My Lords, I shall speak to Amendments 10, 16, 17, 21 to 25, 28, 33 and 34, 80A and 81A, 84A and 87 regarding the promotion of the mental, physical, emotional and social health and well-being of looked-after children and care leavers, as well as their educational outcomes, along with the educational outcomes of children who leave care and return to their parents. I fully agree that promoting the mental health and social and emotional well-being of looked-after children and care leavers and promoting positive
educational outcomes for these groups is critically important, and I shall deal with each of the amendments in turn.
I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Massey of Darwen, for her Amendment 10 and the noble Baroness, Lady Tyler, for her Amendment 34. The Government have made clear in Section 1 of the Health and Social Care Act 2012 that a comprehensive health service is one that addresses mental as well as physical illness. The Government’s intention is to ensure that the first corporate parenting principle, which refers to promoting the health and well-being of looked-after children and care leavers, is interpreted as covering both the physical and mental aspects. We think that this is clear in the Bill as currently drafted, but we will clarify the position in associated statutory guidance.
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I turn now to Amendments 16 and 21, tabled by the noble Baroness, Lady Massey, and my noble friend Lord O’Shaughnessy, which focus on social and emotional outcomes and character strength. I completely agree with the noble Baroness, Lady Massey, that we want to see children in care achieve and excel in all areas of their lives, including social and emotional outcomes. I assure the noble Baroness that the word “outcomes” is wide enough to include social and emotional outcomes, but we will make that clear in statutory guidance. Children’s care plans already include the need to identify appropriate outcomes for health, education, family and social relationships, social identity, social presentation, self-care, and emotional and behavioural development.
I am grateful for the amendment of my noble friend Lord O’Shaughnessy which focuses on character strengths and improving mental health in preparation for adulthood and independent living. I agree that these are very important elements of support, but we do not believe that central government should mandate exactly how local authorities should prepare their young people for independence. However, it could well be set out in local offers. It is also important to allow flexibility.
We expect local authorities to have regard to the views, wishes and feelings of looked-after children and care leavers and to respond to their individual needs. We will produce statutory guidance to steer them through this process and will of course consult on the guidance while it is under development.
We would like local offers to cover all the skills that young people leaving care should have developed, a point made very forcefully to me by a young girl in care with whom I recently had an interesting discussion.
I am grateful to the noble Baroness, Lady Tyler, for Amendment 87, which proposes an amendment to the Children Act 1989. I can confirm that Section 22 of that Act already prescribes the general duties of local authorities in relation to looked-after children. Existing regulations also require the authority to make arrangements for a registered medical practitioner to carry out an assessment of the child’s state of health and provide a written report of the health assessment. The aim of the assessment is to provide a comprehensive health profile of the child to identify those issues that had been overlooked in the past and that may need to be addressed in order to improve the child’s mental,
physical and emotional well-being, and to provide a basis for monitoring a child’s development while having looked-after status.
Our investment of £1.4 billion over the lifetime of this Parliament will go a long way in establishing accessible child mental health and well-being services. Nowhere is that more important than for looked-after children. However, it is an important principle that entry to the care system should be based on need rather than because of the circumstances of children’s upbringings.
The noble Baroness, Lady Benjamin, made the point about the lack of therapeutic support for abused children. We agree that it is essential for children who have been abused to be able to access support, as stated in the NSPCC report. The investment of £1.4 billion, to which I have already referred, will lead to a significant increase in access to high-quality, evidence-based services. We also need to ensure that this funding is used to improve preventive and early intervention, including through more support in schools and foster care training.
The noble Baroness, Lady Tyler, and the noble Lord, Lord Warner, made the point that there is little evidence that access to CAMHS is based on clinical need. We agree that many looked-after children are currently unable to access services. The local transformation plans show how every area will address these issues and, we are assured, the basis on which they address the needs of all children, particularly those who are vulnerable.
We know that approximately half of all looked-after children do not show signs of mental health difficulties following the strengths and difficulties mental health questionnaire that is completed for all looked-after children. However, it is right that we should ensure a timely and effective response for those who need help and support. Automatic mental health assessment on entry to care would not be an effective nor efficient use of our healthcare resources.
