§ 3.36 p.m.
§ Read 3ª, with the Amendments.
§ Clause 2 [Functions of the Commission and Agencies]:
§ LORD COLERAINE moved Amendment No. 1:
§
Page 4, line 14, at end insert—
("(d) to co-operate generally with the careers services of local education authorities and in particular to encourage young persons to use such services;").
§ The noble Lord said: My Lords, I beg to move the Amendment standing in my name on the Marshalled List. As the House is aware, the noble Lord, Lord Diamond, the noble Baroness, Lady Masham, myself, and other noble Lords and Ladies who have had some particular association with the youth employment service, endeavoured to persuade the Government to accept Amendments which would maintain the existing practice that the employment of young persons between school-leaving age and the age of 18 should be under the control of the local education authority and the existing careers service. We failed on Committee; we failed on Report, and I do not propose now to repeat the arguments that we used then. My Amendment is designed to give effect to what I believe is the view of the Government as it was expressed by my noble friends Lord Gowrie and Lord Drumalbyn in the debates to which I have referred.
§ It would not be unfair to say that their view was, broadly speaking, that while the careers service of the local education authority had a special claim for consideration in its dealing with young people—because the careers officers were in touch with the young people from their school days, knew their homes and circumstances and knew the whole ambit of their lives—nevertheless they felt, first, that young people were entitled to freedom of choice as between the Manpower Commission and the local education authority careers service and, secondly, that many young people felt that any- 1378 thing associated with their school days was derogatory to their standing. I did not agree with those arguments then and I do not agree with them now, but I do not propose to go into that.
§ What I am asking the Government to do is to accept an Amendment which would impose upon the Commission the duty to co-operate generally with the careers services of the local education authorities, and in particular to encourage young persons to use such services. In other words, I am asking the Government to ensure that the new body that is being set up under the Bill will not seek to poach from the local education authority careers service; will not insert advertisements saying that they are the shop to deal with and the local education authority is not the shop to deal with. In fact I am asking the Government to express in the Bill what in general I understood them to say in the arguments they raised against the Amendments which were moved by the noble Lord, Lord Diamond. I beg to move.