Education: Disability Financing
Earl of Listowel Excerpts(6 years, 10 months ago)
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Lord Bates
One thing that was identified in the report to which we have just referred was the lack of data about what the need was and what the responses were. We have a disability framework in the department, which guides everything that we do across our aid strategy. We are looking at finding better practices for what is working; for example, we are working in Kenya and Uganda with Leonard Cheshire to try to find better examples of what is working on the ground to address this problem.
The Earl of Listowel (CB)
Is the Minister looking at how many of these children are in institutional care and whether it is always appropriate for them to be so? Many of them could be better placed in foster or kinship care. Is that a matter that the Minister might look at?
Lord Bates
A number of excellent charities are working in this very area. It is certainly something that we are sympathetic to; disability has been one of the core criteria for UK Aid Direct, a new round of which has come in. We also have the Girls’ Education Challenge, which has educated some 46,000 girls with disabilities in schools. The next round of that project will increase the allocation still further to 15% of the total fund.
Ebola
Earl of Listowel Excerpts(9 years, 6 months ago)
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The Earl of Listowel (CB)
My Lords, I suggest that the current crisis indicates the great wisdom shown by the coalition Government in dedicating a higher proportion of GDP than any other developed nation towards international development. Their leadership is admirable and much to be commended. This is a time when our economy is growing and unemployment is much better than other nations, so it is not too costly to do.
I ask the Minister how much funding the Government are providing for UNICEF in dealing with these issues and whether more can be done. UNICEF highlights that one in five Ebola patients are children. At least 3,700 children have been orphaned by the disease and 8.5 million children and young people under the age of 20 live in affected areas. Many schools are closed and, in terms of the breakdown in the healthcare services, children do not receive vaccinations and necessary preventive care for common childhood illnesses. More and more children are dying of malaria, for instance, because the facilities are not available. Also, the fear of seeking treatment at medical facilities means that deaths from malaria, pneumonia and diarrhoea could well outstrip those from Ebola three or four times.
A very difficult child protection issue is becoming apparent, with the preliminary figure of at least 3,700 orphans—the real number may be much higher—who have lost one or both parents. In addition to facing the challenge of growing up without parents, they may face further stigma or discrimination from their communities or families. Children who lost relatives to the disease are often ostracised, even if they were tested negative—there are reports of children being treated in this way. Those who have been orphaned by Ebola are even more so, because of the nature of the challenges they face: they risk both infection and rejection. They risk infection because they have been exposed directly to the virus through their parents and they face rejection because others around them, whether relatives, friends or community members, may be too afraid to go anywhere near them.
UNICEF is doing very important work in this area. It has made an appeal for £120 million and has only achieved 35% so far. I look forward to what the Minister has to say.
Women: Inequality in Political and Public Life
Earl of Listowel Excerpts(10 years, 2 months ago)
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Baroness Northover
As my noble friend will know, we have implemented the provisions of the Equality Act in terms of enabling political parties to use positive action and women-only shortlists. Those were recommendations that came out of the Speaker’s Conference. We have also secured a commitment from the three main parties to provide greater transparency over candidate selection and launched the access to elected office for disabled people strategy. But my noble friend is quite right, as is the noble Baroness, Lady Gale, that more needs to be done.
The Earl of Listowel (CB)
My Lords, given the concern about the status of early years provision, the fact that upward of 80% of the staff working in early years are women, and the increasing awareness of the vital importance of this area, are any Members of this House or the other place early years professionals? I am not aware of any and I think that is regrettable. Does the Minister agree?
Baroness Northover
There are a large number of early years experts in this House, I have to say. However, the noble Earl makes a good point about the need to be inclusive as regards those who stand for Parliament. It is extremely important that we do everything we can to encourage people to feel that it is worth while being involved in politics, worth while standing for Parliament and worth while serving more than one term. We need to look at why some Members of Parliament, especially women, decide after serving one term that they have had enough.
Childcare
Earl of Listowel Excerpts(10 years, 2 months ago)
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The Earl of Listowel (CB)
My Lords, at the risk of tiring the House, and in recognising the important work that the Government are doing, perhaps I may ask if the Minister shares my deep concern that—given what she just said about the importance of high-quality childcare to get the outcomes we want—the most recent Ofsted report has found that one-third of nurseries are only “satisfactory” in quality. Will the Government review the funding of entitlements for two and three year-olds? Those practising in this sector universally voice a concern that while this entitlement is welcome, it needs to be properly funded by the Government if we are to retain and recruit the best people to work with our children.
Baroness Northover
The funding is there for all three and four year-olds and for disadvantaged two year-olds. On the quality of childcare, the noble Earl is absolutely right: it is crucial. That is why we have introduced the more rigorous early years educator qualification. There are 1,000 bursaries for apprentices in this area and places for 2,300 trainees to become early years teachers.
Syria
Earl of Listowel Excerpts(10 years, 5 months ago)
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Baroness Northover
Again, that is a case in point. The right reverend Prelate makes a good point in referring to those humanitarian pauses which were politically agreed but not delivered. That is the challenge. This is a very complex situation with many groups fighting each other, and enormous efforts are being put in—not least by UN special envoy Brahimi at the moment—to try to push forward some kind of agreement, but it is immensely difficult.
The Earl of Listowel (CB)
My Lords, does the Minister agree that as welcome as the statement recently produced on humanitarian access was, the perception on the ground is that access to Syria is not being permitted as it needs to be? Will the Minister seek to encourage her colleagues that, no matter how frustrating it may be to deal with the authorities in Syria, in order to move further forward with greater humanitarian access, one needs to persevere in communicating with the senior Syrian leadership?
Baroness Northover
The noble Earl is right. The presidential statement called for unhindered humanitarian access, including the granting of visas and permits, which is something that the Syrian Government can do, and pressure is being put on them to do that.
Children and Families Bill
Earl of Listowel Excerpts(10 years, 6 months ago)
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Lord Nash (Con)
My Lords, I will speak to all the amendments in this group: Amendments 241BA, 241C, 241D, 273B and 273C.
Four of these amendments will make small changes to the Care Standards Act 2000. My intention in proposing the amendments is to pave the way for the introduction of a reformed framework for regulating and inspecting children’s homes. Amendment 241BA amends Section 65 of the Children Act 1989, which concerns the disqualification of persons from carrying on working, or being employed in, a children’s home.
In March 2013 there were 4,930 children living in children’s homes, representing just over 7% of all looked-after children. The majority of children living in homes will have been placed there by local authorities because they cannot be cared for in a family setting. They will usually be older; children in homes have an average age of over 14. A recent research study found that 62% of children in children’s homes had clinically significant mental health difficulties, and 74% were reported to have been violent or aggressive in the preceding six months. Few children stay in one children’s home for more than a year; 30% live outside the local authority responsible for their care, often at some considerable distance.
Given these children’s vulnerability, it is particularly worrying that there are significant concerns about the quality of care in some homes. While by 31 March 2013 the majority of homes were judged by Ofsted to be good or outstanding, a significant minority, 28%, were judged only adequate or poor against current minimum standards.
My department has been pushing forward for some time with a programme for reforming the pattern of care in children’s homes. We have recently consulted on some immediate changes to regulations designed to more effectively safeguard children living in children’s homes, especially those in distant, or out-of-authority, places. We have also published a comprehensive data pack, with details of children’s homes’ locations, quality and costs, and of the needs of the children in their care. We are considering ways to enhance the training and skills of the children’s homes workforce, and how to support improved commissioning of homes by local authorities.
As my department worked with Ofsted and others on plans for improving care in children’s homes, we reached a view that the current regulatory framework, established by the Care Standards Act 2000, is having a limiting effect on our ambitions to drive improvements in the quality of care provided by homes. In our view, it should only be acceptable for any children’s home to offer care that is “good”, with all homes having a clear remit to strive for excellence in respect of the children they care for. These amendments put beyond doubt the fact that the Secretary of State can make regulations that are able to define high standards for all children’s homes. Every home must have the capacity to enable all the children it cares for to achieve their full potential. These amendments pave the way for my right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Education to develop new, more stretching, quality objectives and standards for children’s homes.
