My Lords, it is a pleasure to speak in favour of this Bill. The Bill ties up some very important loose ends when it comes to the protection of vulnerable children and the contact they come into with the state, especially when leaving care. One important anomaly which has been resolved is that the Bill gives prospective adopters with whom the child is placed the same rights as birth parents in care proceedings. This has been a persistent issue in care proceeding cases, and has given the impression that children and prospective adopters are somewhat less than a family. I am glad that this has been resolved.
Another important proposal is that social workers will be required to factor in harm previously suffered, or likely to be suffered, for children involved in care proceedings. This will have to be part of their permanency assessments and plans. Of course, for almost every social worker, this is already happening. For a child taken into care because of a violent or abusive upbringing, it is a critical factor. Enshrining the principle in law is an important step in codifying the pathway that leads to a secure future for caregivers. In this and the other place, senior Members have been pushing for increased devolution of services. I firmly believe that this is a sensible agenda to take forward. It gives power to those who know best how to use it and shifts decision-making further down the impact chain to the people directly affected.
Both the Prime Minister and the Secretary of State for Education have spoken about giving the higher-performing children’s services academy-style powers. I am glad to see that there was a wide-ranging consultation with eight high-achieving “partners in practice” to write the Bill. Legislation without consultation provides the worst law. The Bill allows the Secretary of State to modify the way statutory duties apply to a local authority in regard to the 1970, 1989 and 2004 Acts. This is a sensible development. Some of the legislative burdens on children’s services are outdated and irrelevant. Allowing high achievers to request an opt-out from regulatory burdens that do not provide a tangible benefit is just common sense. Furthermore, the flexibility to find different ways of working can yield lessons for government and further reform to make services more impactful.
As with all devolution, this must go hand in hand with more robust oversight. In this vein, I support the new child safeguarding practice review panel, to be established by the Secretary of state. It will identify serious child safeguarding cases in England that raise complex issues of national importance, and review them if necessary. It is my hope that any cases that arise which involve institutional failings are written in consultation with the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse led by Dame Goddard. Joined-up, cross-inquiry thinking is always more effective than individual reviews.
Finally, I welcome the positive development, loaned from the Children and Families Act 2014, of the local offer. Requiring local authorities to make care leavers aware of services is an uncontentious and sensible proposal.
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