Unemployment: People with Autism

Lord Watts Excerpts

Thursday 25th June 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Sherlock (Lab)]

What I have been trying to describe is our intention to make sure we have personalised support. The noble Baroness raises an important question. She will know, from having seen the work done and from the early report from the Department of Health, which looked into questions around prevalence of autism and other neurodivergent conditions, that one challenge is that people are having to seek out diagnosis in order to get support. In fact, we need to make sure that support is not dependent on diagnosis. Let me be really clear that a diagnosis of, for example, autism is absolutely not a requirement for engaging with employment support. We are determined to make that available. A diagnosis may be the right thing and may help many people, but it is not a prerequisite for our support.

[Lord Watts (Lab)]

My Lords, has my noble friend the Minister seen the drama “Patience”, which traces the actions of a young woman with autism? It demonstrates that you need to have special provision for such people but that it can be very rewarding to employers if they make that provision. Children with autism do not have special needs, just different needs.

[Baroness Sherlock (Lab)]

I must confess to my noble friend that I have not seen it, but I will seek it out. His point is really important. If we can get young autistic people—indeed, any autistic people—into work, I know that many employers will find that there is a huge benefit, not just to the individual but to the organisation. Sometimes, people simply do not know what to do. Line managers are key to this. Earlier this year, for example, my department funded some ACAS-run workshops—masterclasses on neurodiversity—for employers. They were free of charge for employers and aimed particularly at smaller companies to help them understand what it would be like, how to recruit people and how to support them. We know that a lot of employers want to do the right thing, but sometimes just do not know how to do it. Our job is to make that as easy as possible.

Master’s Level History Scholarships

Lord Watts Excerpts

Monday 22nd June 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab)]

I am sure the noble Baroness will be very pleased to know that we made an announcement this morning—which, for some unknown reason, did not get quite the attention I would have hoped—precisely about her point. For a vast majority of students, going to university is worth while for their learning and lifetime earnings, but there are some courses which are not providing that opportunity. We have already enabled the Office for Students to investigate and challenge where provision is not of a high enough quality; we will link any future increase in tuition fees to quality and we will take further action to enable the Office for Students to limit the availability of courses which are not providing students with what they deserve in the future. We will have more to say about that when, perhaps, more people are listening.

[Lord Watts (Lab)]

My Lords, under the last Government, social mobility went backwards. Does the Minister agree that we have to reverse that policy if we are not to see the tragedy of lost talent?

[Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab)]

Yes, I agree with my noble friend, and that is why, throughout our education system, we have to tackle the elements that prevent children and young people fmaximising their potential in life from the very early stages. This is why we are investing in early years; it is why we have set a target to ensure more children are ready to benefit from school when they get there; and it is why we have focused on getting children back into school. It is why we are taking action to improve access to all routes of learning for young people post-16, and why we are widening access and participation in higher education for all students who can benefit from it.

Children: Physical Punishment

Lord Watts Excerpts

Tuesday 16th June 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab)]

The noble Baroness is right to draw attention to that terrible case, and to the requirement, whenever we are faced with tragedies such as that, to learn the right lessons about how we need to reform the system. On her particular point about workers, one of the ways that we improve the way in which social workers and others, whether agency or otherwise, work is to increase their capacity, to focus them, as we are doing, on neglect and abuse, and to improve their training. We will continue to do that while, of course, learning the lessons from tragedies such as the one that she has identified today.

[Lord Watts (Lab)]

My Lords, it is already the case that the serious assault of a child is illegal. What we are talking about is smacking children. Is there any evidence that, since that has been introduced into countries, parents are being prosecuted—that is what it means; prosecuting parents—and that that has helped the situation?

[Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab)]

My noble friend is right that it is, as I have emphasised, already illegal to assault a child. He is also right to identify what we can most effectively do to prevent parents feeling that they need to resort to smacking in order to discipline or control their children. The £900 million that we are investing in the Best Start in Life centres, for example, is being used to develop parenting education on behaviour management. How do you set appropriate boundaries? What type of methods should you and could you use to discipline your children? That feels like a more constructive and wide-ranging response than a change in the law at this point.