We intend to support innovation by creating regulations which specify high objectives and standards. Homes should be free to decide how they achieve these standards. We intend to set high standards for homes in a number of areas, such as requirements for effective leadership and management; for the provision of excellent education; and for access to healthcare that meets recognised clinical standards. We will, of course, have to be confident that homes respond effectively to the risks and vulnerabilities faced by the children they care for. We have worked very closely with Ofsted to develop the proposal that I am outlining. As the inspectorate for children’s homes, Ofsted welcomes our aim of taking a decisive step away from a regulatory system based on minimum standards.
Our work with Ofsted also identified a small but potentially significant problem with the process involved when Ofsted has reason to consider whether a person should be disqualified from carrying on working, or being employed, in a children’s home. This power is set out in Section 65 of the Children Act 1989. I am tabling a small amendment to this section to improve the practical workability of this process. The amendment introduces a time limit of 28 days for a person to inform Ofsted that he or she has become disqualified, perhaps as a result of a past offence, in order to seek Ofsted’s consent to be involved in a children’s home. Without this explicit waiver from Ofsted, the person would be committing an offence.
Officials from my department have had the opportunity to share our thinking on all these amendments with representatives of local authorities, of children’s homes providers and of the voluntary sector campaigning for children. These services are united in their broad support for the direction of travel I am signalling today, which marks a decisive step in driving forward our ambitions for reforming the children’s homes sector. We are determined to improve the quality of all children’s homes, so that the only acceptable standard for children’s homes is good care, with all homes having a clear remit to strive for excellence. I hope I have explained the important objectives that these amendments will enable us to achieve, and that noble Lords will support them.
The Earl of Listowel (CB)
Perhaps the best way I can thank the Minister is by speaking as briefly as possible. Having worked in residential settings with young people and spent a week in a children’s home, and having been deeply concerned about the quality of the experience for children in children’s homes since I first entered this House, my perception is that the Government have taken a very careful and thoughtful approach to meeting the needs of these very needy young people—albeit that they are few in number. In the past two years or so we have realised that a number of young girls have been sexually exploited, often in children’s homes.
The Government have responded admirably to this challenge. Tim Loughton MP, the former Children’s Minister, has children’s homes in his Hove constituency, so he is aware of the problem. He addressed it carefully by setting up three working groups to look at the issue, which resulted in regulations being laid. The current Children’s Minister, Edward Timpson MP, has pursued that direction of travel with the attention to detail that is familiar to those who have worked with him. I am deeply grateful for that. The Minister is absolutely correct to emphasise the importance of staff training. It is extremely encouraging that the Government are taking this issue so seriously.
The Earl of Listowel
“Part 4AChildren’s centresBirth registration pilot scheme
Local authorities must establish a pilot scheme to trial the registration of births within children’s centres, and evaluate the effectiveness of the scheme to—
(a) identify and contact new families; and(b) enable children’s centres to reach more families, in particular those with children under the age of two, or who the local authority consider—(i) hard to reach, or(ii) vulnerable.”
The Earl of Listowel
My Lords, in moving Amendment 242, I wish to speak also to my Amendment 244.
Amendment 242 would enable the introduction of a pilot scheme,
“to trial the registration of births within children’s centres”.
Currently, only a small number of centres offer birth registration—the practice is not widespread. Figures from the 4Children charity’s children’s centre census of 2013 suggest that only 6% of centres currently provide birth registration. Looking ahead to the next 12 months, only 13% of respondents to the census said that they expected to be offering birth registration in a year’s time.
A report from the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Sure Start Children’s Centres was published in July, entitled Best Practice for a Sure Start, which highlighted the positive impact that the provision of birth registration can have for centres. The report included evidence submitted by the Department for Education, which stated:
“The opportunity to register births in children’s centres is potentially a very effective means of alerting parents to the support services available and the benefits of accessing these services through children’s centres”.
The department also highlighted the experience of three local authorities which currently offer birth registration services: Manchester, Bury and York. Based on these case studies, the department identified a number of benefits of implementing birth registration in centres. First, the benefit of improved reach; there has been a concern that in the past, children’s centres were not reaching the hardest to reach, particularly young teenage mothers. It is considered that this will improve the ability to get at those hard to reach groups. Secondly, parents seem to be more likely to come back again. Once they have visited to do the birth registration, practitioners find that they come back to the service. The Benchill centre in Manchester had a re-engagement rate of 87.5% in 2012-13; which means that 87.5% of those who came for the registration must have come back again for further services.
Thirdly, there is a danger of stigma in visiting a children’s centre; people may feel that they can go only if there is something wrong with them. This, however, is a universal service. Everyone would go there to register their child, so there would be no stigma attached to it. Fourthly, practitioners talk about this as an important step forward in terms of involving fathers. Fathers will go along when the child is going to have the birth registered. I am not quite sure of the technical details as to why it is so important for fathers to be involved in the registration process—perhaps one of your Lordships can tell me in a minute—but there is a strong feeling that more fathers will be involved early in their child’s life this way. Finally, it is an opportunity to showcase to parents the wonderful services that are available to them at the children’s centres.
There is a strong case for increasing provision of birth registration services in children’s centres. This would be a very good means of doing so. It is not onerous for local authorities to deliver this. It is not costly to do. The risk is that with local authorities currently carrying such burdens, this is one trick that they might miss. This would mean families and children missing out on the benefits of it. I hope that the Minister can give a sympathetic response.
I will move on to Amendment 244, which is to do with information and data sharing. It will require NHS trusts to share data on live births with local authorities in order to facilitate greater engagement with parents through children’s centres and other outreach services. This amendment would support children’s centres’ ability to engage with new parents. Sharing the live-birth data would make a significant contribution to enabling centres to identify within their reach area the new parents with whom they have not yet been in contact; allowing them to target those parents they may have missed and reach out to them accordingly.
Your Lordships may feel that this second amendment is a little bit deficient in that it is not ambitious enough, because there are other areas that children’s centres could be advised about better—for instance, the troubled families agenda. Centres do not necessarily know about who Louise Casey is dealing with through the troubled families agenda. Also, there are things called multi-agency risk assessment conference boards, dealing with domestic violence. Again, children’s centres could benefit by being given information about what those boards know about so that they can reach out to families where there is domestic violence. So your Lordships may feel that something further should be added to this amendment and more information should be shared with children’s centres. I hope that the Minister will be sympathetic to this second amendment, too. I beg to move.
Baroness Jones of Whitchurch (Lab)
My Lords, I will speak to Amendments 247 to 249 in our names. In doing so, I would like to support the amendments of the noble Earl, Lord Listowel, which are very much on a similar theme.
Our first amendment, Amendment 247, seeks to improve the information available on children’s centres and to hold the Government to account for their failure to deliver a vibrant network of children’s centres since coming into office. It requires the information to be published separately and regularly so that the trends can be clearly observed. The information that is collated on children’s centres is buried and inaccessible. It is tempting to say that this is deliberate since the Government do not want to admit that the Prime Minister has broken the commitment he gave before the election to protect the Sure Start network.
Thankfully, as a result of the work of 4Children and its 2013 children centre census, we now know that 566 fewer children’s centres are serving our communities, and that many of those that still exist are having to cut their hours or charge for services. This is a very long way from the concept of universal early-years provision, which was so welcomed when it was introduced by the previous Government. We would like to see the data set out in a structured and accessible form.
Amendment 248 on the issue of birth registration is similar to that raised by the noble Earl, Lord Listowel. Like him, we believe that there are very real advantages in births being registered at children’s centres. It would encourage a wider group of parents to visit the centres and become aware of the services on offer. It would also enable the staff to have a point of contact to reach out to isolated or dysfunctional families and offer them help.
We have often rehearsed the arguments in favour of early intervention to improve children’s life chances. The reports of Graham Allen and Frank Field both demonstrated that money spent on early years is cost effective in the longer term and helps children meet their full potential. The National Children’s Bureau’s literacy initiative is an excellent example of early intervention that can grow out of children’s centres, combining home visits with increased parental involvement in other well-being events and a dramatic improvement in child literacy. That is just one example.
