Children and Young Persons Bill [HL]

My Lords, we recognise that advocacy has an important role to play in improving services for looked-after children, ensuring that their voices are heard and their rights protected. The three amendments in this group make particular points about advocacy provision, and I will take them in turn. On Amendment No. 23 and its proposed duty to provide independent advocacy services, local authorities are required, under the existing statutory framework set out in Section 26A of the 1989 Children Act, to make arrangements for all looked-after children, as well as other children in need and care leavers, to have access to advocacy services, including assistance by way of representation, to help them make representations about services they receive. This must include, but is not restricted to, the pursuit of complaints. Statutory guidance under which local authorities must act when performing these specific duties was published in 2004. It sets out in detail our expectations of how local authorities should provide effective advocacy services. The guidance makes clear that we expect local authorities to have arrangements for providing advocacy services that are separate from their own management and delivery functions, and that they ensure that advocates are not part of the service in respect of which any complaint or representation is being made. Local authorities are free to develop their own models for advocacy services, and many contract out this service to the voluntary sector. The noble Earl, Lord Listowel, for example, mentioned Voice, which is a small charity providing advocacy for young people in secure settings. He and the noble Baroness, Lady Howarth, are patrons of Voice, and it does excellent work in this field. It is one of a number of such organisations. Furthermore, as I said in Grand Committee, we see the role of the independent reviewing officer as central to ensuring that the voice of the child is heard. I set out at length in Grand Committee how we are building on this role, both through the Bill and the wider Care Matters reforms, to ensure that each IRO can fulfil their role with credibility. The noble Earl asked two specific questions on IROs. The reviews are frequent: they take place after the first 28 days, then after three months and every six months thereafter. On how the IRO will get to know the child with whom they are dealing, they will have a duty to meet the child before every review and will be a named person to ensure continuity. The IRO will support children’s active engagement with the care planning process, ensuring that there is greater scrutiny of the care plan for each child in care, and ensuring that children and young people are informed of their rights if they consider themselves to have been treated unfairly. However, the provisions in this area are not restricted to the IRO. I have already mentioned independent advocacy services. Equally important on educational issues is the role of the designated teacher in the child’s school, who will have a part to play in ensuring that the child is able to participate fully in decisions that affect him or her—in particular, those about their personal education plan. For many children, their class teacher or other member of staff, such as a learning mentor, will also be able to provide support and assistance on a wide range of everyday matters. Other children may choose to turn to their carer, their independent visitor or a relative for advice and help in addressing issues of concern to them. All of these people have different skills that the child can access when they have a need to do so. However, as I say, we recognise the valuable role that advocates can play, and expect, through statutory guidance, local authorities to review their advocacy services annually to ensure that compliance with national standards is maintained. This includes seeking regular feedback from children about their experience of the service. On Amendment No. 22, the existing guidance for IROs makes it clear that, "““IROs … have a role when they meet children to inform them that they have a right to make complaints to the local authority, and of the local authority’s responsibility to provide them with an independent Advocate if they wish””." In addition, it is part of the IRO’s functions under the regulations to assist the child in obtaining legal advice if the child wishes to take proceedings under the 1989 Act. The IRO of course has the power to refer the child’s case to CAFCASS if he has serious concerns that the child’s rights are being infringed. The guidance outlines the relationship between the IRO, the designated complaints officer and advocate, and states: "““The process of advocacy and complaints can run alongside the IRO’s actions in resolving an issue, and it will be good practice for the IRO, the Designated Complaints Officer and the Advocate to agree … their respective roles””—" and responsibilities— "““in trying to resolve a complaint””—" and how they will communicate with each other. We are updating the guidance to IROs, and we will reinforce the importance of IROs informing children of their right to an advocate to make representations about the service they receive. I hope that that will go some way further to meeting the concerns of the noble Baroness and other noble Lords. Finally, Amendment No. 38 seeks to ensure that children and young people receiving or seeking services from a children’s home or a fostering agency have access to independent advocacy services and that the arrangements for such services are publicised by placing the duty to do so directly on fostering service providers and children's homes. In practice, the vast majority of children placed in children’s homes and all children who receive services from providers of fostering services are looked after, so they already benefit from the statutory framework that I have outlined. The exceptions are those children who are placed in residential special schools by education authorities and children placed in children’s homes by health bodies. These latter children will benefit from the new statutory visiting requirement introduced by Clause 17 for their local authorities to arrange for children to be visited throughout their placement. As part of the consideration and assessment of their needs we will expect the local authority representative to consider whether access to advocacy would be beneficial to the child and appropriately to ensure that he and his parents are aware of his entitlement to advocacy support in making representations about the services that he receives. I hope that on the basis of those assurances that I have been able to give the noble Baroness will not feel it necessary to press her amendment.