Children and Young Persons Bill [HL]

My Lords, I shall comment very briefly on the health assessment needs of children in care. I want to talk mainly about partnerships. I realise that there are a number of tools but the Minister commented on those in Committee, so I will not go into them. Ofsted has identified the ongoing monitoring and assessment of the physical and mental health needs of vulnerable groups, including looked-after children, as a weakness within children’s services partnerships. There is enormous inconsistency. One local authority reports 100 per cent of children in care receiving an initial health assessment, while the poorest performing authority reports only 48 per cent. Multi-agency working between local authorities, healthcare bodies and others is essential in improving outcomes for children. In some PCTs, there seems to be little clarity about who has responsibility for the health needs of children in care. The Government have already proposed to make guidance statutory for PCTs and that is welcome, but will they guarantee co-operation between local authorities and PCTs, will assessments be carried out by suitably trained and qualified practitioners, and will regulations set out how joint arrangements will be made, recorded and reviewed? The new NHS operating framework for England states that PCTs are expected to, "““ensure that children and young people’s health and well-being needs are assessed and that action to address these is included in PCT plans””." This is most welcome, but what priority is given to emotional and mental health needs when we see as priorities obesity, smoking and teenage pregnancy? Those are all understandable and important but so is physical, emotional and mental health, particularly for vulnerable children and young people. Some things need to be stated very precisely in legislation and guidance, and I think that this area of the health of looked-after children is one of those. I am grateful to the noble Baroness, Lady Meacher, for introducing the amendment. This matter cannot be dealt with satisfactorily unless there is good assessment of need in the first place. This particular group of children—not large—could be helped so much by having its exact needs assessed so that appropriate treatment and care can be provided, rather than that being done on assumptions or their needs being neglected. I look forward to the Minister’s response.