My Lords, I start by warmly welcoming the main focus in the Bill, which marks an important further step towards developing a more holistic approach to improving the lives of children in care and care leavers. I also draw attention to my declared interest as chair of Cafcass. I will talk primarily about the mental health of children in care and care leavers and then touch on one or two other issues.
The question of how successfully we meet the needs of children in care depends on our own ambition. One of the corporate parenting principles outlined in the Bill is that local authorities should,
“promote high aspirations, and … secure the best outcomes”,
for children in care. However, the aspirations of children and young people in care will increase only when we set ourselves a higher ambition for our own standards of corporate parenting. The care system should of course ensure that children are kept safe, but it also needs to provide a loving, secure and stable environment, where children and young people thrive both physically and mentally. To achieve these aspirations, emotional well-being needs to be supported throughout a child’s time in care. To me, the bedrock of promoting the emotional health and well-being of children in care is the introduction of an improved system of mental health assessments for children entering care and throughout their time in care.
The Bill provides the obvious vehicle for this; not to do it would be such a missed opportunity. Current statutory guidance states that children must receive a physical health assessment when entering care, whereas it is recommended that their emotional well-being should be evaluated through a strengths and difficulties questionnaire. Frankly, this is not sufficient or good enough; we need to be aiming higher. Children entering care often exhibit challenging behaviour resulting from their previous experiences—most often, neglect and abuse. Indeed some 45% of children entering care have a diagnosable mental health condition and some 60% are estimated to have emotional or mental health problems of some kind. But the questionnaires I mentioned earlier are completed by foster carers, who may have—it is not their fault—little or no training in mental health. These assessments should be conducted by professionals with specialist knowledge about the therapeutic needs of children in the care system.
Once the needs of a child entering care have been identified, it is also essential that they are offered the appropriate support to enable recovery. A recent survey conducted by the NSPCC highlighted that almost
80% of professionals think that accessing support for children with a diagnosable mental health condition has become harder in the past five years. The NSPCC’s recent analysis of local transformation plans to support the implementation of the Future in Mind report recommendations, in relation specifically to children in care, is not particularly encouraging.
We badly need to develop a holistic approach towards the mental health and well-being of children in care. It is not rocket science; it just needs to be given a far higher priority. A statutory entitlement to a mental assessment would provide the necessary catalyst to action.
I turn now to corporate parenting. Parents will always ensure that they seek the best for their children and the state should be no different. I agree that placing a duty on all parts of local government to act in the best interests of children and young people, both in and leaving care, is a welcome development. But that does not go far enough. For the reasons I have already set out, I believe firmly that the corporate parenting principles should also apply to health commissioners, including clinical commissioning groups and NHS England. The recent report of the Education Select Committee in the other place highlighted the fact that mental health services tend to be reluctant to assess or treat young people until they are believed to be stable in their placement, as well as highlighting difficulties with GP registration.
I support the call for all CCGs to appoint a lead local clinician to support the mental health of children in care and care leavers, building on the existing designated doctor role. I would like to see the corporate parenting responsibility principles apply at national level to government departments as well, including the introduction of a general duty on the Secretary of State to promote the emotional health and well-being of children in care and care leavers, similar to the overarching duties in relation to physical health and education. I look forward very much to debating these points during the passage of the Bill.
I turn briefly to adoption. The Bill underlines the Government’s determination to drive longer term decision-making through the court system. In my view, the recent decline in the number of children adopted from care will be tackled only through closer working and greater understanding between social workers and the judiciary, and a clear understanding that adoption is not the right solution for every child. Each child is unique and we should never adopt a “one size fits all” mindset in this area.
When talking to young people in the care system, despite all the problems they have experienced, I am often struck by how many of them have had a positive experience of the care system. Research shows that the love and support of foster families or kinship carers can help children in their educational outcomes and emotional well-being. I am not in any way complacent about the problems we are trying to tackle here. But the strong current policy focus on adoption should not distract us from the importance of other types of long-term and short-term care for vulnerable children. I would like to see the same focus on investing in families, to promote safer and better parenting, as there is, rightly, on supporting foster carers and adopters.
Finally, I admit to being a tad underwhelmed by the way in which the family test has been applied, as set out in the impact assessment. In the somewhat scant section on the impact on family relationships of the clauses relating to adoption and permanency, there is a fleeting reference to the relationship that a child may have built with a prospective adopter but nothing about children’s wishes and feelings about relationships they value or may want to preserve, such as sibling relationships.
Moving on, despite the very good measures in the Bill aimed at care leavers, which other noble Lords have already referred to, I am concerned about the lack of emphasis on ensuring that care leavers do not face poverty, debt and financial exclusion. Here, I should perhaps remind the House that I have just had the privilege of becoming the chair of the Lords Select Committee on Financial Exclusion. In my early research into this arena, it was drawn to my attention by the Children’s Society and other charities that many care leavers are reliant on financial support from the benefits system for their living costs, that, compared with the general working population, care leavers are three times more likely to have had a benefit sanction applied to them, and that council tax debt can have a particularly damaging effect on them due to the rapid escalation of enforcement methods used by local authorities.
On that last point, it seems a nonsense for local authorities to give with one hand and take back with the other, sometimes with no join-up between different council departments. So I was very interested to see that, despite austerity, some far-sighted local authorities have introduced an exemption from council tax for care leavers until the age of 25, including those placed out of borough. There is a lot that the Bill could do to promote the financial inclusion of care leavers and I hope that there will be an opportunity to consider these issues during the passage of the Bill.
I had proposed to say a few words on innovation and Clause 15 but my noble friend Lady Pinnock expressed very powerfully what I wanted to say. Therefore, I find that there is no need to repeat those points and shall confine myself to one matter. I strongly hope that any proposed exemptions from existing requirements under social care legislation granted under Clause 15 will be subject to proper parliamentary scrutiny, specifically through the affirmative resolution procedure.
I conclude by saying something about the overall tone of our deliberations. Our debate so far—there is of course much more to come—has, quite rightly, focused on improving the lives of some of the most disadvantaged and vulnerable children in society. Surely this is a cause around which we can all rally. However, I want to make a plea for our debate also to recognise the incredibly tough job that social workers do, making professional judgments in highly contested and contentious areas of family life that, frankly, most people would run a mile from. Too often they are damned if they do and damned if they don’t.
The stereotypical and often very negative portrayal of social workers in the press is far from the reality that I encounter in my daily work. I feel that we in this House have a duty to ensure that their value to society is recognised—indeed, the Minister made that point in his opening remarks—and that their professional standing
is enhanced. Of course improvements must be made, but this must be done with a clear understanding of the overall context, which other noble Lords have already referred to. It is one of rising demand leading to ever-larger case loads, of falling resources and high turnover, and a workforce who can often feel beleaguered. We ask social workers to do one of the toughest jobs there is; it is incumbent upon us to give them the support and backing they need. The lives of some of the most vulnerable children in our country depend on it.
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