Government: Draft Legislative Programme

My Lords, I, too, welcome this opportunity to discuss the draft legislative programme, but I hope that the list of Bills is not complete. First, the Education and Skills Bill has two main elements: raising the education leaving age and implementing the Leitch agenda, which includes the training levy, a legal entitlement for adults to have free training in basic literacy and numeracy and up to a level 2 qualification. The latter proposal has long been Liberal Democrat policy, so I heartily approve of it. I am somewhat more cautious about the education leaving age. I invite your Lordships to picture the typical 16 or 17 year-old of today: they can go to work, pay taxes, legally have sex, marry and have children, join the Armed Forces and fight for their country—and the Government, I am pleased to say, are even considering giving them the vote. All these are major decisions that young people make for themselves. Some of them even take care of their own parents. But some of them cannot wait to get away from school, and many have not attended much anyway for their last few years. What is offered to them at the moment is a curriculum that puts many off education at all and certainly does not encourage them to stay on beyond 16. There are plans to change all that, with the new 14 to 19 diplomas, which will gradually come into our schools over the next few years. There will be more training in the workplace, more day and block release and collaboration between schools and colleges to give these young people a much more appropriate and relevant education. We heartily support the objective of keeping more young people in education, at least until they are 18, but we are puzzled as to why the Government see the need to introduce the element of compulsion at this moment, when they are about to introduce vocational diplomas. Why not see how well these new measures work in getting young people to stay on voluntarily? Why introduce a structure of penalties for non-compliance, which will penalise only the most vulnerable families? Prison does not work for the parents of truants in the lower age range, so why should it work for 17 year-olds? Why not make level 3 an entitlement to be taken up whenever the individual is ready to learn? That may be not at 17 but at 19 or 20, when perhaps they will learn much more readily. I heartily endorse the words of the noble Baroness, Lady Massey of Darwen, on the Children in Care Bill. It is much needed to improve the experience of children in care, many of whom are moved from pillar to post, have a poor quality of life and poor outcomes. We approve of proposals to make placements more stable and work towards higher quality, but to do this we will need more, better trained and better paid foster parents. We have no problem with outsourcing certain social services to private suppliers, as long as the quality of commissioning is high and the inspection and quality safeguards are in place. No doubt we will be scrutinising the details of the Bill with this in mind when it comes to the House. We firmly believe in listening to the voice of the child in matters that concern them, so giving children more say in their care package and when they leave and move into independent living can only be a good thing. As for schools, the designated teacher pilot has worked well and is now to be made statutory. However, these teachers need special skills, and I wonder what the Government propose to ensure that the workforce has enough teachers with these skills. A matter not in the draft legislative programme is the general well-being of children and, in particular, the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and reasonable chastisement. Every year without fail, in the debate on the gracious Speech, I remind the Government about their obligations under the convention to stamp out all violence against children, including in the home. This year I have the opportunity to do it twice, so here is my first opportunity. The convention is supported by all but two countries around the world and is a wonderful template for the way in which children’s best interests can be put at the heart of our community. The Government recently published their third report to the committee on the convention, detailing the ways in which they comply with the convention. But we all know that compliance is not 100 per cent, as there are derogations on a number of aspects, and then there is the little matter of reasonable chastisement. The Government changed the law on this through Section 58 of the Children Act 2004. The result was total confusion. Parents were scratching their heads over the Government’s new smacking proposals. Even the Sun attempted to cut through the muddle and tell parents what is acceptable and what could lead to a charge of assault. Using illustrations, with ticks and crosses, the article sought to inform parents of the difference between a lawful and unlawful assault on a child. The newspaper article represented the legal position well: instead of offering clear and unequivocal protection, UK law justifies violence against children. Section 58 was a political compromise whose aim was to reduce rather than end violence against children. The Government are consulting, very narrowly I may say, on Section 58 and its operation. Although the consultation is so narrowly drawn, I hope that the Government will heed the increasing chorus of protest about the current confusing and inequitable situation, in which children get less protection under the laws on assault by adults than those adults get themselves. I remind the Government of their human rights obligations under Articles 19, 3 and 2 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child: protection from all forms of violence, best interests of the child and non-discrimination in the enjoyment of rights. The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child has twice recommended full legal protection, in 1995 and 2002, and in 2005 the European Committee of Social Rights declared the UK to be in breach of Article 17 of the European Social Charter. The Government are also consulting on their report to the committee on their compliance with the convention. They are not in a position to reassure the committee that they fully comply with the convention and will not be in such a position until they resile from their current derogations and equalise the law on violence against children. Yet again I call on the Government to do this in the next Session of Parliament, and I will, as I have often promised, carry on making that demand every year until I am carried out in a box. The new Prime Minister has an opportunity to make a fundamental change in the way we treat children in this country. Times have changed. Even Tony Blair said that he regretted having hit his older children occasionally but did not hit his younger children. Our knowledge of the effect of hitting children has moved on and intelligent, caring parents understand that and do their very best not to do it. They need clarity under the law and a lead from the Government. I hope that clarity is not far away.