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Children

My Lords, I begin by joining others in congratulating the noble Earl on securing this debate in such an important area. He is a real champion for children, and he has earned the respect of the whole House by his determination to ensure that their plight, especially that of vulnerable children, is constantly before us. This debate comes at a crucial time in the development of children’s services, and in particular the concept of safeguarding. The report recognises, as the noble Earl outlined, that safeguarding children has not been fully or sufficiently defined in law or government guidance. Personally, I prefer the concept promulgated by Sir William Utting in 1997 in the report People Like Us, which defines safeguarding as a distinct activity in,"““taking pro-active steps to keep children safe””," as against the more narrowly defined child protection concept of,"““keeping children safe from harm such as illness, abuse or injury””." It may be that the discussion around the new draft of Working Together will give an opportunity for further consideration, and the Minister may wish to say something to the House about how the new guidance will address some of the issues raised in the debate. Why is this so important? We need to continue to develop a common language around safety to help different professionals work together. It has been apparent in Committee on the Children and Adoption Bill that measurement of safety is a complex area. The minimisation of risk in one part of family life may increase it in another. Reducing contact with a parent where there is domestic violence may be a reasonable measure, but the risk of violence, balanced with the value of contact, may raise other questions when looking at the interests of the child as a whole. Common understanding is even more important as we move to consider yet another stage of change in the structures of services in the inspectorates. There is a myth that if you make people work in the same structure they will be more open with each other and communicate at a different level. Cultural change in organisations is much more complex than that. The work of the inspectorates illuminates those issues, showing examples of good practice where agencies are working together better to safeguard children. I am particularly pleased that more effort is now devoted to listening to and consulting children. I take this opportunity to congratulate Roger Morgan, the Children’s Rights Director for England, and the Commission for Social Care Inspection—CSCI—for the way in which they have spearheaded consultation with children of all ages. I am clear that engaging all agencies who work with children in ensuring their safety will take training, new policy frameworks and excellent leadership to be achieved. While the report demonstrates that the priority given to safeguarding children has increased, together with an increase in the status of the work and good practice, there is still a worry about the most vulnerable groups of society. I had hoped that that work would have been consolidated, so that those areas could be properly addressed by the continuation of stability in the inspectorates. There are still considerable concerns about the differing thresholds applied by social workers in their child protection and family support work, and about the understanding of the role of social workers by other agencies, as has been outlined and will be spoken about again by other noble Lords. I support what has already been said about the role of social workers and foster carers, the lack of value that we apparently place upon them and circumstances under which they work. I see this in my role as deputy chair of CAFCASS where referrals are of a wide variety of competence. Until recently, CAFCASS had hoped to be inspected by CSCI in order to be more integrated into the Every Child Matters agenda, rather than focusing entirely within the court system. Indeed, CAFCASS is already acting on the recommendation in the safeguarding report to increase the participation of children in the family court system. But the proposals set out by the Government in Consultation on a single inspectorate for children and learners gives me cause for serious concern. The proposals would establish an ““enlarged Ofsted”” that would encompass the current roles of Ofsted, with the children’s social care inspection currently with CSCI and the Adult Learning Inspectorate coming together. The proposal lacks intellectual rigour and appears to have been a policy made on the hoof, rather like national social care inspection being turned into CSCI two years ahead without any thought about the organisational implications of making that work. I have spent my entire working life in social care; I have seen fads come and go and currently the Government seem to think that adult social care and children’s social care should be split up. I have yet to meet anyone in social care who agrees with that proposal. I am not interested in keeping things as they were—I believe in change—or in fighting for vested interests. I am interested in ensuring that children are properly safeguarded. The commission shines a light on the social care services that are being provided to some of the most vulnerable and difficult children in our society, albeit a small percentage of the total. Ofsted looks at education services for all children. CSCI ensures that there is a relentless focus on the individual child and some of our most vulnerable children—that is at the heart of its culture. Ofsted, appropriately, has a somewhat more utilitarian approach of the greatest good for the greatest number. Culturally they are years apart. It is not about structures of inspection bodies, but about the culture of the people working for and running those organisations. I am yet to be convinced that safeguarding will not be put at risk, and that all that will be lost under the Government’s proposals. Will the Minister address a specific question? If we really want to focus on children’s services, why is children’s health not to be part of the new children’s inspectorate, the enlarged Ofsted? After all, successful outcomes for many children using social care will depend on high-quality health services. It should be remembered that many children on the Child Protection Register are less than three years old. If the Government decide to pursue this policy, let us hope they ensure that a report of this standard comes to the House, to continue an understanding of what is happening, because all such children’s lives and futures demand better safeguarding—the best safeguarding our society can offer.