Browse content similar to 05/12/2016. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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families need a lot of assistance with helping with translation and | :00:00. | :00:00. | |
learning being this language and helping with their families. Of | :00:00. | :00:00. | |
course I will keep the support under review. Order. Will the member | :00:00. | :00:10. | |
wishing to take her seat please come to the table. | :00:11. | :00:39. | |
I swear by Almighty God that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance | :00:40. | :00:46. | |
to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, her heirs and successors according to | :00:47. | :00:47. | |
law, so help me God. -- Sarah Olney, member for Richmond. | :00:48. | :01:09. | |
Sarah, many congratulations. Order. Urging question, Caroline | :01:10. | :01:55. | |
Lucas. Mr Speaker, could the Minister make a statement on | :01:56. | :01:57. | |
Southern Rail services? Thank you Mr Speaker. Performance on | :01:58. | :02:05. | |
the southern network has been affected by a combination of factors | :02:06. | :02:10. | |
over the previous months. These have included trade union action, | :02:11. | :02:12. | |
infrastructure reliability and operator issues. The unions have | :02:13. | :02:22. | |
struck industry production in the run-up to Christmas. Let me be | :02:23. | :02:28. | |
clear, this strike action is politically motivated. It has | :02:29. | :02:32. | |
affected mass passengers were far too long. Union leaders have even | :02:33. | :02:44. | |
described this as carrying on Fidel's work. This will be of no | :02:45. | :02:48. | |
comfort to passengers, who just want to get to work. For the director of | :02:49. | :02:55. | |
railway safety in the office for rail and road. Responding to the | :02:56. | :03:00. | |
safety concern from the unions, Ian Prosser says, DOO is safe. The RNC | :03:01. | :03:10. | |
and Aslef should not be... Once again I can assure the hard-working | :03:11. | :03:17. | |
staff on GTR franchise that no trained staff are losing pay and no | :03:18. | :03:22. | |
one is losing their job. Passengers want and deserve improvements, which | :03:23. | :03:27. | |
is why in September the Secretary of State appointed Chris Gibb, a | :03:28. | :03:30. | |
leading railway professional, to work with the operator and Network | :03:31. | :03:33. | |
Rail to identify areas where performance on the network can be | :03:34. | :03:38. | |
improved quickly. Some of these interventions are under way and | :03:39. | :03:43. | |
would be making a significant difference by now, were it not for | :03:44. | :03:46. | |
the fact that owing to continued industrial action by RMT and now | :03:47. | :03:52. | |
planned action by Aslef, Southern Rail Services are to be subject to | :03:53. | :03:58. | |
further delays and alterations now and over the coming weeks. In | :03:59. | :04:04. | |
recognition, the Secretary of State announced on the 2nd of September a | :04:05. | :04:08. | |
refund package that will compensate season-ticket holders with a package | :04:09. | :04:13. | |
equivalent to one free month in act knowledge of exceptional issues this | :04:14. | :04:20. | |
year. They also announced that GTR would be the first franchise to | :04:21. | :04:27. | |
introduce... Starting an 11th of December. But compensation alone is | :04:28. | :04:31. | |
not enough, we have to restore a timely, reliable and predictable | :04:32. | :04:35. | |
train service. That is why the work of Mr Gibb is focusing on reducing | :04:36. | :04:40. | |
the Network Rail faults, it is why we have new safety on trains that | :04:41. | :04:45. | |
can cope with the number of people wanting to use them, it is why I've | :04:46. | :04:52. | |
continued to ensure that the train operating company is doing | :04:53. | :04:55. | |
everything in its power to run improved services. But we also need | :04:56. | :04:59. | |
union leaders to stop their needless, unreasonable, | :05:00. | :05:02. | |
disproportionate and politically motivated strikes. Caroline Lucas. | :05:03. | :05:09. | |
Thank you, Mr Speaker. I thank the Minister for that reply. I put this | :05:10. | :05:13. | |
question today with cross-party support for members right across the | :05:14. | :05:17. | |
house because on Friday we heard that Southern Rail Services will be | :05:18. | :05:21. | |
Mr Gandhi disrupted every day from tomorrow until further notice. That | :05:22. | :05:25. | |
grim warning of imminent service collapse comes on top of more than | :05:26. | :05:31. | |
two years of rail chaos, long before any strikes happened. Back in May | :05:32. | :05:36. | |
2015 the then rail minister said that our ministers were flashing red | :05:37. | :05:41. | |
in her department. 18 months on, my constituents are regularly in tears | :05:42. | :05:45. | |
of anger and frustration, jobs are being lost, relationships being | :05:46. | :05:47. | |
broken up, the economy seriously damaged. This situation is | :05:48. | :05:53. | |
intolerable and the Government can't just simply wash its hands of | :05:54. | :05:56. | |
involvement. So will the Minister roll up its sleeves -- his sleeves | :05:57. | :06:02. | |
and get stuck in to resolve the prices acrobatic space crisis. Will | :06:03. | :06:06. | |
he convene a meeting with the unions and with GTR to make this -- work | :06:07. | :06:10. | |
this out and restore some reliability to this vital public | :06:11. | :06:14. | |
service, and in so doing, show that he is not prepared to allow this | :06:15. | :06:19. | |
crucial piece of infrastructure to simply collapse? To end this | :06:20. | :06:22. | |
stalemate, will his department take charge of this contract in the open, | :06:23. | :06:28. | |
strip GTR of the franchise, bring it back in-house and that at least | :06:29. | :06:30. | |
would increase the transparency around what is going on here. When | :06:31. | :06:36. | |
four example with a concrete timetable, GTR reporting its | :06:37. | :06:40. | |
performance be revealed? Will published date of the published | :06:41. | :06:48. | |
weekly and where? It is tied to make it accountable. Will he answer the | :06:49. | :06:53. | |
outstanding questions and today provide urgent clarity about whether | :06:54. | :06:59. | |
GTR is in default? The transport committee called for a decision on | :07:00. | :07:06. | |
GTR in early 2016 but it is now December, why hasn't he answered on | :07:07. | :07:11. | |
time? I don't think the Minister has any idea of the pain that passengers | :07:12. | :07:14. | |
and ministers in Brighton and beyond are suffering, because if he did he | :07:15. | :07:19. | |
would be doing more about it. We have a catastrophic stalemate. What | :07:20. | :07:23. | |
exactly is the minister going to do about this? My constituents in | :07:24. | :07:26. | |
Brighton want to hear that he is going to get involved. Anything else | :07:27. | :07:32. | |
is not enough. Minister Maynard. I'm grateful for her urgent question. | :07:33. | :07:36. | |
But the best thing she can do under half of her constituents is to go | :07:37. | :07:41. | |
and speak to her close friends in the RMT and tell them to call off | :07:42. | :07:47. | |
their disproportionate and unreasonable industrial action. That | :07:48. | :07:51. | |
is the best contribution she can make. Not answering the question... | :07:52. | :07:58. | |
Mr Speaker, thank you very much for calling me in with this important, | :07:59. | :08:05. | |
urgent question because this is not just about the Brighton mainline but | :08:06. | :08:09. | |
communities in my own area. Students trying to get to school from | :08:10. | :08:17. | |
Edenbridge to Tonbridge and others have been going to misery. The | :08:18. | :08:20. | |
nationalised Network Rail has failed us again and again. Can the Minister | :08:21. | :08:24. | |
please get on with sorting them out too? Minister. My honourable friend | :08:25. | :08:30. | |
is entirely right to point out the impact this is having on his | :08:31. | :08:35. | |
constituents in Kent. I travelled through London Bridge and saw some | :08:36. | :08:38. | |
of the delays that were occurring. He's quite right. But the only | :08:39. | :08:42. | |
long-term solution for this overburdened part of the network is | :08:43. | :08:46. | |
for both Network Rail and the train operating companies to allow the | :08:47. | :08:51. | |
incentives to work together to fix the underlying problems that plagued | :08:52. | :08:57. | |
this network. Andy McDonald. Thank you Mr Speaker. This house is still | :08:58. | :09:01. | |
having to address the abysmal service provided by Southern Rail | :09:02. | :09:04. | |
after a year and a half of substandard service is testament to | :09:05. | :09:08. | |
both Southern's incompetence and the extent to which this Government is | :09:09. | :09:12. | |
committed to privatise rail even when franchises have become so | :09:13. | :09:17. | |
deeply dysfunctional that they are unable to provide a decent public | :09:18. | :09:21. | |
service. Mr Speaker, GTR should be stripped of their franchise long ago | :09:22. | :09:26. | |
for failing to plan properly to take on the franchise as they themselves | :09:27. | :09:31. | |
have admitted and providing what is by far the country's worst rail | :09:32. | :09:52. | |
service. Instead the government have defended the southern to the hilt | :09:53. | :10:00. | |
excusing or their failings of being the result of unavoidable industrial | :10:01. | :10:08. | |
dispute allowing the cancellation of hundreds of services and repeatedly | :10:09. | :10:11. | |
throwing tax because Manny had the problem. The honourable gentleman | :10:12. | :10:19. | |
will sell us about Mr Gibb but why not about Mr Robinson who says he | :10:20. | :10:24. | |
wants to staff the RMT back to work and he wants those people out of his | :10:25. | :10:28. | |
well away industry. On Friday it was announced that Southern | :10:29. | :10:35. | |
season-ticket holders would eligible for compensation eligible to a | :10:36. | :10:42. | |
month's travel. Yet more money spent on the service. But they announced, | :10:43. | :10:47. | |
session will apply to around 84,000 passengers and yet Southerners | :10:48. | :10:53. | |
responsible for 6,020,000 passenger journeys per year. While any amount | :10:54. | :10:58. | |
of conversation is welcome Will the Minister take this opportunity to | :10:59. | :11:01. | |
acknowledge that the measures announced on Friday will not come | :11:02. | :11:06. | |
close to compensating the majority of passengers who have suffered | :11:07. | :11:12. | |
Southern's abysmal service for the past year and a half and considering | :11:13. | :11:16. | |
the fair I is scheduled for the start of the a few commuters | :11:17. | :11:21. | |
receiving compensation those were wiped out by inflation busting | :11:22. | :11:26. | |
fares. Sadly Mr Speaker a decent rail service... I know how to deal | :11:27. | :11:33. | |
with these managers. Members are taking too long. The minister was | :11:34. | :11:37. | |
just in time but am afraid the honourable gentleman has exceeded | :11:38. | :11:42. | |
his son. We have to establish a disconnected means two minutes or | :11:43. | :11:45. | |
under, not two and a half minutes or three minutes. We have to stick to | :11:46. | :11:52. | |
these procedures. I am surprised he is so opposed to the idea of | :11:53. | :11:57. | |
compensating southern passengers but he is right about one thing. This is | :11:58. | :12:03. | |
entirely irresolvable dispute. As he rightly pointed out. It is | :12:04. | :12:08. | |
resolvable because the RMT can recognise this as a safe mode of | :12:09. | :12:13. | |
operation, call out the strikes and we can get on with improving the | :12:14. | :12:22. | |
network. The Minister said no staff would lose the job but cannot tell | :12:23. | :12:27. | |
the Minister that is not the case for some of my constituents who have | :12:28. | :12:30. | |
been sacked because they have been made. Has the balance of rights as | :12:31. | :12:35. | |
possibilities in our society not gone somewhat astray that in order | :12:36. | :12:39. | |
to improve their terms and conditions were actually costing | :12:40. | :12:48. | |
other citizens their jobs. There is a grossly disproportionate nature of | :12:49. | :12:50. | |
this industrial action. He is right to point out that commuters up and | :12:51. | :12:56. | |
down the GTR network are experiencing a poorer | :12:57. | :12:58. | |
quality-of-life because of this unwarranted industrial action. , go | :12:59. | :13:10. | |
order, order. The shadow Secretary of State should take some subtle | :13:11. | :13:15. | |
soothing medicament, he will be aware I suggested to his north-east | :13:16. | :13:19. | |
colleagues sometime ago it might be advisable to take up yoga because it | :13:20. | :13:22. | |
will have a therapeutic effect. Or even yoghurt. The overall situation | :13:23. | :13:33. | |
for passengers is intolerable and ever since and eat your heart | :13:34. | :13:38. | |
receiving ?1 billion a year in fees and the apartment is exposed to ?30 | :13:39. | :13:44. | |
million of lost revenue. What can the departments do to try to resolve | :13:45. | :13:51. | |
this situation? Some months ago the right Honourable Lady will Beer | :13:52. | :13:54. | |
where that we asked Chris Gibb to take a look into the operational by | :13:55. | :13:57. | |
the network, the infrastructure and the train operating company. We look | :13:58. | :14:02. | |
forward to receiving his report by the end of year which will guide us | :14:03. | :14:09. | |
and how to make rapid noticeable identifiable improvements. The RMT | :14:10. | :14:19. | |
members who are adding to the destruction of all our constituents | :14:20. | :14:25. | |
are also the employees. Can we please be told how much they earn, | :14:26. | :14:30. | |
how many of them have signed up to the new operating arrangements" what | :14:31. | :14:35. | |
the issue is that is stopping them from reaching an agreement and | :14:36. | :14:38. | |
allowing other workers to work reliably and students and teachers | :14:39. | :14:41. | |
can get to work and old people visit their friends? My right honourable | :14:42. | :14:46. | |
friend is right to point out why this is such a grossly | :14:47. | :14:51. | |
disproportionate action from the RMT. Over 220 of the 223 staff | :14:52. | :14:57. | |
involved have signed up to the new contracts to carry out the role of | :14:58. | :15:01. | |
on-board supervisor. They are striking against a role they have | :15:02. | :15:07. | |
all agreed to take up. That is in my view both unreasonable and | :15:08. | :15:15. | |
disproportionate. Part of the problem is that every single promise | :15:16. | :15:18. | |
made from that dispatch box has not improved the service on single iota | :15:19. | :15:26. | |
in the last 18 months. Today there was a non-strike day but it was a | :15:27. | :15:29. | |
complete shambles between Brighton and London. Will the Minister just | :15:30. | :15:33. | |
say he will do whatever it takes to improve this service? I entirely | :15:34. | :15:40. | |
recognise that the service today has been disappointing due to a broken | :15:41. | :15:45. | |
rail between East Croydon and Gatwick but that is happening far | :15:46. | :15:48. | |
too often I see rightly points out. I expect both GTR and Network Rail | :15:49. | :15:56. | |
to address these underlying performance issues. They can only do | :15:57. | :16:01. | |
so if they are also faced with an unwarranted, unjustifiable | :16:02. | :16:07. | |
industrial action. My constituents in Basingstoke who commute regularly | :16:08. | :16:11. | |
look at the situation on Southern with horror. What assurances can the | :16:12. | :16:19. | |
Minister give that a similar such action could not spread to other | :16:20. | :16:23. | |
areas particularly as we are currently renegotiating the | :16:24. | :16:29. | |
contract. Recognise the honourable Lady's concerned that I would say to | :16:30. | :16:37. | |
her that we can all train operating services across country to ensure | :16:38. | :16:40. | |
they do have an account to operate a reliable service and they will do | :16:41. | :16:49. | |
that with whoever emerges. I have the analysis of the feedback from | :16:50. | :16:53. | |
the 1000 constituents who have been in touch with me about the | :16:54. | :16:56. | |
performance of Southern rail and it is a catalogue of misery. The | :16:57. | :17:00. | |
failure of Southern rail is affecting my constituents's work, | :17:01. | :17:05. | |
family love, health and well-being. When will the Minister confirm real | :17:06. | :17:08. | |
devolution for London so that transport for London that has high | :17:09. | :17:13. | |
levels of customer satisfaction can run these services and where will my | :17:14. | :17:20. | |
constituents's Southern Major -- misery on. Hope she will join with | :17:21. | :17:26. | |
me in urging all sides in this dispute to return to the negotiation | :17:27. | :17:29. | |
table and reach an agreement to put the needs of the passengers first, | :17:30. | :17:37. | |
not the interests of the unions. , I apologise for my interjection | :17:38. | :17:40. | |
earlier. Mr Speaker, while girlfriend was absolutely right to | :17:41. | :17:47. | |
say that the price for the RMT's self-indulgent politically motivated | :17:48. | :17:54. | |
strike action is being felt on jobs for young people turn to get to | :17:55. | :17:59. | |
work. This is the undertow, its day has wait gone and bad strike must | :18:00. | :18:03. | |
end. But will my right honourable friend find himself in a position to | :18:04. | :18:07. | |
be able to confirm that the train operating company 's will now be | :18:08. | :18:11. | |
able to take greater control of the works of Network Rail in the future | :18:12. | :18:15. | |
so that we can solve some of the structural problems? I thank the | :18:16. | :18:19. | |
honourable gentleman. Camille very gently telling that I now realise | :18:20. | :18:23. | |
why 20s go the honourable gentleman was affectionately described to me | :18:24. | :18:26. | |
by the very near constituency neighbour of his as "Peppery". , | :18:27. | :18:36. | |
Crow I shall perhaps observe that the secretary of state will be | :18:37. | :18:38. | |
making a speech on this issue tomorrow evening. He made there for | :18:39. | :18:43. | |
wish to pay close attention to the following day 's papers to learn | :18:44. | :18:49. | |
more as to what might be announced. I know it sits -- said some to blame | :18:50. | :18:58. | |
problems on the union but my constituents have been putting up | :18:59. | :19:01. | |
with a disgraceful service for the best part of two years. My | :19:02. | :19:04. | |
honourable friend asked the question about TEFL which has better | :19:05. | :19:12. | |
satisfaction, we want this company, GTR, stripped of the franchise. Will | :19:13. | :19:18. | |
the Minister confirm, is it still the intention of government to | :19:19. | :19:21. | |
facilitate this and that we say to him, we do not want to wait until | :19:22. | :19:28. | |
2021, get on and do it now. He is certainly right to identify the | :19:29. | :19:30. | |
problems that are occurring on the network but the answer to this | :19:31. | :19:35. | |
problems can only be solved if we are not facing industrial action on | :19:36. | :19:39. | |
the network day in, day out which makes it impossible for those who | :19:40. | :19:49. | |
wish to deal with both Network Rail and GTR and other companies. Can the | :19:50. | :19:59. | |
man Minister confirm that the problems are caused by the film that | :20:00. | :20:02. | |
has not been well run or by unacceptable union practices which | :20:03. | :20:08. | |
are rendered all the more this at Christmas time? I thank my right | :20:09. | :20:11. | |
