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Children

My Lords, I join all those who have congratulated my noble friend Lord Listowel on obtaining this important debate. Like others, during the time that I have known him, I have come to admire the determination and depth of his interest in this very important group of our population. I declare two interests. First, I was Her Majesty’s Inspector of Prisons in 1999 when the then Chief Inspector of Social Services was required to conduct the first safeguarding review. I immediately responded to that. I first inspected prisons in 1995 and when I discovered four 15 year-old girls in Holloway prison with no possible way of looking after them, I determined that we ought to be doing something about children in the prison system. I asked social services inspectors to come with me to compare the conditions with what should have been provided in social services’ accommodation. I employed a full-time consultant who had been a director of social services and of the National Children’s Bureau. In 1997, I published a report called Young Prisoners in which I made two points. First, that I did not believe prison was appropriate for children. Prisons are adult places and staff are trained to look after adults, not children. If children need custody, it should not be in the prison service. The second issue which worried me—and it still worries me—is that I called for someone to be appointed as director of children or of young offenders in the Prison Service to be responsible for what was done with them wherever they were. I called for that continuously until 2001 and I have continued to do so. I notice that one of the recommendations requires that the National Offender Management Service and the Youth Justice Board should process good practice, but they will never do so unless someone is responsible for it. As regards my second interest, currently I am a member of an inquiry being conducted by the noble Lord, Lord Carlile of Berriew, into the use of restraint and seclusion in secure children’s homes. During the course of that, we have visited virtually every such home in the country and I am sure that when the report is published it will be of interest to your Lordships. Like others, I approach the subject with concern about what will happen to the report. I notice that the noble Lord, Lord Adonis, is here on behalf of the Minister for Children and Families who resides in the Department for Education and Skills. But on reading the report, one realises that it affects the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, with his responsibility for community safety and local government. One realises that it also affects the Secretary of State for Health, who has a responsibility for social services. One realises that it affects the Home Secretary, with his responsibility for the Prison Service, the Probation Service and the Youth Justice Board as well as the immigration and detention service. Then, quite apart from the essential presence of the Chancellor, the Department for Constitutional Affairs, the Department for Work and Pensions and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport all have an involvement in what is required. Like my noble and gallant friend Lord Bramall, I have a military background. We were taught and brought up on a chain of command, with responsibility from top to bottom, to ensure that things happened. I would be grateful if the Minister could explain exactly what the chain of command is for implementing all the many recommendations in the report which bear on many other ministries. In 1999, my fellow chief inspectors and I published a report entitled Casework Information Needs in the Criminal Justice System listing the items of information which were required by, unable to be obtained by, or obtained only with difficulty from the constabulary, the prisons, the probation and social services, the courts and the magistrates’ services. It ended up on the ignored shelf in all the ministries to which we had directed it because none of them could work out who was responsible for actioning what we had outlined. Information remains sadly missing in many aspects dealing with safeguarding children. In addition to my concern about the absence of a director for children in the Prison Service, I am greatly concerned about the lack of training of staff to look after children, particularly the lack of training people who are described as personal officers of key workers. I find that surprising. In 1996, I discovered that the Trust for the Study of Adolescence had organised training for those working with boys at Her Majesty’s young offender establishment at Lancaster Farms and with girls at Her Majesty’s young offender establishment at Drake Hall. It was a very good course. I and all my inspectors went though both of them and I invited the then Home Secretary, Michael Howard, to join us in one of our training sessions. He did so, admitting that he had not quite realised how much was involved. However, it is strange that although that course ran in 1996, we find the organisation congratulating itself on introducing training for trainers in 2005. What has been happening? Staff must be trained to look after children, otherwise they will not be safeguarded. Finally, when I was chief inspector there were no action plans on what was meant to be happening in prisons. I arranged with the then Home Secretary, Jack Straw, for a protocol which required the Prison Service to produce action plans at nine, 18 and 24 months. I followed them up with unannounced inspections to see that they were being actioned. At the same time, I arranged for the same work to be done with the Youth Justice Board, then chaired by the noble Lord, Lord Warner, who is not here today. But that has not happened with the board. Unless we have an action plan that is dated and lists who is to do what and by when, this will not be the only report on safeguarding children still awaiting action. In two or three years’ time, we will be back again considering yet other unactioned recommendations. If I have one plea to the Minister, while sympathising with the fact that he represents so many, it would be to lay an action plan before us which we can monitor to see that our children are safeguarded in future.