I thank all noble Lords who have contributed to this debate and start by addressing Amendments 30 and 32. Comprehensive legislation in this area is already in place and the local offer and support of personal advisers will strengthen existing arrangements. Under Section 22 of the Children and Families Act 2014, local authorities must identify all the children or young people in their area who have special educational
needs or a disability. If needs are identified, a series of legal obligations will result in the local authority securing the necessary special educational provision. The statutory SEND code of practice sets out the detailed requirements on local authorities in relation to identifying and meeting special educational needs, including speech, language and communication. In addition, I reassure the noble Lord, Lord Ramsbotham, and the noble Lord, Lord Watson, that we expect details of services to meet speech, language and education needs—including how they can be accessed—to be included in the local offer, which every local authority is required to publish in consultation with children, parents and young people.
The department also funds a consortium of more than 40 voluntary and community sector organisations to support practitioners working in the field of speech, language and communication. The department recently extended the contract, awarding a total of £650,000 in 2016-17 to extend and strengthen the evidence base around SLCN, increase awareness of speech, language and communication needs, and build capacity in the sector so that it can indeed provide the support that all noble Lords feel is so important. Virtual school heads, working with designated teachers and special educational needs co-ordinators, should also identify the support that looked-after children need in speech, language and communication. I know that under further groups of amendments today we will discuss in more detail the role of virtual school heads.
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Existing regulations and standards also ensure that foster carers and carers in residential homes can meet the needs of the young people for whom they care. On these amendments, and Amendment 63, I reassure noble Lords that the care and pathway planning process already addresses speech and communication needs. Pathway plans must include an assessment of the needs of care leavers with a view to determining what assistance, if any, it would be appropriate for them to provide. This will include those needs relating to speech, language and communication. As we have said already in debates on these clauses, we will publish guidance regarding this legislation to set out in detail how local authorities might apply the new corporate parenting principles. The content of the guidance will, of course, be a matter for full deliberation and consultation, but I fully expect it to cover this very important area.
On Amendment 57, personal advisers have an important role to play. They are the key professionals responsible for identifying and co-ordinating provision of services, including those to support any speech, language and communication needs. Personal advisers’ responsibilities to inform care leavers of the services that they may access is already covered in existing legal duties and functions, and by Clause 3 of the Bill. Our review of the personal adviser role will address some of the issues that the noble Lord, Lord Storey, raised, as it will consider what further guidance or stipulation is necessary.
On Amendments 35 and 46, under the Equality Act, local authorities are already required to ensure that the services they offer and information they produce are readily accessible to care leavers with disabilities.
They cannot put anyone with a disability at a disadvantage. We will ensure that the departmental guidance that will accompany this legislation is clear on this point. The guidance will make sure that local authorities take reasonable steps to ensure that care leavers can understand and access the support and services available to them in the local offer, expressed in a way that is clear and easy to understand. The noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley, gave some examples in other areas, such as health, where innovative approaches are being used by local services to ensure that they are accessible to all. We certainly want to encourage local authorities to share best practice and consider using different types of technology. The local office for SEND must be kept under review and, when local authorities receive suggestions and comments, they must say what they have done with them. While I agree, of course, that the services local authorities provide should be of high quality, imposing a requirement to score services is not the best way in which to achieve that. Local authorities already have evaluation, management and records systems in place, and are subject to inspection by Ofsted. They will also be placed under a duty to consult care leavers before publishing or updating their local offer. That consultation will include seeking feedback about the services that are provided.
With regard to Amendments 44, 65, 67 and 69, I hope noble Lords are reassured by what I have said. Existing duties, Clause 3, and accompanying guidance will ensure that care leavers are informed about the support they can get, in a way that they understand, and helped to access the services they need.
I turn to Amendments 38 and 40, and the very important matter of support for young people leaving care in managing their finances, as highlighted by, among others, the noble Lord, Lord Ramsbotham, and the noble Baroness, Lady Bakewell. Noble Lords will be aware that many local authorities already provide support in this regard. Indeed, one key aspect of a young person’s pathway plan is to help the care leaver to develop,
“the practical and other skills necessary for independent living”,
which, of course, includes budgeting and financial awareness.
Clause 2 sets out the main subject areas which we believe the local offer should cover to assist care leavers in preparing for adulthood and independent living. It is a non-exhaustive list, and the local authority will have the flexibility to include other subject areas that it thinks should be part of its local offer. As we discussed in Committee last Wednesday, our intention is to provide guidance on what a local area might include in its local offer. My noble friend and I fully agree that care leavers should be helped to develop financial skills and understanding of how to manage their finances effectively to help them to achieve independence and avoid running into financial difficulties. As noted, our intention is to include further information on this in the guidance.
Finally, I turn to Amendment 39. I reassure my noble friend Lord Farmer and the noble Baroness, Lady Tyler, that the whole thrust of what we seek to achieve through the Bill is the reinforcement of the importance of relationships and helping children and young people to recover from their pre-care experiences
to make a successful transition to independence. The importance of relationships is central to the corporate parenting principles. As noble Lords will know, good corporate parents already support care leavers in developing relationships in a range of practical ways that have wider benefits. For example, Stoke-on-Trent City Council has set up an independent housing company, the House Project, which is run by, with and for care leavers.
Clause 2 already prescribes the broad areas that the local offer should include. We will publish guidance for local authorities and I would fully expect it to say that they should include in their offers information about relationship education among the services available for care leavers. Our forthcoming care leavers strategy will set out our plans to ensure that care leavers are better supported to develop and sustain the social networks that support them in their transition to adulthood and beyond.
Clause 3 will enable care leavers to maintain their relationship with their personal adviser, whom they often see as a linchpin in their lives, until the age of 25. One function of the personal adviser is to co-ordinate the provision of services and to take reasonable steps to ensure that the young person makes use of them. They will also, through the pathway planning process, identify ways in which the care leaver can develop and maintain positive attachments.
My noble friend Lord Farmer talked about family-finding services. Building on success in the United States, the Family Rights Group is now testing this approach in a number of local authorities. This is exactly the sort of approach that we want to test more widely as part of our forthcoming care leavers strategy. I hope that the noble Lord will feel reassured enough to withdraw his amendment.