My Lords, I beg to move Amendment 75 and shall speak to Amendment 135 in my name. Amendment 75 puts a general duty on the Secretary of State to promote the rights and well-being of looked-after children and care leavers. The state’s care of children unable to live with their families carries enormous legal, moral and financial responsibilities. Although local authorities are of course directly responsible for individual children, central Government support the care system through policy development and sourcing, as well as public awareness raising to ensure public support for this serious duty. That is why I believe that it warrants a general duty on the Secretary of State akin to those which exist in relation to health and education. While those two elements of service provision to looked-after children are really important, factors affecting where they are looked after and by whom, what therapies are provided, how they are
involved with decisions relating to their care and how it is all paid for are also important enough to require a general duty on the Secretary of State in charge.
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Data collected for the NSPCC concluded that the rate of confirmed abuse in residential care in England was 3.3 in every 100 children in 2011-12. In institutional settings, there are alarmingly high numbers of abuse allegations which local authorities find to be unsubstantiated, suggesting that children still struggle to be believed. For example, one local authority said that it had received 82 abuse allegations in three years from children detained in its local young offender institution but every single one was found to be unsubstantiated. Central government policy directly affects these children, which is why they need a ministerial champion with a defined statutory role. The review led by the noble Lord, Lord Laming, of the overrepresentation of children in care in the criminal justice system calls for,
“strong and determined leadership at national and local levels”.
This has been advocated time and time again in respect of looked-after children. Amendment 75 would make the rights and well-being of looked-after children and care leavers an unambiguous political priority by putting the duty on the Secretary of State.
Amendment 135 would place a duty on public authorities to have due regard, when safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and its optional protocols. It would require them to determine the impact of local service provision and decision-making on the rights of children and provide a framework for public service delivery. Rights become real for children at the local level: in their homes, schools and communities and through their contact with local services and practitioners. Yet research has shown that too many children continue to experience violations of their rights, such as lack of access to mental health services or living in overcrowded, damp accommodation. The far-reaching cuts to local authority budgets have resulted in a 40% real-terms reduction to their funding, which has inevitably impacted in particular on preventive services, including those for children.
The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child said in its recent examination of the UK’s child rights record that it was,
“seriously concerned at the effects that recent fiscal policies and allocation of resources have had”,
and that they are,
“disproportionately affecting children in disadvantaged situations”.
The UN committee urged the UK to introduce a statutory obligation to consider children’s needs,
“when developing laws and policies affecting children”.
The Bill gives us an opportunity to do just that. This duty for public authorities would require them routinely to consider the impact of policies and decision-making on children, thus ensuring that vulnerable children do not bear the brunt of any future spending cuts.
Political and administrative duties play an important part in putting children’s rights into practice as, for example, the duty on public authorities to act compatibly
with the European Convention on Human Rights clearly shows. That duty has ensured equal financial support for family members and non-family members who foster children, and has confirmed that children staying in hospital for a long period still receive disability living allowance. As the Committee can see, such a duty works.
The evidence shows that the most powerful driver for implementation of the CRC within a nation comes through giving direct force to the CRC in domestic law. Incorporation through a duty on public authorities should enable the provisions of the CRC to be invoked directly before the courts and ensure that it prevails where there is a conflict with domestic legislation or common practice, in the same way as the European Convention on Human Rights has been incorporated by means of the Human Rights Act—and it works, as I have just said. Although my amendment does not bring full incorporation of the UNCRC into UK law, to be within the scope of this Bill it provides a duty in relation to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children.
England is lagging behind the rest of the UK in terms of legislative protections for children’s rights. The legal machinery for securing children’s rights in England is significantly weaker than in the devolved Administrations and, as a result, local implementation of the CRC is inconsistent. It relies on an ad hoc approach to child rights impact assessments and the efforts of some very committed individuals.
Few local authorities have an explicit child rights plan or strategy in place. Evidence from UNICEF UK’s work indicates that local authorities do not always understand the full extent of the rights and duties set out in the CRC and often limit children’s rights to participation and voice. Indeed, in response to the group led by Amendment 10 last week, the Minister said that “rights” were covered by Clause 1(1)(b) and (c) because they deal with children being able to express their wishes and feelings. The UNCRC goes much wider than that. There is no evidence of a systematic use of child rights impact assessments to determine which services to cut when budgets are tight, and that is why we need Amendment 135. I beg to move.