Unfortunately, while it is possible to use children’s centres for birth registration if the local authority agrees, as the noble Earl, Lord Listowel, pointed out, so far only 6% of centres do that. I hope that the Minister will feel able to support our amendment, given that her own department gave evidence to the Sure Start report highlighting the advantages of birth registration at children’s centres. Our amendment requires the Secretary of State to commission an independent study into the impact on the welfare of children of requiring births to be registered in this way, supported by the option of pilot schemes to inform the study.
Finally, Amendment 249 is also similar to that of the noble Earl, Lord Listowel. It requires NHS trusts to share details of live births with local authorities so that children’s centres and other early-years providers could follow up with appropriate outreach services. Again, there is good practice in some places where data are already shared. Other trusts feel that they are unable or unwilling to share and are concerned about confidentiality issues. This is where the Government could help by being much clearer about the advantages of sharing and the terms on which it should be done. How can local authorities be expected to carry out their safeguarding and child welfare responsibilities or plan adequately for local services if they are not made aware of the total picture of births in their area?
I hope the Minister will support our amendments. When this matter was discussed in the Commons, Jo Swinson reported that a short-life task and finish group had been set up to consider these issues and that it had subsequently made recommendations to the Minister. I hope the noble Baroness, Lady Northover, is now in a position to share those recommendations with us, and to tell us what action will be taken to follow it up. I look forward to hearing from her.
Baroness Northover
I think it would be best if I wrote to the noble Baroness with further details and copied the letter to other noble Lords, who will clearly be very interested in what the group reported.
The Earl of Listowel
My Lords, I thank all noble Lords who took part in this debate. I particularly thank the Minister for her careful, sympathetic and encouraging response. It is good to hear that Councillor Simmonds has been meeting her department with regard to this matter and about the work that has been undertaken through 4Children to circulate information about this. I know that the Children’s Minister occasionally writes to local authorities on important matters. Perhaps this could be kept in mind, especially if we do not make the progress that we hope we will make in this area.
I omitted to pay tribute to Andrea Leadsom MP in my opening remarks. She is chair of the All-Party Group for Sure Start Children’s Centres which produced this report, and she tabled an amendment very similar, perhaps identical, to this in the other place, so she started the ball rolling on this.
The noble Baroness, Lady Massey, talked about information sharing. I remember working in a play scheme five or six years ago. I worked with a boy who was just about to be adopted. We did not know he was going to be adopted. He behaved appallingly, and it would have been so easy for us to come down hard on him because we did not know that he had just come out of care and was moving into an adoptive family. It is so important that people on the front line know what is going on with a family or with a child. How can they react sensibly otherwise?
I take what the noble Baroness says about the culture, the people and things like what is being done for social work. One hopes that the appointment of the Chief Social Worker will give front-line professionals the confidence to share information. Occasionally there are inhibitions about sharing information for legal reasons, and that may apply to some of this information; I am not too sure. I will look into that, and if it is an issue, I will come back to the Minister. I am grateful to the Minister for what she said. I will take it away and think about it. I beg leave to withdraw the amendment.
Children and Families Bill
Earl of Listowel Excerpts(10 years, 6 months ago)
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Lord Lingfield (Con)
My Lords, the four amendments in my name, which are necessarily probing amendments, have as their purpose to include higher education in the Bill in cases where there is a reference to local authority duties related to education provision for young people up to the age of 25.
Unlike in the past, more and more young people with disabilities are now entering university courses. Sometimes they receive first-class support; other times, alas, it is very much wanting. There should be a seamless pattern of support whether or not a student aims at further education, which is catered for in the Bill, or for higher education. My amendment to Clause 27(3)(h) includes higher education institutions among the bodies with which a local authority must consult as part of its duty to keep education and care provision under review; the amendment to Clause 28(2)(e) adds higher education institutions to the local partners with which a local authority must co-operate; my amendment to Clause 29(2)(d) adds higher education institutions to the list of bodies that must co-operate with the local authority and vice versa; and, on the preparation of draft EHC plans, the amendment to Clause 38(3)(d) adds higher education to the institutions whose naming in the draft plan can be requested by a parent or young person.
At Second Reading I greatly welcomed the extension of the coverage of legislation from birth to 25 years of age, unlike the current system, which applies only to the end of school-based education. At that point under the current system, to quote a parent who gave evidence to my own commission on special needs, a child will often fall off an educational cliff. In light of the welcome extension of legislation to the age of 25, it is particularly important to make sure that higher education is included explicitly in this primary legislation in order that it will be regarded in the same way as further education and other post-16 provision under the new system of assessments and EHC plans. Without such amendments I fear that we will not improve the current and, in my view and the view of many parents and students, imperfect system, where there is a separate and often disconnected process for assessing and meeting the needs of young people with special educational needs who are successful in reaching higher education.
It is not often understood that currently a young person with a statement at school will not automatically have the same provision at university, and that the previous support that has come via a statement of needs has to be reassessed by Student Finance England before university entrance. I am told by those with direct exposure to this process that Student Finance England’s reassessment process does not provide for as thorough an assessment as that which would come through the current statutory assessment or, it is to be hoped, through the new EHC plan. As a result there is a clear risk of delay in support for these young people, especially where, as in many cases, there is no reason whatever why the provision that has supported them for years beforehand should cease.
I also note a separate but related concern that the expertise available to Student Finance England may be very different from, and possibly more limited than, that available to local authorities, healthcare providers and others for EHC plans. Indeed, it is rather surprising that Student Finance England and universities do not as a matter of course currently accept the advice of local authorities, expressed in the form of a statement, bearing in mind that local authorities have considerably more expertise available to them in the form of access to educational psychologists, speech and language therapists and occupational therapists.
All this is illustrated very clearly by a case that was drawn to my attention, of Michael. Michael has dyspraxia, including severe oral and motor dyspraxia, and had a statement of special needs from the age of three. Nevertheless, despite Michael’s statement being reviewed annually, Student Finance England declined to accept this as evidence of his disability. A fresh set of reports were required and had to be paid for by Michael’s parents in order to compel Student Finance England to recognise that there was a pre-existing disability. Michael has now, with continuing and appropriate support, obtained a first-class honours degree in philosophy at his university.
In the new system, designed to cater for the needs of children and young people up to the age of 25, maintaining a different assessment process for those who are capable of entering university, as opposed to further education or other provision, will perpetuate an unfortunate anomaly which, in my view, could put off young people with disabilities from attempting a degree course. Surely the repetition of the process by two state-funded bodies is a waste of money. Any moves to address this disconnect, such as those sought in these amendments, surely must be welcomed. I very much hope that the Minister will give this her full consideration. I beg to move.
The Earl of Listowel (CB)
My Lords, the noble Lord’s amendments prompt me to ask a question. We know that care leavers have been increasingly going to university, although it seems to have stalled rather at the moment. The question is: of the care leavers going to university, what proportion have special educational needs? Are we doing as well with care leavers with special educational needs going to university as we are with the general body of care leavers going to university? Perhaps the Minister will write to me on that particular question.
Baroness Brinton (LD)
My Lords, I declare an interest as my sister is a BSL interpreter at a university in the UK and I worked in the higher education sector for 20 years. I will pick up on the last point of the noble Earl, Lord Listowel. Part of the problem in the HE sector is that there is not always consistency. “Care leaver” can be defined by an individual institution. There are usually generous grants, and they are usually on top of any SEN support, but the definition of care can be quite limited. Certainly it would not always cover guardianship or kinship carers, where children have come out of care. Those are some of the issues that remain.
The reason that I wanted to speak to these amendments is that I absolutely applaud the sentiment behind them. If we are truly to have an SEN offer that covers young people to the age of 25, it is ridiculous that an entire sector of education is not covered by it. My fear is that this amendment tries to tack universities on to a much more local offer, thereby causing problems. I will ask the Minister a couple of questions on this later.
