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Children and Young Persons Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 11: 11: Before Clause 7, insert the following new Clause— ““Support for family and friends carers (1) After section 17B of the 1989 Act (vouchers for persons with parental responsibilities for disabled children) insert— ““17C Support for family and friends carers (1) This section applies to a person (““P””) who provides full-time care and accommodation for a child but who is not— (a) a parent of the child, or (b) a local authority foster parent. (2) A local authority shall provide P with the same financial and other support that they provide to foster parents in the following circumstances— (a) where the child comes to live with P as a result of an order made following an enquiry under section 47; (b) where the child comes to live with P following an investigation under section 37; (c) where P has secured a residence order or special guardianship order in order to avoid the child being looked after, and there is professional evidence of impairment of the parents’ ability to care for the child; (d) where P has obtained a residence order or special guardianship order arising out of care proceedings; (e) where P is providing accommodation for the child and then secures a residence order or special guardianship order. (3) The local authority shall appoint a named person who shall have responsibility for coordinating the provision of support to persons to whom this section applies.”” (2) In paragraph 1 of Schedule 2 to the 1989 Act (identification of children in need and provision of information), in sub-paragraph (2)(a)(i) for ““17,”” substitute ““14F, 17, 17C,””.”” The noble Baroness said: I shall speak to Amendments Nos. 11 and 12 and refer briefly to Amendment No. 50. I thank the Minister and his team for their correspondence and for returning to these issues on the well-being of children and their care, particularly care provided by relatives and friends. I realise that this has been a bit of a trial but I think that we are getting somewhere and the Government’s approach is helpful. However, my amendments seek to make things even clearer. To illustrate the implications of the amendments, I shall set out a scenario and ask the Minister some related questions. I am to speak at the launch of a grandparents as carers association in March and, while I am not asking the Minister to write my speech, some signposts would be useful. This scenario is hypothetical but based on fact. A grandmother—it could be a relative or a friend—takes charge of three of her daughter’s children at midnight because the daughter has died of a drug overdose. The children are aged 10, six and two. The father lives abroad and has disappeared. The grandmother has a one-bedroom flat. Her husband died three years ago. She is 59 and works as a clerical officer in a local firm. She is desperately anxious that the children should not go into care but wonders how she will cope financially and how she and the children will deal with their grief over the death of her daughter. She may be confused about child tax credit and working tax credit. She may even have to pay for childcare out of her own budget. She may have to pay for school meals. She will have to buy clothes, beds and bedding for three children. Many grandparents who take over these responsibilities fear all these things. It seems to me that the government amendment relates only to looked-after children, so would these children being taken over by the grandmother have to go into care before she could access any help? This is the crux of my concern. Would these children have to go into care? The definition of a local authority foster parent in Section 22C(12) has its problems because a local authority foster parent must have been approved for the purposes of placement. The approval requirement is logical and welcome but approval takes time and it seems from the drafting here that a child may need to be placed elsewhere while the relative or friend is being assessed. I recognise that Section 23(3) allows a placement under the 2002 fostering regulations, which allow the placement of a child with a relative for up to six weeks with limited checks. Does the new definition imply that children being placed under Regulation 38 could not be placed under Section 22C(6)? If provision under Regulation 38 is no longer allowed, the child might have to be placed elsewhere during the assessment process, which is clearly contrary to the best interests of the child. If placement were permissible during assessment, are family and friend carers entitled to the fostering allowance? What happens to the grandmother whom I have described? A recent ombudsman’s case in Dudley stated that kinship carers should be paid from the start of their assessment. In any case, evidence shows that six weeks is in practice a short time and few authorities manage such an assessment. Could the regulations not extend the period to 12 weeks to make the system more workable? Section 22C(5) contains the words ““in their opinion””. Is this sufficiently evidence-based? Would it not be better to have, ““the placement which they consider is the most appropriate, having regard to their duties””? I think that Section 22D also needs another look; I know that practitioners find this confusing. There could be a case for saying that any change of placement should be made only following a review, except in emergencies, but that is not what is here or in the government amendments. Let me return to the grandmother whose hypothetical case I described at the beginning. All this potential confusion applies to her. She is trying to avoid the children going into care, with all that that implies. She needs financial assistance, housing assistance and emotional support. She will be distressed and concerned for the children, and the practitioners dealing with the case may be confused. All of them, but especially the grandparent, need clear and accurate information, which is what proposed new subsection (3) of my amendment asks for. Having a named person in every local authority who can co-ordinate support is essential and I know that some authorities do that. I am not seeking a full-time post, just someone who can step in from day one knowing what to do. I have one further question: will this legislation link to the new drug strategy? I declare an interest as chair of the National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse. Many relative and friend carers are carers because of substance misuse and I hope that what appears in the Bill will be picked up in other government policy. We have said before in Committee that a family group conference, as in Amendment No. 12, is essential to ensuring that the child’s best interests are looked after. Insecurity for children is a terrible thing. I know that in this House we are all trying to do the best for children, which is why we are spending so much time and effort on redrafting. I look forward to the Minister’s response and I thank him for the steps that have been taken so far. I am grateful to the Family Rights Group and to other organisations that take very seriously their concern for children. I beg to move.