Children and Young Persons Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 17: 17: Clause 8, page 8, line 22, at end insert— ““(22FA) Accommodation with former foster parents The appropriate national authority may, by regulations, make provision about the arrangements for relevant children and former relevant children to live with former foster parents.”” The noble Baroness said: My Lords, this amendment concerns a different matter altogether. Amendments Nos. 17 and 30 constitute two different ways of doing the same thing; that is, enabling young people leaving care to stay with their former foster parents on a stable, properly funded and regulated basis without being thrown into the hurly burly of adult services. Since I laid these amendments, the Fostering Network organisation that briefed me has been in communication with the Bill team. I am most grateful to it for the time it has taken to allay some of our concerns on this matter. An e-mail from a member of the Bill team lays out why my amendments may not be necessary. I apologise if I am pinching the Minister’s speech. The e-mail states: "““Following a further conversation with our legal advisors, I am writing to confirm that, as we discussed, there is no need for additional powers in the Children and Young Persons Bill to regulate this provision. Section 42 of the Care Standards Act 2000 (as amended by the Health and Social Care Bill), enables the Government to make regulations to provide for registration of those making arrangements for the placing of former relevant children with ‘foster carers’ If the Government decides, following the pilots enabling 18 to 21 year olds to stay with their foster carers, that regulation would be appropriate no further primary legislation would be needed to enable this. Were such arrangements to be regulated, Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector for Education, Children’s Services and Skills would be the regulatory authority and inspect such arrangements. In respect of the pilots, we sent local authorities the invitation to tender for the Staying Put: 18+ Family Placement pilots in February with a view to running pilots in June 2008””." I am very pleased about that confirmation and wish the pilot schemes a very fair wind. However, I chose not to withdraw the amendments because I wanted to give myself an opportunity to ask the Minister three questions about this issue. First, will he confirm that regulation via the Care Standards Act and the Health and Social Care Bill will enable support for placements for people between 18 and 21 to be dealt with by leaving care teams, and that foster carers will then remain within the fostering services rather than being transferred to adult services? Secondly, will the Government report annually on the number of young people remaining with their foster carers between 18 and 21 so that they can assess the increase in the number who choose to do that? Thirdly, given existing practice on this matter in some local authorities and in Northern Ireland, will they assess and report every year on whether the staying put pilots can be rolled out across the country at that point rather than waiting the full three years of the pilots before considering a roll-out? Some authorities are implementing many of these measures already and it would be a pity to have to wait three years if that is not considered necessary. I am most grateful to the Bill team for satisfying me on the main area of concern of these amendments. I hope that the Minister can clarify the small issues that remain. I beg to move.