The university provision can be very generous. However, as the noble Lord, Lord Lingfield, outlined, for some students, where there is perhaps the possibility to have diverse views, such as with dyspraxia, dyslexia or one of a number of other SENs, it can be very difficult to get past the first hurdle. I would welcome a transition arrangement, as we have for young people with learning disabilities and social care support moving from child support into adult services, for those with special educational needs entering universities. At the moment they stand completely separate, and frankly that is where the holes start to appear. If a child has a statement under the old system, or an EHC under the new system, they should have that information passed on automatically, along with the level of support that they have had in the past, providing the young person is happy for that to happen.
I notice that the Minister in the Commons said that he would provide further detail as to the proposed contents of the code of practice relating to the transition to university, and made a commitment to consult widely with practitioners in university in drafting the code. I think that that would be extremely helpful. I would also welcome further details from the Minister—perhaps in writing as it is not directly within her field—as to what action the Government will take to ensure disabled students have disability support in place as soon as possible in their course of study. In particular, there needs to be a commitment for the code of practice to recommend that local authorities support and encourage DSA applications as soon as possible the year before entry, and that such support in applying for the DSA is stipulated in the plans of young people intending to study at university. The problem is that that conflicts with the current timescale for young people to be encouraged to apply through student finance, which most people do not do until they are well into their final exams in the summer term before they plan to go up to university. That is too late for students with statements and support because there is not enough time for receiving universities to do the research necessary to provide the right support.
I have said before that I am concerned about local authorities having a duty to secure a place in higher education for students, as would be the implication of this group of amendments. I would encourage mechanisms, perhaps through an alternative amendment, to make sure that there is dialogue so that not just the statement is carried through. If the student has concerns, the local authority may know and understand the case better, and sometimes it is useful if the young person is not the only one arguing their case.
I have probably covered it all. I regret not being able to support these amendments but there may be scope for something that ensures that these young people studying in higher education, whether in college or at university, have as smooth a transition as possible and the continuing level of support without having to reargue the case from scratch.
Baroness Northover
My noble friend highlights a very important problem that we keep coming back to. It is one thing having arrangements in place; it is another thing making absolutely sure that those who need to benefit from them know about them. I shall carry that back and make sure that my noble friend’s recommendations, suggestions and points are fed in.
The Earl of Listowel
I welcome what the Minister said about the Government’s care-leaver strategy. I have been following it with interest and warmly welcome it. I thank her for the response to the question that I put to her. From what she said in response to the debate, I am reminded that on many occasions when I have spoken with families who have children with disabilities, they have raised an important practical point: the change in adult advocate just before the child reaches majority often undermines the transition into adult services, whether they are education or other services. This may well have already been raised in Committee but I should be interested to hear whether the Minister recognises that as a problem. Can she say whether there is any progress in ensuring more continuity in the professional relationship between social workers and families to minimise this stumbling block in the transition from child to adult services?
Baroness Northover
I thank the noble Earl for his comments—and for his thanks to me. Again, we are all very concerned, in this and other areas, that the transition of a child becoming a young person and into adulthood is supported as effectively as possible, especially for the more vulnerable of our young people. Again, I will make sure that the point the noble Earl made is fed in. It would help if he looked at the draft code of practice to see whether he feels reassured by that.
Lord Nash
My Lords, I will speak to this group of amendments on home education tabled by my noble friend Lord Lucas. I would like to reassure him that, despite any possible minor imperfections in the drafting, we do know exactly what he is about and we are fully aware of the role that my noble friend plays in the All-Party Group on Home Education. I thank him for raising this important issue.
Noble Lords will be aware that parents have the right to educate their children at home and there is nothing in this Bill that infringes that right in any way. Nor does the Bill increase the responsibility of local authorities for home-educated children or increase their powers to interfere in the way that parents home educate.
Parents of children with special educational needs who home educate do so for different reasons and therefore will look for different levels and types of support from the state, if any. Some home educate because it would always be their choice to do so. Others, however, have begun home education out of desperation, as they have not been able to get the support that they feel that their child needs, or have been let down by the very services which should be supporting them. While I continue to support parents’ right to choose home education, I sincerely hope that our reforms will mean that parents no longer feel that they have to turn to home education as a last resort.
In broad terms, the Bill seeks to keep the same legal position for children with SEN who are home educated as now, but it does so within the important wider context of the Bill including a much greater focus on the views, wishes and feelings of parents as set out in Clause 19 and throughout Part 3 and the code of practice. Where a child or young person has an EHC assessment and the outcome of that assessment is that a plan is needed, the local authority is under a duty to prepare such a plan. If the local authority considers that home education is the right provision for the child or young person, that will be specified in the plan. It will then be under a duty to secure the special educational provision specified in the plan, with the home educator providing the core education provision. Likewise health commissioners will be under a duty to provide the health provision specified.
Amendments 152ZA and 157ZA seek to strengthen parents’ right to request that a plan specifies home education. They would mean that local authorities would have to treat such a request in the same way as a request for a particular school or institution. I think that there is a delicate balance to be struck here. Parents can already make representations for home education and will continue to be able to do so under Clause 38(2(b)(i). Moreover, the principles set out in Clause 19 mean that local authorities must give more weight to parents’ wishes, and as a result we may see local authorities naming home education more often. However, the choice to home educate is a choice to opt out of the state-supported system and is therefore not the same as the choice of a particular school or institution. Therefore these amendments would shift the balance too far.
Where a local authority makes a plan that does not specify home education, this does not prevent parents from home educating. In such circumstances the local authority can only absolve itself of its duty to secure SEN provision in the plan and ensure that the child’s SEN needs are met if it is satisfied that the parents’ provision is suitable for the child’s SEN. I know from the debate on Report in the other place that there are differences of view on this legal point, and these amendments aim to shift the balance of responsibilities between local authorities and parents. However, our view is that not only do local authorities have this duty but it is right that they do.
I should emphasise here that local authorities do not have draconian powers available to them to make this check. For instance, they have no right to enter the parental home to check the provision that is being made. They can enter the home only at the parents’ invitation. The check on the suitability of the parents’ provision could be made through the parents providing a description of that provision or by the parents passing on examples of the child’s work. Neither should they define “suitable” as necessarily being the same as the provisions specified in the plan.
Once a local authority has assured itself that the provision being made is suitable, it is no longer under a duty to make any provision. However, it retains the power to make provision in the home where this will help parents make suitable provision for their children and where parents are willing to receive this help. We encourage local authorities to make such provision and we have made this clear in the code. The same applies to the provisions to support home-educated children who have special educational needs but do not have a plan.
As to Amendment 101A, I can assure my noble friend that the local authority will include provision that would be available to home-educated children.
I hope that what I have said will reassure my noble friend that we continue to support parents’ right to home educate. There is nothing in the Bill that will threaten that right and the greater focus on parental wishes in the new system will mean a better deal for home educators. The code of practice includes a specific section on home education. Following a recent meeting with my noble friend, officials have undertaken to work with representatives of home educators to develop it further during the consultation period. On that basis I ask my noble friend to withdraw his amendments.
The Earl of Listowel
My Lords, I listened to the Minister’s response with particular interest as my sister home educated her children for some time.
Perhaps I may raise a tenuously related but important question. It arises from previous debates and is relevant to this clause: how will the local offer help parents to help children in their learning? It is good to see in the code the great pains that the Government are taking to ensure that parents and young people are consulted about what is on offer to them, but we know from all the evidence that family learning is tremendously important to children’s outcomes. In my experience of fostering, helping foster parents to gain the confidence to sit with their children on a regular basis over a period of time, and teaching them the techniques of paired reading with their children, is immensely beneficial for the literacy of those children. Anecdotally at least, it strengthens the relationships of the foster carers and the children.
I have been a follower and supporter of the charity Volunteer Reading Help—now Beanstalk—which works in more than 1,000 primary schools using a paired-reading technique. It works with vulnerable children, particularly; volunteers make a commitment of at least one year and turn up regularly to support the children, with the result that the children make great strides in their literacy.
My question to the Minister is whether it is quite clear how local authorities will offer help to parents to help their children in their learning. Might it be helpful to have guidance somewhere that this is a good approach to take? I am talking particularly about paired reading but it could help with numeracy. I confess to ignorance about the specifics of special educational needs but I appeal to those with expertise in the area to consider the models of good practice there already are of paired reading and parents being assisted to help their children with their numeracy.
