My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Baronesses, Lady Howe, Lady Walmsley and Lady Pinnock, and to the noble Lords, Lord Ramsbotham, Lord Bichard, Lord Hunt and Lord Watson for their amendments relating to the corporate parenting principle set out in Clause 1. The noble Lord, Lord Ramsbotham, commented on timing and I can assure him that the usual channels, as he so comprehensively described them, will be made aware of his point.
In designing the seven principles, the Government have set out the key decisions that young people tell us are of fundamental importance to being a good corporate parent. Given their importance, it is absolutely right that we should debate the principles to ensure that when they are enacted, they do what is intended—namely, to change the culture within local authorities so that they take into account the needs of looked-after children and care leavers when discharging their functions.
At the outset, I want to be clear that the Government intend that the corporate parenting principles will have a life beyond the statute book. My honourable friend the Minister for Children and Families tells me that he wants every social worker, housing chief, leaving care adviser and council leader to have those principles on the wall of his or her office. He wants them to be discussed at council meetings, at looked-after children review meetings, and by foster carers when they talk to their children’s teachers. In short, he wants to drive a culture of good corporate parenting across the whole local authority and not just through the children’s services team. We cannot change culture through legislation alone, but we can legislate to influence how
people talk about their responsibilities and how they discharge those responsibilities in relation to looked-after children and care leavers.
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Amendment 1 seeks to broaden the corporate parenting principles to relevant partner agencies and to strengthen the emphasis that local authorities place on them. I understand why the noble Baroness, Lady Howe, seeks this change. The thrust of Amendments, 6, 8, 11, 12, 13, 15 and 20 tabled by the noble Lords, Lord Ramsbotham and Lord Bichard, and the noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley, are in a similar vein. Amendment 7, from the noble Lords, Lord Watson and Lord Hunt, also seeks to strengthen the way in which local authorities would be required to apply the principles. Amendments 18 and 19 from the noble Baronesses, Lady Walmsley and Lady Pinnock, and the noble Lord, Lord Ramsbotham, look to strengthen how local authorities keep safe children in care and care leavers and promote stability in their lives.
Much of what I say in response to this group of amendments applies as a whole, and I shall therefore speak to them as a whole. There is already a comprehensive set of duties on local authorities required by the Children Act 1989 in regard to looked-after children and care leavers. This is further supported by statutory guidance. Interagency co-operation is also vital for providing coherent services for looked-after children and care leavers. Under Section 10 of the Children Act 2004, local authorities must make arrangements to promote co-operation between themselves and partner agencies, including health agencies.
We are about changing culture and spreading good practice, as the noble Baroness, Lady Howarth, said, and putting the local authority in loco parentis—I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Watson, for supporting this view—and not, as my noble and learned friend Lord Mackay said, having a range of bodies with responsibility. We do not want to create a complicated and confusing tick-box approach, burdening local authorities with a whole raft of extra duties. I am grateful to the noble and learned Baroness, Lady Butler-Sloss, for her comments in that regard. Quite rightly, noble Lords want to ensure that looked-after children and care leavers can access services beyond those provided by local authorities, particularly in relation to mental health. Indeed, this Government, too, want to ensure a far greater attention to the mental health of those in care who have suffered abuse and neglect.
Noble Lords will recall the publication last year of the Government’s mental health strategy, Future in Mind, which marked our commitment to transforming child mental health and well-being services. This landmark publication seeks to end the frustration of having to fight for help or be in crisis before anybody acts. Our £1.4 billion investment will go a long way in establishing accessible child mental health services, and nowhere is that more important than for looked-after children.
I would like to speak briefly to Amendment 8, proposed by the noble Lord, Lord Ramsbotham, which seeks to ensure that the behaviour of children in care is viewed and managed in the same way that a reasonable
parent would manage the challenging behaviour of their own children. I wholeheartedly agree that local authorities should adopt a restorative approach whenever possible, so that police intervention is viewed not as a first but as a last resort. I stress, too, that the vast majority of looked-after children do not get into trouble with the law, so I would not want to give undue emphasis to criminalisation by adding an explicit reference in the principles. I am also mindful not to pre-empt Sir Martin Narey’s review into children’s residential care, or the review of the youth justice system that Charlie Taylor has been commissioned to carry out. Both reviews will be published in due course, and I know that both are looking into the issues of criminalising children.
