I thank all noble Lords who have raised important points in this debate; I also thank them for accepting some of the amendments that we have tabled in response to their engagement. That engagement was very constructive, and I hope that as they look to hold the Government to account we will continue to have engagement on these issues.
First, I shall deal with a couple of specific questions. The noble Baroness, Lady Tyler, again asked about the identifier. As I have made clear, the report will include an explanation of the Government’s policy on a consistent identifier for children. It will also include our approach and actions to implement the recommendations in the report.
We all agree that the principle of a consistent identifier is right, but there are complex issues in applying that consistent identifier in safeguarding children. This is why we want to investigate all the issues thoroughly in a report that will be laid before Parliament a year after commencement. There is one issue in which I am personally interested—I am sure noble Lords will remember that I geeked out on this one. I think there are some technical solutions, but I can also see some technical unintended consequences. I myself will look very closely at the report, especially at the technical solutions.
Like other noble Lords, I welcome my noble friend Lord Shinkwin; it is good to see him back. I thank him for engaging with me—almost from his hospital bed, I think, which demonstrates his commitment to these issues. He talked about speech and language therapy, and the Government recognise the importance of communications needs, and the important part that they play in children’s development. We will work with stakeholders on the development of guidance, and ensure that we engage with the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists.
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I now turn to Amendment 59 brought forward by the noble Baronesses, Lady Hollins and Lady Tyler. The Government and NHS England are committed to ensuring that ICBs specifically consider the needs of babies, children and young people. NHS England performance assessments will look at a number of the ICB duties, including improvement in equality of service and how to reduce health inequalities. These duties apply to the whole population, including babies, children and young people. The Bill also places a duty on NHS England to have regard to any guidance published by the Secretary of State in connection with assessing the performance of ICBs each year. The guidance can include provisions for the assessment particularly to consider children and young people.
The Bill also places a new duty on the Care Quality Commission to review integrated care systems. The Bill proposes that these assessments will review how ICBs, local authorities and providers of health, public health and adult social care services are working together to deliver safe, high-quality integrated care to the public, including children and young people. The amendment addresses ICBs’ duties in relation to safeguarding children, including those with special education needs and disabilities. To ensure appropriate
accountability for duties, we have an agreement with NHS England that its statutory duty will provide that the responsibility for those functions should be delegated to an ICB executive lead. NHS England statutory guidance will clarify that the ICB annual report must set out how it has discharged its duties in relation to child safeguarding.
We should also look at issues around the 2021 Alan Wood review. The cross-government Safeguarding Children Reform Implementation Board, which DHSC jointly chairs, reviewed Sir Alan’s recommendations, and Ministers have discussed them with him. Officials continue to work with Sir Alan to embed his findings where appropriate.
I now turn to Amendments 64, 66, 68 and 75 and thank my noble friend Lord Farmer for bringing this important topic before the House and for engaging and pushing us on this issue which is clearly very close to his heart. We agree that ICPs and ICBs should work closely with a range of organisations to consider the whole needs of families. I stress that it is important that there should be a degree of local flexibility, as we discussed earlier. The package of bespoke guidance, which I mentioned previously, will cover services that my noble friend considers part of family help and the role that family hubs can play. We intend to include in statutory integrated care strategy guidance that family hubs, where appropriate, should be considered in the integrated care strategy where there are opportunities to integrate further its arrangements with health and social care services. My noble friend Lord Farmer will be aware that a range of work is ongoing in this area. The independent review of children’s social care is still considering the definition of family help, and it may be further refined as a result of the ongoing consultation. I would gently ask the noble Lords that the Government are given time to consider the review’s findings and recommendations.
My noble friend will also be aware of the upcoming ambitious programme of work with 75 local authorities to develop effective family hub models, but I must gently remind my noble friend and other noble Lords that as a matter of good governance, good law and the proper sequence of events, the Government feel that they must wait for the care review, and our work to develop family hub models at scale, before drawing implications for the statutory framework for either of them. Doing otherwise risks jumping the gun or being premature. While the Government strongly support and champion in principle the move to family hub models, they need to be able to adapt to local needs and circumstances. They also need to operate affordably, making use of a diverse range of local and central funding streams. In both these regards, local democratically elected councils hold the ultimate decision-making power over whether to adopt a family hub model and how it should function. Although I note my noble friend’s welcome efforts to soften its impact, we believe that there is still a risk that Amendment 75 would impose an additional burden on local authorities in their delivery of local services. It is for these reasons that I ask my noble friend and noble Lords not to move their amendments when reached.