In her recent report, Family Learning Works, my noble friend Lady Howarth highlighted that family learning can improve children’s educational outcomes by between 10% and 15%. Therefore, I should like to see this approach adopted as widely as possible in supporting families who have children with special educational needs.
Lord Nash
I think I can assure the noble Earl, Lord Listowel, that local authorities will be able to include provision such as paired-reading schemes in their local offers. We want to see extensive and helpful local offers that include the full range of provisions to support children and young people with SEN, including support for parents and carers. We are happy to look at the guidance and the code in more detail to ensure that that is absolutely clarified.
The Earl of Listowel
Listening to noble Lords speaking to this string of amendments I am reminded of the challenges that our school workforce faces. The best teachers know that inclusion benefits the whole school. It is nevertheless challenging to try as far as possible to include every child in schools. I am reminded of the reputation of Finland, which has an inclusive school system, a high-status teaching profession and for many years has successfully recruited and retained high-calibre graduates who work seamlessly with health and other social services in that country.
This is a good opportunity to thank the Minister for his recent letter following our debate on child development training for teachers. He highlighted that, in these standards for teachers, there is a now a clear standard for child development. That is very welcome. I think of an experience a few years ago, working with a child psychotherapist on a paper. He provided support to staff groups in 10 schools in Brent, north London. He found that teachers and school staff who had this support—a group discussion of work in the school—on a regular basis were found, over a period of time, to have a lower rate of sickness absence because they had the opportunity to think about what they were doing, and were supported in that by a professional. He also offered the service to Westminster School, around the corner from here, of which he was a former pupil.
To make this happen, and make our schools as inclusive as possible, we need above all to recruit, retain and support the workforce that can do this. I am encouraged by what the Government have done in making it clear in the standards that child development is now very much expected to be well understood by our teaching workforce.
Children and Families Bill
Earl of Listowel Excerpts(10 years, 6 months ago)
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The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Schools (Lord Nash) (Con)
My Lords, I shall be brief, as we are keen to clarify this point. I shall speak to Amendments 71, 72 and 73 about the circumstances in which provision that would otherwise be health or social care provision should be treated as special educational provision. In doing so, I would like to comment on a couple of the points that the noble Lord, Lord Ramsbotham, made. If I understood him correctly, he said that we needed a child development strategy for every child. I would say that we have such a strategy in the massive reform programme that this Government have put in place for schools.
I will try to get my facts right because I know that the noble Baroness, Lady Jones, will write to me if I do not. We have just been told by the OECD that we came bottom—joint 21st with Italy and Spain, out of 24 countries—for our school leavers, and we have just been told by Alan Milburn that we are the most socially immobile country in Europe. That is why we have a schools strategy and a massive reform programme in place. However, this Bill is about SEN. I will write to the noble Lord, Lord Ramsbotham, about the four pathways that he mentioned. On training, which he also mentioned, I just signed a letter to him today on this point about initial teacher training and other professional development for teachers, which is founded on the teacher standards that were introduced in September 2012. Child development is an important part of those standards.
I turn to the amendments. During the pre-legislative scrutiny of the SEN provisions of the Bill, the Minister for Children and Families gave an undertaking to maintain the existing protections for parents in the new system. Clause 21(5) was added to the Bill before introduction in the other place as part of that undertaking. It seeks to replicate as far as possible the case law established under the present SEN legislation, which, in our view, makes clear that health provision such as therapies can be educational, non-educational or both, depending on the individual child and the nature of the provision. Case law has established in particular that since communication is so fundamental in education and in addressing speech and language impairment, it should normally be treated as educational provision unless there are exceptional reasons for doing otherwise. We have reflected this in section 7.9 on page 109 of the draft SEN code of practice.
I think we all share the aim of carrying the current established position through into the new system. I understand the concerns that have been expressed in this debate that the current drafting does not get this quite right. This is complicated legal territory and it has not been straightforward to find the right formulation, as evidenced by the different approaches taken by each of these three amendments. I know that various parts of the sector have sought legal advice on this issue; I understand that the amendment of the noble Lord, Lord Ramsbotham, follows the advice that the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists received, and we are currently looking at that advice. The noble Baroness, Lady Jones, said that she also had received advice, and we would be delighted to look at that as well. I would welcome the opportunity to discuss this further and see what progress can be made with noble Lords outside the Committee. With that reassurance, therefore, I hope that the noble Lord will feel able to withdraw his amendment.
The Earl of Listowel (CB)
My Lords, before my noble friend does that, as I imagine that he may well do, I very much hesitate to speak in this debate. I have just been chairing a discussion on child development in schools. Attending it were head teachers, the former head of the TDA and a number of other experienced practitioners in the area that we have just been discussing. Unfortunately, I was four or five minutes late to this discussion so I hesitate to make any contribution to it. However, since the Minister referred to what is being done about the standards to ensure a better understanding of child development, which is very welcome, I should like to make two points.
First, in welcoming the effort by both the previous Government and this one in raising the status of teaching, and particularly in welcoming the advent of Teach First, we heard from the man responsible for Teach First in London. He said how successful the scheme is and that 30% of graduates were getting into the schools that needed their help most, so that really tough inner-city schools were getting these excellent graduates, particularly in science and maths. However, although he could speak only anecdotally, he said that he had met many of these teachers and they said they felt hopeless. They did not know how to manage the challenges presented by the young people they were working with. We need to get this right because otherwise we might lose the wonderful new crop of young teachers we are recruiting into the profession, who will make a huge difference to outcomes for young people.
The other point to arise from this meeting is that a generation of teachers has not learnt anything significant about child development. That means that head teachers and lead teachers today will not have learnt much about child development in their training. So, while I welcome what the Minister has said about the changes in the standards, the challenge presented by this issue should not be underestimated. I hope there will be ongoing discussions about what we can do in this area, which is vital for the educational outcomes that we want to see for our young people. We need to retain our new, young, enthusiastic teachers on the front line, help them to understand why children sometimes behave so challengingly and enable them to engage with them effectively. I apologise to the Grand Committee for intervening but I hope that it has been helpful.
Lord Ramsbotham
My Lords, I thank the Minister for that positive response and all those who have contributed to the debate. The fact that there is a strategy for schools proves my point because it is the strategy for the early years being hooked on to the strategy for schools which seems to be missing. The strategy for after-school transition up to the age of 25 is also missing. You have local government, healthcare, business initiatives and skills and others all joining in on this; it is not only schools. There is more to it and education is not only about what happens in school.
Accepting what the Minister has said, I am grateful for the opportunity to discuss this issue. I suspect that not only will the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists, the Communication Trust and the people I am involved with wish to take part in this but so will other Members of the Committee because this is an extremely important issue. With that, I am happy to withdraw the amendment.
Baroness Whitaker
My Lords, the amendments in this group are particularly important, with respect to one group of children in particular. I declare an interest as chair of the Department for Education’s stakeholder group on the education of Gypsy, Traveller and Roma children. These are the children, particularly Irish Traveller and Gypsy children, who between primary and secondary school experience a 20% drop in attendance; one-fifth of children drop out. From the material that I have seen, a very large part of this is due to bullying, although there are also cases when the parents are so mistrustful of education and unwilling to expose their children to the violence that they experience that they are complicit. Whatever the reason, there is a gap in these children’s education. They are a small number of children so they do not always appear in the aggregates, but if you compare them to the population of Gypsy and Traveller children, the numbers are huger than for any other ethnic group in our country. That is why these amendments are of vital importance.
The noble Baroness, Lady Brinton, mentioned alternative education. I place on record that I cannot speak to the fourth group of amendments in the name of the noble Countess, Lady Mar, the noble Lord, Lord Patel, and others, about suitable alternative education, which in a way is parallel to the group that I ought to be discussing now. That, too, has a particular relevance not only to drop-out children but to children of Traveller parents. I hope that in some way my support for those can be recorded, even though I shall have to be chairing another meeting then.
