Children and Young Persons Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 18: 18: After Clause 8, insert the following new Clause— ““General duty of local authority to secure sufficient accommodation After section 22F of the 1989 Act (which is inserted by section 8) insert— ““22G General duty of local authority to secure sufficient accommodation for looked after children (1) It is the general duty of a local authority to take steps that secure, so far as reasonably practicable, the outcome in subsection (2). (2) The outcome is that the local authority are able to provide the children mentioned in subsection (3) with accommodation that— (a) is within the authority’s area; and (b) meets the needs of those children. (3) The children referred to in subsection (2) are those— (a) that the local authority looks after, (b) in respect of whom the authority are unable to make arrangements under section 22C(2), and (c) whose circumstances are such that it would be consistent with their welfare for them to be provided with accommodation that is in the authority’s area. (4) In taking steps to secure the outcome in subsection (2), the local authority must have regard to the benefit of having— (a) a number of accommodation providers in their area that is, in their opinion, sufficient to secure that outcome; and (b) a range of accommodation in their area capable of meeting different needs that is, in their opinion, sufficient to secure that outcome. (5) In this section ““accommodation providers”” means— local authority foster parents; and children’s homes in respect of which a person is registered under Part 2 of the Care Standards Act 2000.”””” The noble Lord said: My Lords, I have, throughout the course of our debates, stated our ambition to enhance the range, quality and choice of suitable placements for looked-after children, and I have outlined the steps that we are taking to improve local authority commissioning in order to do this. This goes hand in hand with our commitment to ensuring that more children are provided with accommodation in their local area and are only moved to a different area to meet their particular needs. As the Bill was originally drafted, Clause 8, by imposing a new duty on local authorities not to place out of area, with only a limited discretion to depart from it, would have had the effect of requiring local authorities to ensure that they had sufficient accommodation in their area to meet the needs of the children whom they look after. This would have delivered our policy intention, and further provision would have been unnecessary. However, in the light of recent government amendments to the requirements that local authorities must satisfy when making placement decisions, and the comments of noble Lords, including the noble Earl, Lord Listowel, who has shown his customary commitment to this cause, we now consider it necessary to introduce an explicit provision to require local authorities to plan and commission services properly. Amendment No. 18 therefore places a new general duty on the local authority that will require it to take steps to ensure that, so far as is reasonably practicable, there is sufficient accommodation within its area to meet the needs of the children that it looks after. In meeting this duty, authorities will not have to take account of those children who can be placed with their parents or those for whom it would not be consistent with their welfare to be placed in area. By requiring local authorities to consider the benefits of having a number of accommodation providers, the amendment makes it clear that they cannot fulfil this duty by presuming that they can provide the sufficient level of accommodation entirely by themselves. In addition, it highlights the need to have a range of accommodation that is sufficient to meet the different needs of children, who as we all know have diverse needs. This amendment has been tabled specifically to meet the concerns that have been raised in earlier debates, and I hope that it will be agreeable to the House. I beg to move.