However, a universal approach to assessment and need cannot be justified, regardless of financial pressures. Existing preliminary screening, which can be followed by more targeted assessment and support, is what current arrangements deliver and is the right thing to do. Approaches that use screening can capitalise on the carer’s views as the child starts to settle in the placement and mental health and emotional well-being needs start to emerge. Indeed, Teresa Latham, a foster carer who gave evidence at the Education Committee recently, said that a child on day one is not the same child six weeks later. So many areas develop in that period of time.
It is right that we should continue to review whether our approach is the right one. That is why we have established an expert group on the mental health of looked-after children, those adopted from care and care leavers. Led by Professor Peter Fonagy and Alison O’Sullivan, its role is to develop care pathways and models of mental health care for these children, meaning that all professionals will be working to the same agreed standard of care. Their work is expected to take about 18 months, and we will be looking at their outcomes and recommendations with great interest.
I would now like to turn to Amendments 22, 24, 28, and 33 proposed by the noble Baronesses, Lady Massey of Darwen, Lady Walmsley and Lady Howe of Idlicote, and my noble and learned friend Lord Mackay of Clashfern. The first three amendments concern the corporate parenting principles proposed in the Bill, while Amendment 33 would place a new duty on local authorities to appoint a member of staff to be responsible for the well-being of each looked-after child. Underpinning all is a concern that care should be child-centred and take account of the different needs and circumstances of individual looked-after children. These are concerns that I am sure are shared by all across the Committee.
When a child enters care, the statutory process of assessment and care planning requires that the child and their needs are considered carefully and holistically. The child’s background, the community they come from and any support needs they have as a result of past experiences such as abuse and neglect must be taken fully into account. The child’s placement and support around the child should then be tailored accordingly. This includes helping children to continue any religious instruction they may be undertaking, or allowing them to take part in festivals or ceremonies of significance to their culture.
Effective assessment and care planning should already take account of contact with the family, including siblings, where this is in the child’s interests. Section 34 of the Children Act 1989 sets out clear expectations on where reasonable contact should be considered, and gives powers to the court to order contact. Assessment and care planning should also identify and ensure appropriate responses to trauma. It sets the framework for action, and children’s social workers and care leavers’ personal advisers are the key professionals to ensure that the response happens.
The key ingredient of addressing the effects of early-life trauma is to promote stability in children’s lives. The changes in decision-making for long-term care placements in Clauses 8 and 9 of the Bill, and the regulations that we introduced in 2015, which promote the effectiveness of long-term foster care placements, all support the stability of looked-after children. We recognise that effective support for the most vulnerable and traumatised children also requires strong partnership between social workers and mental health professionals. As I have said, the Government’s children and young people’s mental health strategy, Future in Mind, marks our commitment to transform child mental health and well-being services.
The amendment from the noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley, also references the importance of promoting children’s rights and entitlements. I reassure her that principles (1)(b) and (1)(c), which would require local authorities to have regard to the need to encourage children to express their views, wishes and feelings, and then to take those wishes and feelings into account, were expressly designed to ensure the promotion of the child’s rights and entitlements and to put their individual personalities, talents and interests at the heart of their care. That is a child-centred approach.
I turn to the amendment proposed by my noble and learned friend Lord Mackay of Clashfern. We share his concern to strengthen accountability within local authorities and to ensure that every child in care
receives the services and support that they deserve. The first of the corporate parenting principles—to act in the best interests and promote the health and well-being of looked-after children—is central and will apply across all local authority functions. It will embed a culture of good parenting across the whole authority, complementing the responsibilities that individual social workers and independent reviewing officers already have in relation to each looked-after child. I do not believe that appointing one individual in a local authority will achieve the better outcomes for looked-after children that we are seeking. Indeed, it could work against everyone in the local authority accepting mutual responsibility.
I am grateful to my noble friend Lady Hodgson for the two amendments that she has tabled. Amendment 23 concerns keeping siblings together and Amendment 25 would require local authorities to have regard to the need, wherever possible, for a child to be looked after by a relative, friend or other connected person.
In relation to siblings, the Government agree that it is vital, wherever possible and consistent with children’s welfare, that brothers and sisters are able to live together. We all know that close sibling relationships can be an important source of support throughout life. They can also be a protective factor for vulnerable looked-after children. I am pleased to say that there are already extensive measures in place to ensure that sibling relationships are protected and prioritised wherever possible. Section 22C(8)(c) of the Children Act 1989 requires local authorities to find a placement for looked-after children such that siblings can live together. In addition, volume 2 of the Children Act 1989 statutory guidance and its associated regulations make it clear that wherever it is in the best interests of the child, siblings should be placed together.
