My Lords, I will speak to all the amendments in this group: Amendments 241BA, 241C, 241D, 273B and 273C.
Four of these amendments will make small changes to the Care Standards Act 2000. My intention in proposing the amendments is to pave the way for the introduction of a reformed framework for regulating and inspecting children’s homes. Amendment 241BA amends Section 65 of the Children Act 1989, which concerns the disqualification of persons from carrying on working, or being employed in, a children’s home.
In March 2013 there were 4,930 children living in children’s homes, representing just over 7% of all looked-after children. The majority of children living in homes will have been placed there by local authorities because they cannot be cared for in a family setting. They will usually be older; children in homes have an average age of over 14. A recent research study found that 62% of children in children’s homes had clinically significant mental health difficulties, and 74% were reported to have been violent or aggressive in the preceding six months. Few children stay in one children’s home for more than a year; 30% live outside the local authority responsible for their care, often at some considerable distance.
Given these children’s vulnerability, it is particularly worrying that there are significant concerns about the quality of care in some homes. While by 31 March 2013 the majority of homes were judged by Ofsted to be good or outstanding, a significant minority, 28%, were judged only adequate or poor against current minimum standards.
My department has been pushing forward for some time with a programme for reforming the pattern of care in children’s homes. We have recently consulted on some immediate changes to regulations designed to more effectively safeguard children living in children’s homes, especially those in distant, or out-of-authority, places. We have also published a comprehensive data pack, with details of children’s homes’ locations, quality and costs, and of the needs of the children in their care. We are considering ways to enhance the training and skills of the children’s homes workforce, and how to support improved commissioning of homes by local authorities.
As my department worked with Ofsted and others on plans for improving care in children’s homes, we reached a view that the current regulatory framework, established by the Care Standards Act 2000, is having a limiting effect on our ambitions to drive improvements in the quality of care provided by homes. In our view, it should only be acceptable for any children’s home to offer care that is “good”, with all homes having a clear remit to strive for excellence in respect of the children they care for. These amendments put beyond doubt the fact that the Secretary of State can make regulations that are able to define high standards for all children’s homes. Every home must have the capacity to enable all the children it cares for to achieve their full potential. These amendments pave the way for my right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Education to develop new, more stretching, quality objectives and standards for children’s homes.
We intend to support innovation by creating regulations which specify high objectives and standards. Homes should be free to decide how they achieve these standards. We intend to set high standards for homes in a number of areas, such as requirements for effective leadership and management; for the provision of excellent education; and for access to healthcare that meets recognised clinical standards. We will, of course, have to be confident that homes respond effectively to the risks and vulnerabilities faced by the children they care for. We have worked very closely with Ofsted to develop the proposal that I am outlining. As the inspectorate for children’s homes, Ofsted welcomes our aim of taking a decisive step away from a regulatory system based on minimum standards.
Our work with Ofsted also identified a small but potentially significant problem with the process involved when Ofsted has reason to consider whether a person should be disqualified from carrying on working, or being employed, in a children’s home. This power is set out in Section 65 of the Children Act 1989. I am tabling a small amendment to this section to improve the practical workability of this process. The amendment introduces a time limit of 28 days for a person to inform Ofsted that he or she has become disqualified, perhaps as a result of a past offence, in order to seek Ofsted’s consent to be involved in a children’s home. Without this explicit waiver from Ofsted, the person would be committing an offence.
Officials from my department have had the opportunity to share our thinking on all these amendments with representatives of local authorities, of children’s homes providers and of the voluntary sector campaigning for
children. These services are united in their broad support for the direction of travel I am signalling today, which marks a decisive step in driving forward our ambitions for reforming the children’s homes sector. We are determined to improve the quality of all children’s homes, so that the only acceptable standard for children’s homes is good care, with all homes having a clear remit to strive for excellence. I hope I have explained the important objectives that these amendments will enable us to achieve, and that noble Lords will support them.