School Leaving

Mr. Laws
To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many and what proportion of (a) young people and (b) all people consulted by his Department (i) supported, (ii) opposed and (ii) neither supported nor opposed the Government's proposal to extend the education leaving age to 18 years; and if he will make a statement.

Jim Knight
We received a total of 473 written responses to ‘Raising Expectations’ in the formal full consultation, and just under 1,000 written responses from young people in response to the magazine ‘Reach’, the additional young people's materials we developed. These included 14 group responses, representing a total of 805 young people.

In response to the question of whether they supported the Green Paper's central proposal to raise the participation age to 18, in the written response to ‘Raising Expectations’, 44 per cent. (202 people) were in agreement with the proposal, compared to 40 per cent. (186 people) who were opposed and 16 per cent. (76 people) who were unsure.

In the written responses to the young people's materials, 47 per cent. (450 young people) were against, 36 per cent. (345 young people) agreed and 17 per cent. (165 young people) were not sure.

John Penrose
To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families if he will make an estimate of the number of 17 year olds who are likely to truant each year in the event of the school leaving age being raised to 18 years.

Jim Knight
The Department has not estimated the number of 17-year-olds likely to be absent from education or training in 2015, once we raise the participation age to 18. The Green Paper “Raising Expectations: staying in education and training post-16” was published in March, setting out our proposals for all young people to continue in learning until they are 18, and a further “From policy to legislation” document was published on 5 November. Copies have been placed in the Library of the House. Under these proposals, if a young person is persistently absent from learning or drops out altogether, the learning provider will be required to inform the local authority, so that guidance services can contact the young person and support to re-engage can be provided as soon as possible.

Mr. Laws
To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families if he will publish research his Department has conducted on the capital costs of increasing the education leaving age to 18 years; and if he will make a statement.

Jim Knight
In March the Department published an Initial Regulatory Impact Assessment alongside the Green Paper “Raising Expectations: staying in education and training post-16”, both of which have been placed in the Library of the House. In it we anticipated that an additional £81 million would be needed to build the new facilities necessary over the years leading up to implementation. These projections are being revised and independently reviewed before being published in the Impact Assessment that will accompany the Education and Skills Bill.