The Earl of Listowel
My Lords, very briefly, having visited a Red Balloon school, having had the privilege of being invited to visit one and speak to some of the pupils, I should like to reinforce what has been said by other Members of the Committee today, particularly the concerns about whether pupil referral units—I have been to those as well—would be an appropriate environment for many of these young people.
I would also like to bring to the Committee’s attention the latest research from Professor Jackson, the academic who had a very important role in highlighting the deficits in educational outcomes for looked-after children. The latest research has been into children with complex needs across Europe and in this country. She has found that in other countries these children find that their school is a refuge for them; it is a place where they feel safe so that, no matter how disturbed their family is, at least their school is a refuge. She looks particularly at Denmark but also at several other continental countries, and she draws a stark contrast with the experience of children in England, who do not find a refuge in their school. That is very concerning. It is also relevant to this particular group of vulnerable young people whom we are discussing now. Finally, I thank the Minister who was so kind as to meet me when I had concerns about this issue. I am grateful for his close consideration of this matter.
Lord Nash
My Lords, I shall speak to Amendments 74, 127 and 217 regarding severely bullied children and the education of children unable to attend a mainstream school. I thank my noble friend Lady Brinton for raising the important issue of bullying and the needs of young people who are bullied. As the noble Baroness, Lady Jones, said, my noble friend has been a great advocate for children and young people whose lives have been blighted by bullying. Bullying in any form and for any reason is totally unacceptable and should never be tolerated in schools. Bullying can instil fear, damage self-esteem and reduce academic attainment. We have a considerable campaign in place to combat cyberbullying, which, as my noble friend Lady Walmsley mentioned, can be particularly unpleasant. As our reforms work their way through the school system, and behaviour management strategies improve—as I believe that they are substantially in schools across the country—that should help in this regard.
The amendments broadly cover three areas: a call for bullying to be defined in law; measures to prevent bullying happening in the first place and to tackle it when it does; and provision for those who are the victims of bullying, particularly those who are severely bullied.
The definition of bullying outlined in Amendment 74 suggests that bullying will involve an “imbalance of power” and is repeated behaviour that causes physical or mental harm. These elements are likely to be involved in many instances of bullying, but not all of them. The definition of severe bullying outlined in the amendment refers to behaviour that affects children so severely that they suffer trauma and psychological damage. There is a risk that that could cause confusion for schools, because the same bullying activity could be treated differently according to the effect that it has on the victims, rather than the act itself. Although we acknowledge that the support should take account of the effect, it is important that there is consistency in how schools manage the behaviour of pupils.
There will always be exceptions to whatever definition is put in place, which is why we consider that these matters are best placed at the discretion of head teachers and teachers. We outline what constitutes bullying in our advice to schools and we consider that that is the best place to do so, rather than through a strict definition in law. A legal definition could, among other things, rule out behaviour that common sense might suggest is bullying but may not be captured by a law.
Turning to my noble friend Lady Brinton’s point about guidance being in one place, it is of course important that guidance is practical and manageable for those using it. We are very happy to look at how the different pieces of guidance fit together and cross-refer, in particular, in the current consultation on the code.
Turning to preventing bullying in the first place and tackling it when it does, as different schools face different issues, we do not want to prescribe specific anti-bullying strategies. Instead, we want to allow schools and local authorities to address bullying in the light of the needs and circumstances of their schools and their pupils. I believe that our current position provides the right balance between requirements in law, flexibility for schools and strict accountability.
All schools must have a behaviour policy with measures to prevent bullying. It is up to them to develop their own strategies, but they are now clearly held to account for their effectiveness in doing so by Ofsted. Since 2012, it has been a requirement for school inspectors to take into account issues relating to bullying, harassment and discrimination. In addition, we provide schools with advice, with links to several anti-bullying organisations for specific advice.
Turning to provision for children who are bullied, the starting point should be the needs and welfare of children and young people and the state of their mental and emotional health. Schools and local authorities should provide support in a proportionate and tailored way to meet their needs. The new draft SEN code of practice considers that developing a graduated response to the varying levels of SEN among children and young people is the best way to offer support, and this can include the needs of bullied children. There is no separate legal status of a temporary statement. However, local authorities and schools are free to use key elements of the statementing process to make local arrangements.
The causes that affect the well-being of children and young people will be relevant to how those needs are best addressed, but are not the best guide to the level of need. A child’s well-being could be severely affected by a variety of things, including bereavement, family upheaval or severe bullying. It could result from a range of factors that taken in isolation a child could cope with, but taken together have a severe impact. It is important, therefore, to avoid creating a hierarchy of causes and prescribe what the response should be.
Schools know their pupils. They are alive to changes in behaviour, character and attendance. They should offer support quickly, based on the need they identify, and there is a wide range of options that they should consider, from asking the pastoral team to keep an eye out to providing formal counselling, engaging with parents, referring to local authority children’s services, completing a common assessment framework and referring to child and adolescent mental health services, including whether to assess for SEN. The circumstances that my noble friend describes will often need swift support. An EHC plan is intended for those with the most challenging, complex and long-term needs. This is reflected in the amount of time that it will take to deliver an EHC plan—a maximum of 20 weeks under the reforms. In many cases, offering a child or young person SEN support in the first instance will be much more appropriate, and faster. Giving a child or young person an EHC plan is a significant step and may not be necessary.
No child should ever be forced out of school because of bullying. In extreme cases, it may be necessary to make other arrangements so that a bullied child can access the good education they deserve.
In response to the concerns raised by Amendment 127, I should reinforce that local authorities already have a duty to arrange suitable education for any child who would not otherwise receive it. Suitable education is defined as,
“efficient … education suitable … to the child’s age, ability and aptitude, and … to any special educational needs the child may have”.
The duty covers all compulsorily school-age children who are not receiving suitable education. This could include pupils who are unable to attend a mainstream school because of bullying, but it is not limited by the reasons for a child being unable to attend school.
The duty is also not limited by the length of time a child will be missing education. For example, statutory guidance on the education of children unable to attend school because of health needs states that alternative arrangements should be put in place for children missing 15 days of school or more, whether consecutive or cumulative.
Separate statutory guidance on alternative provision, issued in January this year, sets out that parents, pupils and other professionals should be involved in decisions about the use of alternative provision. It also states that there should be clear objectives and arrangements for monitoring progress.
My noble friend Lady Brinton made a point about the shortage of alternative provision. I am delighted to tell her that already, under the free schools programme, we have approved 33 new alternative provision providers. So far as Red Balloon is concerned, I have met Carrie Herbert. I have initiated conversations between her, the department and the New Schools Network, and I hope that she has taken on board what they have said about any future applications she may make under the free school proposals. However, I cannot help but wonder whether such a bid, if successful, would be allowed under a Labour Government, as it would be not a parent-led academy but a free school run by professionals, as indeed are most AP schools and special schools.
I should like to consider and investigate further the point about disincentives made by the noble Baroness, Lady Morris, who I know is very experienced in these matters.
I hope that I have been able to reassure the noble Baroness that we are deeply concerned about bullying and bullied children. We have measures in place to prevent and tackle bullying, and the safety net she is seeking for pupils who are unable to attend school is already in place. I therefore urge her to withdraw her amendment.
The Earl of Listowel
My Lords, I am most grateful to the Minister for his reply and for making clear the standards regarding alternative educational provision for those outside mainstream schooling, for whatever reason.
On the guidance, perhaps he can look at the issue of children who are bullied being placed in pupil referral units. It may be helpful to have some clarity in that regard. Maybe as a general principle, something along the lines of guidance that states that if a child is severely bullied a pupil referral unit should not be the first choice of placement would help in these considerations.
Lord Nash
I am very happy to do that. I am fully aware that it is obviously not appropriate for a bullied child to be placed in a pupil referral unit with other children who themselves are there because they have been guilty of bullying. It is something that we will look at further.