honourable friend, it is an important point. It is noticeable | :20:12. | :20:15. | |
that the RMT adjusted its strike days because of the public outrage. | :20:16. | :20:23. | |
I would urge them to go one step further and call off the strike | :20:24. | :20:26. | |
altogether and get back around the negotiating table. 'S coincidently I | :20:27. | :20:32. | |
delivered a petition to number ten this morning calling for Southern to | :20:33. | :20:38. | |
be sacked. Will the Minister of knowledge it is not just the | :20:39. | :20:41. | |
unacceptable and pointless union action that is causing chaos on the | :20:42. | :20:53. | |
network but also repeated necrophilia, a shortage of drivers, | :20:54. | :20:56. | |
and when will the Minister step in and take control of the failing | :20:57. | :21:02. | |
company hand-pass was possible to take to transport for London. We | :21:03. | :21:07. | |
called for this as far back as 1999. And ensure passengers are provided | :21:08. | :21:12. | |
with much more generous compensation. His analysis is | :21:13. | :21:15. | |
correct but what I do not think the fully appreciate is that the need to | :21:16. | :21:20. | |
focus on Network Rail as the source of many delays means we have to have | :21:21. | :21:27. | |
full, rapid and ready access to the track day in and day out. We cannot | :21:28. | :21:32. | |
do that against a backdrop of continual industrial action. I have | :21:33. | :21:41. | |
long campaigned for compensation, can I thank the Minister for the | :21:42. | :21:45. | |
step toward it today. On the Posh online we have a huge number of | :21:46. | :21:50. | |
trains being cancelled or delayed. As a result of failures to the | :21:51. | :21:54. | |
cameras on board, that seem to work very well as well. Camille Yu Cen to | :21:55. | :21:58. | |
get GTR to get a grip on this. Why that there is a technical fault or | :21:59. | :22:01. | |
some other issue that is interfering. My right honourable | :22:02. | :22:11. | |
friend is owed assiduous credit and I hope he will welcome last Friday's | :22:12. | :22:18. | |
announcement. On the matter regarding trends to Horsham I | :22:19. | :22:24. | |
understand the faults on this particular trains are running at | :22:25. | :22:29. | |
almost double what is usually to be expected. GTR are looking into the | :22:30. | :22:34. | |
matter further. I will write to him with the outcome of that | :22:35. | :22:41. | |
investigation. Can I tell them of stuff started committing from Forest | :22:42. | :22:48. | |
Hill into London Bridge in 1963 and in all that time subsequently, the | :22:49. | :22:57. | |
service has never been as unreliable and as chaotic as it is today. I do | :22:58. | :23:05. | |
not use them a gradual, I use the overground service but unfortunately | :23:06. | :23:07. | |
large part of my constituency and just about every other constituency | :23:08. | :23:12. | |
concerned, do not have that option. Many of my constituents blame | :23:13. | :23:23. | |
Southern, some unions and some Network Rail. We have heard about | :23:24. | :23:28. | |
track failure is causing chaos. When will he and the government do | :23:29. | :23:31. | |
something to reassure my constituents and those of everybody | :23:32. | :23:34. | |
in this chamber that the government is actually trying to do the best | :23:35. | :23:37. | |
they can for commuters rather than leaving them to the fate of the most | :23:38. | :23:40. | |
incompetent organisation in the entire UK rail industry? | :23:41. | :23:45. | |
The honourable gentleman has given new meaning to the description | :23:46. | :23:51. | |
delayed journey. Members will be aware Chris Doak is an extreme | :23:52. | :23:53. | |
acrobatic -- is an extremely aware... I look | :23:54. | :24:13. | |
forward to seamy improvement we are all anxious to see. | :24:14. | :24:17. | |
Given that tomorrow two of my towns, Seaford and New will see their rail | :24:18. | :24:24. | |
service ceased to exist and instead have bus replacement services, from | :24:25. | :24:30. | |
next week for the stations in my constituency will see no rail | :24:31. | :24:35. | |
service at all for several days, the Government response is just not good | :24:36. | :24:38. | |
enough. The Government need to intervene and get this sorted. The | :24:39. | :24:44. | |
honourable lady has never been anything less than assiduous in | :24:45. | :24:50. | |
campaigning on the half of Lewis, Seaford and Newhaven and their rail | :24:51. | :24:54. | |
services. But I would make the point to heard that the devolution in | :24:55. | :24:59. | |
service to her constituency is because of an announced threat of | :25:00. | :25:02. | |
strike action, against a something they've already been doing for many, | :25:03. | :25:07. | |
many months. 30% of our commuter network is driver controlled | :25:08. | :25:12. | |
operation. Aslef have been operating this system for many months on the | :25:13. | :25:20. | |
new... But they are now striking on precisely what they have been doing. | :25:21. | :25:23. | |
That also is disproportionate and unreasonable. Mr Speaker, commuters | :25:24. | :25:28. | |
in Croydon and elsewhere have suffered enough and they certainly | :25:29. | :25:33. | |
shouldn't be expected to pay any more for the services they use for | :25:34. | :25:40. | |
rail chaos. Will the minister now show that he recognises the extent | :25:41. | :25:45. | |
of the failure and rule out any fair rises -- any fare rises next year? | :25:46. | :25:55. | |
We have always said we will cap rail fair in creases on RPI plus zero. | :25:56. | :26:01. | |
But the impact on southern customers, we announced a | :26:02. | :26:05. | |
compensation package last Friday that amounted to one month's free | :26:06. | :26:08. | |
travel for annual season ticket holders. Mr Speaker, our | :26:09. | :26:19. | |
constituents in Sussex are at their wits end and we're at our wits end, | :26:20. | :26:23. | |
notwithstanding the chaos being caused by these completely | :26:24. | :26:27. | |
unjustified strikes, last week's announcement on compensation was a | :26:28. | :26:30. | |
good start but a start and taking away with the other hand worthy | :26:31. | :26:34. | |
price rises that went with it. When we have a proper transparent penalty | :26:35. | :26:43. | |
system for GTR commuters when they are delayed without them having to | :26:44. | :26:47. | |
go through a very bureaucratic process of claiming it? It might add | :26:48. | :26:52. | |
some urgency to GTR to actually sort this out. I recognise the honourable | :26:53. | :26:56. | |
gentleman's concern to make sure that automatic compensation for | :26:57. | :27:00. | |
delays is broadened out as fast as it possibly can be. We need to | :27:01. | :27:03. | |
ensure that it is a system that works and works well, and we need to | :27:04. | :27:09. | |
make sure that the positives are -- the passengers were on the trains | :27:10. | :27:13. | |
that they say they were on and were delayed. We need a technological | :27:14. | :27:18. | |
solution and I'm keen to improve it, and GTR will be the first we get to | :27:19. | :27:20. | |
try this out on. Chris felt. Thank you Mr Speaker. Residents in | :27:21. | :27:29. | |
Croydon have been suffering from the terrible service for many months | :27:30. | :27:32. | |
now. Does the Minister agree this is partly due to track and | :27:33. | :27:39. | |
infrastructure failings, partly due to GTR's incompetence and partly due | :27:40. | :27:45. | |
to the intransigence of the RNC. If the RMT cannot be prevailed upon to | :27:46. | :27:50. | |
call off this needless strike, will the Minister consider legislating to | :27:51. | :27:55. | |
ban this kind of strike action on critical public infrastructure? He | :27:56. | :27:58. | |
said he might identify the fact that this is an investment, not just in | :27:59. | :28:02. | |
the ?20 million we have already put in but the support, the money will | :28:03. | :28:08. | |
have to go in to ensure that one of the most overburdened parts of our | :28:09. | :28:12. | |
network is able to properly meet the needs of those who rely upon it to | :28:13. | :28:15. | |
get to work, to school and all the other areas that life depends upon | :28:16. | :28:22. | |
in the south-east. Thank you Mr Speaker. I too thank the Minister | :28:23. | :28:29. | |
for the start in terms of compensation and as all those who | :28:30. | :28:34. | |
suffer across the network every day, with this intolerable situation and | :28:35. | :28:40. | |
all those using the bridge across to Southampton Airport, often | :28:41. | :28:42. | |
travelling to Gatwick Airport from Swanwick. Will the Minister confirm | :28:43. | :28:45. | |
that he is looking at the broad ranging harm which is caused by this | :28:46. | :28:50. | |
disproportionate political strike affecting regional airports as well | :28:51. | :28:58. | |
as local businesses? I always recognise the importance of | :28:59. | :29:00. | |
Southampton Airport Parkway in the overall network but it is for South | :29:01. | :29:05. | |
West trains and indeed the southern network to meet individual | :29:06. | :29:08. | |
colleagues with individual concerns such as that. I'm more than happy to | :29:09. | :29:12. | |
discuss Southampton Airport's needs with her further. Thank you. I have | :29:13. | :29:18. | |
the misfortune of having the misery line runs through my constituency | :29:19. | :29:23. | |
and I welcome the Government's step for compensation. It's now time for | :29:24. | :29:26. | |
the unions to show similar boldness and call off the strikes. However, | :29:27. | :29:31. | |
the timetable is not worth the paper it's written on. What more can the | :29:32. | :29:35. | |
Minister do to get GTR management to get a grip and stop running a | :29:36. | :29:39. | |
service that doesn't require compensation from the Government | :29:40. | :29:45. | |
because it is so appalling? I'm grateful to her, she has been a | :29:46. | :29:52. | |
staunch advocate... We suffer from an inadequate railway line. What I | :29:53. | :29:56. | |
would say to her is the most important thing we can do at this | :29:57. | :30:01. | |
stage is for the unions to call off industrial action and for GTR and | :30:02. | :30:06. | |
Network Rail to focus on what really matters, ensuring we have a reliable | :30:07. | :30:09. | |
and timely and punctual railway network. We want to get rid of this | :30:10. | :30:20. | |
horrendous performance exacerbated by the unions, my residence in | :30:21. | :30:24. | |
Sutton. So that we can get back to the mere poor performance and | :30:25. | :30:26. | |
tackling those underlying issues like rail come -- rail stock and | :30:27. | :30:33. | |
more drivers. What about the passengers that are paying by oyster | :30:34. | :30:42. | |
as pay as you go, what can they expect in return? My honourable | :30:43. | :30:45. | |
friend is quite right to point out that particularly in the inner parts | :30:46. | :30:49. | |
of London in those suburban areas, people are equally reliant on | :30:50. | :30:55. | |
Southern Rail. There will also be season-ticket reduction commission | :30:56. | :30:59. | |
they have annually or quarterly tickets and compensation, and that | :31:00. | :31:12. | |
to me so is the function of wherever they live on the southern network. | :31:13. | :31:16. | |
The Minister refers to a letter I received from the director rail | :31:17. | :31:20. | |
safety, specifying that this form of technology is not only safe but has | :31:21. | :31:25. | |
been tested by southern as safe. Given that the unions continue to | :31:26. | :31:30. | |
use safety for this dispute, would the Minister consider using | :31:31. | :31:32. | |
legislation stopping unions from striking on the grounds of safety, | :31:33. | :31:37. | |
where the regulating the industry has been that as safe? Well, my | :31:38. | :31:42. | |
honourable friend has done the country a great service in his time | :31:43. | :31:46. | |
on the transport Select Committee, trying to nail the myth that DTO is | :31:47. | :31:54. | |
in some way and an safe way of driving trains. The director of rail | :31:55. | :32:00. | |
safety in the office for road and rail called it abundantly clear and | :32:01. | :32:04. | |
was examined closely in the Select Committee meeting and he could not | :32:05. | :32:08. | |
have been clearer. It is now for Aslef and the RMT to pay heed to his | :32:09. | :32:12. | |
words, call off these unreasonable and disproportionate strikes. The | :32:13. | :32:19. | |
state-owned Network Rail is clearly not fit for purpose. The private | :32:20. | :32:23. | |
sector train operating companies have weak and ineffectual management | :32:24. | :32:27. | |
and the rail unions are organising politically motivated strikes. If | :32:28. | :32:31. | |
this were happening in local Government, the Government would | :32:32. | :32:34. | |
have sent in its own commissioners to sort out the organisation. Why | :32:35. | :32:39. | |
doesn't it do so in this case? My honourable friend I think is quite | :32:40. | :32:42. | |
right to point out the importance of getting track and train operators to | :32:43. | :32:49. | |
have incentives and work together to ensure they deliver a better service | :32:50. | :32:52. | |
on the part passengers the Secretary of State has made -- made no secret | :32:53. | :33:01. | |
of the fact that he views that working to bring better results on | :33:02. | :33:06. | |
the network and we look forward to reporting that in due course and | :33:07. | :33:12. | |
improving the service that all passengers, whatever political party | :33:13. | :33:14. | |
they support, whatever their views on how the railways should be | :33:15. | :33:18. | |
structured, they want to see a timely, reliable and punctual rail | :33:19. | :33:21. | |
service but what is in the way of that is the R.N. To and -- the RMT | :33:22. | :33:28. | |
and Aslef with their disproportionate and unreasonable | :33:29. | :33:32. | |
industrial action. Order. The clerk will now proceed to read the orders | :33:33. | :33:39. | |
of the day. Children and social work bill second reading. I call the | :33:40. | :33:43. | |
Minister of State from the Department for Education, Minister | :33:44. | :33:46. | |
of State Mr Nicola Scott. Thank you very much, Mr Speaker. -- Mr | :33:47. | :33:49. | |
Nicholas did. I'm delighted, Mr Speaker, to be | :33:50. | :33:57. | |
able to open this debate in the absence of the Secretary of State, | :33:58. | :34:01. | |
who is in Shanghai at the education Summit. I know she regrets not being | :34:02. | :34:08. | |
here and she sends her apologies. As the Secretary of State made clear | :34:09. | :34:11. | |
when she spoke at the national children and adults services | :34:12. | :34:14. | |
conference a few weeks ago, nothing is more important than making sure | :34:15. | :34:19. | |
that children get the best start in life, that they feel safe, are well | :34:20. | :34:23. | |
looked after and are able to fulfil their dreams. Nowhere is that more | :34:24. | :34:29. | |
important than for those children who don't have the benefit of a | :34:30. | :34:33. | |
loving family to help them on their way and support them as they grow | :34:34. | :34:37. | |
up, or who face other significant challenges which make it harder for | :34:38. | :34:42. | |
them to flourish and thrive. Children's social care professionals | :34:43. | :34:46. | |
perform some of society's most vital, most important work and we | :34:47. | :34:50. | |
trust them with nothing less than keeping our children safe and making | :34:51. | :34:54. | |
the life changing decisions about what is best for their futures. | :34:55. | :35:00. | |
These are highly challenging, highly complex tasks, performed by deeply | :35:01. | :35:03. | |
dedicated and committed individuals. But as we'll know, the system within | :35:04. | :35:08. | |
which these individuals work is far from perfect, meaning the help and | :35:09. | :35:16. | |
support being offered to honourable children in many parts of the | :35:17. | :35:19. | |
country is a long way from being consistently excellent. Evidence | :35:20. | :35:23. | |
shows that most local authorities struggle in some way to provide | :35:24. | :35:27. | |
consistently effective cause social work practice and that is why this | :35:28. | :35:32. | |
Government is determined to bring about the widest reaching reforms to | :35:33. | :35:36. | |
children's social care and social work for a generation. The views I | :35:37. | :35:44. | |
Professor Eileen Munro and others have given us a deep understanding | :35:45. | :35:50. | |
of the challenges faced by children's social care. They have | :35:51. | :35:53. | |
described a system in which initial social worker training is not | :35:54. | :35:57. | |
consistently preparing students for the challenges of the job and those | :35:58. | :36:03. | |
already doing it too often lack the time, specialist skill and | :36:04. | :36:05. | |
supervision needed to achieve real change for children and families. A | :36:06. | :36:12. | |
system that focuses too much on management and is driven by | :36:13. | :36:15. | |
prescribed approaches rather than excellent practice, a system where | :36:16. | :36:18. | |
services have not always been designed around vulnerable children | :36:19. | :36:21. | |
and innovation hasn't been given enough space to thrive. So over the | :36:22. | :36:27. | |
last six years, the Government has taken important steps towards | :36:28. | :36:31. | |
addressing these challenges. For example, we have raised standards in | :36:32. | :36:35. | |
children's homes and enabled young people in foster care to remain with | :36:36. | :36:40. | |
their carer up to the age of 21. We've invested ?100 million through | :36:41. | :36:44. | |
our innovation programme to allow radical new approaches to children's | :36:45. | :36:47. | |
social care to be developed and tested and in April, we announced a | :36:48. | :36:52. | |
?200 million extension to the programme to take this further | :36:53. | :36:56. | |
still. We've taken a variety of steps to enhance the status, the | :36:57. | :36:59. | |
skills and capacity of the those shall work profession, both | :37:00. | :37:04. | |
children's and adults, including appointing chief social workers, | :37:05. | :37:09. | |
publishing definitive statements of the knowledge and skills required by | :37:10. | :37:13. | |
adult and children's social workers and investing over ?750 million | :37:14. | :37:18. | |
since 2010 in both traditional and fast tracked routes into the | :37:19. | :37:22. | |
profession. And we are starting to see things change. If the honourable | :37:23. | :37:26. | |
member will forgive me, I would like to just explain of the tenants of | :37:27. | :37:29. | |
the bill and then I will come back and take some intervention. We are | :37:30. | :37:35. | |
starting to see things change. We have this year seen the first | :37:36. | :37:39. | |
outstanding judgments under the most recent and most challenging Ofsted | :37:40. | :37:44. | |
framework. Local authorities are testing innovative ways of | :37:45. | :37:48. | |
supporting families through the children's social care innovation | :37:49. | :37:51. | |
programme. Examples of excellent leadership across the country are | :37:52. | :37:55. | |
being celebrated by Ofsted and by others. But we are under no illusion | :37:56. | :37:58. | |
that there is still much more to be done and that is why in July this | :37:59. | :38:03. | |
year, the Department for Education published a clear and ambitious | :38:04. | :38:07. | |
vision and plan for the changes that need to be made to drive sustainable | :38:08. | :38:10. | |
improvement across the whole country. This is our plan for | :38:11. | :38:16. | |
putting children first, which sets out fundamental reforms across each | :38:17. | :38:19. | |
