Spring Statement

Earl of Listowel Excerpts

Wednesday 20th March 2019 Lords Chamber

[The Earl of Listowel (CB)]

My Lords, it is a pleasure to hear the noble Lord, Lord Suri, remind us of the success of the Government in achieving the highest rates of employment since records began. We owe a great debt to the Government and particularly to the noble Lord, Lord Freud, who was so passionate over such a long period of time about helping people into work. He always made the case that among the many benefits of work is the benefit to the mental health of those in work. It is also encouraging to hear that the Government are proposing a low wage commission to look at low pay. Obviously, it is not just about work, the work needs to be reasonably paid. I think that 60% of children in poverty have a parent who is in work. So we need to do better, but I think that the Government are doing a very good job in that regard, and that is important.

I thank the Minister for opening the debate in the way that he did. I am not sure that I can match his speed of approach or his lyricism, but I will do my best. One aspect that I am going to emphasise is the point made so ably by the noble Lord, Lord Shipley, and by the noble Baroness, Lady Thornhill, about the need to fund local authorities better, particularly in terms of their services to children and families.

Productivity is an issue that recurs in debates about the economy. I think the noble Lords, Lord Gadhia, and Lord Macpherson of Earl’s Court, referred to it. Productivity might be very much about technology, skills and education. They are important, but so are emotional well-being, mental health and a good upbringing that provides secure relationships and security to children. We have become more aware that early experiences in life can colour the rest of one’s existence. If one wants to be a mentally healthy and resilient adult, one needs to have a secure upbringing. If you want employees who are good at communicating with other people, who turn up regularly, who are not unwell, investing in services for vulnerable children and families is very important.

My experience with looked-after children highlights this. Billions have been spent on improving the educational outcomes of looked-after children, and still only 7% go to university. We must recognise that this is not just about extra spending on tuition or designated teachers but about addressing the mental health needs of these young people. Their needs are often exceptional because of the trauma they experience coming into care. In beginning to address that, one must do both things. Above all, for many years I have heard from looked-after children and children in care that a consistent, reliable relationship with a caring, interested adult is the most important thing for their recovery and their ability to move forward. I have heard that again and again, and practitioners say it as well. A sustained, benign, reliable and consistent relationship will, over time, help children to move on.

What is true for this extreme group—extreme because of their extreme experiences—can be applied to the wider whole. All our children, particularly those who are vulnerable for one reason or another, benefit greatly from consistent and reliable relationships. We should strive for those all the time. Achieving productivity and other positive outcomes provides our children with secure early experiences. Part of that includes investing in local authorities, and children and family services. Your Lordships may be interested in Sir John Timpson, who wrote a handbook on attachment and who, together with his wife, fostered more than 90 children. He made the same point about the importance of reliable, long-term relationships.

I welcome what the Statement says about knife crime and investment, particularly in the police. That seems very important. I also welcome some investment not mentioned in the Statement: £60 million for maintained nurseries, which offer some of the best-quality early years provision in the country. If we want children to have a secure start in life, we should support that. Two or three years ago, about half of those nurseries were facing closure. However, thanks to the hard work of Lucy Powell, a Labour MP and chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on maintained nurseries, and the nursery managers who attended her regular meetings, the Children and Families Minister, Nadhim Zahawi, has come forward with £60 million to prevent current closures. He has also committed himself to working hard to make this case in the summer funding review. I hope that the Minister will take this back: these nurseries need continued funding over time if they are not to close. They offer the highest-quality provision. Report from your Lordships’ House have demonstrated that the most vulnerable benefit most from that high-quality provision. It is money very well spent.

Yesterday, the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government spoke to the Centre for Social Justice about the importance of a troubled families initiative and produced an evaluation showing how much difference it made, particularly in terms of keeping children from entering care when those families support it. I warmly welcome that work and funding stream from government. I hope that the Government will look at continuing to fund it past 2020. Again, that is something for the review to consider.

Housing has been mentioned. When I think about housing, I feel so distressed. Over the course of a year, I followed a mother through her experience in moving from a domestic violence refuge into temporary accommodation. She sent me photographs from time to time. Her accommodation was very overcrowded. She was there with her daughter and granddaughter. She was so anxious about the future and had no idea where she would be placed—perhaps out of London, where she knew nobody. Today, she is in a well-balanced state, but it is an appalling failure on all our parts that 130,000 children in this country are living in bed and breakfast or hostel accommodation. Other nations, such as Germany and France, struggle but they do a far better job than we do. If we want children to have a good start in life, they must have proper, reliable shelter. I welcome the Government’s progress in this area; they have made several important advancements. I hope that in his response the Minister might confirm the Government’s commitment to social housing for low-income families, which I know they feel is very important indeed.

In my work as treasurer of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Children, chaired by Timothy Loughton MP, a former Children’s Minister, we have had two reports over a period of three years that have looked at children’s services in local authorities. We found that the early intervention has been cut way back, as we have heard from various speakers. It is a terrible thing that vulnerable families are not getting the support they need. We are intervening far too late. We are perhaps seeing the effects of this in knife crime; in other areas, more children are being taken into care. So again, I make the case very strongly for investing in children and family services.

I recognise that it is getting late, but I will give one example. Successive reports have identified how important the work of health visitors is. Norman Lamb, the chair of the Science and Technology Committee in the other place, reported last year on the evaluation of early intervention services and highlighted the importance of health visitors. Many people recognise the importance of health visitors. Again, though, their numbers are in decline. I pay tribute to the Government for rebuilding those numbers, over several years. The Government placed health visitors in the Department of Health and Social Care and they were well funded for a period of time. For the last three years they have been placed in local government, which simply has not been able to afford to fund them. I spoke to the founder of the Institute of Health Visiting yesterday and she reported the serious decline in this very important resource.

If any of your Lordships wish to find out about the housing conditions of vulnerable families and know more about their experiences, I cannot recommend too highly going out to visit with a health visitor. I would certainly be happy to organise that with the Institute of Health Visiting. I have made such visits on several occasions: the last woman that I remember visiting was isolated and did not know a soul in this country. The health visitor was able to give her comfort and highlight that there was a children’s centre just down the road from her. I hoped very much that she would take that advice on board.

I am sure that my time is up. I will say one last thing on sixth-form colleges. Skills are so important to our economy and yet, in real terms, their funding is just about as much as it was 30 years ago. We must think about investing more in sixth-form colleges, through the review. I look forward to the Minister’s response.