Children and Young Persons Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 21: 21: After Clause 8, insert the following new Clause— ““Recording the child’s wishes and feelings (1) The 1989 Act is amended as follows. (2) In section 17 (provision of sevices to children) after subsection (4A)(a) insert — ““(aa) record in writing the child’s wishes and feelings; or (ab) record in writing why it has not been reasonably practicable to ascertain the child’s wishes and feelings; and””. (3) In section 20 (provision of accommodation for children: general) after subsection (6)(b) insert— ““(c) record in writing the child’s wishes and feelings; or (d) record in writing why it has not been reasonably practicable to ascertain the child’s wishes and feelings.””. (4) In section 22 (general duty of local authority in relation to children looked after by them) after subsection (4) insert— ““(4A) Following an ascertainment under subsection (4)(a) the local authority shall record in writing the child’s wishes and feelings or why it has not been reasonably practicable to ascertain the child’s wishes and feelings.”” (5) In section 47 (provision of services to children) after subsection (5a)(a) insert— ““(aa) record in writing the child’s wishes and feelings; or (ab) record in writing why it has not been reasonably practicable to ascertain the child’s wishes and feelings; and””.”” The noble Baroness said: My Lords, noble Lords will recognise that I moved this amendment in Committee. I bring it back following further concerns and briefings from the Children’s Rights Alliance, Participation Works and a range of children’s organisations. The amendment introduces a mandatory duty on local authorities to record the child's wishes and feelings—or, where that has not been possible, the reasons for that—in relation to the provision of services for children, including accommodation and all decisions made by the local authority with respect to looked-after children. In Committee the Minister suggested that the amendment was unnecessary, as the integrated children's system includes opportunities for local authority social workers to record the views of children throughout their care experience. However, there is no statutory duty on the local authority to ensure that children's wishes and feelings are recorded. There is surely a clear need for enforcing that aspect of practice, which would correlate with the requirements under Article 12 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child that grant all children the right to express their views and for them to be given due weight in all matters concerning them. Research on serious case reviews undertaken by the Open University and the University of East Anglia, and published recently by the DCSF, found evidence of poor practice in the production of chronologies of the child's life history and contact with agencies. It also found that too often social workers focus not on the child, but on their relationship with adults. One extract from a serious case overview illustrates the depth of the problem: "““There is no information that the children were spoken with. Sibling 1 had just turned 16 and Sibling 2 was 14 years old and both were fully able to discuss issues of physical chastisement within the family. The accounts from the older children would have been able to inform a decision about speaking with the younger siblings who, at age 5 years and 4 years, would also have been able to express if they were being hit around the head in answer to direct questions””." It may be no surprise that the children themselves do not feel that their views are adequately taken into account. An online survey of children conducted by the DCSF in autumn 2006 found that nearly a quarter of respondents who had a social worker—23 per cent, 604 children—said that they felt that the social workers ““never”” took their views into account. Inspectors of foster care services have also noted that children do not always feel confident that their views are listened to; they had concerns about the structure of meetings and found aspects of the documentation and recordings unhelpful. A major 2002 consultation with children in care found that approximately one-third felt that they had not been listened to. In a letter to directors of children's services and chairs of local safeguarding children boards written in February, the Minister, Kevin Brennan MP, himself admitted the importance of obtaining and taking into account the wishes and feelings of children. It is clear that the current system does not sufficiently address that problem. Moreover, the impact of the integrated children's system remains unknown. An evaluation of the ICS was commissioned as early as 2004. A first draft was received by the DCSF in 2006 but has not yet been published. The latest available public information from DCSF officials suggests that many local authorities are falling behind in administering the system. The more effective system of consultation that this amendment would introduce would tackle a real problem in the care of looked-after children and particularly help children under the age of 16, who government statistics show are much less likely to make their wishes known spontaneously. It would also help disabled children, who all too often have little family contact. I hope that the noble Lord will be able on this occasion to give a more encouraging reply to these real concerns, which continue to be raised. I beg to move.