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Children and Young Persons Bill [HL]

My Lords, I am delighted to follow the noble Lord, Lord Griffiths, because I was rather depressed after having listened to my noble friend Lady Howarth of Breckland. Although she has a point, I certainly am among those who thoroughly welcome the Bill and see in it tremendous possibilities for the future, particularly for the wide range of children for whom we need to do more, including through the education system. The Government richly deserve our thanks for at last attempting to tackle a situation which, over the years, has become a national disgrace. It says it all that our most vulnerable and damaged young people, being so-called looked after by the state, should end up five times less likely than their contemporaries to achieve five good GCSEs, and that 30 per cent of care leavers at 19 years old are not in education, training or employment compared, as we have heard, with 13 per cent of all young people. As the noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley, has already said, there is one other person in your Lordships’ House who deserves special mention, and that is my noble friend Lord Listowel. He has relentlessly brought the inadequacies of provision for looked-after children to your Lordships’ attention, and at last his persistence has paid off. I congratulate him. But, of course, inevitably now that the Bill is before us, we want to see even more achieved. The many voluntary children’s organisations that have championed children’s issues over the years—Barnardo’s, the Children’s Society, the BAAF, the NSPCC and others—all of whom have done so much, have been busy briefing noble Lords, so it is clear that we shall have lively Committee and Report stages exploring exact meanings and no doubt attempting to persuade the Government to add other responsibilities to the Bill. Much of what the Bill aims to achieve has already been scrutinised in the debate, and indeed issues such as inadequate mental health provision, which my noble friend Lady Meacher so effectively brought to the forefront, are going to arise again as we go through the later stages. The pilots of social work practice are quite controversial and echo certain activities in other fields. I have put this down as an idea from the noble Lord, Lord Carter of Coles. It will be interesting to see what happens as we debate them. However, I hope that noble Lords will forgive a certain amount of repetition on one or two aspects of the Bill that I want to mention. The first of these is the need on occasion for independent advocacy to be available for a child in care, and not least if Article 12 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child is to be complied with. I hope that the Minister will explain how the Government intend a child’s views on the plans for his or her future are to be taken into account in ways that are not in breach of the article if this service is not to be available. As the NSPCC points out, children in care are typically not consulted about key decisions affecting their lives. An independent advocate would ensure that they may have, "““a right to challenge decisions being taken on their behalf””." Set out in Clause 11 is the important strengthening and expansion of independent reviewing officers. Certainly there is some question about how independent a particular local authority’s IRO should be, a point to which the noble Lord, Lord Judd, has already drawn attention. Contrary to the briefing from the Local Government Association, the Children’s Rights Alliance for England believes that such an IRO would be more effective if they were trained, experienced and independent of the local authority concerned. The officer would be able to give an objective view of the child’s position. I hope that in his summing up the Minister will say more about what steps will be taken to achieve the possibilities that this envisages. Certainly we will need to debate the matter further in Committee. Almost everything that I have read, and certainly the Barnardo’s briefing, favours the emphasis that the Bill places on looked-after children being placed with family—grandparents, for example—or with friends, as evidence shows that these can often provide the best possible placements for individual children. It is surely self-evident, too, that siblings should be placed together wherever humanly possible. It is important that there is an assurance of adequate support, both financial and practical, for these carers. It would be helpful if the Minister could give more details of how this is to be supported in practical ways. It should be adequately financed and not subjected to postcode lotteries, as has happened in the past. The Minister will understand that one is saying this at a time when we all know that funds are short. We therefore need particular reassurance here. The importance of arranging and facilitating adequate visiting by family and siblings if a looked-after child is in a residential or foster home is also emphasised. No fewer than 83 per cent of those surveyed by A National Voice stressed that they wanted to see more of their siblings. The emphasis of the Bill is also, rightly, on far greater stability within a looked-after child’s education. Some children’s needs or abilities may well mean that they have to be placed outside a local authority area, and I like the flexibility in the Bill which would allow for that to happen if it was the best answer. However, the absurd and totally counterproductive number of times the average looked-after child is moved from school to school should, as a result of all this, now become a matter of history. The two particular milestones that I applaud are, first, that there should be no moves during GCSE years 10 and 11—the more stable it is across the whole time the better, but certainly during those two years—and, secondly, the statutory role of a designated teacher. I hope, too—indeed, I thought this already existed—that a school governor will, as a matter of routine, be encouraged to keep a discreet eye on progress. A more sensible transition to independent living than has existed in the past will also be vital. Given that most young people today stay until their mid-20s in their parents’ home, as other noble Lords have said, the leaving-care process needs at least the flexibility and extended financial support that the Bill envisages. I would like even more than that. Clearly the ability to stay with foster or other carers between the ages of 18 and 21 is important. It also makes sense to have appropriate advice and mentoring available on what further education, training or employment needs to take place. Barnardo's would also like to explore a transitional status for care leavers up to the age of 25. This, again, has been mentioned and I could not support it more. It is an important suggestion. This brings me to my final point. We must hope that these measures will go some way towards ensuring that looked-after children are helped, supported and guided into an adult life which is fulfilling for them as well as those who have helped to raise them, and productive for the UK economy. The worrying fact, as Barnardo's points out, is that children in care are overrepresented in the secure estate. No fewer than half of children in custody will have had some care experience. I again draw attention to the quite horrendous figure that 66 per cent of those who have been looked after in the past go on to have their own children taken into care. How great a failing is that as an indication of what we have not achieved? It is disturbing that some of the recommendations outlined in the Care Matters Green Paper applying to children in care who are taken into custody have been watered down so that they only apparently have to be visited by a local authority. I find this worrying, as clearly do Barnardo’s and the Children’s Society, because the local authorities apparently behave as though their care placement is ended and that their case will no longer even be open to oversight by a child and family social worker. Frankly, anything more likely than this to lead to repeated offending behaviour is hard to envisage. Looked-after children who end up in custody will need doubly extra support, certainly not withdrawal of the necessary plans the Government have included in the Bill to radically improve their life chances. It is not only that we want looked-after children to lead fulfilling, worthwhile and economically useful lives, important though that is; it is also the practical, hard-headed knowledge that if we fail with these children then the financial cost will be huge as they work their way through the penal system, reoffending regularly, at something like a basic financial cost of £50,000 a year—and that is a fairly superficial figure. If the fears of Barnardo’s are even remotely justified, can the Government please look urgently at this whole area again? The most important foundation for future policy, in my view, is to understand that for those in care whom we have continued to fail and who end up in custody, even greater efforts must be made. We have to do our best to ensure that they, above all, do not return to the treadmill of repeated reoffending.