Education Bill Bill No 137 of 2010-11 RESEARCH PAPER 11/14 3 February 2011 (revised 7 February 2011) This paper has been written for the House of Commons Second Reading debate on the Education Bill [Bill 137] on 8 February 2011. The Bill seeks to implement the legislative proposals in the Department for Education’s schools white paper, The Importance of Teaching, and measures from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills relating to skills and the reform of higher education funding. It is therefore a very wide-ranging Bill. Measures in the Bill include proposed changes to early years provision, school discipline, public reporting on allegations made against teachers, the governance of Ofqual, and careers education and guidance. Certain duties on school governing bodies, local authorities and further education institutions would be removed, including the duty on local authorities to appoint school improvement partners. Other measures relate to school admissions, school meals, composition of school governing bodies, school inspection, school finance and permitted charges. The Bill would make changes to the arrangements for setting up new schools, and would make provision for 16 to 19 academies and alternative provision academies. Five quangos would be abolished: the General Teaching Council for England, the Training and Development Agency for Schools, the School Support Staff Negotiating Body, the Qualifications and Curriculum Development Agency and the Young Person’s Learning Agency. New powers would be given to the Secretary of State as a consequence of some of these changes. Post-16 education and training changes would affect the powers of the Chief Executive of Skills Funding, the entitlement to free education and training at level 2 and 3. The legislation relating to raising the participation age to 18 would be retained but the Bill would give the Secretary of State flexibility as to the timing of the commencement of enforcement procedures. Reforms to the higher education funding and student finance system would enable the Government to charge a real rate of interest on higher education student loans and permit the Secretary of State for Education to place a cap on tuition fees for part-time higher education courses. There would also be changes to the National Assembly for Wales’ framework powers. Christine Gillie Susan Hubble Paul Bolton Recent Research Papers 11/08 Unemployment by Constituency, January 2011 19.01.11 11/09 Fixed-term Parliaments Bill: Commons Stages 21.01.11 11/10 UK Defence and Security Policy: A New Approach? 21.01.11 11/11 Health and Social Care Bill [Bill 132 of 2010-11] 27.01.11 11/12 Economic Indicators, February 2011 01.02.11 11/13 Anonymity (Arrested Persons) Bill [Bill 9 of 2010-11] 02.02.11 Correction This paper was revised on 7 February 2011 as follows. Cover sheet, third paragraph, last sentence had read “Enforcement provisions relating to raising the participation age to 18 would be removed.” Page 2, third paragraph, last sentence had read “The legislation relating to raising the participation age to 18 would be retained but the enforcement requirements would be removed.” Both places now read: “The legislation relating to raising the participation age to 18 would be retained but the Bill would give the Secretary of State flexibility as to the timing of the commencement of enforcement procedures.” Research Paper 11/14 Contributing Authors: Christine Gillie, all school-related subjects, Social Policy Section Susan Hubble, YLPA, FE & students, Social Policy Section Paul Bolton, statistics, Social & General Statistics Section Manjit Gheera, early years and children’s trusts, Social Policy Section Daniel Harari, apprenticeships, Economic Policy and Statistics Section Grahame Danby, reporting restrictions, Home Affairs Section This information is provided to Members of Parliament in support of their parliamentary duties and is not intended to address the specific circumstances of any particular individual. It should not be relied upon as being up to date; the law or policies may have changed since it was last updated; and it should not be relied upon as legal or professional advice or as a substitute for it. A suitably qualified professional should be consulted if specific advice or information is required. This information is provided subject to our general terms and conditions which are available online or may be provided on request in hard copy. Authors are available to discuss the content of this briefing with Members and their staff, but not with the general public. We welcome comments on our papers; these should be e-mailed to [email protected]. ISSN 1368-8456 Contents Summary 1 Introduction 3 1 Free early years provision 6 2 Discipline 8 2.1 Background 8 2.2 The Bill’s provisions 13 Power