of the three pillars on which the those shall care systems bands. | :38:20. | :38:27. | |
People and leadership, practising systems and Government and | :38:28. | :38:30. | |
accountability. The children in social work bill is a crucial part | :38:31. | :38:33. | |
of delivering reforms across those three pillars. Part one of the bill | :38:34. | :38:41. | |
concerns children who are in care or supported by the state. Clause one | :38:42. | :38:46. | |
sets out for the first time a set of corporate parenting principles | :38:47. | :38:48. | |
designed to establish consistently high standards in the support of | :38:49. | :38:54. | |
looked after children and care leaders and drive a culture of | :38:55. | :38:59. | |
excellent corporate parenting, principles are intended to help a | :39:00. | :39:02. | |
local authority think and act in the interests of children in their care, | :39:03. | :39:05. | |
in the same way any good parent would. This isn't about putting new | :39:06. | :39:12. | |
duties on local authorities, it's about changing practice. The aim is | :39:13. | :39:15. | |
to ensure that all parts of every tier of local Governor have the | :39:16. | :39:18. | |
needs and circumstances of looked after children in care need is in | :39:19. | :39:23. | |
their minds in their planning and decisions, and this responsibility | :39:24. | :39:27. | |
goes beyond just children's social care, reaching across the whole of | :39:28. | :39:30. | |
the local authority. Clause two will ensure that the corporate parenting | :39:31. | :39:35. | |
you Dos extends into adulthood and make sure that all care need is our | :39:36. | :39:44. | |
-- care leaders are sure about the support and how to access it. They | :39:45. | :39:50. | |
will have knowledge about how to access it from the local authority. | :39:51. | :39:56. | |
Clause three will give all care leavers access to support from a | :39:57. | :40:03. | |
personal adviser at any point after the age of 25, and we amended the | :40:04. | :40:06. | |
bill in another place to make sure that the service offered is offered | :40:07. | :40:12. | |
at least annually, so that care leavers can take advantage of it | :40:13. | :40:13. | |
whenever they need to. The bill recognises that children | :40:14. | :40:38. | |
who are adopted or leave care under another often have ongoing | :40:39. | :40:41. | |
difficulties resulting from their local life experiences. Clause is | :40:42. | :40:45. | |
4-7 will give them access to the same support which looked after | :40:46. | :40:51. | |
children received from school heads at local authority level. Following | :40:52. | :41:02. | |
an undertaking given, we are bringing forward amendments which | :41:03. | :41:07. | |
will extend these provisions to children adopted from overseas. | :41:08. | :41:11. | |
Clauses eight and nine extend the factors that local authorities and | :41:12. | :41:17. | |
courts must take into account when deciding the most appropriate place | :41:18. | :41:21. | |
for a child. They do place more emphasis on stability and what would | :41:22. | :41:27. | |
be in a child's best long-term interests, taking account of the | :41:28. | :41:29. | |
impact of any harm that the child may have suffered. | :41:30. | :41:34. | |
dualists I was trying to tell the minister after speaking in a | :41:35. | :41:41. | |
delegated Legislation committee at 4:30pm. I wanted to ask a specific | :41:42. | :41:48. | |
point. It relates to the lack of safeguarding checks for 16 and | :41:49. | :41:53. | |
17-year-olds in private fostering arrangements. I had a situation | :41:54. | :41:57. | |
where a young person in my constituency went to a private | :41:58. | :42:01. | |
fostering arrangement within that age group and their parents were not | :42:02. | :42:04. | |
able to get the assurances they would have had in a public setting | :42:05. | :42:07. | |
and that's not addressed in the Bill and I wonder if the minister would | :42:08. | :42:10. | |
look at that if I place amendment down? Of course. By now my | :42:11. | :42:16. | |
honourable friend is very keen to engage in committee on the details | :42:17. | :42:21. | |
and a particular case I know he will be very interested and will want to | :42:22. | :42:22. | |
debate the issue. We have situation where children in | :42:23. | :42:38. | |
care have been abused and has led to the investigation. We have to make | :42:39. | :42:47. | |
the situation better. ? Safeguarding local safeguarding arrangements set | :42:48. | :42:50. | |
out in the Bill will provide a strong statutory framework that puts | :42:51. | :42:57. | |
responsibility on the police. And on the local authority to ensure there | :42:58. | :43:02. | |
is a robust safeguarding system in place. With greater local | :43:03. | :43:06. | |
flexibility. Arrangements are as effective as possible. Improved | :43:07. | :43:15. | |
national arrangements for analysing these cases which I come onto, | :43:16. | :43:20. | |
including child sexual abuse. Learning from those cases in a more | :43:21. | :43:25. | |
systematic way with a higher standard set for social workers as | :43:26. | :43:29. | |
well that is set out in that bill and that will enable Oxfordshire and | :43:30. | :43:32. | |
other counties across the country to keep children safe than is currently | :43:33. | :43:39. | |
the case. Mr Speaker, if I may, chapter two part one focuses largely | :43:40. | :43:44. | |
on arrangements for children's safeguarding and protection and | :43:45. | :43:48. | |
earlier this year Alan would the former director of children's | :43:49. | :43:53. | |
services in Hackney and president of the body carried out a review for | :43:54. | :43:56. | |
the government on the role and functions for safeguarding local | :43:57. | :44:01. | |
children's boards and he found that local arrangements where Apache, | :44:02. | :44:06. | |
fewer than half of them were judged by Ofsted to be good or better and | :44:07. | :44:09. | |
reported there was a clear consensus in favour of reform. Strong | :44:10. | :44:14. | |
partnership working from serious case reviews is key to keeping | :44:15. | :44:19. | |
children safe. Causes 12-15 will establish a new child safeguarding | :44:20. | :44:24. | |
practice review panel to review serious child safeguarding cases, | :44:25. | :44:28. | |
which converts are of national importance. The purpose of the panel | :44:29. | :44:31. | |
will be to improve the way be learned from cases where a child has | :44:32. | :44:36. | |
died or been seriously harmed, where abuse or neglect of that child was | :44:37. | :44:42. | |
known or suspected. Closes 16-30 will introduce a stronger statutory | :44:43. | :44:46. | |
framework for child safeguarding and protection of the local level. The | :44:47. | :44:51. | |
focus will shift away from wide-ranging local partnerships and | :44:52. | :44:54. | |
place a duty on the three key agencies involved in safeguarding | :44:55. | :44:57. | |
children, local authorities, police and health service to work together | :44:58. | :45:02. | |
and with any relevant agencies to safeguard and promote the welfare of | :45:03. | :45:04. | |
children. We're not introducing change for the sake of change. | :45:05. | :45:13. | |
Existing... The Minister will be aware that the bill before us now is | :45:14. | :45:17. | |
not the original bill thanks to the good work of the House of lords and | :45:18. | :45:23. | |
removing clauses 29-33. The Secretary of State described them in | :45:24. | :45:29. | |
the recent children and adults conference is about how we can put | :45:30. | :45:32. | |
you in the best position to protect the children properly. The trouble | :45:33. | :45:40. | |
is that the EU, 150 organisations and 90% of all social workers said | :45:41. | :45:42. | |
they didn't want it, they were opposed to it, so will he now | :45:43. | :45:46. | |
confirm that you will not try to re-introduced those clauses in the | :45:47. | :45:51. | |
bill in this house? I listened very carefully to my honourable friend | :45:52. | :45:57. | |
but he will be aware has been well supported, the power to innovate. | :45:58. | :46:08. | |
The LGA supported, the EDC -esque, Catch-22 supported and the power is | :46:09. | :46:12. | |
not to do with taking rights away from children, not to do with saving | :46:13. | :46:15. | |
money, it's giving councils the opportunity to develop new ways of | :46:16. | :46:21. | |
working which they believe will improve outcomes for children. If he | :46:22. | :46:26. | |
says is not about taking away rights from children, one of the scenarios | :46:27. | :46:31. | |
would be the abolition of independent reviewing officers who | :46:32. | :46:34. | |
can be the only voice standing up for vulnerable looked after children | :46:35. | :46:39. | |
in local authorities. If they go under these proposals how was that | :46:40. | :46:44. | |
not taking away the rights of vulnerable children.? It is not | :46:45. | :46:50. | |
about abolishing any strategy. He should wait to see what amendments | :46:51. | :46:53. | |
will be tabled during the passage of this bill and I'm sure that my | :46:54. | :46:57. | |
honourable friend will want to talk to the children's minister in more | :46:58. | :47:00. | |
detail about his concerns and I know she will take my honourable friend's | :47:01. | :47:04. | |
concerns very seriously, particularly given my honourable | :47:05. | :47:14. | |
friend's background and experience. In this chapter which covers other | :47:15. | :47:19. | |
provisions for children where we are talking about the rights of the | :47:20. | :47:22. | |
child, I wondered whether the Minister would just consider amongst | :47:23. | :47:26. | |
members the possibility of amending the law so that a child has the | :47:27. | :47:30. | |
right to have both parents on its marriage registration certificate. I | :47:31. | :47:37. | |
know this is something that has been under discussion and something my | :47:38. | :47:39. | |
honourable friend will listen to very carefully if tabled by my right | :47:40. | :47:43. | |
honourable friend. We're not introducing change for change sake. | :47:44. | :47:50. | |
Existing arrangements, if they are working there will be nothing to | :47:51. | :47:53. | |
prevent them continuing in a similar vein within the new framework set | :47:54. | :47:58. | |
out in the bill and the local safeguarding partners will have a | :47:59. | :48:02. | |
clear responsibility for the arrangement and will have the | :48:03. | :48:05. | |
flexibility to change and improve them if they are not working. I | :48:06. | :48:10. | |
should briefly mention two other provisions in chapter two, chapter | :48:11. | :48:18. | |
11, clause 11 is largely technical and allows the government to use its | :48:19. | :48:24. | |
powers to intervene in combined authorities whose services are | :48:25. | :48:27. | |
failing vulnerable children and the same way the government can do with | :48:28. | :48:31. | |
individual authorities. Clause 31 was an amendment to the Bill which | :48:32. | :48:37. | |
will enable the Secretary of State for employment to extend | :48:38. | :48:40. | |
whistle-blowing protection to people applying for jobs in children's | :48:41. | :48:45. | |
social care as well as to existing employees part two of the bill sets | :48:46. | :48:50. | |
the legal framework for the establishment of the sport regulator | :48:51. | :48:54. | |
for all social workers in England. We know high-quality social work can | :48:55. | :48:59. | |
transform lives and that social workers play a critical role in our | :49:00. | :49:03. | |
society. Every day social workers deal with complex and fraught | :49:04. | :49:07. | |
situations that require a great deal of depth of skill, of knowledge, | :49:08. | :49:12. | |
understanding and empathy but when social workers are not able to | :49:13. | :49:17. | |
fulfil the role competently and the contents -- the consequences can be | :49:18. | :49:21. | |
great, so in order to protect the public social workers had to meet | :49:22. | :49:24. | |
high standards of acceptable practice and confidence which are | :49:25. | :49:28. | |
overseen by a regulator. The need for an improved system of regulation | :49:29. | :49:32. | |
for the social work profession was highlighted in recent independent | :49:33. | :49:36. | |
reviews by Sir Martin Neary and Professor David Drysdale. Our | :49:37. | :49:40. | |
ambition through the establishment of a new bespoke regulator for | :49:41. | :49:45. | |
social work is to continue to improve the practice of social work | :49:46. | :49:48. | |
and raise the status of the profession. For too long the bar on | :49:49. | :49:54. | |
standards has been too low, some graduates are leaving courses and | :49:55. | :49:57. | |
being registered on social workers without the knowledge and skills | :49:58. | :50:01. | |
required to do the job. That cannot be right, the new regulator will | :50:02. | :50:05. | |
ensure following consultation with a profession that minimum standards | :50:06. | :50:10. | |
are set at the right level. The new regulator will be a separate legal | :50:11. | :50:15. | |
entity operating independently of ministers in its day-to-day | :50:16. | :50:18. | |
operations. Government has always been clear that it has no intention | :50:19. | :50:22. | |
of making decisions about the performance of individual social | :50:23. | :50:26. | |
workers as with other independent health and social care regulators, | :50:27. | :50:28. | |
the professional standards authority will oversee the operations of | :50:29. | :50:35. | |
social work in England, the PSA has welcomed the revised clauses in the | :50:36. | :50:39. | |
bill. I should add that we are planning to table further amendments | :50:40. | :50:42. | |
regarding the national assessment and accreditation system, this will | :50:43. | :50:48. | |
introduce and nationally recognised post-qualification specialism in | :50:49. | :50:53. | |
child and family social work which will reinforce the focus on quality | :50:54. | :50:58. | |
of practice two other crucial managers are not in the bill but | :50:59. | :51:01. | |
which amendments will be tabled for a very shortly. Amendments to ensure | :51:02. | :51:05. | |
that looked after children from England and Wales can legally be | :51:06. | :51:08. | |
accommodated in secure children's homes in Scotland. Recent case law | :51:09. | :51:16. | |
has cast some doubt on prison arrangements. The power to innovate, | :51:17. | :51:20. | |
the power is a direct response to the issues raised by the Professor | :51:21. | :51:25. | |
in her independent review of child protection, she says that trusting | :51:26. | :51:30. | |
professional to use their judgment rather than be forced to follow | :51:31. | :51:33. | |
unnecessary legal rules will help ensure children get the help they | :51:34. | :51:37. | |
need when they needed. She also says that testing innovation a controlled | :51:38. | :51:41. | |
way to establish the consequences of the change before any national | :51:42. | :51:46. | |
roll-out is a sensible and proportionate way forward. The | :51:47. | :51:49. | |
purpose of the power is to allow individual local authorities to test | :51:50. | :51:52. | |
new ways of working by changing or supplying specific legislative | :51:53. | :51:57. | |
positions within a controlled environment with a view to achieving | :51:58. | :52:01. | |
better outcomes for children. The other place was unhappy about the | :52:02. | :52:08. | |
clauses were included in the bill at introduction and we appreciate this | :52:09. | :52:11. | |
is a new way of working in government and understand high some | :52:12. | :52:16. | |
noble Lords were wary but the provisions to important just to let | :52:17. | :52:19. | |
them drop and should emphasise this is a grassroots power, empowering | :52:20. | :52:24. | |
local authorities to test new and better ways of working in the best | :52:25. | :52:31. | |
interests of children. I would like to just... Just coming to the | :52:32. | :52:37. | |
concluding elements of my comments. Local government overwhelmingly | :52:38. | :52:40. | |
supports these measures and an national association and individual | :52:41. | :52:42. | |
authorities have made it clear that they do not want us to lose this | :52:43. | :52:46. | |
opportunity to allow them to test new ways of working. We have | :52:47. | :52:51. | |
therefore reviewed and substantially revised the clauses to make sure | :52:52. | :52:55. | |
that they avoid the issues raised in the other place and there are | :52:56. | :52:57. | |
several notable new features we have removed the provision which allowed | :52:58. | :53:03. | |
the body carrying local authority functions under an intervention | :53:04. | :53:09. | |
arrangement from applying to use the power. Only local authorities can | :53:10. | :53:12. | |
apply to use the power and if they don't wish to them that is the end | :53:13. | :53:17. | |
of the matter. The power was never intended to be used to alter or | :53:18. | :53:22. | |
remove children's fundamental rights or entitlements will stop its sole | :53:23. | :53:27. | |
purpose is to allow local authorities to trial better and more | :53:28. | :53:30. | |
practical alternatives to the sometimes very specific and overly | :53:31. | :53:34. | |
prescriptive requirements set out in legislation in order to provide that | :53:35. | :53:38. | |
outcomes for children. The new amendments would put this beyond | :53:39. | :53:42. | |
doubt and also we'll set out further provision for the process | :53:43. | :53:48. | |
surrounding power to ensure it's based on sound consultation, | :53:49. | :53:51. | |
transparency and robust safeguards, all applications to use the power | :53:52. | :53:54. | |
would be subject to local consultation, scrutiny by an | :53:55. | :54:00. | |
independent panel and Parliamentary approval and progress will be | :54:01. | :54:02. | |
monitored and these changes will be in addition to amendments the | :54:03. | :54:07. | |
government tabled in the other place about the scrutiny process that | :54:08. | :54:08. | |
accompanies the power. I won't give way to the honourable | :54:09. | :54:17. | |
gentleman because he wasn't here at the start of my speech when I set | :54:18. | :54:21. | |
out a lot of the principles around this bill. The moments are about the | :54:22. | :54:27. | |
scrutiny process that accompanies the power and ruling out using the | :54:28. | :54:31. | |
clause for profit. The Government is committed to working with a sector | :54:32. | :54:36. | |
the changes that are the result of significant consultation and we | :54:37. | :54:41. | |
believe the clauses are the safest possible way to test new approaches. | :54:42. | :54:44. | |
I know that my honourable friend is very keen to meet and discuss with | :54:45. | :54:49. | |
any colleagues who have concerns to discuss these provisions further. Mr | :54:50. | :54:55. | |
Deputy Speaker, this is a bill for the welfare and prospects of | :54:56. | :54:57. | |
vulnerable children and young people. All its measures are | :54:58. | :55:02. | |
designed to improve the services that so many of these young people | :55:03. | :55:06. | |
rely on and I commend this bill to the house. The question is, should | :55:07. | :55:14. | |
the bill now be read a second time? Angela Rippon. Thank you | :55:15. | :55:19. | |
-- let me start by saying that we welcome any attempt to improve the | :55:20. | :55:28. | |
lives of children in care and I'm sure that is shared by all sides of | :55:29. | :55:32. | |
the house. The challenges facing those children are significant, as | :55:33. | :55:36. | |
is the effort needed to tackle them. The National Audit Office recently | :55:37. | :55:39. | |
said that nationally the quality of help and protection for children is | :55:40. | :55:47. | |
