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Children and Young Persons Bill [HL]

Independent reviewing officers should have no vested interest in the case of a child whom they are appointed to review. The existing regulations stipulate that IROs should not be involved in the management of the case or be under the direct management of a person involved in the management of the case or of any person with control over the resources allocated to the case. The statutory guidance, under which local authorities must act, reinforces this requirement. It says: "““The independence of the reviewing officer is essential to enable them to effectively challenge poor practice in the review of cases””." The guidance offers a number of different models of independence. Two of these models are, I accept, models of IROs who are formally employed by the local authority in question: model 1 is for IROs who are part of the social services quality assurance function, and model 2 is for IROs in the chief executive’s department. Both models are predicated on the basis that the IROs will operate very distinctly from the people whom they are responsible for interacting with, and they could safeguard sufficient independence for the IROs to act. However, I take cognisance of what the noble and learned Baroness, Lady Butler-Sloss, has said about the importance of looking at other models which have IROs entirely independently employed from the local authority for reasons of perception as well as practice. The third and fourth models promote those options. The third model is of external IROs who could, for example, be employees from voluntary organisations or sessional workers and the fourth model is of reciprocal arrangements under which neighbouring authorities make arrangements for their IROs to review each other’s cases. The fourth model of reciprocal arrangements is, for example, what takes place between Islington and Tower Hamlets at the moment. We are looking to see how we can strengthen and further encourage such models. We will seek to do so under the revised guidance following this Act. I hope that we can move progressively in the direction which Members of the Committee have wished us to do; not only having a firm framework of expectations and rules, because this guidance is statutory, about IROs acting fully independently of the cases for which they are responsible, but ensuring that the models of their employment further safeguard that independence. However, to put this debate in context, I should add that there is currently no consensus on the reasons why IROs have in some areas failed to have the degree of impact on improving professional practice that we all wish to see. It is precisely for that reason we believe that there is insufficient evidence at present to determine whether we should move towards a national service. A strong case is made by practitioners in the field that the shortcomings we see now have a good deal to do with weaknesses in the training and support networks for IROs, the significant variation in caseloads and issues relating to the organisation of IRO services in terms of their training and support, rather than the issue of their independence. I should also stress that the statutory framework under which IROs operate came into force only in September 2004. We believe that before undertaking any major structural reform, with the inevitable disruption that that would cause to services to children, we should see whether the strengthening measures in Clause 11 will have a real impact in improving outcomes for looked-after children. Of course, we have set in place the powers in Clause 12 should it be necessary to act after further consideration. This is not simply the view of the Government, it is also the view of stakeholders, notably the Family Justice Council, which in its response to the Care Matters Green Paper said: "““The drastic step of relocating responsibility for IROs outside Local Authorities, for example, within CAFCASS or some other independent organisation demands serious consideration. However, the level of disruption and expense and the unlikelihood of any, or any sufficient increase in CAFCASS resources for the purpose, which such a course would involve is a strong argument against. Moreover, the issue of independence from the Local Authority, perceived or actual, is not, in the view of the Council, the central issue. Steps should be taken to see whether the current position can be improved, radically, before such a drastic course is adopted””." That is precisely the Government’s strategy. In particular, we are strengthening the IRO role to ensure that there is greater scrutiny of the care plan for each individual looked-after child and supporting their active engagement with the care planning process, so that every care plan really takes account of and gives weight to each child’s wishes and feelings. That includes introducing a duty on the IRO to monitor the local authority’s performance of its functions in relation to the child’s case. That duty will extend beyond the IRO’s existing monitoring role. To state again, we will address a new statutory guidance to IROs themselves on the importance of maintaining their independent voice in care planning and how to perform their role more effectively, in particular how to identify and act decisively in cases where they may suspect that a child’s rights are being infringed or the local authority is otherwise in breach of its duties to the child. In response to the earlier amendments moved by the noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley, I have remarks to make about training and strengthening the training regime in support of IROs. While fully accepting that the current situation needs significant improvement and that the independence of IROs is vital to the integrity of their function, we would not wish to go the whole way with the noble Baroness at this stage. However, we would not have put Clause 12 in the Bill if we did not think it important to have a power to move towards the completely separate employment of IROs from local authorities if the reforms commenced in 2004 and being advanced in this Bill do not have the desired effect.