Children and Young Persons Bill [HL]

My Lords, I thought that the noble Lord, Lord Judd, was going to suggest that the Minister might not be able to accept some of the amendments, given some of his speech. I shall divide my remarks into three parts. First, I shall not speak on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. The noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley, does that magnificently, and I can say only that I support her attempt to get that to underlie the general legislation for children in this country. Secondly, on supportive parenting, I want us to remind ourselves that we are talking about children in public care and the kind of parenting that those children want. I shall separate that from general parenting. Listening to my dear friend, the noble Lord, Lord Northbourne, whose pressing of the amendment I admire immensely, I felt that I should be sitting alongside my colleague, the noble Baroness, Lady Bolton, on the Conservative Front Bench and saying that this sounds like the nanny state. I am quite sure that many parents in this country feel very strongly that they are doing well to bring up their children. Alongside the noble Lord, Lord Judd, I probably see in my job in CAFCASS as many complex families as your Lordships can ever conceptualise. Many of those families are doing well even in adversity. We must remember that in the new constituted families of a variety of kinds, even where there are a number of step-parents, children do not always suffer. We are talking about preserving those elements of parenting when children are in public care. I ask the Minister for the reassurance that in guidance we have an understanding that these children need more than ordinary parenting. We have to remember that by the time these children are looking for supportive parenting, they need something more. They have usually had experience of broken homes, have often experienced abuse and may have had experience of the criminal justice system, which has caused their parents, who may be responsible, to push them out of their homes. These children often come from backgrounds where there is a great deal of disturbance and they need more than ordinary parenting. I assume that in guidance, and in the work that local authorities are expected to do with these children, there will be more. That is why we want the elements pointed out by my noble friend; that is, health, good education and all that comes together in well-being. These children need more than anyone else. In the past, we have talked about corporate parenting, local authority general parenting and councillor parenting. We have just got to say that these children need the best professional help that we can give, but with love. That is really good, supportive parenting.