I shall speak also to Amendment 56 standing in my name. The first amendment introduces a requirement on local authorities to pilot birth registration at a children’s centre in the area; and the second strengthens duties to share information with children’s centres.
I was most grateful for the Minister’s encouraging and helpful response in Committee to both the amendments. Since then, we have had the welcome report from the Education Select Committee in the other place on children’s centres, and news of the Government’s work to stabilise fragile families. I am grateful to 4Children, Barnardo’s and Action for Children for arranging a meeting last week with representatives of those interested in children’s centres, including the head of Public Health England and Jean Gross, who has recently published a report on data sharing to which the Minister referred in Committee.
Since Committee, I have been recalling visits I have made to children’s centres and conversations with parents where they have told me that their mental health might have prevented them parenting their children were it not for the support they received from staff and parents at a children’s centre. The most disturbing aspect I have noted in visiting vulnerable families is often their sense of isolation, which plays havoc with their ability to parent or even to look after themselves.
I begin with the words of a mother, who said:
“I went down to the registry office to register the birth of my daughter Charlotte. Registering the birth is one of the first trips you do as a new parent. In the early days it can be very stressful getting ready to go out in order to make an appointment. The registry office I went to was very cold and unwelcoming. My daughter was crying and I felt like I was being a nuisance to the people working there. During my appointment my daughter was still crying so I asked if they minded if I fed her. The response was, ‘If you must’. I felt very awkward.
Registering the birth of your child is meant to be a positive experience, but I found it incredibly stressful, so much so that with my next two children my husband went on his own. I think going to a children’s centre would be a fantastic idea. They are set up for parents and children. You wouldn’t be made to feel bad if your child was crying. In fact the staff would probably help you out, offer to hold him, and so on”.
In the light of what this woman said, I very much regret that I have not been more effective in persuading the Government to legislate for birth registration pilots in local authorities.
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I note the comments of the Commons Education Select Committee, and its recommendation that birth registration in children’s centres should not become a new obligation on local authorities. However, I underline that my amendment is a duty only to pilot, not to provide such a service everywhere. My concern is that local authorities are overburdened. For too many, children’s centres are not a top priority. I doubt that we shall see the progress necessary unless some obligation is put on them. I hope that the Government may be prepared to keep an open mind and review the matter over time. I should be grateful if the Minister would be good enough to write to me in July and advise me what progress has been made in expanding birth registration in children’s centres.
With regard to data sharing, it was chilling to attend a meeting of experts on children’s centres and to discover that some of those who should know did not know that sharing of information with children’s centres on live births was a recommendation under statutory guidance, and so an obligation. This is important because it allows children’s centres to send a card to the new family congratulating them on the birth of their new child and inviting them to visit the centre. It is therefore very important information. Some local authorities were proud to say that they asked each mother individually whether her information could be shared, when in fact this was unnecessary. Under guidance, they are quite free to share it.
It was good to meet and hear from Jean Gross at this meeting. She has recently published a report on information sharing. That was published after the Education Select Committee report, which did, however, refer to it. While her main concern was not with guidance and regulation, but with workforce capacity to share information, the Education Select Committee did have concerns about local authorities sharing information on children in need and in situations of domestic violence. I should therefore be grateful to the Minister if she could advise me of the Government’s response to these concerns from the Education Select Committee.
Finally, both these concerns, about effective information sharing and birth registration, might be to a large degree resolved if all relevant agencies gave children’s
centres and the early years adequate priority. Listening to the experts last week, it became clear that we shall see such problems resolved only if local authorities, clinical commissioning groups, health and well-being boards, police and crime commissioners and schools consistently give priority to early years and children’s centres. I should therefore be grateful to hear from the Minister about the Government’s plan to ensure that early years and children’s centres are central to the strategies of each of these bodies.
I apologise to her for giving so little notice of my questions, and for not pressing this question in the break between Committee and today, but I should be most grateful if the Minister would consider meeting with me—inviting the noble Baroness, Lady Tyler, Andrea Leadsom MP, Graham Allen MP and a representative of the Commons Education Select Committee—so that we can learn from her how the Government plan to ensure that children’s centres will become consistently central to the strategies of local authorities, the health service and schools.
To conclude, I commend the Commons Education Select Committee report to your Lordships and to the Minister. Its recommendations on children’s centres are most helpful, and I hope that the Government may choose to implement them. I look forward to the Minister’s response.