Health-related Benefits Assessments

Lord Watts Excerpts

Monday 8th June 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Sherlock (Lab)]

The noble Lord raises an important point and I am grateful to him. There have traditionally been different ways of doing assessments: some are face to face, some are on the telephone and some are video assessments. The starting point is that the health professional must look at and assess all the written evidence—from the GP and the hospital, and evidence provided by the claimant—and then make a decision. There are some cases where, clearly, face to face is right, for reasons of identity verification, wanting to get details they cannot easily get online, where there is a physical examination and so on. There are other cases where people may have a particular reasonable adjustment that they need—it may be difficult for them to get to a centre—and for them a face-to-face assessment is not appropriate. We want to maintain all those things but drive up the proportion of face-to-face assessments to get the right results for individuals and for the taxpayer.

[Lord Watts (Lab)]

My Lords, I want to be clear that this is a policy that was introduced by the last Government, who had no policies whatever to address the problem. It has been left to this Government to come forward with policies that will address the problem. Is that correct?

[Baroness Sherlock (Lab)]

That is so often correct, I have to say to my noble friend. In this case, we are in a situation where we are doing all we can to drive up face-to-face assessments. The most important question is that we get everyone into work who possibly can work. The biggest crisis of our time is in relation to young people. That is where the Secretary of State has put his focus; he has prioritised addressing the million young people we have not in employment, education or training. That is why we are investing in the youth guarantee, in support for employers, in subsidies for wages and in making sure we go out there to find the challenges and get people into work. This Government are doing something about that problem.

Schoolchildren: Swimming

Lord Watts Excerpts

Monday 20th April 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab)]

The noble Lord is right that there is a disparity between ethnic groups, in particular, and between more and less disadvantaged children, which is why this is a national entitlement through the national curriculum. Clearly, we need to do more to ensure that every child is getting opportunities, such as, for example, the £300,000 per year to a consortium led by the Youth Sports Trust to deliver Inclusion 2028, which is a programme that upskills teachers to deliver high-quality, inclusive PE school sport and physical activity, including swimming, to pupils with SEND.

[Lord Watts (Lab)]

My Lords, is it not the case that these pools did not just disappear? They were part of the austerity model that was pursued by the last Tory Government. Have they learned that lesson or are they going to pursue similar policies which starve public resources?

[Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab)]

My noble friend has put rather more clearly what I slightly pussy-footed around in drawing a comparison between 2010 and 2026. He is right. Those 591 pools did not just disappear by virtue of planning. They disappeared because of a failure of the last Government to invest in not just swimming but local government and public facilities for activity.

V-levels

Lord Watts Excerpts

Monday 23rd February 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab)]

The noble Lord makes a fair point, which is why at level 3 we want to ensure that there are three clear routes—through A-levels, T-levels and V-levels—while at levels 4 and 5, which is where HNDs sit, we want to improve our current position, where insufficient numbers of young people go on to get qualified. That is why the Prime Minister set the target of two-thirds of young people achieving level 4 or above, and V-levels are an important route to that further study that the noble Lord was talking about.

[Lord Watts (Lab)]

Does the Minister agree that it is not the recent tax increases that have damaged the economy but the cost of Brexit, which cost £100 billion? That is another mess that has been left by the previous Government.

[Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab)]

The only thing about which I disagree with my noble friend is that that is not the only mess left by the previous Government that we have had to clear up.

Parental Leave and Pay Review

Lord Watts Excerpts

Tuesday 20th January 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Sherlock (Lab)]

Despite discouragement from behind me, I am going to be gentle about this. The noble Baroness makes the important point that there is a lot out there to be learned. We are looking at the international evidence. In Great Britain we tend to be more generous with leave than, for example, other OECD nations, but we do not match up on pay. As part of the review, we have been looking at international comparisons to see what happens, recognising that there are of course differences in labour markets and tax regimes. We must be aware of the impact on our particular context. Certainly, I am hearing a lot of clear voices calling for fathers to have more paternity leave. One of the things we need to be aware of is that when shared parental leave was previously introduced, take-up was very low indeed. We need to make sure the system works well, rather than just diving into making changes.

[Lord Watts (Lab)]

Does the Minister agree with me that there is no future for Britain unless it gets out this situation of low skills, low pay, poverty wages and poor conditions, with some of the worst employment and pay rates in Europe?

