My Lords, in the last hour or so we have heard a lot of talk about prevention, and the Minister latterly talked about life chances. My amendments today cover both prevention and life chances, and I wish to speak to Amendments 10, 16, 22 and 80A in this group.
Amendment 10 calls for mental health to be included in the definition of health. Amendment 16 comes in the part of the Bill on the best interests of children and supports the development of high aspirations in promoting “social and emotional” outcomes. Amendment 22 comes within the guidance for staff members for looked-after pupils and would reinstate issues for child welfare that were in the Children Act 1989. I agree with the noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley, about this; I do not know where that Act has gone but it had such a lot of good things in it and was complete. I shall talk later on about the importance of taking into account certain things in that Act, such as age, gender, vulnerability and so on. Amendment 80A would add the category of,
“returning home to the care of a parent”,
to those looked-after children who have ceased to be looked after by the local authority.
Amendments in this group tabled by other noble Lords come in between my amendments and are to do with respecting the background of children and promoting well-being, prevention and life chances. I leave it to the capable hands of other noble Lords to talk about those issues.
Amendment 10 is about mental health. I remember that at Second Reading the issue of mental health came up over and over again. I want to emphasise the
importance of attending to mental health here. The Royal College of Nursing, together with other notable organisations, has pointed out that the mental health needs are higher in looked-after children—I think one would expect that. Mental health must be addressed in the early years by carers, social workers and schools so that it does not deteriorate as children age.
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Amendment 16 is about adding social and emotional outcomes to promoting “high aspirations”. The reason for this is that young people need to aspire. To express their views and feelings and to make the best use of services, they will need social and emotional skills and not simply information about what they should do. A strong body of research suggests that children need a strong base of resilience and confidence to succeed in personal relationships, academic achievement and communication skills. I shall come on to this again much later in Amendment 86.
Amendment 22 recalls the 1989 Act. It requires a local authority, in supporting children, to take into account issues such as gender, vulnerability, religious persuasion, racial origins and linguistic background; it should also take into account the trauma and suffering that children may have experienced. This is also important. It does not appear in the Bill but it should take into account that different children have different needs. There should be a special place for children who have gone through trauma, as we know some migrant children have.
I spoke at Second Reading of the important needs of migrant children in care. I declare an interest as a Member of the EU Home Affairs Sub-Committee, which is just completing an inquiry on unaccompanied migrant children in the UK. It is a lengthy report but it will be very useful. One of our witnesses spoke of the high level of trauma in asylum-seeking children from conflict zones and the lack of attention that some local authorities give to their mental health needs. Trafficked children, too, have horrendous stories to tell and their support needs are very great. I know that many children who are not migrants or trafficked children also have had horrendous experiences and need a lot of support.
Some authorities are responsible for far more child migrants than others and need extra help to cope with the numbers. I wonder what will happen to the cash situations of local authorities helping these children, particularly crowded authorities such as Kent. We should spell out the specific groups of children who are the most vulnerable and need the most help. I hope that the Minister will look seriously at the issues relating to the prevention of life chances. I beg to move.