unsatisfactory and inconsistent, suggesting systematic rather than | :55:48. | :55:50. | |
just local failure. The Government needs to take action that will | :55:51. | :55:53. | |
address that failure within the bill rather than make it worse. I hope | :55:54. | :55:58. | |
the Secretary of State is listening to this very important debate, if | :55:59. | :56:02. | |
not able to attend the chamber today. A new report written for the | :56:03. | :56:08. | |
Department for Education published only last Friday considered the | :56:09. | :56:10. | |
options of outsourcing and developing markets in children's | :56:11. | :56:17. | |
social services. Mr Deputy Speaker, this is privatisation by another | :56:18. | :56:22. | |
name, and quite simply it would not just be the wrong solution but no | :56:23. | :56:27. | |
solution at all. Following the excellent work of my noble friend 's | :56:28. | :56:33. | |
in the other place, the clauses that would allow local authorities to | :56:34. | :56:37. | |
delegate from their existing legal obligations are now no longer laid | :56:38. | :56:41. | |
out in the bill before us today. But given the seriousness of such | :56:42. | :56:46. | |
proposals and the timing of this report, I must ask the Secretary of | :56:47. | :56:50. | |
State's department to think again and guaranteed to this house that | :56:51. | :56:55. | |
the Government will not seek to use this bill as a vehicle to privatise | :56:56. | :57:01. | |
children's social services. I hope the Minister can give us that | :57:02. | :57:03. | |
assurance later because there is a good deal to welcome within this | :57:04. | :57:08. | |
bill, from the principles of corporate parenting to the local | :57:09. | :57:12. | |
offer for care leavers, there are steps towards helping young people | :57:13. | :57:17. | |
in care leaving that we welcome, but I would not like to divide the house | :57:18. | :57:23. | |
at later stages, and we at this stage seek to make progress | :57:24. | :57:28. | |
collectively. This issue, Mr Deputy Speaker, is of vital importance to | :57:29. | :57:31. | |
the collective good of our nations. The services with great work done on | :57:32. | :57:39. | |
the ground by many public sector workers should be applauded, as they | :57:40. | :57:41. | |
really do change lives every single day. I must declare an interest as | :57:42. | :57:48. | |
my niece is one such work. Our aim collectively within this bill should | :57:49. | :57:54. | |
be to enhance and enable this important work and privatisation and | :57:55. | :57:57. | |
fragmentation is not the answer. Mr Deputy Speaker, our overall concern | :57:58. | :58:00. | |
is less with what is in the bill and more with what is not. In short, it | :58:01. | :58:08. | |
lacks the ambition to have a meaningful impact on the lives of | :58:09. | :58:11. | |
vulnerable young people that is needed and we must seek to improve | :58:12. | :58:16. | |
child mental health services if we are to make significant progress. | :58:17. | :58:21. | |
For instance, Mr Deputy Speaker, the bill focuses on adoption. This is | :58:22. | :58:26. | |
hardly a surprise, after all the Government have taken a number of | :58:27. | :58:29. | |
steps to make it easier to adopt in the past several years, such as the | :58:30. | :58:34. | |
education and adopting act, which received Royal assent earlier this | :58:35. | :58:41. | |
year. We welcome measures to support adoption, but surely the Minister is | :58:42. | :58:44. | |
aware that only one in every 20 children in care goes on to be | :58:45. | :58:49. | |
adopted. So can he claim to the house why this bill, much like the | :58:50. | :58:54. | |
last one, focused exclusively on adoption and does not contain | :58:55. | :58:58. | |
provision on all other forms of care? Would it not have been an | :58:59. | :59:03. | |
opportunity to come forward with a comprehensive strategy for children | :59:04. | :59:07. | |
in all forms of care? Perhaps the Minister can indicate whether we | :59:08. | :59:12. | |
might anticipate further legislation, or if he considers that | :59:13. | :59:17. | |
no changes are needed? Similarly, we welcome the principles of corporate | :59:18. | :59:21. | |
parenting, but there are questions as to why the bill does not go | :59:22. | :59:27. | |
further. After all, I'm sure the Secretary of State agrees that | :59:28. | :59:30. | |
children in care will often have complex needs, requiring a joined up | :59:31. | :59:33. | |
approach across public services in order to get the best possible | :59:34. | :59:38. | |
outcomes. Perhaps the Mr can explain why there is no provision on the | :59:39. | :59:43. | |
face of the bill to facilitate ways for public services such as health | :59:44. | :59:46. | |
and education to play a key role in ensuring good corporate parenting. | :59:47. | :59:52. | |
These public services and others play a key role in ensuring the best | :59:53. | :59:56. | |
outcomes for children in care, yet there is no apparent involvement for | :59:57. | :59:59. | |
them in the corporate parent principles. Mr Deputy Speaker, the | :00:00. | :00:04. | |
principle of the local offer is welcomed and we supported it when it | :00:05. | :00:09. | |
was introduced for children with special educational needs and | :00:10. | :00:11. | |
disabilities in the children and families act, since then we have | :00:12. | :00:16. | |
seen the failings in practice with the quality of local offers varying | :00:17. | :00:21. | |
wildly between local authorities and no minimum guarantees of quality, no | :00:22. | :00:25. | |
statutory guidance and no certainty that the local offer would be | :00:26. | :00:31. | |
available to all those who need it. When there are no minimum guarantees | :00:32. | :00:35. | |
of quality, we know which areas will lose out. Overwhelmingly it will be | :00:36. | :00:42. | |
those areas that are already facing disadvantage that will not be | :00:43. | :00:46. | |
getting the support that they need. There are already unacceptable | :00:47. | :00:51. | |
variations in spending on children's Gervis is between regions. In one | :00:52. | :00:56. | |
local authority, ?4970 is spent on Children In Need and in another it | :00:57. | :01:03. | |
is only 340. The Department for Education's own figures show that | :01:04. | :01:07. | |
these spending inequalities fall along our all-too-familiar | :01:08. | :01:14. | |
geographical divides. I'm very grateful to my honourable friend and | :01:15. | :01:16. | |
I just wanted to point out that in my conversations with Hull City | :01:17. | :01:21. | |
Council children's services department, they talked to me about | :01:22. | :01:23. | |
the resource inequalities that they face, the very disadvantaged | :01:24. | :01:28. | |
community that they are serving, and they are certainly not asking for | :01:29. | :01:32. | |
powers to innovate, they are asking for proper resources to provide the | :01:33. | :01:35. | |
services that young people need in the city. I thank my honourable | :01:36. | :01:41. | |
friend for the point that she made and it's a significant point, | :01:42. | :01:43. | |
because local authorities like for example mine in the north-west have | :01:44. | :01:47. | |
faced over 50% of cuts since austerity and they are sometimes | :01:48. | :01:51. | |
trying to deal with the most complex needs in their communities as well. | :01:52. | :01:55. | |
So I would ask the Government to look at that again. In the | :01:56. | :01:58. | |
south-east, spending tends to be much higher than average, but | :01:59. | :02:01. | |
following the spending throughout local authorities it is clear that | :02:02. | :02:06. | |
as we move into the north-west, spending is far lower. Once again, | :02:07. | :02:09. | |
levels of spending and public services have I did fall along the | :02:10. | :02:12. | |
North-South divide with the North losing out. In his final report as | :02:13. | :02:21. | |
Chief inspector, Sir Michael Wilshaw has singled out the North-South | :02:22. | :02:26. | |
divide is one of the great challenges facing our education | :02:27. | :02:30. | |
system and our country, and only this morning that children's | :02:31. | :02:33. | |
commissioner said that the problem was simply that parents in the North | :02:34. | :02:36. | |
were not as ambitious as those in the South. As a parent from the | :02:37. | :02:42. | |
North I'm sure the Minister will agree that comments such as these | :02:43. | :02:45. | |
are neither acceptable nor are they helpful. Perhaps in an effort to | :02:46. | :02:52. | |
ensure that all regions of our country, North and South, benefit | :02:53. | :02:56. | |
from the local offer, the Minister will seek to ensure that there are | :02:57. | :03:01. | |
clear local standards and -- clear locals -- national standards that | :03:02. | :03:05. | |
all local authorities will have to meet. There are clear guidelines on | :03:06. | :03:15. | |
how to make it accessible to how all those who need it. Can the Minister | :03:16. | :03:19. | |
tell us why these have not been addressed before today and will the | :03:20. | :03:23. | |
Government bring forward amendments during its passage? Mr Deputy | :03:24. | :03:26. | |
Speaker, moving on to part two of the bill which establishes a new | :03:27. | :03:30. | |
regulator, social work England, once again I must pay tribute to the | :03:31. | :03:36. | |
excellent work done by the parties for their work in this area. | :03:37. | :03:40. | |
Following their scrutiny, plans to place regulatory control with the | :03:41. | :03:44. | |
Secretary of State were defeated. I'm sure the minister here today | :03:45. | :03:48. | |
would acknowledge the norm that regulators are operationally | :03:49. | :03:50. | |
independent from local Government and in this case served in the | :03:51. | :03:54. | |
interests of children. So will he guarantee today that independence | :03:55. | :03:57. | |
will be respected by the bill as it is ultimately agreed? While we | :03:58. | :04:03. | |
welcome a new regulatory body, assuming it is affected and | :04:04. | :04:06. | |
independent, there are a number of questions that remain about how it | :04:07. | :04:10. | |
will function and what we will be seeking answers to. After all, the | :04:11. | :04:14. | |
Government seems to want social work England to have a representative | :04:15. | :04:18. | |
improvement and regulatory roles within the profession, yet they have | :04:19. | :04:21. | |
not told us how this will be achieved. We have no detail on the | :04:22. | :04:25. | |
remit of the work of the new regulator, and as it stands we will | :04:26. | :04:30. | |
only find out in a series of regulations to be made by the | :04:31. | :04:34. | |
Secretary of State. So can the Minister tell the house exactly what | :04:35. | :04:37. | |
the remit role and powers of the new regulator will be? And why is it | :04:38. | :04:43. | |
appropriate for these to be decided in secondary legislation, away from | :04:44. | :04:47. | |
the scrutiny of the full house? After all, Mr Deputy Speaker, we | :04:48. | :04:51. | |
have been down this path before and it was only four years ago that the | :04:52. | :04:56. | |
general social care Council was closed. Can the Minister tell the | :04:57. | :04:58. | |
house what will be done differently this time to ensure that we won't | :04:59. | :05:03. | |
look back in a year or two and simply see another regulator that | :05:04. | :05:08. | |
has been closed down? In conclusion, Mr Deputy Speaker, what is in the | :05:09. | :05:12. | |
bill we broadly welcomed. Though we hope the Minister will have answer | :05:13. | :05:16. | |
some of the many questions that remain. Once already in the other | :05:17. | :05:24. | |
place the Government lands for the outsourcing and privatisation of our | :05:25. | :05:28. | |
children's services dressed up as innovation were defeated. Nobody in | :05:29. | :05:31. | |
the profession believes that privatisation is the answer to the | :05:32. | :05:34. | |
immense challenges they are currently facing, nor can it | :05:35. | :05:37. | |
alleviate the growing demand for children's services. I will give | :05:38. | :05:44. | |
way. I'm so grateful to my honourable friend who is doing a | :05:45. | :05:46. | |
very good job of putting the case that exists in the country, but is | :05:47. | :05:50. | |
she concerned that the Minister really hasn't said very much at all | :05:51. | :05:56. | |
about what innovation he expects that would require a local authority | :05:57. | :06:00. | |
effectively to wash their hands of their statutory duty in relation to | :06:01. | :06:07. | |
our young people and children? I absolutely thank the honourable | :06:08. | :06:11. | |
member for his intervention and he is absolutely right in what he says | :06:12. | :06:16. | |
in that actually most people who work in the profession believe that | :06:17. | :06:20. | |
privatisation is absolutely the wrong answer and will not help with | :06:21. | :06:24. | |
any form of innovation that they currently want. In fact the main | :06:25. | :06:32. | |
thing that would help actually is investment in our community local | :06:33. | :06:38. | |
services by local cover. So I call on the Minister to confirm today | :06:39. | :06:41. | |
that the Minister will not seek to bring back these clauses in the | :06:42. | :06:45. | |
bill. I'm sure he knows as well as members on this side of the house | :06:46. | :06:49. | |
and all sides of the house do that these plans do not offer a real | :06:50. | :06:52. | |
solution, and if he fails to take that solution on board, members on | :06:53. | :06:57. | |
this side of the house would be far less conciliatory when we debate | :06:58. | :06:58. | |
this bill again. Thank you very much, Mr Deputy | :06:59. | :07:07. | |
Speaker. I think this bill actually is a very good bill. It has been | :07:08. | :07:12. | |
amended obviously in the House of Lords and we have to consider the | :07:13. | :07:14. | |
impact occasions of that in due course. But the central points of | :07:15. | :07:18. | |
the bill are actually well founded and I'm particularly impressed with | :07:19. | :07:23. | |
the theme of reflecting the work of the Munro report and improving the | :07:24. | :07:27. | |
capacity of social workers to use their own judgment rather than | :07:28. | :07:32. | |
simply rely on box ticking. I think that is a theme of this bill, which | :07:33. | :07:36. | |
is appropriate and that is why I think that the regulatory structure | :07:37. | :07:41. | |
that is going to be introduced would actually help, because it does seem | :07:42. | :07:45. | |
to me that it is true that sort of regulatory system that the ability | :07:46. | :07:51. | |
of making judgments would actually be made more easily. What I would | :07:52. | :07:59. | |
say is that it is important for social workers to have a clear eye | :08:00. | :08:03. | |
on what the professional regulation is all about. It should be of course | :08:04. | :08:09. | |
operating at arm's-length and I think that its stressed in the bill | :08:10. | :08:14. | |
and that is extremely useful. A register of social workers makes a | :08:15. | :08:17. | |
lot of sense, because I think one of the things that we must do is | :08:18. | :08:20. | |
enhance the sense of professionalism and within our social work. That is | :08:21. | :08:28. | |
where I would have some difference with the Government in that I think | :08:29. | :08:31. | |
that ultimately we should have a professional body for social | :08:32. | :08:36. | |
workers. The Education Select Committee made that very clear in a | :08:37. | :08:40. | |
recent report. We think that there is a strong case for such a body and | :08:41. | :08:45. | |
I think there is an appetite for a body beyond just this chamber. So I | :08:46. | :08:52. | |
would urge the Government to have a very open mind about the development | :08:53. | :08:56. | |
of a professional body. And I would suggest that it continues to send | :08:57. | :09:00. | |
out signals that that is what it would like to see. I'll so think | :09:01. | :09:08. | |
that having an independent review proceedings in five years' time | :09:09. | :09:13. | |
makes a huge amount of sense. That is a realistic timescale and I think | :09:14. | :09:19. | |
it is appropriate that that is set out in the bill. There is one area | :09:20. | :09:25. | |
where I think this bill really does need to have some additions or at | :09:26. | :09:31. | |
least have some recognitions, so speak. That is in the provision of | :09:32. | :09:38. | |
SRE. It seems to me that with over 70,000 children effectively children | :09:39. | :09:45. | |
of the state and so many more children subject to sexual abuse and | :09:46. | :09:51. | |
the historic sexual abuse that has gone on, our failure to address this | :09:52. | :09:58. | |
issue of SRE front and centre is becoming increasingly obvious. So I | :09:59. | :10:02. | |
do think that the Government really does have to go full on into a | :10:03. | :10:09. | |
consultation process to give assurance that there is going to be | :10:10. | :10:14. | |
something done about this most important matter. So I ask the | :10:15. | :10:19. | |
Minister to confirm to this house that we are going to have a | :10:20. | :10:23. | |
realistic and meaningful consultation on the introduction for | :10:24. | :10:29. | |
statutory SRE. Yes I will give way. Thank the honourable gentleman for | :10:30. | :10:33. | |
giving way. I'm delighted for him to raise this within this bill. Can I | :10:34. | :10:37. | |
ask that he will back amendments by put forward by some on this side of | :10:38. | :10:42. | |
the house to make SRE part of the safeguarding proposals for all | :10:43. | :10:44. | |
children in this country, making sure we keep every young person | :10:45. | :10:48. | |
saved in this country. That depends on what the amendments are and | :10:49. | :10:51. | |
whether or not the Government actually makes it very clear that it | :10:52. | :10:56. | |
is going to have a full-scale consultation. But I note what the | :10:57. | :10:59. | |
honourable member has said and I'm sure that the Government has also | :11:00. | :11:06. | |
noted what I have just said, we do need a full, meaningful and Cumbrae | :11:07. | :11:09. | |
hence its consultation on this important matter. That's actually | :11:10. | :11:16. | |
why five chairs of select committees sent a letter to the Secretary of | :11:17. | :11:23. | |
State, I organised that last letter, it was from the business, energy and | :11:24. | :11:28. | |
industrial strategy, you might well ask what exactly has that now got to | :11:29. | :11:34. | |
do with SRE but I can make the argument if you wish me to. Women | :11:35. | :11:41. | |
and equality is, health and home affairs. All of these committees are | :11:42. | :11:48. | |
effectively said precisely the same thing, we need to CSR reintroduced | :11:49. | :11:53. | |
statutorily in our schools. So that is that point I think very well | :11:54. | :12:01. | |
made. By the five select committees. The last point I really want to make | :12:02. | :12:06. | |
is this issue about giving latitude to local Government. A Select | :12:07. | :12:10. | |
Committee did some work on children in care, particularly those with | :12:11. | :12:15. | |
mental health difficulties. One of the things that was strikingly | :12:16. | :12:20. | |
obvious when we went traffic was that by cooperating with other | :12:21. | :12:26. | |
agencies, I having coterminous structures and by having strong | :12:27. | :12:28. | |
leadership, Trafford was delivering some outstanding results. And I | :12:29. | :12:35. | |
think that it is worth noting that the ability of that council to | :12:36. | :12:40. | |
effectively benefit from strategic leadership at the top end, | :12:41. | :12:44. | |