Principle (f) requires the local authority to have regard to the need for children in care and care leavers,
“to be safe and for stability in their home lives, relationships and education or work”.
That is an important principle, and I understand why the noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley, and the noble Lord, Lord Ramsbotham, seek to strengthen it. We all agree that it is essential that local authorities act in a way that ensures that children in care and care leavers are kept safe. Protecting children from harm is the reason why children are taken into care in the first place, and safety should be a central consideration in all subsequent decisions about the child or young person—for example, regarding who cares for them and where they are placed. That is what principle (f) provides for, and I believe it achieves that aim. I am not convinced that the amendments tabled by the noble Baroness and the noble Lord alter the effect of the clause, or that the proposed changes would drive local authorities to act any differently from how they would in order to adhere to the principle as it is currently drafted.
I also remind noble Lords that the Children Act 1989 sets out a range of specific duties that local authorities must discharge in respect of looked-after children and care leavers, including a duty to safeguard and promote the welfare of looked-after children under Section 22.
With regard to care leavers, local authorities also have duties in relation to ensuring that they are housed in suitable accommodation, defined as accommodation that is safe, secure and affordable. I also reassure noble Lords that the associated statutory guidance will set out how local authorities might apply these principles in more detail. This will include how a local authority might keep looked-after children and care leavers safe and provide stability in their lives. For instance, a local authority might decide not to apply the “intentionally homeless” rules as strictly for care leavers in some circumstances.
I recognise why noble Lords may wonder whether the phrasing of the legislation—to “have regard to” the principles—is sufficiently strong. They will ask whether instead local authorities should have to ensure that they meet the need to carry out those principles. Amendments in this group, in various ways, seek to change that terminology. In establishing the seven principles, we seek to articulate the kinds of things that a local authority must have in its mind and
culture when it exercises its functions in relation to this vulnerable group. Our intention is to provide a clear and helpful point of reference, and to drive a shift in approach where necessary.
Given that the principles are about how local authorities carry out their existing functions in relation to looked-after children and care leavers, the principles should not, and were never intended to, be about limiting the discretion of a local authority in how they are applied. The corporate parenting principles build on the 1989 Act, and the wording of the clause means that local authorities must have regard to the principles—they cannot disregard them—but they have flexibility in terms of how they carry them out. The guidance will inform how that works in principle and in practice.
As I said when I began my response to these amendments, the Government seek to embed a strong corporate parenting culture in every local authority. We need to strike a balance between a top-down and a grass-roots approach. In other words, particularly if we want to avoid unintended consequences and a tick-box approach to parenting by the state, the legislation needs to be sensible and proportionate. We want to give local authorities the freedom to meet the needs of looked-after children and care leavers in the way that works best for them. For example, it might be that the local authority decides to waive council tax for care leavers under 22 or under 25 as they do in North Somerset.
On the point made by the noble Baronesses, Lady Lister and Lady Armstrong, about parents in poverty and the particular stress that that may involve, local authorities have duties under Section 17 of the Children Act 1989 to help families who are struggling to prevent children being taken into care. Once they are taken into care, though, under the existing care planning and review system the local authority must involve the parents and guardians in the care planning for children taken into care, unless that is not in the best interests of the child.
The noble Baroness, Lady Benjamin, talked about children having all the skills necessary for adult living, including the skills of parenthood. That may be something that, hopefully, can be covered in the local offers from local authorities. The noble Earl, Lord Listowel, made a very important point about keeping siblings together. This is something that I will cover in a later amendment, if I may.
With regard to the very good point made by the noble Baroness, Lady Armstrong, about learning from what goes on in other countries, I agree that we in this country often take rather myopic approach to what happens. I will go back to see whether we have looked enough at other countries’ experiences.
I hope that I have been able to provide enough reassurance to the noble Baronesses, Lady Howe and Lady Walmsley, and the noble Lords, Lord Bichard, Lord Watson, Lord Hunt and Lord Ramsbotham, on the corporate parenting principles and that they will feel able to withdraw and not move their amendments.