make careers guidance more effective and meaningful and
they are supporting it further in this Bill. That is why we
welcome the Bill and look forward to it becoming law.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for
Education () (Con)
My Lords, I thank my noble friend for bringing forward the Bill
and I thank all noble Lords who have participated in its passage
through your Lordships’ House.
If I may, I will clarify the reference to Hansard that the noble
Lord opposite made. When I said that students were not able to
act on those encounters, that was not encounters in relation to
careers advice but provider encounters with colleagues from
further education colleges—UTCs. That is an important distinction
to make.
This simple but effective Bill will ensure that all pupils in all
types of state-funded secondary schools in England are legally
entitled to independent careers guidance throughout their
secondary education. That means high-quality support for every
single child in every single state secondary school in every
single local authority in England, without exception. It will
fulfil a commitment in the Skills for Jobs White Paper, reaching
over 600,000 year 7 pupils each year.
I am enormously grateful to my honourable friend the Member for
Workington for his work on this important Bill and I congratulate
him on ensuring that it passed through the other place. I know
that the whole House will be grateful for this move to extend
access to independent careers guidance, which will be widely
welcomed. The Government are committed to supporting schools
across the country to develop and improve their careers
provision. The Bill is one step forward in ensuring that our
young people receive high-quality careers guidance from an
earlier age.
Bill passed.