If, for whatever reason, the local authority is unable to place siblings together, the Government’s statutory guidance is clear that the active involvement of all parties is needed to facilitate contact between siblings in a way that supports the development of healthy sibling relationships. Moreover, IROs should ensure that care plan review meetings consider whether sibling contact commitments in care plans have been appropriately implemented and that the child is happy with the quality and frequency of the contact they have.
Looking beyond siblings to wider relationships, the Government recognise how vital it is that children and young people are helped to maintain family and other close relationships. Section 22C of the Children Act 1989 already sets out a clear hierarchy of placements for looked-after children. Local authorities must give preference to placements with an individual who is a parent, a person with parental responsibility, a relative, a friend or another person connected with the child. My noble friend Lady Hodgson mentioned kinship care. As I say, looked-after children are placed according to a hierarchy. Priority is given to kinship care. Local authorities must place looked-after children with kinship local authority foster carers in preference to non-kinship foster carers. Local authorities are required to publish a policy setting out their approach to supporting the needs of children living with family and friends, and we have provided a grant to grandparents to develop
an early help model for kinship carers. We will of course ensure that these issues are factored into the statutory guidance that will underpin our new corporate parenting principles.
The noble Baroness also raised the issue of safeguarding welfare. Local authorities are already under a direct duty to safeguard and promote the welfare of looked-after children by virtue of Section 22 of the Children Act 1989.
I turn to Amendment 17, tabled by my noble friend Lord O’Shaughnessy. The amendment proposes to amend principle (1)(e), the fifth principle, so that local authorities would have to have regard to the need to secure the best educational outcomes for looked-after children and care leavers. The Government is committed to achieving educational excellence for every child, including looked-after children and care leavers. My noble friend referred to the 50% key stage 2 figure. That obviously is nowhere near good enough, but it has risen by 10% over the past few years. Still, obviously we have a long way to go.
I can understand why, when we mention promoting health and well-being, not to include in the principles an explicit mention of education appears to be an oversight. I assure the Committee that that is not the case. The Children Act 1989 already provides for a range of duties that local authorities must discharge in respect of the children they look after. This includes a specific duty to promote the educational achievement of the children it looks after. Every looked-after child must have a care plan, which includes a personal education plan. We have made the role of virtual school heads statutory, while corporate parenting principle (1)(f) specifically mentions education. Looked-after children also attract pupil premium funding worth £1,900, and pathway plans for care leavers should also include information about how the local authority will support care leavers in their educational aspirations and career ambitions. They are a priority for the 16-19 bursary, worth £1,200 annually, and they also receive a one-off bursary of £2,000 if they progress to higher education.
Support is also available to help care leavers to access higher education. They are a target group in the Director of Fair Access guidance to universities in writing their access arrangements. Support from a personal adviser up to the age of 25 is already available to those in education and training, and we propose to extend that.
I turn to Amendments 80A, 81A and 84A, put forward by the noble Baroness, Lady Massey, which seek to extend the duty of the virtual school head and the designated teacher, in both academies and maintained schools, to promote the educational achievement of children who ceased to be looked after because they returned home to the care of their birth parent or parents. I agree with the noble Baroness that children taken into care but who later return to their birth parent or parents may also be vulnerable and need extra support in education. Many of these children come from disadvantaged backgrounds, and it is important that they and their families are given all the support they need.
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Where a child ceases to be looked after because they return home, the child will be a “child in need” and a plan must be drawn up to identify the support and services that will be needed by the child and family to ensure that the return home is successful. Like other children who are disadvantaged, these children’s needs should be met by mainstream educational services. Many will be eligible for additional educational entitlements, such as free early education from the age of two and the pupil premium.
I agree that we must take care not to dilute the role of the virtual school head to the extent that they are spread too thinly. Many of them already operate flexibly and extend their support to former looked-after children, ensuring that their advice, support and advocacy role is targeted in proportion to the needs of the children whose interests they are responsible for. That is already happening and will continue.
We have covered a lot of issues in this group of amendments. In the light of my comments and those made by the noble Baroness, Lady Howarth, about how putting all these things on the face of the Bill would restrict local authorities’ ability to think through where there is greatest need and how we should share good practice, I hope that noble Lords will be prepared to withdraw their amendments.