My Lords, I thank my noble friends Lord Storey and Lady Tyler, and the noble Baronesses, Lady Hughes and Lady Jones, for proposing these new clauses. I shall turn first to the amendments tabled by the noble Baronesses, Lady Hughes and Lady Jones. I agree wholeheartedly that the effective identification of young carers and assessment of their support needs is best achieved by social care, health and education services working together and considering the whole family’s needs. We have been promoting this approach with local authorities since 2011 through the Prevention through Partnership programme delivered by the Children’s Society and funded by my department.
Our proposed new clause supports the combining of assessments. This enables the necessary link to be made between a young carer’s assessment and, for example, an assessment of the adult they care for made under provisions in the Care Bill. This will support practitioners to take a whole family approach to considering the effect of the adult’s support needs on the rest of the household and provide appropriate services that address the needs of the whole family. I also agree that it is necessary to have sufficient local services available to meet the needs of young carers. That is why we are building on the existing general duty on local authorities to safeguard and promote the welfare of children in need in their area by requiring them to identify the extent to which there are young carers in their area with needs for support.
I do not agree, however, that a new duty to provide services to young carers, as proposed by my noble friends Lord Storey and Lady Tyler, along with the noble Baronesses, Lady Hughes and Lady Jones, is necessary or appropriate. Our aim is to start by ensuring that the eligible support needs of the person being cared for are met. Most commonly this is an adult, and the provision of services to that adult will prevent young people from having to undertake or continue in a potentially harmful caring role. If the young person still has needs for support, services can be provided under the existing general duty to safeguard and protect the welfare of children in need under the Children Act 1989.
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The noble Baronesses, Lady Hughes and Lady Jones, have also tabled three amendments which place duties on specific institutions to identify young carers. While I fully support the need to improve early identification of those with caring responsibilities, I remain unconvinced that a regulatory approach is appropriate. Once again, we are in the realm of what actually happens in practice. The key issue is about raising awareness and understanding among those working in health, education and social care of the possible impact of a caring role on young people. They will then be able to signpost them to relevant sources of information, advice and support.
We will continue to work with our statutory and voluntary sector partners to pursue non-legislative means of achieving this. For example, we are training school and community nurses to be champions for young carers. We are also working with the Children’s Society to deliver training and guidance for practitioners on identifying young carers in hard-to-reach groups. These include those supporting someone with mental illness or substance abuse problems and HIV, and those from ethnic-minority communities.
The noble Baroness, Lady Jones, asked how the amendments would apply to health bodies, FE training et cetera. We do not feel that an apparently simple provision putting duties on everyone—which of course will not be simple—is the right way to achieve the culture change required to ensure that young carers are developed and their needs assessed. I will explain the other steps that will contribute to this. GPs and those working in primary health services have a vital role to play in identifying carers of all ages. For 2012-13, the Department of Health has provided funding of over £800,000 for a range of initiatives by the Royal College of General Practitioners, Carers UK, the Carers Trust, the Queen’s Nursing Institute and the Royal College of Nursing to increase awareness in primary healthcare of the needs of carers and how to access support. The Department of Health is considering further bids for funding for 2013-15.
In addition, the mandate to NHS England, published in November 2012, contains clear objectives, including one on enhancing the quality of life of people with long-term conditions and their carers. The Department of Health has also recently started training school nurses to be champions for young carers. They will speak up on their behalf and help head teachers and governors decide how best to support them at school.
Most importantly, the statutory guidance on joint strategic needs assessments specifically includes looking at the needs of young carers. This, combined with the new role for local authorities in health and well-being boards, which will be developing strategies to meet the identified needs, should result in young carers being given extra support over the coming two years.
The Children’s Society’s recent report Hidden from View includes some startling findings, perhaps none more so than that the young carers involved in the study had significantly lower educational attainment at GCSE level than their peers: the equivalent to nine grades lower overall, which is the difference between nine Bs and nine Cs. That makes clearer than ever the need for schools to identify and support their young carers. However, a legislative approach that compels them to do so will not help. The fewer burdens we put on head teachers, the more likely they are to be able to respond to the individual needs of their pupils.
