My Lords, we all merge into one after a while. I start by emphasising to noble Lords that the Government believe that children’s centres provide a very important service and have a vital role to play in supporting outcomes for children and families.
I turn, first, to the issue of data sharing. We agree on the importance of information sharing. Clearly, professionals should work together to identify families who are in need of support and offer them that support. Indeed, the Department for Education’s statutory guidance for children’s centres is clear that health services and local authorities should share information, such as live birth data, with children’s centres on a regular basis where doing so enables professionals to work better with one another to provide services for families. Moreover, current legislation makes it clear that information can already be shared where there are local agreements and processes in place that meet the legal requirements about confidentiality, consent and security of information. Naturally, we wish to support information sharing between professionals. In order to encourage this, my colleagues at the Department of Health have undertaken to liaise with NHS England and other partners to promote the sharing of live birth data and to explore the practical issues.
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We wholeheartedly support the intention behind this proposed new clause, which is to ensure the most effective local practice. But I hope your Lordships will agree that legislating is not the best approach here. Evidence, as set out in Jean Gross’s report, shows that the most challenging barriers to effective information sharing are about institutional and professional practice and the culture and trust between early-years practitioners and healthcare professionals, not national regulation. I think this is the group to which the noble Baroness, Lady Jones, was referring, and that my honourable friend Jo Swinson referred to.
I turn to the issue of registering births at children’s centres. Local authorities can already make children’s centres one of the places where parents can register a birth. We know that some local authorities are already providing this service and that it is well received. We very much welcome this approach and encourage other local authorities to consider whether it would be good for their local communities. Going to a children’s centre to register their baby’s birth means that parents know where their local centre is and are aware of the services they can access. The noble Earl, Lord Listowel, made a very compelling case, supported by others, including my noble friend Lady Tyler. Clearly, it must be for local authorities to determine the shape and make-up of their local services but, as I say, noble Lords have made a very cogent case on this.
The Government are committed to raising awareness of the opportunity that already exists to use children’s centres for registering births, along with the benefits that may accrue and the obstacles to be overcome in doing so. Indeed, in October my honourable friend Liz Truss MP spoke about this issue during a Select Committee evidence session and committed to meeting Councillor David Simmonds of the Local Government Association to see how best to progress engaging local authorities and children’s centres with the registrars to make this happen locally.
Additionally, over the summer, we asked 4Children, part of our Children and Young People’s Strategic Partnership, to circulate this information via its newsletter, which is sent to 50,000 colleagues working with families and cascaded to at least this number again. 4Children has also placed this information on its website so that as many people as possible are able to consider the benefits of registering births at children’s centres and are able to pursue this locally. I hope that the noble Earl will be reassured that this very good idea is being taken forward. I note what my noble friend Lady Tyler said about other sources of information and other services that might be provided. This is quite an interesting test case of trying to take this forward.
However, we agree that more could be learnt about whether registering a baby’s birth at a children’s centre has an impact on how likely the parents are to continue to access those services, which are intended to enhance the welfare of children. The Department for Education will look at how it can gather examples and disseminate its findings to help inform the decisions made by local authorities.
Turning to the information and data that should be published with regard to children’s centres, I hope that your Lordships will accept that the current level
of published data already provides effective local accountability and transparency, and informs the public about children’s centres and the services available. Local authorities update information about their children’s centres on the Department for Education’s Sure Start On database as and when changes occur. Information is then made available on the Government’s website on a daily basis. This enables the public to see a list of all the children’s centres and provides contact details for each of them. To require all local authorities to submit this information to the Secretary of State formally would be an unnecessary burden on local authorities.
The Department for Education also collects annual financial data from each local authority, which are published on its website. The data show the yearly budget and actual spend for each local authority. I point out that funding for early intervention has increased from £2.2 billion in 2011-12 to £2.5 billion in 2014-15. Local councils continue to have the freedom to spend this where it is most needed to best support the needs of their local communities, but I am very pleased that that figure has increased, in recognition of the importance of this area.
I think I have addressed most of the issues, but I will get back to noble Lords if need be. I urge the noble Earl to withdraw his amendment.