[Baroness Sherlock (Lab)]

My Lords, I think the noble Lord has been listening to my colleague and noble friend Lady Smith of Malvern. This Government are committed to driving up skills as a way of driving out the growth in unemployment in this country. We must invest in the skills that are out there, making sure our young people get skills, that people have the chance to re-skill, and that we give employers the skills they need. Through our industrial strategy, we are looking at some of the key growth areas, making sure we understand what will drive them, what they need in future staff, and how we invest in them. Better-skilled jobs are good for the economy and good for families. That is the way forward.

Employment Gap for Blind and Sight-impaired People

Lord Watts Excerpts

Wednesday 17th December 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Sherlock (Lab)]

I am grateful to the noble Baroness. Like her, I have had the benefit of a physio- therapist who is herself blind and is very good indeed. The noble Baroness makes an important point. We have been working really hard with our colleagues who work with the young people who come in. The reason we try to have tailored advice is to work out what works for that person. Just because it worked for the noble Baroness’s aunt, it might not work for her next-door neighbour in the same circumstances. It is about trying to find out what somebody is able to do, wants to do and has a passion for, and how we can give them skills and support.

One of the great joys of having my noble friend Lady Smith join us as Minister for Skills in the DWP as well as the DfE, getting the remit for adult skills, is that it is helpful to join up what we are doing to try to find opportunities for and support individuals, with them having the skills to enable them to follow through on that.

[Lord Watts (Lab)]

My Lords, the Conservative and Liberal coalition Government did away with Remploy. At the time that they abandoned Remploy, many of us said that it would leave the disabled exposed. Is it not the case that they did not make any provision for those people who were previously employed through Remploy?

[Baroness Sherlock (Lab)]

My Lords, I cannot speak to exactly what happened at the time that was abolished. What I can say is that this Government are absolutely committed to supporting people. I talk to brilliant, inspiring disability advocates in my organisation—advisers who have customers who come in and start out thinking there are not things that they can do and end up having jobs found for them and being supported into them. I want to do two things: enable people to get all the help they can, and persuade employers, many of whom want to hire disabled people but do not know how, that they can hire them and that they can thrive and be a real asset to the organisation. We should all get behind that.

Free School Meals

Lord Watts Excerpts

Tuesday 16th December 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab)]

There are many schools that, in thinking about the sourcing of their free school meals, see the benefits of having those responsible for buying and cooking the food in the school itself. It is up to schools to determine how they procure their free school meals, although I recognise that the last Government provided support for schools in procuring that as effectively as possible. There are already opportunities for children to learn cooking within school—and at home as well. That will always be an important thing for young people to be able to do.

[Lord Watts (Lab)]

My Lords, does the Minister agree that it is nice to see that the Opposition have now accepted that privatisation of school meals was not a good thing and that it has led to some of our problems?

[Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab)]

I agree with my noble friend. This Government, in providing the additional commitment to children and the additional investment to expand free school meals, have recognised that, wherever it comes from, in-house provisions can often have a range of benefits for the school. More children will be able to benefit, with all the changes that that brings, such as the ability for them to concentrate on their learning and to have the food and nutrition that all children need to be able to succeed.

Schools: Funding

Lord Watts Excerpts

Tuesday 25th November 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab)]

If a young person has an education, health and care plan that identifies a private school for them, their parents will not be impacted by VAT on private school fees. Equally, most children with special educational needs and disabilities are educated in the state system. It is in order to improve the outcomes of our state system that this Government are committed to reforming our SEND system to make sure that all pupils will be able to access the support that they need within it.

[Lord Watts (Lab)]

My Lords, is it not the case that the opposition party cried that this would have a damaging effect on state schools? From the facts that the Minister has just read out, it is clear that is not the case. Have the Opposition apologised or suggested that the extra money going to secondary schools in the state sector should be removed and given back to people who are in a better position to maintain their child’s education?

[Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab)]

No, the Opposition have not apologised, and nor would I necessarily expect them to. That will not stop me continuing, as I think my noble friend has invited me, to identify the facts of the situation as opposed to the rhetoric from the noble Baroness opposite. I am sure that noble Lords will be interested to know that the number of pupils in private schools is still higher than it was in 2021-22 and before the pandemic. As I said, the latest school census data reveal that pupil numbers remain firmly within the historical patterns seen for over 20 years, while private schools have continued to open, even after the Government’s announcement about ending tax breaks: 79 schools have opened since July 2024. The average between 2014 and 2023 was 75 private schools opening each year. The average was 75 and the numbers in the last year were 79.