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Children and Young Persons Bill [HL]

My Lords, I apologise for being absent from the Chamber for so long earlier. As chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Children, I had to chair a meeting with Ed Balls, the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families. I am sorry that so many of your Lordships who would normally have been there could not make it due to your duties in your Lordships’ Chamber. I realise that I will have missed many interesting contributions, which I shall read carefully tomorrow. I welcome the Bill as one of a number of initiatives to improve the lives of children. We have had several Bills and policies affecting children, and a children plan is imminent. All children deserve a good deal. The Prime Minister has shown consistent support for children, and it is gratifying to see in the Comprehensive Spending Review PSA targets on child poverty, educational achievement, health, well-being and achievement, all in line with the Every Child Matters agenda. I am delighted that the responsibility for young people in the youth justice system is now with the Department for Children, Schools and Families. I shall say more about that in a moment. The Bill has been broadly welcomed by organisations that care deeply about children and I thank them for their informed briefings. However, there are still some principles and details to work out and I look forward to dialogues with interested colleagues, organisations and the Minister during the course of the Bill in your Lordships’ House. I think we can and will improve it. While the Bill focuses on children in care, it gives scope to include children on the edge of care and other vulnerable children. Much of what the Minister said in his opening remarks should apply to all children; for example, a first-class system of public care, good parenting, legal and moral responsibilities, strong corporate parenting and listening to the voice of the child. In my contribution today I shall focus on children and young people in the youth justice system as well as on young carers and children who are looked after by grandparents. In a sense, all children are in care—the care of our society—and we sometimes fail them. Services for all children should be based on certain precepts—for example, having regard to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child; the Children Act 2004; incorporating the five outcomes of Every Child Matters; providing a firm, loving base for all children; consulting children and young people; having well trained and committed professionals; assessing the needs of a young person if he or she comes into contact with public services; and initiating an appropriate path of care with a dedicated mentor. The young person should be at the centre of care, with systems and structures kept flexible and integrated. If we kept such principles to the fore, legislation, as well as services and children, would benefit. The Bill, linked with other Bills and policies, could improve on the working of systems to benefit children. The issue of young carers was highlighted in the Sunday Times yesterday. This issue has been around for a long time. Many young carers do brilliantly in school and beyond; however, many others are severely stretched by the demands made on them. It is little wonder that they sometimes find doing homework on time difficult and sometimes miss school. Surely they, too, deserve special attention in school and society, such as if they had a designated teacher. Philippa Russell, known and respected for her work with children who have disabilities and now working with Ivan Lewis on a commission on carers, said in an interview recently that young carers should be given consideration. I hope they will be. They have specific needs, which should be part of any consideration of young people’s welfare and young people who deserve special care. I shall expand on a topic that my noble friend Lord Griffiths and the noble Baroness, Lady Howe, and perhaps others, have referred to: young people in the youth justice system. As we know, many young people in the youth justice system have been in care. I maintain that they are still in care, in care of society, while in custody. Some may have done terrible things, and society must be protected, but they are damaged children. They often have chronic health and educational needs. Reoffending rates among young people stand at around 76 per cent, which is a diabolical figure. We are not rehabilitating them; we are increasing distress for them and society. An article on the health needs of children in prison, by two child health specialists, Gould and Payne, states: "““Since 1997, there has been a Health Promoting Prisons Award. Could any prison be considered to be a health promoting environment, while children are not protected from violence, can be held in solitary confinement, and can be restrained using the same methods as those used for adults?””" The article goes on to state that a period in detention is an opportunity to assess and treat problems. That is of course true, but so often it is not. I was interested to read a recent speech made by Ed Balls to the Youth Justice Board’s annual conference. He clearly recognises the need to make more progress and identified means to do so. I quote one telling passage: "““I can announce today that we will now consult on whether and how local authorities should lead on education and training for young people in custody. This would mean that for the first time, young offenders will be given the right level of education and training consistent with the experiences of their peers outside the youth justice system””." Would that that could happen. Next spring, a health and social care strategy for children and young people in contact with the youth justice system will be published. Health and education are vital for children in care, including young offenders. Measures should be applied to young people, post-18, with a clear pathway of development supported by an individual mentor. Individual mentors have been mentioned several times; they are very important. We should incorporate some of those concerns in the Bill. As the Minister said earlier, many children want to be looked after by relative carers. Some improvements in this area are suggested in the Bill, but we still need more clarification and strengthening. I turn to grandparents who look after their grandchildren because their own child is in prison, dead, or addicted to drugs or alcohol. An estimated 200,000 grandparents in the UK have their grandchildren living with them. I meet many such grandparents during the course of my work as chair of the National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse. Reports from the Department of Health and the Family Rights Group point out that financial sacrifices on the part of these grandparents are common, and that current arrangements for receiving support are unco-ordinated, complex and confusing. They get nothing like the support enjoyed by foster parents. One grandparent said: "““The various children's services need to link together. Our experience is that as carers the onus is on us to search out and even bring together those agencies which should collaborate and support our grandson””." The report, Care Matters, talks about children on the edge of care. Supporting grandparents could mean that fewer children end up in care, and keeping children out of care will almost always have positive results. Grandparents as carers are mentioned in the Bill, but we need to tease out some of the problematic issues, such as differences between local authority support and the complexity of systems for cash payments, tax credit, residence orders and special guardianship orders. I have briefly discussed three issues which could usefully be explored in the Bill. I have not attempted to dissect the Bill in any way; that will come later. As I have said, the issues are not for one Bill or policy alone, and obvious links and cross-references need to be made. I look forward to interesting times in Committee and to the Minister’s response today.