operational leadership within the structures themselves and a | :12:45. | :12:54. | |
coterminous nature, not only are their own organisations and related | :12:55. | :12:57. | |
agencies but also with the police force, was extraordinary beneficial | :12:58. | :13:02. | |
or working practices and the way in which decisions were made and | :13:03. | :13:08. | |
responses given to issues connected to children in care and children at | :13:09. | :13:13. | |
risk. So I think the Government is right to move down towards giving | :13:14. | :13:19. | |
local Government more latitude in the way that it formulates its | :13:20. | :13:27. | |
structures to deliver outcomes. In short, I think this bill has a lot | :13:28. | :13:32. | |
to be said for it. I think it is critical that we acknowledge that | :13:33. | :13:36. | |
some form of professional body would be good for social workers and | :13:37. | :13:41. | |
social work generally. I think that the absence of SRE is a pity, I | :13:42. | :13:45. | |
think it's important that the Government gives that firm | :13:46. | :13:48. | |
commitment which I have asked for, and I think generally speaking the | :13:49. | :13:51. | |
Government is on the right direction in connection with local Government. | :13:52. | :13:58. | |
Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. I am aware that very few clauses in this | :13:59. | :14:07. | |
bill affect Scotland that as a member of the Education Select | :14:08. | :14:10. | |
Committee, I may have some points of interest and I may be able to help | :14:11. | :14:15. | |
this bill become even better. When a child or young person can't live at | :14:16. | :14:20. | |
home, we all owe them to make the process of finding a new stable | :14:21. | :14:23. | |
family as efficient and straightforward as possible. There | :14:24. | :14:29. | |
are some clauses, close one for example in this ill, that I note | :14:30. | :14:39. | |
create seven core parenting principles that local authorities | :14:40. | :14:43. | |
must have regard of and I would question the Minister as to why | :14:44. | :14:48. | |
these aren't mandatory. The joint committee on human rights have said | :14:49. | :14:51. | |
they considered the arguments and the effort for and against | :14:52. | :14:56. | |
introducing a statutory duty of public authorities in England | :14:57. | :15:01. | |
requiring them to have regard to the rights of the children in the United | :15:02. | :15:03. | |
Nations Convention under the rights of the child, and the exercise | :15:04. | :15:11. | |
equivalent to the duties already introduced in England and Wales. If | :15:12. | :15:15. | |
England and Wales can introduce this duty, I find it difficult to | :15:16. | :15:18. | |
understand why it isn't going to be mandatory in England. The joint | :15:19. | :15:24. | |
committee also said they welcome parliament presenting this bill and | :15:25. | :15:27. | |
actually making sure that there is such a duty. It really is important | :15:28. | :15:32. | |
that children are at the focus and the heart of any bill that is | :15:33. | :15:39. | |
introduced in this Parliament. We really need to look at how children | :15:40. | :15:45. | |
are affected by the legislation, not just by the Department for education | :15:46. | :15:51. | |
but across the board. In Scotland the First Minister has said that | :15:52. | :15:56. | |
people have experienced the care system and that will be the driving | :15:57. | :16:01. | |
force in a review of how Scotland treats its looked after children, | :16:02. | :16:04. | |
and this is actually this mandatory duty in action. We also in Scotland | :16:05. | :16:12. | |
really want to move forward and listen to young people. In fact, we | :16:13. | :16:17. | |
are looking at extending what is happening in Scotland to people who | :16:18. | :16:22. | |
have been in care and are going through the process of becoming | :16:23. | :16:27. | |
adults who stand on their home. It's good to see that this bill is | :16:28. | :16:31. | |
actually looking at what happens to children after they leave care. Can | :16:32. | :16:36. | |
I ask the Minister to look at what we do in Scotland? Because we are | :16:37. | :16:42. | |
moving forward at a far better placed than we are here in England | :16:43. | :16:47. | |
and Wales. A former children's minister in Scotland said children | :16:48. | :16:49. | |
don't need a system that just stops things happening to them. While we | :16:50. | :16:57. | |
have safeguards, wheels and need a system that makes things happen to | :16:58. | :17:02. | |
them. A system that supports them to become the people they can be, | :17:03. | :17:06. | |
fostering a sense of belonging. I'm sure the Minister would agree with | :17:07. | :17:10. | |
that, that this should be a guiding principle into any legislation that | :17:11. | :17:15. | |
we bring forward. Can I ask the minister what steps the Government | :17:16. | :17:18. | |
are going to take to respond to the UN committee on the rights of the | :17:19. | :17:23. | |
child's recommendations early this year and can they give a timeline on | :17:24. | :17:27. | |
when they plan to publish their official response. Can I also ask | :17:28. | :17:30. | |
what further steps the Government is going to take to ensure the policy | :17:31. | :17:35. | |
developed across Whitehall has children's rights at the heart of | :17:36. | :17:43. | |
it? One part of the bill, section 31, affects Scotland and that is to | :17:44. | :17:47. | |
do with whistle-blowing. The Scottish Government act knowledges | :17:48. | :17:51. | |
and respect the need for whistle-blowing and it believes that | :17:52. | :17:56. | |
the procedure should be in place across the public and private | :17:57. | :17:58. | |
sectors to support staff in raising any concerns to ensure people can | :17:59. | :18:03. | |
work in a safe and secure environment. In Scotland, in the | :18:04. | :18:08. | |
NHS, the Scottish Government believes it is very important that | :18:09. | :18:11. | |
workers feel they can raise any concerns they may have about patient | :18:12. | :18:15. | |
safety and malpractice, because it helps to improve the health service | :18:16. | :18:19. | |
and we believe this practice should not only take place in the health | :18:20. | :18:25. | |
service but across all professions, especially in the social work | :18:26. | :18:29. | |
sector, given how important the protection of children is. We | :18:30. | :18:33. | |
actually welcome this part and we are really keen that the Government | :18:34. | :18:38. | |
are seeing this through. In Scotland, social work is regulated | :18:39. | :18:44. | |
and again, I would commend asking the Minister to look at the Scottish | :18:45. | :18:50. | |
system, indeed when the Education Select Committee spoke to social | :18:51. | :18:53. | |
workers and social worker representatives as part of an | :18:54. | :18:56. | |
inquiry by the chair the honourable member for Stroud, one of the first | :18:57. | :19:01. | |
thing is said to us was, look at the Scottish system. I would absolutely | :19:02. | :19:06. | |
encouragement esters to do that. In Scotland, we have the social work, | :19:07. | :19:15. | |
the social services Council, which regulates it and to which all social | :19:16. | :19:19. | |
workers have to belong. I'm very pleased England is going to be | :19:20. | :19:23. | |
moving forward in this regard. I share the honourable member for | :19:24. | :19:27. | |
Ashton-under-Lyne's apprehensions about creeping privatisation in the | :19:28. | :19:32. | |
care sector, especially where it relates to children. It is | :19:33. | :19:39. | |
absolutely imperative that we all looked after children, especially | :19:40. | :19:43. | |
those who are not with their own families and their own parents, in | :19:44. | :19:48. | |
fact we all have a right to protect and look after children. It is an | :19:49. | :19:54. | |
imperative on all of us and it is a duties shared amongst all of us in | :19:55. | :20:00. | |
society not just professionals, again, by whistle-blowing, it is | :20:01. | :20:05. | |
important. While this bill is important for what is going to | :20:06. | :20:09. | |
happen in England, it is taken in the context of child poverty which | :20:10. | :20:14. | |
is actually, according to the interview -- Institute for financial | :20:15. | :20:22. | |
studies are, Institute for financial services, to say that child poverty | :20:23. | :20:28. | |
in the UK is projected to rise by 8% by 2020. This actually makes it even | :20:29. | :20:33. | |
more important that we get it right, as many more children may be drawn | :20:34. | :20:38. | |
into the care system as a result of the austerity programme that is | :20:39. | :20:44. | |
still ongoing in this country and across the UK. Can I please then | :20:45. | :20:50. | |
asked the Minister to look at Scotland, to look at what we're | :20:51. | :20:54. | |
doing there. We're not perfect, we're not doing everything right, | :20:55. | :21:02. | |
but we have at the heart of our system children, their experiences | :21:03. | :21:06. | |
and we are listening to them. I please ask the Minister to look at | :21:07. | :21:19. | |
Scotland and Wales doing very good childcare work across-the-board. | :21:20. | :21:25. | |
Thank you Mr Speaker. Can I first declare an interest... Can I also | :21:26. | :21:35. | |
welcome the bill, in most part and that Italy as it stands without | :21:36. | :21:39. | |
certain parts which I alluded to earlier. -- and particularly as it | :21:40. | :21:47. | |
stands. We spend far too little time in this house highlighting some of | :21:48. | :21:50. | |
the excellent practices in highly adverse conditions that we expect | :21:51. | :21:59. | |
our social workers to do. I have always referred to social workers as | :22:00. | :22:03. | |
our fourth emergency service, and I'm very proud... One moment... | :22:04. | :22:08. | |
Alongside the lady opposite to be a patron of the social worker of the | :22:09. | :22:14. | |
year award and I attended the dinner a few weeks ago where there were | :22:15. | :22:17. | |
some fantastic examples of dedication and hard work, skill and | :22:18. | :22:21. | |
expertise on display, none of which alas made it into the mainstream | :22:22. | :22:25. | |
media, which is so often the case. I will give way. I think the | :22:26. | :22:29. | |
honourable member for giving way. Will he agree with me that the | :22:30. | :22:35. | |
challenges facing social workers are particularly intense, not just with | :22:36. | :22:40. | |
the immense reductions in funding but also the fast changing | :22:41. | :22:49. | |
Government initiative changing itis that seems to attract itself to the | :22:50. | :22:57. | |
social work area? They are certainly under pressure, but that initiative | :22:58. | :23:01. | |
itis has too some point gone into reverse not least through the | :23:02. | :23:07. | |
shrinking together of the social work practice which when this | :23:08. | :23:10. | |
Government came into office amounted to more than 750 pages. The social | :23:11. | :23:16. | |
workers were spending all of their time checking what it said in the | :23:17. | :23:19. | |
rule book, looking over their shoulders, ticking the box, rather | :23:20. | :23:22. | |
than being allowed to get on with the business of being social | :23:23. | :23:29. | |
workers, eyeballing the families and children they were there to protect | :23:30. | :23:33. | |
and work with. That was certainly very important and again with the | :23:34. | :23:38. | |
support of Professor Munro, a very important initiative which tries to | :23:39. | :23:42. | |
take away a lock of the administrative burdens on social | :23:43. | :23:44. | |
workers, notwithstanding the other pressures and workers that there | :23:45. | :23:50. | |
are. I'm also very proud, Mr Deputy Speaker, for the work that my party | :23:51. | :23:54. | |
did in this area, starting with the commissioning is on social worker | :23:55. | :23:57. | |
which I chaired back in 2007, which I'm delighted my honourable friend | :23:58. | :24:01. | |
the member for Portsmouth South who played such an important role in | :24:02. | :24:04. | |
that commission produced a document which is as relevant today as it was | :24:05. | :24:08. | |
then, called no more blame game, the future for children's social | :24:09. | :24:13. | |
workers. The problem is that all too often children are still the subject | :24:14. | :24:16. | |
of the blame game particularly in the tabloid press, where it would | :24:17. | :24:21. | |
appear that it's social workers who abuse, who murder young and | :24:22. | :24:27. | |
vulnerable children, but of course it's not. They are there to try and | :24:28. | :24:31. | |
protect those vulnerable children and it is parents and carers and | :24:32. | :24:35. | |
others who commit those foul acts and yet you wouldn't believe it if | :24:36. | :24:38. | |
you read some of the reports and the way of the disdainful way that too | :24:39. | :24:42. | |
many people still look at our social workers. | :24:43. | :24:55. | |
In 2010 the manifesto commitment child protection back to the front | :24:56. | :25:00. | |
line. I'm very pleased and proud that the first review initiated by | :25:01. | :25:06. | |
the Department for Education after the election was not to do with | :25:07. | :25:11. | |
schools or education matters, the Munro review into child protection. | :25:12. | :25:21. | |
I was slightly surprised that the Minister was so conclusively playing | :25:22. | :25:32. | |
an aide Professor Monroe because I appointed Professor Monroe on the | :25:33. | :25:35. | |
problem is that a lot of his 15 recommendations very pertinent this | :25:36. | :25:43. | |
is to be implemented but they don't involve taking away those basic | :25:44. | :25:45. | |
duties. That does not include the rehashing | :25:46. | :26:12. | |
Azzam al-Ahmed why I the comments on the Minister for schools. It's a | :26:13. | :26:15. | |
shame because after the good work done by the Lord's we wear promised | :26:16. | :26:17. | |
a period of reflection. I would caution him to extend that | :26:18. | :26:40. | |
reflection before they hurry into repeating which was clearly a | :26:41. | :26:44. | |
mistake and the majority of the House of Lords and the great | :26:45. | :26:48. | |
majority of important organisations involved in child protection were | :26:49. | :26:51. | |
not in favour and made their feelings very clear. Let's be clear, | :26:52. | :26:58. | |
a lot of good things around child protection have happened under this | :26:59. | :27:04. | |
government, the reform of fostering and adoption regulations has helped | :27:05. | :27:12. | |
to fostering, Fosters and adopters and help children being fostered and | :27:13. | :27:15. | |
more children going on to be adopted as well. More to be done but a lot | :27:16. | :27:20. | |
of progress has been made in the last six years. We have now are much | :27:21. | :27:24. | |
more appropriate and rigorous inspection system from Ofsted. We | :27:25. | :27:30. | |
have the Munro review which has given rise to a lot of innovation in | :27:31. | :27:34. | |
the way we go about child protection. We have the child sexual | :27:35. | :27:40. | |
exploitation action plan which was published back in November 20 11th, | :27:41. | :27:45. | |
well before Savill came on the scene so publicly and made such a headline | :27:46. | :27:52. | |
issue and we have never seen the light of that. We had staying put | :27:53. | :27:58. | |
although I feel it is underfunded in its effectiveness in certain local | :27:59. | :28:01. | |
authorities with the extension of the right to a personal adviser to | :28:02. | :28:08. | |
the age of 25 and are due to local authorities to stay in touch, good | :28:09. | :28:12. | |
things being innovated in this bill, is staying close until the age of | :28:13. | :28:16. | |
21, these are all things which offer support vulnerable children in the | :28:17. | :28:22. | |
care system at the most fragile time in their lives whereas before at the | :28:23. | :28:27. | |
age of 18 or even 16 they faced a cliff edge coming out of care into | :28:28. | :28:31. | |
the big wide world without the help and support and the safety net that | :28:32. | :28:36. | |
so many of these children and young people need. The honourable member | :28:37. | :28:39. | |
is been extremely generous in giving away a second time and would he | :28:40. | :28:44. | |
agree with me that much of this could be quite academic if funding | :28:45. | :28:52. | |
doesn't accompany these very exciting new developments? Funding | :28:53. | :28:55. | |
is of course part of the element but of course we can do a lot better | :28:56. | :29:02. | |
with existing funds although the report showed funding of honourable | :29:03. | :29:06. | |
children had actually gone up as well but certainly what was not | :29:07. | :29:09. | |
working properly is when social workers were spending through the | :29:10. | :29:14. | |
ICS system another very bureaucratic system up to 80% of their time in | :29:15. | :29:18. | |
front of a computer filling in forms to do with child protection rather | :29:19. | :29:22. | |
than getting out there, dealing with those children face-to-face, that | :29:23. | :29:26. | |
was a huge waste of resources but more importantly a huge waste of | :29:27. | :29:30. | |
opportunity to deal more effectively and early on with those children who | :29:31. | :29:33. | |
really did need to have the support and often intervention and social | :29:34. | :29:40. | |
workers in particular. Despite all of these innovations we still need | :29:41. | :29:45. | |
to do an awful lot better for vulnerable children and children in | :29:46. | :29:48. | |
the care system and for our care leavers. It is a fact that 40%, | :29:49. | :29:56. | |
almost half of our care leavers aged 19-21 are classed as leaks. 40% of | :29:57. | :30:05. | |
them are in custody, two thirds of children in the care system have | :30:06. | :30:11. | |
special educational needs, half of them with the diagnosable mental | :30:12. | :30:15. | |
disorder, the outcomes for educational achievement achieving a- | :30:16. | :30:28. | |
see is still in its teams compared with the peer population now of over | :30:29. | :30:34. | |
60% achieving those sorts of grades. I welcome the bill, particularly | :30:35. | :30:38. | |
some of the corporate principles and it would be interesting to see how | :30:39. | :30:44. | |
they work in practice which apply to physical and mental health, which is | :30:45. | :30:47. | |
so important. Although this government again has done a lot to | :30:48. | :30:51. | |
raise the profile of mental health particularly among children and | :30:52. | :30:55. | |
young people has injected a ?1.4 billion into that area, the problem | :30:56. | :31:00. | |
is that not nearly enough of it and then that is not enough in itself is | :31:01. | :31:04. | |
getting through to the front line to help both children and young people | :31:05. | :31:08. | |
who so desperately needed when they need it. And where they needed as | :31:09. | :31:14. | |
well. These are challenging times. The report from the National Audit | :31:15. | :31:23. | |
Office. The report on children in need of protection flagged up some | :31:24. | :31:29. | |
worrying observations. Too often the way we look after vulnerable | :31:30. | :31:35. | |
children is postcode lottery. We are still so poor at sharing best | :31:36. | :31:41. | |
practice in this country. Yet a child in need, a child in care, a | :31:42. | :31:46. | |
child in desperate need of protection should be dealt with no | :31:47. | :31:51. | |
differently whether they are in Durham, Worthing or in Exeter or | :31:52. | :31:54. | |
anywhere else throughout the United Kingdom for that matter. Still, | :31:55. | :32:02. | |
