Children and Young Persons Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 24: 24: Clause 14, page 12, line 31, after ““must”” insert ““— (a)”” The noble Baroness said: My Lords, in moving Amendment No. 24, I will speak also to Amendments Nos. 25 and 26. Since debating similar amendments in Committee, I have had a most helpful meeting with the Bill team, whose members assured me that the Minister is committed to dealing with these issues in guidance. Why then, noble Lords might ask, am I bringing this back to the House? The aim of the amendments is to clarify to social services departments that their visitor to a looked-after child should, except in exceptional circumstances, be a person known to the child. We know that in going through the process of becoming a looked-after child, a child is very likely to have already been through at least three different workers for administrative reasons. The Minister said in our previous debate that the use of the term ““exceptional circumstances”” is too strong, and of course I understand why he took that view. Indeed, if we were dealing with less damaged children, I would be inclined to agree with him but, in the context of looked-after children, I ask him to consider most carefully whether in fact the wording is strong enough as it stands. For example, if a social worker moves to a different team, I suggest that it should not be automatic that his entire caseload of children is immediately passed to a different social worker; but I understand that this happens routinely. One must think of this group of children, who have been let down by their parents and let down no doubt by a number of different people. Then they have gradually begun to make a relationship with a social worker and, just because of some administrative change, they are let down by yet another person. That is how they will see it; it does not matter what anyone says. That is really the essence of the amendment. We need to think of the child first and of our administrative considerations second. I am sure that the Minister will acknowledge the overwhelming importance to looked-after children of continuity of care, and I look forward to his response to the amendment. Amendment No. 26 again focuses on the need for continuity but, in this case, the amendment requires that looked-after children who are remanded or sentenced to a period in custody should receive continued support from their social worker before, during and—ideally—after custody. I thank Barnardo’s and NCB for their very helpful briefing on the amendment, which is also supported by the Children’s Society, Rainer, Voice, Youth Access and NLCAS. I also thank Tim Kent of CAMHS in Tower Hamlets for his help on this and a number of other amendments. We talked at length in Committee about the very high risk of children in care being taken into custody, and I certainly do not want to repeat those arguments. I welcome the assurances given by the Minister in Grand Committee which relate to looked-after children who enter custody. I could go through those but will not; it is late at night and people want me to keep this short. Despite those assurances I agreed to move the amendment because, along with Barnardo’s, the NCB and others, I believe that the requirement that the visitor be a local authority employee and have the necessary training and qualifications should be in the Bill. That requirement has particular importance for a looked-after child in custody. Also, the welfare and assessment visits cannot properly be carried out by the youth offending team worker, even if he or she is a social worker. That is the contention of the amendment. The work done by the National Children’s Bureau in 2006 supports that view. The needs of children from care placed in custody are not met. Custodial establishments are often not aware of the child’s previous status or what services they might be entitled to on their release from custody. The youth offending team will have case responsibility for those children, but its main function is prevention of reoffending. There are essential functions for a qualified social worker from the local authority to perform while the child or young person is in custody—to assess the child’s needs while in custody, to plan how those needs will be met, and, even more particularly, to plan for the child leaving custody and work with the youth offending team to ensure that the child’s resettlement needs are met. The welfare of those vulnerable young people will be greatly improved if those good practice requirements are specified in regulations. I therefore ask the Minister to give a number of assurances to the House in relation to regulations. First, which children in custody will be entitled to visits from a local authority representative under Clause 14? Secondly, will the regulations specify that within one week of entering custody a looked-after child or care leaver should be visited by his or her social worker, that there will be an assessment of the child’s needs, and that an interim care plan will be implemented to meet those needs? Will those procedures apply to children previously accommodated under Section 20 of the Children Act 1989? Thirdly, will the regulations specify arrangements to be made for the youth offending team and social worker to plan resettlement needs? Fourthly, can the Minister commit to revising the Children Act 1989 regulations and guidance, and the Framework for the Assessment of Children in Need and their Families, in line with those proposals? I hope that the Minister will respond positively to our concerns. I beg to move.