We want to see all educational establishments create a supportive environment that encourages voluntary co-operation and responds to each child’s personal circumstances. It is important that head teachers and governors are allowed the necessary local freedom to exercise their welfare responsibilities in the most appropriate way. There are safeguards. For example, Ofsted inspections take particular interest in the experience of more vulnerable children, including young carers, during inspections.
There are some really good examples of good practice in schools, such as having a nominated lead teacher whom young carers can talk to, setting up young carer card schemes so that they do not have to keep explaining their situation, and making links to local young carer support groups. I accept, however, that there is plenty still to do to make this normal practice.
The noble Baroness, Lady Hughes, asked about training. That is why I was so pleased to hear that the Big Lottery Fund is to work with the Children’s Society’s Young Carers in Focus programme on a national award scheme that allows schools to be recognised for getting it right for their young carers. Furthermore, my department has worked with the Children’s Society and the Carers Trust since 2011 to share existing tools and good practice, including an e-learning module for school staff that we developed to increase awareness in schools of young carers’ issues. I hope that the noble Baroness will agree that there is a lot going on, which is what we need to see in addition to our amendment.
On the point of the noble Baronesses, Lady Jones and Lady Lister, about carers for disabled children, the Government recognise the tremendous job that parent carers of disabled children do and the impact that their caring responsibilities can have on their own lives. There is a strong framework of support already in place to support parent carers under the Children Act 1989 and in new provisions in Part 3 of the Bill. As noble Lords are aware, we will be debating an amendment on parent carers next week, so I will not respond to this issue further today.
My noble friend Lady Tyler raised a point about what regulations will cover. The exact content of the regulations is still under consideration, as the noble Earl, Lord Howe, explained at our recent round table
with Peers. Our two departments have already held constructive discussions over the summer with the National Young Carers Coalition, the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services, the Association of Directors of Children’s Services and young carers themselves to identify key principles of a whole family approach to assessment of an adult needing care and support. To ensure consistent messages around whole family approaches to assessment, the regulations from this proposed new clause and those from the Care Bill relating to the assessment of adults with care needs will be developed side by side. We anticipate issuing draft regulations and guidance for consultation in spring 2014.
I strongly agree with the points made by the noble Baroness, Lady Howarth, and the noble Earl, Lord Listowel, about a holistic single-family assessment and the importance of implementation. It is only in part about the legislation, as was said. I will try to explain how we are seeking to develop regulations under the Care Bill to support this. Regulation-making powers about assessment in the Care Bill provide the opportunity to expand on a whole family approach to assessment, among other matters. This approach would apply when appropriate in assessing the needs of caring for adults as well as adults who need care and support. While this is particularly relevant where children and young people are providing care to an adult, it will also be relevant to other family members.
We have identified the following principle to inform the drafting of regulations about a whole family approach when assessing an adult. The adult’s assessment should reflect the impact that their care and support needs have on the adult’s responsibilities as a parent of a child under 18, and responsibilities for the function of a family and household. The adult’s assessment should take into consideration the impact of any care and support responsibilities on a child’s well-being, welfare, education and/or development. If a young carer’s need for support cannot be met through meeting the adult’s need for care and support, consideration must be given to whether they might be entitled to assessment and support in their own right as a child in need under the Children Act 1989, or for assessment as a young carer under the provisions that we are debating today. The Department of Heath plans to publish these drafts for consultation in May 2014, aligning with publication of our regulations. I hope that the noble Baroness, Lady Howarth, will see progress when we do so.
Finally, picking up on the point of the noble Earl, Lord Listowel, about children experiencing constant change of professionals, I will point him to some work in Hackney which seems to be making good progress on this in ensuring that families work with one professional for as long as possible.
I hope that your Lordships will agree that our proposed new clause represents a significant step forward in improving outcomes for young carers and their families. I therefore urge noble Lords to support that amendment, and the noble Lord, Lord Storey, to withdraw his.