Children and Families Bill
Earl of Listowel Excerpts(10 years, 7 months ago)
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Baroness Jones of Whitchurch
I thank the Minister for that clarification. I was coming to that point. The clarification I was seeking was: will there be just one review, the DWP review that the Deputy Prime Minister announced yesterday, or will there be a separate review within the Department for Education? I am grateful for the Minister’s clarification that it will be placed in the Library, but on an important issue such as this we need some assurance that there will be an opportunity for Parliament to debate the conclusions rather than just read them. Perhaps the Minister could clarify those points, which is what I was going to ask him to do anyway. I beg to move.
The Earl of Listowel (CB)
My Lords, I am most grateful to the mover of this amendment but also to the Minister for this very good news. The noble Lord, Lord Freud, took great trouble during the passage of the Welfare Reform Bill to consult the interested parties around foster care but I have a couple of questions for the Minister. What is the situation for families who are providing supported lodging for young people at university for whom they wish to keep a room open when they return? More generally, what is the position for families providing supported lodging for older young people who have left foster care but whom they still wish to support?
Lord Wigley (PC)
My Lords, I will intervene very briefly if I may. Whereas Part 1 of the Bill largely did not apply to Wales, Part 2 to a large extent does. I therefore ask the Minister, in the context of the new clauses being proposed, whether any review that he will be undertaking will be in co-operation with the National Assembly of Wales and the Government of Wales, which have responsibility for education and social care but not for some aspects of social security and housing benefit. I would be grateful if he could at least give an indication that he will take that on board.
Baroness Hamwee (LD)
My Lords, I recall the noble Lord’s Private Member’s Bill, his previous amendment and so on. I read the Still at Risk report feeling almost sick. One of the things that makes me feel sick is that so often, apparently, we criminalise children for whom we should be caring because we fail to identify their situation. The point I want to make is not against guardianship; it is an extension of the argument. Those who are in a position to identify very early on that a child has been trafficked need training if they are to be alert to the situation. There is a need for additional awareness and training of all those who come into contact with children who have been trafficked. We are failing them when we fail to provide assistance from the people they perceive to be on their side.
The Earl of Listowel
My Lords, I agree with the comments of the noble Baroness, Lady Hamwee, as a volunteer who has worked with vulnerable children and alongside those working with vulnerable young people. What a privilege it is to listen to the noble Lord, Lord McColl, who has been a sustained and passionate advocate for these trafficked children; to hear the concerns of the noble Baroness, Lady Massey of Darwen, the chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Children; and to listen to my noble and learned friend, who is the chair of the human trafficking group and whose name escapes me, incredibly.
The Earl of Listowel
I re-emphasise the point made by the noble Baroness, Lady Hamwee, that there needs to be training for people working with these vulnerable young people. I am very taken with the notion that there should be volunteer advocates working with them but as a volunteer myself, who has had experience of both very poor support and supervision and very good support and supervision, I suggest that the regulations should be very clear about what sort of supervision, training and support these advocates should receive. That is only fair to volunteers and it will make them much more effective as advocates and supporters of these young people. There is a great dearth of resource in children’s services at the moment and the danger is, if regulations are not clear about what the minimum requirements are, there may be a drive to produce the lowest-cost and lowest-quality advocates for these young people. I had only that comment to make. I very much support the amendment.
Baroness Benjamin (LD)
My Lords, I, too, support this amendment. Anything we can do to make young people feel worthy is important. Many of these young people are suffering, through no fault of their own, and I wholly support any attempt to make them understand that there are people who care about their well-being, that there is a place to go and that there is some sort of support for them. I hope the Minister will consider these amendments very carefully.
The Earl of Listowel
My Lords, I want to ask a brief question of the Minister, related to this matter. My noble friend alluded to the terrible case of Victoria Climbié, in which Victoria was privately fostered. The noble Lord, Lord Laming, who was charged by the Government to publish an inquiry into her death, was very concerned about a lack of awareness of private fostering—about how we can register private fosterers and make it safer for children to be in that position of being cared for by an auntie and uncle, while not being registered as a child in care.
There has been work in the past 10 years to normalise private fostering and raise awareness about it. I know that the British Association for Adoption and Fostering has done work to raise awareness among private foster carers so that they should come forward and, I believe, give their names to be registered by the local authority. I would be grateful to know from the Minister what progress has been made in recent years in terms of the numbers of those private fostering carers coming forward. Perhaps he could write to me, along with any other information that he can send me on what is being done to reassure us about the safety of children in private fostered arrangements. I hope that is helpful.
The Countess of Mar (CB)
My Lords, I support my noble friend Lady Howarth of Breckland. For many years, I was a lay member of the immigration tribunal and I remember seeing a number of young people go through the awful process of asylum appeals when they got to the age of 18. They did not understand what was going on. In many cases, we allowed them because they had been here for so long and had become used to the country. It would have helped them enormously if they had had support earlier in their lives, as my noble friend is suggesting.
The Earl of Listowel
I rise briefly to support these amendments and to make three points. First, above all, children who have experienced trauma—indeed, all children—need parents who stick with them through their lives. Children who have experienced abuse over periods of time need carers who stick with them over the years and who are reliable and consistent.
Last night, I was at a meeting and met psychiatrists from all over the world who have just published a book on the mental health of looked-after children. The final point in the editor’s chapter in the book was that he encouraged all clinicians always to remember that the most important thing to help these children recover from past trauma is to enable them to have relationships with people who care about them and stick with them. Family relationships—long-term committed relationships—are what they need. If they cannot find that at that particular time in their lives then, as a clinician, you need to equip them to be able to make and keep those kinds of relationships. It seems to me that that is much more likely to happen in these kinship care models than in foster care, although it often happens there too.
Secondly, good social care interventions can make a difference. The most popular intervention that foster carers talk to me about is support to understand how they manage the behaviour of their young people. All young people can, at different times in their lives, be difficult to manage, but young people who have been traumatised, abused or neglected will often display very difficult behaviours. In fact, in 2004 a report from the Office for National Statistics on the mental health of looked-after children highlighted that those in foster care had, I think, a 40% rate of mental disorder compared with, I think, a 5% rate in the general population. The rate for those in residential care was 70% or so. A very high percentage of those mental disorders are conduct disorders, things such as troubling behaviours from young people. Carers need support to understand and manage those behaviours, and they tell me they really appreciate it.
They also need to be connected with other carers with the same experience. When foster carers are helped to connect regularly with other foster carers in the same position and the same job, they value being part of a community of carers and being able to share experience and learn from it.
Finally, I take this opportunity to highlight the letter sent to me by the noble Lord, Lord Nash, regarding the recruitment and retention of child and family social workers. It is key to this area, to trafficked children and to children returning from care. In this brief debate, we have heard examples of poor and variable practice in child and family social work. I know that several noble Lords trained and practised as social workers. It is enormously encouraging that, in recent years, in the previous Government and in this Government, there has been a real commitment to raising the professional status of child and family social work—to raising entry requirements and training standards. In his letter, among several other things, the Minister drew my attention to a review by Sir Martin Narey commissioned by the Government into the initial training of social workers, which is being published in January, and to new data-collecting on social workers on the front line in local authorities, so that we will have a better understanding of how well we are retaining the new social workers that we are recruiting. I draw that to your Lordships’ attention because I think it is important.
I also want to commend the Government for taking this consistent stance towards social work, which in the past has been far too neglected. One of the key ingredients for getting better outcomes for children, whether they are in kinship, foster or other settings, is to get support from the right professionals, and I hope we are moving in that direction now. I strongly support these amendments.
Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede (Lab)
My Lords, I wanted to speak briefly in support of these amendments. My noble friend Lady Massey has set out the framework and how important it is statistically, but I was sitting as a family magistrate only last week and I thought it might be interesting for the Committee to hear the decisions that we were invited to make as a court. The scenario was of a two year-old boy in a successful fostering arrangement. His uncle had come forward with his wife. They already had three children and they were willing to take on the boy. That would put them in the situation of having four children under the age of six in a two-bedroom flat in London. All parties supported the arrangement that was to be made by the court and the decisions that we were invited to make as a court were to finalise the financial arrangements between the local authority and the carers. There was a bit of brokering and toing and froing on what those payments were to be. As far as I know, they were discretionary but nevertheless they were offered. As I say, it was a bit of a haggle but a figure was agreed for the kinship arrangements to go ahead.