since the surge that we saw particularly since the horrific case | :32:03. | :32:08. | |
of baby Peter, still the numbers of children coming into the care system | :32:09. | :32:13. | |
is rising. Now in excess of 70,000 children in the care system in | :32:14. | :32:18. | |
England, the highest since 1985. We were in a very different environment | :32:19. | :32:24. | |
that children tended to come into. I don't know whether we need to take | :32:25. | :32:32. | |
more children into care. We need to take the right children into care at | :32:33. | :32:37. | |
the right time. Give them the right support and services if they cannot | :32:38. | :32:40. | |
be supported living with their families or other kinship carers. | :32:41. | :32:46. | |
One of the things I'm proud of, the initiative the government took over | :32:47. | :32:51. | |
promoting adoption which had fallen into neglect after the good work | :32:52. | :33:03. | |
done in the adoption Bill. Still there is a very big grey space | :33:04. | :33:09. | |
following the Mundy judgment. That should not have happened. | :33:10. | :33:26. | |
Through too many hoops to which took too long to get adopted. A local | :33:27. | :33:36. | |
authority level in adoption but we needed to bring onside | :33:37. | :33:40. | |
contemporaneously and in sympathy those in the legal profession. They | :33:41. | :33:46. | |
felt put the pawn that they were how to run cases in the courts. | :33:47. | :34:00. | |
We have seen a reversal in adoption numbers and we hope to see a reverse | :34:01. | :34:07. | |
back and adoption offers a best chance of a second childhood and a | :34:08. | :34:11. | |
second possibility of being brought up in a safe fun loving family. | :34:12. | :34:25. | |
Does he share the concern that many adoptions are taking place with the | :34:26. | :34:32. | |
younger children where it's far more difficult to place order children | :34:33. | :34:35. | |
and we have to do more to promote the benefits of adoption at a later | :34:36. | :34:43. | |
age. It's always been the case, shiny squeaky new babies are much | :34:44. | :34:47. | |
more attractive to people who want to adopt than problematic teenagers | :34:48. | :34:52. | |
who have been through all the trials and tribulations of broken families | :34:53. | :34:58. | |
perhaps abuse, neglect, mental health problems and behavioural | :34:59. | :35:00. | |
disorders and have been pushed from pillar to post in the care system | :35:01. | :35:04. | |
and those are the children we have more slowdown. Bringing in adoption | :35:05. | :35:13. | |
scorecards is not just about approving the numbers but | :35:14. | :35:17. | |
concentrating on those harder to adopt children, older children, | :35:18. | :35:21. | |
large sibling groups, children from black, minority, ethnic communities | :35:22. | :35:25. | |
who were too often at the back of the queue when it came to adopting | :35:26. | :35:29. | |
and I'm glad to see in recent years disproportionately those children | :35:30. | :35:31. | |
have found themselves more likely to get adopted than they were, still | :35:32. | :35:36. | |
not enough and still a lot to be done but that was absolutely the | :35:37. | :35:40. | |
right focus to bring in over the last few years. Another thing I'm | :35:41. | :35:46. | |
concerned about has we now seem despite all the good work that the | :35:47. | :35:51. | |
government did on paralleling the system in Holland for health | :35:52. | :35:57. | |
visitors have now lost 722 health visitors and we seen a 13% decrease | :35:58. | :35:59. | |
in school nurses. Too often their positions are taken | :36:00. | :36:32. | |
by temporary social workers and social workers particularly when | :36:33. | :36:33. | |
dealing with child protection is an area where you need to forge | :36:34. | :36:37. | |
relationships empathetic relationships with those vulnerable | :36:38. | :36:42. | |
children and families that we are to look after and we are being pushed | :36:43. | :36:46. | |
from pillar to post, from one social worker to another so different and | :36:47. | :36:51. | |
dependent reviewing Officer for whoever it may be, it only | :36:52. | :36:55. | |
accentuates the instability and the vulnerability of those children. And | :36:56. | :37:00. | |
I do worry at times, when still even in this place we are too quick to | :37:01. | :37:06. | |
point the finger of blame at the social workers because a child has | :37:07. | :37:13. | |
been brutally assaulted or into many cases killed the hands of carers and | :37:14. | :37:23. | |
maybe parents and close relatives. There are social workers who are not | :37:24. | :37:26. | |
doing their job properly, social workers who are not up to the job | :37:27. | :37:29. | |
and frankly should not be in social work and they should be removed from | :37:30. | :37:33. | |
it. They are a small minority and they should not make the rest of her | :37:34. | :37:39. | |
excellent hard work in dedicated social worker feel constantly that | :37:40. | :37:51. | |
they are the ones to blame. They are not in the vast majority of cases | :37:52. | :37:58. | |
part of the problem. At the heart of the original bill, eviscerated | :37:59. | :38:06. | |
clauses 29-33 which are about to make a reappearance it would now | :38:07. | :38:09. | |
seem unfortunately. At the heart of the original bill, the radical new | :38:10. | :38:15. | |
proposals to test new ways of working under the guise of promoting | :38:16. | :38:24. | |
innovation. As I said earlier, I'm afraid those clauses were not | :38:25. | :38:29. | |
remotely welcome by the vast majority of people who are involved | :38:30. | :38:34. | |
in the whole field of child protection. They were opposed by the | :38:35. | :38:41. | |
British Association of social workers, the ceilidh was | :38:42. | :38:44. | |
Association, the children's rights Alliance, the government's appointed | :38:45. | :38:51. | |
adoption provider, the fostering network, the NSPCC, action for | :38:52. | :38:56. | |
children and in various pulls something like 90% of working social | :38:57. | :39:03. | |
workers did not support them either. It was hardly surprising as well | :39:04. | :39:10. | |
when they came out of the blue. No consultation on absolutely | :39:11. | :39:14. | |
fundamental changes to the way we apply duties of care to vulnerable | :39:15. | :39:22. | |
children in this country. I pay tribute to the House of Lords and in | :39:23. | :39:29. | |
particular to the noble Lord. For putting forward the amendments that | :39:30. | :39:36. | |
saw those clauses taken out of the bill. Lord Ramsbottom referred to | :39:37. | :39:41. | |
clause 29, nothing less than the usurpation of the proper | :39:42. | :39:45. | |
Parliamentary process and he asked how the courts are expected to | :39:46. | :39:51. | |
respond when local authority areas are disadvantaged by the arbitrarily | :39:52. | :40:09. | |
nature of applying the law. We cannot have competition between | :40:10. | :40:14. | |
different ways of looking at vulnerable children. Some of which | :40:15. | :40:18. | |
will not work and some of which might. Every child needs the | :40:19. | :40:24. | |
protection of the law as set out by Parliament, not subject to a | :40:25. | :40:29. | |
postcode lottery as is convenient for certain local authorities. Lord | :40:30. | :40:39. | |
Lowell in the other place as it's perfectly possible to test different | :40:40. | :40:43. | |
ways of working within existing legislative framework and it makes | :40:44. | :40:49. | |
no sense to get rid of the duty. The squeeze on funding which other | :40:50. | :40:54. | |
members have mentioned and is inevitable at the moment although | :40:55. | :40:58. | |
it's not desirable has meant that in too many, because of that disastrous | :40:59. | :41:04. | |
way the last government run the economy to the ground. In too many | :41:05. | :41:13. | |
cases local authorities are only providing what is their duty and | :41:14. | :41:18. | |
additional services are no longer on the agenda at all. Taking away that | :41:19. | :41:22. | |
duty means some of these fundamental things could not happen in the | :41:23. | :41:28. | |
future. Clause 29 as it was would have allowed local authorities to | :41:29. | :41:30. | |
request exemptions from the statutory duties in social care, | :41:31. | :41:36. | |
every act of Parliament and every subordinate piece of legislation | :41:37. | :41:40. | |
concerned with children's social care from 1933 onwards would have | :41:41. | :41:45. | |
potentially affected. The proposed mechanism for exemption orders was | :41:46. | :41:49. | |
to be statutory instruments which would have added over enormous bias | :41:50. | :41:55. | |
to the Secretary of State and the Department for Education itself and | :41:56. | :41:58. | |
I'm afraid the Minister for schools is wrong, the DfEE acknowledge that | :41:59. | :42:02. | |
this part of the bill directly concerns children's fundamental | :42:03. | :42:10. | |
rights. How can vulnerable children challenge the lack of services? I | :42:11. | :42:14. | |
give the example, one of the many examples in the House of lords of | :42:15. | :42:18. | |
independent reviewing officers, I'm a big fan of them and it is a bit of | :42:19. | :42:22. | |
the postcode lottery but the role is to stand up to be the voice and to | :42:23. | :42:25. | |
be the advocate of children who are not getting the services to which | :42:26. | :42:29. | |
they are entitled, which they need from local authorities. If they are | :42:30. | :42:34. | |
not available because an exemption has been applied for and granted. | :42:35. | :42:43. | |
Where is that child to go? Not just them, there are key legal | :42:44. | :42:51. | |
protections which exist in the form of. Protections for disabled | :42:52. | :42:55. | |
children placed away from home, leaving care entitlements and | :42:56. | :43:01. | |
complaints procedures. All of these could be granted an exemption and | :43:02. | :43:05. | |
could disappear from fundamental rights which we apply to protect | :43:06. | :43:10. | |
vulnerable children now. This would be the first time in the history of | :43:11. | :43:14. | |
children's welfare that legislation made for all vulnerable children and | :43:15. | :43:17. | |
young people could be this applied in a particular area, this is a very | :43:18. | :43:22. | |
rare proposal that should at least have warranted a Green paper and a | :43:23. | :43:26. | |
white paper and proper consultation but there was absolutely none. Not | :43:27. | :43:33. | |
surprising that the NSPCC and action for children describe this as the | :43:34. | :43:40. | |
place that the government is making sense considerable risks despite | :43:41. | :43:42. | |
numerous conversations the evidence for the need for this power remains | :43:43. | :43:46. | |
unconvincing and does not justify the potential risks for suspending | :43:47. | :43:51. | |
primary Revol - legislation. If the causes are reintroduced it will pave | :43:52. | :43:55. | |
the way for significant and dangerous changes to children in | :43:56. | :44:03. | |
social care which would jeopardise hard-fought children's rights | :44:04. | :44:05. | |
spanning decades. How would the pilots for these actually be | :44:06. | :44:08. | |
monitored? Who and how would we monitor whether children were still | :44:09. | :44:14. | |
safe and what actual results it was happening for those children. It's | :44:15. | :44:20. | |
no surprise that only one in ten practising social workers surveyed | :44:21. | :44:25. | |
by Unison actually thought this was a good idea. That is why I have | :44:26. | :44:34. | |
severe reservations if this bill is going to see the return of those | :44:35. | :44:40. | |
clauses. If we can return to the Munro review, what it did was to | :44:41. | :44:44. | |
take away a lot of the bureaucracy from social workers. It gave | :44:45. | :44:49. | |
flexibilities on the timings, on how children needed to receive | :44:50. | :44:54. | |
assessments and how they could prioritise. Basically it gave | :44:55. | :44:59. | |
greater powers and confidence back to social workers to be able to use | :45:00. | :45:04. | |
their professional judgments to do the best thing they thought was in | :45:05. | :45:08. | |
the interests of vulnerable children, sometimes they would get | :45:09. | :45:13. | |
it wrong. What I want to do and what the Munro review was all about is | :45:14. | :45:15. | |
giving social workers the confidence to make a mistake, hopefully not | :45:16. | :45:21. | |
often but to do it for the very best of reasons, not simply because | :45:22. | :45:25. | |
that's what it says on page 117 of the rule book and you needed to tick | :45:26. | :45:29. | |
the boxes, that's not what social workers Oliver, it's not a science, | :45:30. | :45:31. | |
it's a con placated and challenging job. If you're going to give | :45:32. | :45:37. | |
professionals those flexibilities, if you're going to allow them to act | :45:38. | :45:42. | |
in different and innovative ways because they think that's the best | :45:43. | :45:47. | |
way of looking after vulnerable children, you don't and you don't | :45:48. | :45:51. | |
need to take away the statutory duties of the local authorities who | :45:52. | :45:55. | |
are a little copper parents for those children so the new ways | :45:56. | :46:00. | |
actually don't have to abide by the basic fundamental duties that you're | :46:01. | :46:03. | |
doing the right thing and looking after those vulnerable children. | :46:04. | :46:08. | |
Finally, can I look at a few of the specific clauses within the bill and | :46:09. | :46:12. | |
ask the Minister some questions which I hope you'll be able to | :46:13. | :46:18. | |
referred to in his summing up. Clause one which is about corporate | :46:19. | :46:21. | |
parenting principles which I welcome but it's not clear exactly what the | :46:22. | :46:28. | |
amount to in practice. Are they in addition to section 23 commitments | :46:29. | :46:34. | |
of the children's act of 1989 or are they actually replacing them? I've | :46:35. | :46:38. | |
used examples where I welcome promoting the physical and mental | :46:39. | :46:42. | |
health, promoting high aspirations, securing the best outcomes for those | :46:43. | :46:46. | |
children and young people, nobody possibly could vote against such | :46:47. | :46:55. | |
things. Where a former relevant child to whom this section applies | :46:56. | :46:58. | |
is not receiving advice and support, the local authority much must offer | :46:59. | :47:02. | |
advice and support at least once every 12 months. Once every 12 | :47:03. | :47:08. | |
months is not going to go far for a vulnerable child who needs intensive | :47:09. | :47:14. | |
help. Section eight talks about personal advisers. Too many children | :47:15. | :47:18. | |
in care that I met and children leaving care have never heard of | :47:19. | :47:23. | |
personal advisers let alone the with their own personal adviser actually | :47:24. | :47:30. | |
is. In" Might we are giving this extraordinary power to local | :47:31. | :47:33. | |
authority and I quote, a local authority in England may do anything | :47:34. | :47:37. | |
else that they consider appropriate with the view to promoting education | :47:38. | :47:44. | |
of relevant children educated in their area. Why do we require that | :47:45. | :47:49. | |
thing in legislation, it strikes me that a bit too much of this is a bit | :47:50. | :47:54. | |
too mushy and a bit to fill of cotton wool. Too many vague | :47:55. | :47:59. | |
assumptions that actually practice particularly with funding pressures, | :48:00. | :48:02. | |
particular were duties taken away won't actually lead to a raw beans | :48:03. | :48:10. | |
in practice. On the subject of what should be on the bill in terms of | :48:11. | :48:12. | |
duties, does my honourable friend share my concern that the primary | :48:13. | :48:17. | |
focus is the duty of care to children and also the issue of women | :48:18. | :48:23. | |
and mothers who will end up having other children who end up in care | :48:24. | :48:27. | |
and other children and the number of successive children and is a need | :48:28. | :48:30. | |
for the local authority to have a responsibility for those vulnerable | :48:31. | :48:36. | |
children who may have been victims of a chorus of relationship. The | :48:37. | :48:39. | |
sooner that there is some intervention and some focus of care | :48:40. | :48:43. | |
the better to avoid subsequent issues and subsequent children and | :48:44. | :48:47. | |
costs and concerns for all. My honourable friend is right in his | :48:48. | :48:51. | |
great expertise and we cannot look at vulnerable children in isolation | :48:52. | :48:55. | |
and we need to look at the family problems and the family holistically | :48:56. | :48:59. | |
and Freddie come from and there were some really good examples and I do | :49:00. | :49:02. | |
hope that the Minister is going to stick to his word and provide the | :49:03. | :49:09. | |
funding for things such as the family drug and alcohol Court set up | :49:10. | :49:14. | |
by the excellent Nick Crichton, a fantastic family district judge. | :49:15. | :49:21. | |
Whereby a mother often the single mother, at risk of losing a child to | :49:22. | :49:27. | |
the care system, often because lots of substance abuse, maybe an abusive | :49:28. | :49:31. | |
partner, is given a very clear choice of an intensive package that | :49:32. | :49:35. | |
will help that mum, maybe both parents back onto the straight and | :49:36. | :49:39. | |
narrow so they are able to bring up their own child and it's a tough and | :49:40. | :49:42. | |
challenging exercise as well. If they're able to do that then that'll | :49:43. | :49:46. | |
family is put back together and the child stays which is the best | :49:47. | :49:50. | |
outcome but if not then that child will head for care. I have seen and | :49:51. | :49:54. | |
sat in court and might honourable friend who will speak shortly sat in | :49:55. | :50:00. | |
court as well seeing mums who had six, seven, eight children taken | :50:01. | :50:04. | |
into the care system and you have to tackle the root of a problem. Why is | :50:05. | :50:09. | |
it? Poor parenting herself that she doesn't know how to be a parent, | :50:10. | :50:18. | |
what do we and troubled families to become a fit parent. If not then | :50:19. | :50:23. | |
that child must go to a safe family elsewhere who can give a child a | :50:24. | :50:30. | |
second chance of a beneficial and happy upbringing. A few other quick | :50:31. | :50:35. | |
points I can make, unaware that there are not too many speakers for | :50:36. | :50:39. | |
the debate so it's an opportunity to collaborate on some of these | :50:40. | :50:42. | |
important point is a little longer than one is normally allowed to buy | :50:43. | :50:45. | |
the chair but I know how generous you are in these matters of great | :50:46. | :50:51. | |
interest to you. In clause five it's about designation of a member of | :50:52. | :50:57. | |
staff at school having responsibility for education and | :50:58. | :50:59. | |
achievement of children in the care system. This is a good initiative | :51:00. | :51:06. | |
but it already exists for children with caring responsibilities for | :51:07. | :51:10. | |
young carers and that doesn't work in practice. This is a good idea but | :51:11. | :51:14. | |
it has to have some teeth to it and mean something that those children | :51:15. | :51:19. | |
in the care system have special attention from the designated | :51:20. | :51:22. | |
teacher who understands the particular needs of children in the | :51:23. | :51:27. | |
care system, often subjected bullying, mental health problems and | :51:28. | :51:31. | |
anything else but it's not just got to be a cause and bill in paper, | :51:32. | :51:36. | |