of members of school staff to search pupils 13 Power of members of staff at further education institutions to search students 14 School detentions 14 2.3 Comment on the school discipline proposals 14 2.4 Exclusions from school in England 15 2.5 Behaviour and attendance partnership 19 3 School workforce 19 3.1 Abolition of the General Teaching Council for England 19 3.2 Restrictions on reporting alleged offences by teachers 22 3.3 Abolition of the Training and Development Agency for Schools 23 3.4 Abolition of the School Support Staff Negotiating Body 23 3.5 Staffing of maintained schools: suspension of delegated budget 25 4 Qualifications and the curriculum 25 4.1 International comparison surveys 26 4.2 Ofqual 26 4.3 Abolition of the Qualifications and Curriculum Development Agency 27 4.4 Career education and guidance 28 Education and training support services in England 28 Careers guidance in schools in England 29 4.5 Repeal of diploma entitlement 30 5 Education institutions: other provisions 31 5.1 Children’s trusts and the duty to co-operate 31 5.2 Children and Young People’s Plan 34 5.3 School Profile 35 5.4 School Improvement Partners 35 5.5 School admissions 37 5.6 School meals 40 5.7 Establishment of new schools 41 5.8 Governing bodies: constitution and dissolution 44 5.9 School Inspection 45 5.10 Schools causing concern: powers of Secretary of State 50 5.11 Parental complaints about schools 50 5.12 Finance 51 Local authorities’ financial schemes 51 Payments in respect of dismissal 52 Permitted charges 52 5.13 Further education institutions 53 5.14 Repeal of provision to change the name Pupil Referral Units 55 6 Academies 55 7 Post-16 Education and Training 60 7.1 Abolition of the Young People’s Learning Agency for England 60 7.2 Apprenticeships 64 7.3 The Chief Executive of Skills Funding 66 Changes to level 2 and 3 entitlement 67 7.4 Raising the participation age 69 8 Student Finance 70 8.1 Overview: The Browne Review 70 8.2 Government response to the Browne Review 70 8.3 Student loans: interest rates 71 8.4 Limit on student fees: part-time courses 76 9 Powers of National Assembly for Wales 84 Appendix 1 - International evidence used in the schools white paper 85 9.1 Evidence on the UK’s relative position 85 Other international comparisons 87 9.2 Gaps in attainment in the UK 88 9.3 Policies and practices linked to more successful school systems 89 Tables No table of figures entries found. RESEARCH PAPER 11/14 Summary This paper has been written for the House of Commons Second Reading debate on the Education Bill [Bill 137] on 8 February 2011. The Bill was presented in the House of Commons on 26 January 2011. It seeks to implement the legislative proposals in the Department for Education schools white paper, The Importance of Teaching, and measures from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills relating to skills and the reform of higher education funding. It is therefore a very wide-ranging Bill. The Bill is in 10 Parts. This research paper provides background on the main provisions in the Bill, and generally follows the outline of it; however, the paper is not intended to be a clause-by-clause account as the Explanatory Notes to the Bill provide an explanation of the individual clauses. Part 1 of the Bill would make provision for the introduction of targeted free early years care for children under compulsory school age. It would provide the legislative basis by which the Government’s free early years education policy for disadvantaged two years olds could be implemented. Part 2 would make changes to provisions on school discipline. It would extend the powers of members of school staff to search pupils without their consent for an item that had been, or was likely to be, used to commit an offence or cause injury to the pupil or another, or damage property. Provision would also be made to search for items banned under the school rules. Similar provision is made in relation to further education institutions. The Bill also reforms the process for the review of permanent exclusions from schools, moving from appeal panels to review panels. A review of the decision-making would still be possible but the review panel would not be able to compel re-instatement of a pupil. The Bill would also repeal the duty on schools to give 24 hours’ written notice of a detention to parents, and the duty on all schools to enter into behaviour and attendance partnerships with other schools in their area would be removed. Part 3 would abolish the General Teaching Council for England (GTCE), the Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA) and the School Support Staff Negotiating Body (SSSNB). The relevant functions of the GTCE and the TDA would be undertaken by the Secretary of State and, where appropriate, by Welsh Ministers.