Children and Young Persons Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 31: 31: After Clause 22, insert the following new Clause— ““Breaks from caring for disabled children (1) Paragraph 6 of Schedule 2 to the 1989 Act (provision by local authorities for disabled children) is amended as follows. (2) The existing provision becomes sub-paragraph (1) of that paragraph. (3) In that sub-paragraph, after paragraph (b) insert ““; and (c) to assist individuals who provide care for such children to continue to do so, or to do so more effectively, by giving them breaks from caring.”” (4) After that sub-paragraph insert— ““(2) The duty imposed by sub-paragraph (1)(c) shall be performed in accordance with regulations made by the appropriate national authority.”””” The noble Lord said: My Lords, I wish to speak also to Amendments Nos. 54, 55, 57, 58, 60 and 64. These amendments deal with the provision of short breaks for disabled children and their families. They follow our debate on this issue in Grand Committee and are a further response by the Government to concerns expressed by noble Lords. I pay particular tribute to the noble Lord, Lord Rix, who has pressed the cause of disabled children and their families over many years in this House and who is deeply sorry that he is unable to be with us this evening. Amendment No. 31 adds the provision of short breaks for parents and others caring for disabled children to the range of services that local authorities must provide for families and in doing so puts these services on an express statutory footing. The new duty will ensure that short break services lose their Cinderella status and become an essential local authority service, thereby reflecting the importance attached to them by the families of disabled children. The new duty makes it clear that short breaks should not be provided just to those carers struggling to maintain their caring role but to those for whom a break would improve the quality of the care they can offer. Short breaks should not be used just as crisis intervention but should help carers to maintain and improve the quality of care they want to, and can, provide. However, I should make clear for the record that the new duty does not create an individually enforceable right to short breaks. It is hard to overemphasise the importance of short breaks to the families of severely disabled children. Without these services many parents would go without any relief from constant caring responsibilities. I am in no doubt that without short break provision, the care population would grow considerably and with it the cost to the taxpayer. But we should also not forget the wider benefits of short break provision beyond relieving parents. Any parent will be able to testify that it is beneficial and healthy for their child to gain positive experiences away from their parents whether it is time spent with another trusted adult, or in leisure or youth work-based activities where disabled children and young people can mix with peers of their own age. Such activities are immensely worthwhile and provide an important means of social development. They reduce the isolation felt by many disabled children and young people and can play an important role in enabling disabled young people to make a successful transition to adulthood. This should be and is our ambition for short break provision. The Government have put significant resource behind the provision of short breaks; £359 million will be provided to local authorities in England alongside further funding to healthcare bodies to enable a combined approach over the next three years. We estimate that by 2010-11, local government expenditure on short break provision in England will have doubled and in some areas will have increased by up to five times. This major investment would combine with the proposed new duty to create a significant force for change and would be coupled to high expectations for service transformation. We would use both statutory guidance and regulations to make clear our expectations and requirements. We would envisage laying the first formal requirements on local authorities under the powers in the amendments in 2011. As the Minister with responsibility for disabled children, I see this as a decisive moment in improving services for this important group in our society. I commend the amendments to the House. I beg to move.