it's got to be working in practice. On the child safeguarding practice | :51:37. | :51:42. | |
review panels, I think there are some good points here. I have some | :51:43. | :51:45. | |
concerns about the independence of the panel, but certainly when we | :51:46. | :51:50. | |
gave a commitment for the 2010 election that we would publish | :51:51. | :51:56. | |
serious case reviews, opposed by the party opposite, I have to say, but | :51:57. | :52:00. | |
now has become the norm, one of my concerns was also about the calibre | :52:01. | :52:06. | |
of the people producing those reports and the quality of some of | :52:07. | :52:12. | |
them. Effectively they were not properly monitored, only monitored | :52:13. | :52:15. | |
on a local basis and I actually put forward the idea some time ago that | :52:16. | :52:18. | |
there should be a national body that can oversee the quality, a national | :52:19. | :52:23. | |
register of those authors of serious case reviews with continuous | :52:24. | :52:28. | |
professional development requirements, so he did have to have | :52:29. | :52:30. | |
some training and update their training because before now anybody | :52:31. | :52:35. | |
effectively could apply to be the author of a serious case review and | :52:36. | :52:39. | |
we need to regulate that important area rather better. In subsection | :52:40. | :52:48. | |
for its as the panel must publish the report unless it is | :52:49. | :52:52. | |
inappropriate to do so. Having secured that with the important | :52:53. | :52:55. | |
principle of transparency in a series case reviews were published | :52:56. | :53:00. | |
and only seen by a few people locally and officials in the | :53:01. | :53:02. | |
Department for Education if we are lucky, it was really important that | :53:03. | :53:07. | |
those serious case reviews, other than in those circumstances where it | :53:08. | :53:12. | |
could be detrimental to surviving children or families involved, and | :53:13. | :53:15. | |
there are some exceptional circumstances that should be the | :53:16. | :53:18. | |
case, those serious case reviews should be published, the lessons | :53:19. | :53:23. | |
learned to see the how they can be applied elsewhere and this new | :53:24. | :53:27. | |
review panel is an exercise in doing so and disseminating best practice | :53:28. | :53:32. | |
rather better. I very much support that and I'd like more details on | :53:33. | :53:37. | |
how that is going to work. Then the section around safeguarding partners | :53:38. | :53:42. | |
which appeared to be replacing the local safeguarding children is board | :53:43. | :53:48. | |
which are really important feature of bringing together local agencies | :53:49. | :53:54. | |
to make sure we have got workable solutions, partnerships in place, | :53:55. | :53:57. | |
particularly to deal with child sexual exploitation at the moment. | :53:58. | :54:02. | |
So we need to be convinced how these are different to local safeguarding | :54:03. | :54:11. | |
boards, how they will be funded in particular, and the section hearing | :54:12. | :54:14. | |
clause 19 around funding says that the safeguarding partners for the | :54:15. | :54:19. | |
local authority area in England may make payments towards expenditure of | :54:20. | :54:24. | |
these, by contributing to a fund or making payments directly and | :54:25. | :54:29. | |
relevant agencies, may make payments, the problem with them at | :54:30. | :54:34. | |
the moment Mr Deputy Speaker, is that not all the partners are | :54:35. | :54:38. | |
pulling their weight and into many cases, they are not turning up the | :54:39. | :54:43. | |
table are not to fund the work and too often it falls to the local | :54:44. | :54:47. | |
authorities, the default partner to pick up too much of the tabs over | :54:48. | :54:51. | |
going to put these on a statutory basis, can we make sure that the | :54:52. | :54:55. | |
funding contribution and the participation, the active | :54:56. | :54:58. | |
participation for the relevant partners is absolutely essential and | :54:59. | :55:03. | |
laid out very clearly and unequivocally. I'm also concerned, | :55:04. | :55:08. | |
it says the safeguarding partners, in England may agree that the areas | :55:09. | :55:12. | |
are to be treated as a single area. How big can they be? It is important | :55:13. | :55:17. | |
that we have local safeguarding children's boards that are able to | :55:18. | :55:22. | |
come up with local safeguarding plans, local plans for child sexual | :55:23. | :55:26. | |
exploitation, relevant to Rotherham with the particular problems in | :55:27. | :55:29. | |
Rotherham or whatever. If we are going to be looking after huge great | :55:30. | :55:35. | |
areas they will surely have their affects dilutive dinky hotspots. | :55:36. | :55:41. | |
When it talks about also having cross-border constabulary, | :55:42. | :55:44. | |
cooperation as well. These are very large areas and I'm concerned about | :55:45. | :55:48. | |
the size of the areas that these new boards could become. I think finally | :55:49. | :55:57. | |
Mr Deputy Speaker, on the parts about the new social work England | :55:58. | :56:04. | |
body. I think we need to improve the regulation of social workers, I'm | :56:05. | :56:08. | |
not sure if this is the right way to do it, I would like to see more | :56:09. | :56:13. | |
details about it. It is a shame about the demise of the College of | :56:14. | :56:16. | |
social work that would have performed a lot of this function if | :56:17. | :56:19. | |
it had been allowed to continue and to thrive, a lot of effort went into | :56:20. | :56:24. | |
setting that up in the first place. But I'm also concerned about the | :56:25. | :56:29. | |
independence of social work England. In mind standing it remains an | :56:30. | :56:34. | |
executive agency of the Department for Education, so we need to have | :56:35. | :56:37. | |
some clarity over that. I'm delighted I get a response top | :56:38. | :56:42. | |
yellow I'm grateful to my honourable friend, I can assure him. That the | :56:43. | :56:47. | |
new body will not be an executive agency, it will be a | :56:48. | :56:50. | |
non-departmentally body, so it will be at arm 's length and I think that | :56:51. | :56:56. | |
is right. I am grateful and gratefully reassured and either | :56:57. | :56:58. | |
forward to supporting that amendment rather than some other amendment | :56:59. | :57:02. | |
that I'm not so sure about. In clause 31, one of the overarching | :57:03. | :57:07. | |
objectives, of the social work England organisation, is to promote | :57:08. | :57:12. | |
and maintain public confidence in social workers in England. Quite | :57:13. | :57:19. | |
right. But dad is also the job of the chief social worker, and one | :57:20. | :57:22. | |
disappointment to me I had to say Mr Deputy Speaker, is that when we set | :57:23. | :57:31. | |
up the appointment of a chief social worker, originally it was to be one | :57:32. | :57:36. | |
chief social worker covering elderly and children but Benny was split | :57:37. | :57:40. | |
into a child social worker and an adult care social worker. The point | :57:41. | :57:46. | |
of a chief social worker, was to be a high-profile face, of social work. | :57:47. | :57:51. | |
For the public in particular, to be a reassuring face of child | :57:52. | :57:56. | |
protection to the public in times of high-profile tragedies and disasters | :57:57. | :58:01. | |
involving safeguarding issues. And so when the current chief social | :58:02. | :58:06. | |
worker for children said recently that "I don't pretend I am a voice | :58:07. | :58:10. | |
for the profession, I'm a civil servant, I see my role is offering | :58:11. | :58:13. | |
advice to ministers based on what others tell me about the system". I | :58:14. | :58:18. | |
think there is more to that role. I think somebody needs not to just be | :58:19. | :58:23. | |
a civil servant, certainly somebody working closely alongside ministers | :58:24. | :58:28. | |
and civil servants, but equally somebody working alongside, on the | :58:29. | :58:34. | |
street, out in action, with social workers and social working | :58:35. | :58:37. | |
consultants and practitioners at the sharp end. I just think that we need | :58:38. | :58:42. | |
to revisit the balance, that we have currently got with that position. So | :58:43. | :58:46. | |
Mr Deputy Speaker I do apologise for going on at length, this is a | :58:47. | :58:52. | |
subject, on which I spent most of my career in government involved in | :58:53. | :58:57. | |
child safety and I'm very proud, with the progress that has been made | :58:58. | :59:00. | |
but I'm very worried that we still have a long way to go, but it will | :59:01. | :59:06. | |
help in that journey, but certain parts of it won't, so I do hope that | :59:07. | :59:10. | |
when scrutinising this building committee and at report stage, the | :59:11. | :59:15. | |
government reflects a little before it rushes back some things which | :59:16. | :59:18. | |
clearly are not in the best interest of honourable children. Doctor | :59:19. | :59:26. | |
Stella Creasy. Thank you Mr Deputy Speaker, it is a true pleasure to | :59:27. | :59:30. | |
follow the member with his detail than the size and some may say the | :59:31. | :59:36. | |
exhaustive analysis, of the bill before us today. And I think I can | :59:37. | :59:39. | |
speak for all of us on the side of the file when I say we share many of | :59:40. | :59:43. | |
the concerns that he has put out to get legislation on how we protect | :59:44. | :59:48. | |
young people in our country right. Can I also associate myself with the | :59:49. | :59:53. | |
excellent instruction, which the member for Ashton-under-Lyme Dave, | :59:54. | :59:55. | |
about this bill. While recognising that there are many parts of this | :59:56. | :00:00. | |
bill that are welcome and could take us forward, in that concern across | :00:01. | :00:03. | |
the house to give the best safeguarding for all children in | :00:04. | :00:07. | |
this country. Because I see this bill about how do we best support | :00:08. | :00:11. | |
our children in an imperfect world. A world that all of us are painfully | :00:12. | :00:16. | |
aware of through casework and work within the communities. I think that | :00:17. | :00:19. | |
is why all of us share perhaps the concern that the honourable member | :00:20. | :00:24. | |
for sure has set out about hardship working and in particular working | :00:25. | :00:28. | |
with those professionals. I think many of us have dealt with cases | :00:29. | :00:32. | |
where we are not aware of professionals, but we are being | :00:33. | :00:34. | |
guided by social workers with years of experience in complex and | :00:35. | :00:38. | |
delicate matters which has been a vital assistance to all of us. A | :00:39. | :00:42. | |
recognition to not involve them in this conversation may take us | :00:43. | :00:46. | |
backwards rather than forwards as a country. I think that is why some | :00:47. | :00:49. | |
vessels have real concerns about what will replace the local | :00:50. | :00:53. | |
safeguarding boards and how we make sure that the multi-partnership work | :00:54. | :00:57. | |
that has work in some parts of the country is not lost in the process | :00:58. | :01:00. | |
of recognising where change is needed. In a wish not to indulge | :01:01. | :01:05. | |
perhaps in one of the customs office house where the same thing said | :01:06. | :01:08. | |
several times, let me try and the Minister some ideas about things | :01:09. | :01:12. | |
that I think missing from this bill and I hope we will find cross-party | :01:13. | :01:16. | |
consensus to add into it. Because I think one of the things, of concern | :01:17. | :01:21. | |
of avoiding any suggestion of privatisation of such a delicate and | :01:22. | :01:24. | |
important services to make sure that we talk about safeguarding, we | :01:25. | :01:29. | |
involve, the conserving or prevention of safeguarding and in | :01:30. | :01:32. | |
particular, the idea that we can act earlier in the system to make sure | :01:33. | :01:37. | |
that children are protected. I'm particularly drawn to clause 16 | :01:38. | :01:40. | |
which talks about the safeguarding and promotion of welfare of all | :01:41. | :01:45. | |
children in this country. And the role that local authorities might | :01:46. | :01:51. | |
play in that and it is that in mind, talked about insuring a robust | :01:52. | :01:55. | |
safeguarding system to be in place that I wish to let the Minister know | :01:56. | :01:59. | |
that I will be tabling amendments to this bill to bring in what I | :02:00. | :02:02. | |
consider to be one of the most crucial parts of safeguarding that | :02:03. | :02:04. | |
we have yet to get right in this country. In particular, the idea of | :02:05. | :02:09. | |
sex and relationships education for all young people in this country. We | :02:10. | :02:13. | |
cannot say that we safeguard our children in this country when we | :02:14. | :02:16. | |
make sure that they are taught about composting but not consent in their | :02:17. | :02:21. | |
lives. Many of us may have stories of R.N. Sex and relationships | :02:22. | :02:27. | |
education, I might fear that I was forever scarred about falling asleep | :02:28. | :02:31. | |
in the classroom to be broken by somebody waving a female condom on | :02:32. | :02:35. | |
my face. However, the truth is that it is no laughing matter in this | :02:36. | :02:39. | |
country and I think many of us are acutely aware of the many pressures | :02:40. | :02:42. | |
on our young people that we need to be able to address. And crucially, | :02:43. | :02:47. | |
to be able to address in a positive and inclusive manner. I think all | :02:48. | :02:51. | |
parents will tell you that they are concerned about the world today. In | :02:52. | :02:57. | |
a former lifetime I was a youth worker agrees to say that all of us | :02:58. | :03:03. | |
been 15-year-olds, I am indeed incredibly grateful that Facebook | :03:04. | :03:06. | |
was not around when I was at school for a start. A third of young girls | :03:07. | :03:10. | |
in this country report being sexually harassed in school, three | :03:11. | :03:14. | |
quarters of girls in a girl guiding survey said they were anxious about | :03:15. | :03:17. | |
sexual harassment in their age group. And 5500 sexual offences | :03:18. | :03:23. | |
recorded in UK schools over the last three years alone. 600 rates. This | :03:24. | :03:29. | |
is not to make parents fearful, but it is to ask what we can do to make | :03:30. | :03:34. | |
sure that every young person in this country as the tools and the | :03:35. | :03:37. | |
confidence to lead the lives that we would all wish for. To be able to | :03:38. | :03:42. | |
know when no means no and yes Means yes. That is why it is important | :03:43. | :03:47. | |
that we do not let it become the Internet that educate our young | :03:48. | :03:50. | |
people. That we do not let it become the playground that tells them what | :03:51. | :03:55. | |
passes for acceptable sexual conduct at that we actually give every young | :03:56. | :03:58. | |
person the kind of training that you would want for our own children. | :03:59. | :04:03. | |
This is not a critique of parents. Indeed many parents worked very hard | :04:04. | :04:07. | |
to make sure that their children have good ideas about sex and | :04:08. | :04:11. | |
relationship education. It is about recognising that parents can only be | :04:12. | :04:15. | |
50% of the answer. It is about children that are the children will | :04:16. | :04:21. | |
meet. So giving every child sex and relationship education should be | :04:22. | :04:23. | |
part of safeguarding because it is make you sure that every young | :04:24. | :04:26. | |
person who ever they come into contact with has the skills and the | :04:27. | :04:29. | |
tools to leave the light that they would wish. That they would be able | :04:30. | :04:34. | |
to deal with the modern world as it is, not perhaps as some would wish | :04:35. | :04:38. | |
it were. Now I know that we will find support for this proposal | :04:39. | :04:42. | |
across the house. I'm very mindful of the support from the select | :04:43. | :04:46. | |
committee chairman, and I was very taken by the report that committee | :04:47. | :04:51. | |
came out with. But is not just the women's equality committee, it is | :04:52. | :04:55. | |
home affairs and education and the health committee, it is business and | :04:56. | :05:02. | |
energy strategy committee, to make sure that everyone is given good | :05:03. | :05:07. | |
access to sexual education. I think she is referring to the previous | :05:08. | :05:11. | |
chair of the home affairs select committee, that was signed and it | :05:12. | :05:14. | |
wasn't on behalf of the select committee and I said I would not be | :05:15. | :05:18. | |
but supporting it, I certainly support the move for education to | :05:19. | :05:21. | |
achieve that and not least we need to look, this bill is about building | :05:22. | :05:26. | |
resilience and trying to support families and mini to do that in lots | :05:27. | :05:30. | |
of ways, not only through I think the path of what she's alluding to, | :05:31. | :05:35. | |
but please make sure that she recognises there is significant | :05:36. | :05:39. | |
opposition to her proposal. I thank the member for stating that, I hope | :05:40. | :05:43. | |
we can through the discussion through this change his mind. We | :05:44. | :05:47. | |
have had this debate for some time and I tell him plainly that young | :05:48. | :05:51. | |
people for Britain, are crying out for this kind of education. Time | :05:52. | :05:56. | |
after time, they say that ignorance is not bliss, confidence is what we | :05:57. | :06:01. | |
want, and it is not about replacing parents, it is about supporting | :06:02. | :06:05. | |
them. It is about making sure that wherever our young people are, they | :06:06. | :06:09. | |
have the right kind of young people around them. It is too important now | :06:10. | :06:14. | |
not to listen to our young people, to be done in an age appropriate | :06:15. | :06:17. | |
fashion within their schools. The time is now to get this right and I | :06:18. | :06:22. | |
think it is recognition that the select committee chairs across this | :06:23. | :06:26. | |
house, and while he may not have shared the support of this letter I | :06:27. | :06:32. | |
believe that many will. It is right that we allay those fears because | :06:33. | :06:37. | |
the consequence of not doing so, is to leave those young people at risk. | :06:38. | :06:43. | |
It is a risk I didn't think we can accept. It is why I agree with the | :06:44. | :06:46. | |
Secretary of State when she said she was minded to see this happen, she | :06:47. | :06:50. | |
wanted to look at all options to do this. That is why believe the time | :06:51. | :06:55. | |
is now to do this within this bill because I recognise there was | :06:56. | :06:58. | |
discussion of doing this in the forthcoming education thing which is | :06:59. | :07:03. | |
now stalling for whatever reason. It is too important to delay this | :07:04. | :07:09. | |
matter. And that means using the legislative opportunity before us, | :07:10. | :07:12. | |
to recognise that in order to safeguard every young person, they | :07:13. | :07:17. | |
need to talk about consent, not just about the biology of sex but how to | :07:18. | :07:23. | |
have positive relationships, equal relationships, safe relationships, | :07:24. | :07:26. | |
and the honest truth is that is not happening for too many of our young | :07:27. | :07:30. | |
people and we are seeing the consequences as a result. What I | :07:31. | :07:33. | |
will be asking the government to do is to make sure that this is part of | :07:34. | :07:37. | |
