My Lords, in responding to Amendments 27 and 28, I pay tribute to the long-running commitment of the noble Earl, Lord Listowel, to improving the lives of our most vulnerable young people by ensuring that their voices are heard. As my noble friend Lady Walmsley said earlier, it is only if we listen to children in the child protection system and those who come into care that we will ensure that they are being effectively supported and safeguarded. In particular, children in care need to be able to challenge and influence strategic planning as well as day-to-day decisions taken about their lives.
For those in the child protection system, the revised government guidance Working Together to Safeguard Children makes it clear that the child’s needs are paramount and that children need advocacy as part of an effective child protection system. The Department for Education has also worked with the office of the Children’s Rights Director on the publication in August this year of the Young Person’s Guide to Working Together to Safeguard Children. This highlights that in child protection conferences and the child protection process children should be listened to and supported, including by being able to ask for an advocate to help them put their views across. To quote from it, social workers,
“should ask your views so that you can have your say on what should or should not be in the child protection plan. Remember, you can ask for an advocate to help you do this, if you want”.
I believe that the guidance strikes the right balance of clarity over statutory responsibilities, while allowing local authorities and professionals to develop professional practice in the best interests of children. I feel that guidance rather than primary legislation is the most appropriate vehicle for promoting advocacy support for children.
While advocacy can help and benefit some children, sadly one of the concerns highlighted in recent, tragic cases is that the social worker and other front-line professionals have sometimes not done enough to seek the views of children at the assessment or the child protection inquiry stage. I would not want at this stage to detract from the important responsibility of professionals to listen to the child by introducing in legislation an additional person with this responsibility.
I turn to advocacy for looked-after children. The Children and Families Minister meets regularly with groups of children in care and separately with care leavers. We recognise that many of them say that they do not have access to advocacy services and that, as the noble Earl said, provision is patchy. That is why the Government, as part of our commitment to improving advocacy services, have doubled the funding to them from £150,000 to £300,000. This year, we are supporting both the National Youth Advocacy Service and Voice to provide an advocacy service for looked-after children and care leavers. The services will include information and advice via telephone, enabling young people to access and obtain advice when they want it, and the allocation of an independent advocate to support and represent young people when they want it.
We do not think that further legislation in regard to the role of advocacy in children’s reviews of their care plans is necessary. The Government have already strengthened the role of the independent reviewing officer to give due consideration to the wishes and feelings of the child when making decisions with respect to the child. It includes a specific duty to ensure that a child understands how an advocate could help to support them at their care plan review meeting. We recognise that even more needs to be done, and that is why we are working closely with the advocacy sector and Children in Care Councils to enable all children to know their rights to have an advocate.
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Most importantly, Ofsted’s new inspection framework of local authority child protection, children in need, adoption and looked-after children services is to be implemented from November. This new framework will examine how the social care system as a whole, rather than fragmented parts, helps, protects and looks after children. It will focus on the experiences of children and young people, including whether they have access to advocacy, and the difference that adults are making to their lives and that of their families. This will serve to highlight both good practice and areas where service must improve.
The noble Earl asked two specific questions. He asked whether I would agree to look at producing an advocacy handbook. I will ask my officials to look at these issues in consultation with key partners. We have not had pressure from local authorities or front-line practitioners around this issue, and would need to be convinced that there is a real need for further government guidance before agreeing to give this priority over other issues. We will look at it further. On whether we will collect data on the national provision of independent advocacy, we are not intending to introduce a new data requirement on local authorities to report to the department on the provision of advocacy, or how they listen to children. That is a matter for local practice, and it will be monitored and examined as part of Ofsted’s inspection framework. However, I note the noble Earl’s concerns and will discuss that further with my officials.
I turn to Amendment 65A from my noble friend Lady Stedman-Scott. The principle behind this is one that we have discussed on a number of occasions with Dr Roger Morgan, the Children’s Rights Director. I acknowledge the spirit in which the amendment has been tabled—to give courts the same power to issue a Section 8 order for a child in the care of a local authority that they have in respect of children who are not in care. However, what my noble friend proposes is unnecessary. There are separate provisions under Section 34 of the Children Act in relation to contact arrangements for looked-after children. We would not want to cut across the responsibilities of the local authority in relation to any decisions made by it about placement decisions in the best interests of the child. Section 8 orders are private law orders; they are used as a means of resolving disagreements between parents about the residence and contact arrangements for their children following separation or divorce. The reason why children in the care of a local authority do not come within scope of most Section 8 orders is that the local authority has shared parental responsibility for these children. As part of care planning arrangements, a local authority can decide a range of matters regarding the care of a child. That includes where the child should be placed.
I recognise that there are circumstances in which children in care are unhappy about decisions related to their placement and parental or sibling contact. To enable courts to make Section 8 orders, however, would fetter the ability of local authorities to make arrangements for the placement of children. As I have said, there are separate provisions in Section 34 of the Children Act 1989. The care planning framework already provides
for contact arrangements. Local authorities have parental responsibility for children in their care and a duty to take account of a child’s wishes and feelings.
I hope that what I have said reassures my noble friend, and I would be happy to discuss this matter further with her if she so wished. I hope that I have provided reassurances to the noble Earl, Lord Listowel, my noble friend Lady Stedman-Scott and other noble Lords of our commitment to enabling children’s voices to be heard. I urge the noble Earl to withdraw his amendment.