§ 61. Mr. Awdryasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will make a statement on the Henniker Heaton Report on Day Release.
§ Mr. HoggI am grateful to Mr. Henniker Heaton and his colleagues on the Committee for their important and valuable Report.
The Committee were appointed in November, 1962, after a meeting with national organisations representing employers, trade unions, local education authorities and technical colleges, which 194W recommended that a right to day release could not be granted without holding back the prospects for other urgent educational developments, but that further consideration should be given to other ways of achieving a substantial increase in the grant of day release to young people under 18.
The Committee's main proposal is that a national target shall be set of at least an additional 250,000 boys and girls obtaining release from employment for further education by 1969–70. Industrial Training Boards are urged to pay the greatest attention to day and other forms of release, and in the Committee's view this should become a requirement in appropriate cases. In co-operation with employers and trade unions, local education authorities should conduct sustained campaigns directed at achieving local targets within the national total. The operation should be under the general aegis of the National Advisory Council on Education for Industry and Commerce. Attainment of the national target would about double the present numbers.
For their part, the Government are prepared to accept the Committee's proposal, but the local education authorities and industry will be closely involved, and I am consulting the national representative bodies forthwith about the action which should be taken to give effect to the Report.