Group 5. Entitlement to IDPs (Amendments 29, 30, 31, 13, 33, 34, 35, 47)

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:36 pm on 21 November 2017.

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Photo of Darren Millar Darren Millar Conservative 5:36, 21 November 2017

I want to put on record, first of all, my support for the Government amendments. They are sensible amendments, and I intend to support them and I hope that other people will too, but I'm a little bit disappointed by the response that the Minister has given to my amendment 13.

As the Minister has quite rightly said, at the moment, the Bill as it stands will allow for the continuation of support to someone beyond their twenty-fifth birthday, but not beyond the academic year in which the young person turns 25. The problem with this is that many college courses, particularly in our FE institutions, are college courses that go beyond a single academic year. So, you could have an individual who starts a college course aged 24, and it could be a two-year course. They would receive support in the first academic year, but not the second, and I think that that is not what the Government would intend, and it's certainly not a situation that I want to see, that you would have individuals having that support withdrawn halfway through their course. And of course, some courses can take even longer, particularly if they're studied on a part-time basis. So, I do think it's very important that if someone starts a course with support that that support continues throughout the duration of their course. So, we're not talking about an indefinite period, as suggested by the Cabinet Secretary here. We're talking about a period that ends when their course ends. So, I can't see why there is significant opposition here from the Welsh Government to this particular amendment. Nobody would want to see that support withdrawn. Indeed, the very reason that this provision was put in there to allow for the extension beyond the twenty-fifth birthday to the end of the academic year was entirely to try and ensure that no support was withdrawn during the duration of an academic course. The difficulty is that we failed to think about academic courses that go beyond a single academic year. So, I do hope, Cabinet Secretary, that you'll reflect on those facts, and the significant challenge that that would present to children and young people with additional learning needs who might be delighted to get into college on their twenty-third birthday to start a two-year course with the support that they might need, suddenly to find it all come crashing down afterwards and them not being able to sustain their place in that college and to complete their course of education. So, I would appreciate if you could reflect on that, and not simply dismiss this well-meaning, well-intended amendment, which is non partisan. It's simply responding to some of the concerns that a number of stakeholders have raised with me between Stage 2 and Stage 3.