My Lords, I start by thanking the noble Baroness, Lady Meacher, for tabling these amendments. I am pleased to see her looking so very much better. I hope that she is indeed feeling better, although she still has a bit of a cough. Her experience has been praised across the House, and I know how much she contributes to the debates in which she takes part. As the noble Lord, Lord Kennedy, mentioned, she brought into focus the real danger of the cycle of abuse and the importance of breaking it. As the noble Lord said, what we need here is the right interventions at the right time. There is strong evidence that conflict between parents, whether together or separated, can have significant impacts on children’s mental health and on long-term life chances. We can all agree on that.
We also highly value marriage, but must acknowledge that, for many reasons, such an arrangement will not suit everyone. Marriages have their difficulties; some couples do experience conflict and may decide that it is best for those involved to end their marriage. I recognise too the particular impact that this has on children and young people. That is not, of course, to negate the importance of couples’ counselling and access to psychological therapy services. They should not be underestimated and, in many cases, they lead to reconciliation of relationships, with steps to rebuild and repair. As the noble Baroness outlined, their value is immeasurable whatever the outcome of the relationship.
On mental health services, we are absolutely committed to our ambitions in the NHS long-term plan to expand and transform mental health services in England and to invest an additional £2.3 billion a year in them by 2023-24. Under the NHS long-term plan there will be a comprehensive expansion of mental health services, ensuring that an additional 380,000 adults can access psychological therapies by 2023-24. It also commits to providing access to such therapies for specific groups, including expanding access to evidence-based psychological therapies within special perinatal mental health services, and parent, infant, couple, co-parenting and family interventions.
I turn to the specifics of the amendments. Amendments 27 and 41 relate to the role of the domestic abuse commissioner. The noble Baroness will know that Nicole Jacobs has undertaken significant action already as designate commissioner, including raising awareness of domestic abuse. She will also be responsible for monitoring and overseeing delivery of services to ensure that they are as effective, evidence-based and safe as they can be, as well as publishing information about the range of provision that currently exists for victims and survivors.
The commissioner’s general functions include the provision of support for people affected by domestic abuse. Within that, Clause 7 already provides that the commissioner may assess, monitor and publish information about the provision of services to people affected by domestic abuse. That might include the provision of relationship counselling and psychological therapy. I assure the noble Baroness that the substance of Amendment 27 is already captured by the remit of the commission as set out in Clause 7.
The Committee has heard a combination of views about ensuring the commissioner’s independence and a number of views on what she should be tasked with. The commissioner has a challenging role and will undoubtedly face many demands on her—many of them from your Lordships’ House. Respecting the independence of her office, we should leave it her to determine her priorities, as set out in her strategic plan, informed by the views of her advisory board. If we start writing into the Bill particular issues that the commissioner should address, we risk creating an unhelpful hierarchy of priorities which will constrain her freedom of action. Specifying in the legislation what should and should not feature in her strategic plan would restrict and hinder the very independence that the role requires.
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The commissioner’s strategic plan will be developed in tandem with her advisory board, as well as the Home Secretary and others. I assure the noble Baroness that the plan will be scrutinised and expertise sought on its development. I hope that reassures her that a range of areas will be considered.
In Amendment 41, the noble Baroness seeks to expand the list of specialists who must have a seat on the commissioner’s advisory board so that it includes a person with experience of the provision of psychological therapy services. There is a balance to be struck in Clause 12. We want an advisory board which includes
members with a range of experiences, but we also need to ensure that the commissioner has sufficient flexibility to appoint a board which will best assist her in discharging her functions. This is not the only amendment which seeks to add this or that category to the list of advisory board members. I put it to noble Lords that, within the framework provided for in Clause 12, we should otherwise leave it to the commissioner to determine the membership of the board.
Similar considerations apply to Amendment 103 to Clause 56, which provides for the membership of the domestic abuse local partnership boards in Part 4 of the Bill. This amendment would add to the membership of those boards a person representing psychological therapy services for couples experiencing conflict and potential domestic abuse. I do appreciate the intention behind this amendment and similar ones, but again, I have concerns that we risk building too much rigidity into the composition of these boards and unduly constraining the flexibility that local authorities have to appoint a board that meets particular local needs. Local partnership boards will be set up in line with local needs and existing partnership arrangements, where we will see their strength. We have provided for core representation on the boards in Clause 56(2), but beyond that we should leave it to the good judgment of the tier 1 local authorities.
Moving away from the specifics of the amendments, I assure the noble Baroness that work is already taking place across government on bettering relationships. The Reducing Parental Conflict programme is aimed at conflict below the threshold of domestic abuse. It aims to promote improved outcomes for children, with a focus on disadvantaged families. The programme has funded local authorities to undertake strategic leadership support activities and practitioner training, which resulted in the creation of resources. It has aimed to improve understanding that not all conflict is damaging but, where this is frequent, intense and poorly resolved, it can harm children’s outcomes and can be addressed as part of working with families. The next phase of the programme has funding of up to £11 million allocated to it and will run from April this year to March next year.
It is important to highlight the benefits of preserving fundamentally healthy relationships where we can, and the important role that counselling can play in securing this outcome. In the context of domestic abuse, we often talk about relationships breaking, but we also know how they can be repaired through counselling and conflict management. The noble Baroness is right to bring the Committee’s attention to this issue. I hope that, having highlighted it, the noble Baroness will be content to withdraw her amendment.