The second decision we were asked to make was whether to put in place a special guardianship order. This was opposed by the local authority but we decided to put it in place in any case, very much for the reasons that my noble friend has said. We believed that it would help the carers to have the support of the local authority for the first 12 months. That was no reflection on their ability to be good parents—in fact, we were sure they would be—but we wanted to help them. So we went against the local authority’s wishes on that particular decision. The other decision we made was to put in place the contact arrangements for the mother. The mother was a recovering drug addict. She was in court and we wished her well. We arranged that she would have contact on a yearly basis and that can be reviewed in due course.
Another issue that we were invited to address was the housing arrangements of this family. As I said, they would have four children in a two-bedroom flat. There was really very little we could do about that other than include a sympathetic paragraph in the judgment, urging local authorities to review their situation sympathetically. Realistically, they were looking at a two or three-year wait for a transfer. Nevertheless, that was something we put in the judgment. The final thing we put in, which we thought about very carefully, were the transfer arrangements. As I said, this particular little boy had been in a successful fostering arrangement where he had blossomed for two years and now he was moving to another arrangement. Obviously, however well-meaning everyone was, it would be a difficult transition arrangement for the boy.
The point that I wanted to make is that all the parties supported this. The local authorities put extra money in and the mother agreed to the arrangement, even though she was losing her boy and the kinship carers would have to take the child on. This is a good solution for all concerned, and if it can be put on a more statutorily substantial footing, I think that that will be to the benefit of all concerned.
The Earl of Listowel
I support my noble and learned friend’s amendment and that of the noble Baroness, Lady Hughes. Listening to the noble Baroness, I remember hearing recently a male acquaintance speaking passionately about his despair at not having access to his child. It seemed that his wife, a wealthy woman, had really done him down. He is poor and does not have the access to legal help that she has. Listening to men talk about this so often is very sad.
I will speak during the debate on the amendment of my noble friend Lord Northbourne about the issue of children having access to their fathers, which is desperately important. It is also important to remember that the evidence seemed very clear that while there is a perception that courts are finding favour more with women and that women are too effective at frustrating what the courts want, in practice this is not happening. I heard a presentation of the evidence a few months back but am ashamed to say that I cannot remember the presenter of the details. As my noble and learned friend has just said, the Justice Committee agrees with that. It seems that the Minister agrees too, so I would be grateful if he could help me by providing the information. I think this was a careful and thorough look at cases by an academic to check the perception that there was a bias towards women. In fact, the research showed, quite conclusively and clearly, that this was not the case. I would be grateful if the Minister’s expert advisors might help with that information. He can write to me with it. It is a perceived problem but it is not a real problem. What is true, however, is how tragic and difficult these issues so often are.
I very much regret that I cannot support the Government on this occasion. I examined a similar proposal to that in the Bill in great detail on a previous occasion. In doing so, I visited two contact centres and spoke to staff and parents there. I also spoke with professionals from the Anna Freud Centre who supported such families. My concern is that, at best, the Government may be raising expectations in parents which will only add to litigation and harm children as the conflict between their parents is prolonged. This is the point that my noble and learned friend made and it was also a concern that Norgrove had. In Norgrove’s family review, at first he was favourable to the idea of having some stipulation in the law that this should happen. Then he looked at what happened in Australia and became determinedly against going forward in this way. At worst, my fear is that the Government may be putting children more obviously at risk as courts are pressured to grant more contact to both parents.
By the time these cases come to court, there are often mental health or substance misuse issues within the family. What I heard from the contact centres and the professionals last time around was that, too often, a parent—and often this would be the father—was granted access to his child before he had addressed his alcohol misuse issues, for instance. Quite often the agreement would be that the father would have supervised access on two or three occasions, but that would be gone through in a quite perfunctory way and the father would have access. I should perhaps not name a gender here; the parent could be male or female.
Following this and before we legislated in this area—it was very helpful at the time—the courts inspectorate produced a damning report on child safeguarding in the private family courts, finding that court reporting officers were not communicating child protection concerns to the relevant authorities. If anything, back then the bias seemed to be too much in the other direction: courts were not taking enough care about granting contact between children and their parents.
Family courts are under great pressure financially. A large increase in litigants in person adds a further burden. It would be wisest to allow judges to make decisions about what they consider to be in the best interests of the child without the distraction that the Government’s proposal offers. I am strongly of the view taken by the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, Coram—a wonderful institution which produced the model for the children’s centres that have proved so successful—and my noble and learned friends that the Government should think again about this. I look forward to the Minister’s response.
Baroness Howarth of Breckland
My Lords, I want to intervene briefly to say two things. All this is about perception as against fact and we have to ask ourselves why we are dealing with this clause at all. The noble Baroness, Lady Tyler, will know very well that CAFCASS, when being pressed by fathers who were saying that the presumption was against them, carried out research which showed that there was no presumption either way.
Of course there are miscarriages of justice. We cannot deny that from time to time in all areas of the law there will be miscarriages of justice, for both women and men, but that is not to deny the overriding information and the principle. I am very concerned that if we lose the paramountcy of the welfare of the child, the confusion that will follow will lead to other perception issues.
The other perception issue is very clearly, as one or two noble Lords have intimated, what is in the press—and that is that the father, it is usually the father, will be able to gain shared parenting. What they mean by shared parenting is half and half. We know how damaging that would be to a child, as the noble Baroness, Lady Tyler, said, when seen through the child’s eyes. If you talk to children and young people who are before the court, they want their parents to stay together—you have to work through all that—and then they want their lives disrupted as little as possible. They want to remain in the same school; they want to be able to see their friends at the weekend; they do not want to take a suitcase somewhere else every two weeks—although, I have to say, some children quite enjoy it. I have talked to kids who really enjoy having two places and adjust to it. However, many do not, and therefore it is important that the child’s wishes and feelings are taken firmly into consideration. I think the perception will be that fathers, in particular, can get a different agreement from the court, rather than the paramountcy of the welfare of the child being the main issue.
Several noble Lords have alluded to the Australian experience but we should take it extremely seriously. If this has been tried elsewhere and has gone seriously wrong, why should we do it here and create the same situation? We should remind ourselves that they had this legislation and that the research evidence showed that the number of cases where children’s time was divided increased substantially. The whole thing became dysfunctional to the point that in 2011 the Australian Government were forced to legislate again to prioritise the safety of children over the wishes of adults. I am quite sure that this Government, particularly the noble Lord, Lord McNally, would not wish to find that we were not prioritising children and had to change the legislation after damage had been done. So let us deal with the perceptions and base our legislation on fact.
Overseas Aid: GDP Target
Earl of Listowel Excerpts(10 years, 9 months ago)
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Baroness Northover
I saw the press coverage of the International Development Select Committee’s report this morning. I was then astonished to look at the report itself, and wondered how on earth the press came to the conclusions that they did. They were reviewing DfID’s multilateral aid review. They pointed out that it was extraordinarily important for DfID to review how its aid is given, and suggested that there were strengths, but also some areas where DfID might want to investigate further, including—to pick up the noble Baroness’s question earlier—ensuring that multilateral organisations focus on gender. I welcome the Select Committee’s report; it helps keep us on our toes, and it does not match up with this morning’s press reports.
The Earl of Listowel
My Lords, I join noble Lords in praising the coalition Government for their global leadership in meeting our responsibilities to those in the developing world. Does the Minister agree that it is helpful to bear in mind the difference that this is making to children’s lives, to think of particular instances—such as the boy who was brought up by his grandmother in a marginal area of Tanzania far from hospitals and schools, who experienced kwashiorkor, and who came to speak to Members of the House about his struggles—and to think that other children will not suffer that undernourishment or the life-damaging results of hunger at such an early age because of the leadership of the coalition Government?
Baroness Northover
I thank the noble Earl for his tribute. He is absolutely right. Anybody who works in this area and anybody who visits the countries that he has visited will understand why we are doing this. He will also be aware of the focus on nutrition that we had just before the G8 and the emphasis on ensuring that children are not stunted both physically and mentally.