safeguarding at a local level and make sure that schools are given the | :07:38. | :07:41. | |
guidance to be able to do this work for every young person and to make | :07:42. | :07:47. | |
sure that they are doing it in a way that is age-appropriate and | :07:48. | :07:50. | |
inclusive, and works with communities and above all, not | :07:51. | :07:55. | |
simply to consult but to set a timetable because for two young I | :07:56. | :07:58. | |
young people had been asking us to get this right and for too long | :07:59. | :08:01. | |
their poise has not been heard in this debate. Now I hope, that the | :08:02. | :08:07. | |
honourable member. Two is no longer in his place will be will see cross | :08:08. | :08:12. | |
court seek support. I know members on my side including a front bench | :08:13. | :08:17. | |
will be supporting it. I'll be happy to be sitting down to make it work | :08:18. | :08:22. | |
but I don't think any of us can be happy, that there is genuine | :08:23. | :08:27. | |
agreement that this needs to happen. Because we are failing our young | :08:28. | :08:30. | |
people if we keep taking this issue into the long grass. Now, there is | :08:31. | :08:36. | |
one other area as well I hope I can convince the minister that there | :08:37. | :08:41. | |
will be cross-party support it. Perhaps the member for Enfield | :08:42. | :08:48. | |
Southgate, to do with these amendments around child refugees. We | :08:49. | :08:52. | |
were on the same side and it came to supporting those young people in | :08:53. | :08:57. | |
Calais and let me start by acknowledging, safeguarding child | :08:58. | :09:01. | |
refugees and about recognising the importance of extending safeguarding | :09:02. | :09:04. | |
proposals to our young people, the statement that he made however, is I | :09:05. | :09:07. | |
believed undermined by the guidance that will set up by the Home Office | :09:08. | :09:11. | |
at the same time that he set out that statement, which caused the | :09:12. | :09:17. | |
noble Lord dubs, pitcher Mendis champion, to withdraw his amendment | :09:18. | :09:20. | |
to this very bad about this very matter. That amendment was withdrawn | :09:21. | :09:24. | |
on the basis that there was it will across the house to make sure that | :09:25. | :09:27. | |
we safeguard child refugees including during the process of | :09:28. | :09:31. | |
transferring them overseas to the UK. I will happily give way. Could I | :09:32. | :09:36. | |
thank the honourable friend for giving way and can I congratulate | :09:37. | :09:40. | |
her on her outstanding work in regard to unaccompanied asylum | :09:41. | :09:44. | |
seekers who often are voiced this. Can I also ask her advice on whether | :09:45. | :09:49. | |
she thinks there is enough being done on counselling for | :09:50. | :09:51. | |
post-traumatic postal Matic stress for those children who are seeing | :09:52. | :09:58. | |
things that are quite unimaginable? Has thanked the honourable friend, | :09:59. | :10:01. | |
she raises an incredibly important point. Counting should be part of | :10:02. | :10:05. | |
the safeguarding process, however one of the concerns that many of us | :10:06. | :10:08. | |
have what dealing with these young people is that many of them are | :10:09. | :10:12. | |
still in France, precisely because of the guidance that the Home Office | :10:13. | :10:16. | |
issued. Which stated that there would be a 2-step process and | :10:17. | :10:20. | |
specify that nationality could be one of the criteria for helping | :10:21. | :10:24. | |
child refugees, ahead of their best interests. It cannot be in the best | :10:25. | :10:29. | |
interest of HR to put nationality before need and I would hope that | :10:30. | :10:32. | |
the Minister will recognise, that the detail that is in his statement, | :10:33. | :10:37. | |
of the 1st of November is undermined by such a strategy and therefore it | :10:38. | :10:41. | |
is right in amendments to this bill that we clarify that this country | :10:42. | :10:45. | |
would always put the best interests of a child first. And that should | :10:46. | :10:54. | |
intrude the trial refugees. I was with them on the amendment but where | :10:55. | :10:58. | |
there is perhaps a link with the previous proposal is that we can | :10:59. | :11:01. | |
agree on the outcomes, it is how we achieve those. Whether we need | :11:02. | :11:07. | |
statute to be able to will the ends, whether there are other means to | :11:08. | :11:11. | |
achieve it. We will have that debate about the other members, but in | :11:12. | :11:15. | |
terms of the other scapegoating amendment, the issue now is an | :11:16. | :11:20. | |
implementation can we even saw with the dubs amendment, it is the | :11:21. | :11:22. | |
practical implementation, doesn't always need it, to hold to tout the | :11:23. | :11:30. | |
good words that need to be made. I thank the member for his part | :11:31. | :11:33. | |
because action do agree with him on much of what he is saying a | :11:34. | :11:38. | |
difference of having to prescribe and recognising locally led | :11:39. | :11:40. | |
solutions but however I disagree with him fundamentally, for | :11:41. | :11:44. | |
precisely the same reason that he's putting out. The outcomes that are | :11:45. | :11:48. | |
being achieved are not what has been desired by the will of this place. | :11:49. | :11:53. | |
So the outcome on sex and relationship education is not being | :11:54. | :11:56. | |
achieved at a local level because there is in this clarity about what | :11:57. | :11:59. | |
schools should be teaching and therefore too many young people are | :12:00. | :12:02. | |
not getting the appropriate support that they need sick even with the | :12:03. | :12:05. | |
best will in the world and parenting in the world unless we wrap those | :12:06. | :12:09. | |
children up in cotton wool, the other people may present a risk. So | :12:10. | :12:22. | |
to child refugees, sadly what we have seen throughout the process of | :12:23. | :12:24. | |
the amendments, is goodwill in this place slowly ebbing away wedding the | :12:25. | :12:26. | |
meditation has not match the outcome desired. Nowhere is that clear than | :12:27. | :12:29. | |
trying to say that nationality is more important that need and I say | :12:30. | :12:32. | |
to the Minister many of us were delighted by the statement that he | :12:33. | :12:35. | |
made on the first of the member and then horrified to read the Home | :12:36. | :12:41. | |
Office guidance that seemed to be against that spirit. I believe that | :12:42. | :12:44. | |
we must carry five that we must always act in the best interest of | :12:45. | :12:50. | |
the children just as Lord dubs seemed to want to in table in his | :12:51. | :12:53. | |
original amendment. You remember well know the battle we have had, is | :12:54. | :12:57. | |
difficult and uncomfortable as some of these debates might be. While | :12:58. | :13:01. | |
some people might have concerned, surely all of us must want to act in | :13:02. | :13:06. | |
the best interest. I'm sorry have to tell the Minister that the conduct | :13:07. | :13:10. | |
of the Minister has made many of us believe that amendments are a | :13:11. | :13:14. | |
necessary and I will be seeking against making this happen so that | :13:15. | :13:17. | |
we can put this beyond doubt because sadly that guidance from the Home | :13:18. | :13:21. | |
Office does put it in doubt as a result. I do not wish to echo the | :13:22. | :13:26. | |
member from shore, not to undermine anything in terms of length. But I | :13:27. | :13:29. | |
hope in terms of the proposals, that I can say, I'm looking forward to | :13:30. | :13:33. | |
being part of this legislative process and the Dee Ford to | :13:34. | :13:37. | |
scrutinising and seeking cross-party agreement on these issues because I | :13:38. | :13:40. | |
think all of us in this house recognise that protecting Jordan is | :13:41. | :13:43. | |
one of the most important jobs that we do. There may be disagreements | :13:44. | :13:46. | |
about getting there but we do have to get there, you cannot avoid these | :13:47. | :13:51. | |
issues any Morkel whether it is young people facing that uncertain | :13:52. | :13:55. | |
world or stuck in this child centres, we owe a responsibility to | :13:56. | :14:00. | |
all of them just as we're responsibility, through the | :14:01. | :14:03. | |
parenting laws and I hope that they will listen and respond. I'm sure | :14:04. | :14:08. | |
many others will. What we will not do is rest until this is resolved. | :14:09. | :14:15. | |
Thank you Mr Deputy Speaker, it is an honour, to follow the Honourable | :14:16. | :14:19. | |
lady had to hear broadly the support from the opposition for this bill, | :14:20. | :14:30. | |
as my honourable friend the member, four East Worthing and Shoreham | :14:31. | :14:34. | |
said, we just need to do better, for vulnerable children and challenge is | :14:35. | :14:39. | |
part of that, and new ideas are part of that as well. We can't allow this | :14:40. | :14:44. | |
bill to be a missed opportunity, we can't allow it to be a missed | :14:45. | :14:49. | |
opportunity in terms of prevention, and in terms of knowledge that we | :14:50. | :14:52. | |
give to children. Because they are as much part of the safeguarding | :14:53. | :14:59. | |
process. As any other structure all law, or piece of legislation. We put | :15:00. | :15:03. | |
through this place. The focus of this bill is very much about | :15:04. | :15:08. | |
children who can't remain in the family home, but has been broadened, | :15:09. | :15:12. | |
particularly by the government amendments in the other place. To | :15:13. | :15:17. | |
consider broader issues around child welfare and in my remarks today, I | :15:18. | :15:22. | |
would like to focus on some of those broader issues. In particular, | :15:23. | :15:28. | |
provisions regarding, adopted children and the ongoing support for | :15:29. | :15:32. | |
children who are adopted. The more contentious issue which some members | :15:33. | :15:38. | |
have, talked about today, innovating, the clause that was | :15:39. | :15:43. | |
voted down and then finally, what this bill may perhaps be able to do | :15:44. | :15:48. | |
as I said before, to improve the welfare of children and particularly | :15:49. | :15:51. | |
to power those children themselves. So in terms of the provisions in the | :15:52. | :15:57. | |
bill around adoption, it considers improvements to a long-term | :15:58. | :15:58. | |
placement of children for Adoption. I hope the Minister can | :15:59. | :16:07. | |
use this opportunity to tell the house how this measure sits | :16:08. | :16:11. | |
alongside some recent announcements, that the government has made | :16:12. | :16:14. | |
regarding the adoption and support fund and in particular, I'm thinking | :16:15. | :16:20. | |
about the interim cap on financial support put in place midway through | :16:21. | :16:24. | |
the financial year. The adoption support fund helps to make sure that | :16:25. | :16:30. | |
really important therapeutic support, can be funded, for adopted | :16:31. | :16:34. | |
children. Who are sometimes coping with very difficult trauma, complex | :16:35. | :16:40. | |
and challenging behaviour. And indeed mental health problems as | :16:41. | :16:45. | |
well. Which can result in them being at high risk, of adoption breakdown. | :16:46. | :16:52. | |
This fund helps already thousands of families, I believe Mr Deputy | :16:53. | :16:56. | |
Speaker, three and a half thousand families last year and the budget is | :16:57. | :17:00. | |
being increased by the government, to around ?23 million this year. A | :17:01. | :17:05. | |
significant investment, I think perhaps underpinning, this | :17:06. | :17:09. | |
Minister's very real understanding of the challenges, that parents of | :17:10. | :17:15. | |
adopted children face through his own family experience, and deep | :17:16. | :17:20. | |
knowledge of the subject and I would like to put on record my thanks to | :17:21. | :17:24. | |
to the Minister for all he has done to support families with adopted | :17:25. | :17:30. | |
children and I know my constituents, are grateful for his expertise in | :17:31. | :17:34. | |
this area. Perhaps Mr Deputy Speaker we should be unsurprised to hear | :17:35. | :17:38. | |
that demand for this fund has outstripped supply of finances, and | :17:39. | :17:44. | |
the Minister, with the inevitable fiscal duties that are upon him, has | :17:45. | :17:48. | |
been put in a position where the cap has had to be introduced to this | :17:49. | :17:53. | |
budget in October of this year. And whilst it is absolutely | :17:54. | :17:56. | |
understandable that, this is a normal response to keeping control | :17:57. | :18:02. | |
on budgetary pressures, it has inevitably created uncertainties for | :18:03. | :18:05. | |
families like my constituents, Mr and Mrs Cross, who adopted their son | :18:06. | :18:13. | |
in August 2013, now Mr and Mrs Cross are one of those families who really | :18:14. | :18:16. | |
are incredible, in the work that they do. They have adopted a young | :18:17. | :18:23. | |
child, who has a spectrum disorder. And as many members across the house | :18:24. | :18:28. | |
will know, this means that, they require significant support for | :18:29. | :18:34. | |
their son. But they have, taken, the measures that are needed to support | :18:35. | :18:40. | |
him, and are doing a fantastic job, the therapy he now receives has been | :18:41. | :18:45. | |
hugely beneficial, and has led to real progress but because the cost | :18:46. | :18:51. | |
is in excess of the new ?5,000 cap, it is at this point uncertain, as to | :18:52. | :18:55. | |
whether the funding will be available in the near future. The | :18:56. | :19:02. | |
next phase of treatment costs around ?10,000, and would require her local | :19:03. | :19:06. | |
authority in Hampshire, in the year to match fund any costs over ?5,000. | :19:07. | :19:13. | |
Now close eight in the bill calls for long-term plans for the care of | :19:14. | :19:18. | |
a child, to be in place yet my constituents, who are making an | :19:19. | :19:22. | |
incredible choice to care for a severely disabled child, are at this | :19:23. | :19:27. | |
point I'm sure, -- unsure where the care can be funded. And the Minister | :19:28. | :19:32. | |
perhaps in his response today will be able to perhaps think about this | :19:33. | :19:36. | |
and give his reflections on the local authority, and like mine in | :19:37. | :19:40. | |
Hampshire and how it would respond to this and perhaps he can give my | :19:41. | :19:46. | |
constituents, some measure of reassurance, that the support for | :19:47. | :19:50. | |
their child can be continued in the future. The second issue I wanted to | :19:51. | :19:54. | |
talk about as well this evening, Mr Deputy Speaker, is that clearly very | :19:55. | :19:59. | |
controversial issue around the power to innovate. And, it has been | :20:00. | :20:05. | |
clearly a very contentious issue in the other place, and the first | :20:06. | :20:09. | |
section, the first part of this bill passing through Parliament. It was, | :20:10. | :20:16. | |
a clause that was removed, voted out previously. Clauses 15 to 18. This | :20:17. | :20:21. | |
provision allowed local authorities to apply to the Secretary of State | :20:22. | :20:26. | |
to test new ways of working to raise awareness, to raise children's | :20:27. | :20:31. | |
outcomes and new ways of doing that. And particularly, for high | :20:32. | :20:34. | |
performing local authorities to be involved in that work. Now I think | :20:35. | :20:39. | |
it is important Mr Deputy Speaker of course, to pay heed, to the very | :20:40. | :20:45. | |
strongly felt concerns that were raised, by expert voice is not just | :20:46. | :20:49. | |
on the other place, but outwith of this place as well. And I will be | :20:50. | :20:56. | |
interested to hear the Minister 's response to those concerns that have | :20:57. | :21:00. | |
been echoed again today, but the Department for Education, I think is | :21:01. | :21:05. | |
really putting into place something that we do need to look at again in | :21:06. | :21:11. | |
these measures. And really, giving partners in practice, which my local | :21:12. | :21:14. | |
authority in Hampshire, is one of only eight in the country, the | :21:15. | :21:19. | |
opportunity to look at innovative ways of working. If we are to find | :21:20. | :21:23. | |
better ways to care for the vulnerable children that we all feel | :21:24. | :21:29. | |
so deeply about, we need to be I think open to new ideas. And I hope | :21:30. | :21:34. | |
that it might be possible to revisit the idea of this course which was | :21:35. | :21:41. | |
very much supported by my and local authority in Hampshire, and it is | :21:42. | :21:48. | |
right that this tightly regulated area, is as protected as it is. But | :21:49. | :21:53. | |
I cannot believe that it would not benefit, from looking at new ways of | :21:54. | :21:58. | |
working and we have all seen the examples that have been given to us | :21:59. | :22:03. | |
in the briefings for today. But what I would say, is perhaps some of the | :22:04. | :22:06. | |
honourable members have put their finger on it today. Perhaps, it is | :22:07. | :22:12. | |
the fact that the measures somewhat came out of the blue I think, it was | :22:13. | :22:16. | |
my honourable friend who said that. And that, we need to I think take | :22:17. | :22:21. | |
care that we don't throw the baby out of the bath water as we move | :22:22. | :22:26. | |
forward. I don't think the Minister had any intention for these measures | :22:27. | :22:29. | |
to create a competition between local authorities, but to drive | :22:30. | :22:34. | |
improvement and I think that is something that we would all want to | :22:35. | :22:39. | |
applaud. No one I think is suggesting, that this approach would | :22:40. | :22:44. | |
do anything other than drive innovation. In what has been an area | :22:45. | :22:49. | |
each has developed in somewhat of a piecemeal way the inevitable in | :22:50. | :22:55. | |
response to the various, sometimes quite appalling situation is that | :22:56. | :22:57. | |
the local authorities have found themselves in. My honourable friend, | :22:58. | :23:04. | |
said, he talked about the need, for policy and law to work in practice. | :23:05. | :23:09. | |
I had to say Mr Deputy Speaker that when I read the Hansard from the | :23:10. | :23:13. | |
other place about the debate here, and I read the Minister in the other | :23:14. | :23:18. | |
place's response, that is exactly what I felt, this set of clauses was | :23:19. | :23:23. | |
trying to do. And I think the intention is for the local | :23:24. | :23:26. | |
authorities to be able to look at how they will make the work in | :23:27. | :23:32. | |
practice, rather than, create somewhat of a postcode lottery. When | :23:33. | :23:37. | |
they have that insight into better ways of working, to be able to pass | :23:38. | :23:41. | |
that out to other areas, to be able to improve the way that we care for | :23:42. | :23:45. | |
this vulnerable group of individuals. The final issue that I | :23:46. | :23:50. | |
would like to raise Mr Deputy Speaker, and in terms of this bill, | :23:51. | :23:55. | |
the first reading, is what we are doing, building on what durable lady | :23:56. | :23:59. | |
for Walthamstow has been talking about what we are doing to empower | :24:00. | :24:04. | |
children themselves. Especially perhaps vulnerable children, who | :24:05. | :24:08. | |
might not have the consistent involvement of their parents in | :24:09. | :24:11. | |
their lives and frankly face really difficult situations. | :24:12. | :24:16. | |
In they have to take decisions about their own welfare with a the import | :24:17. | :24:24. | |
of other adults to guide them. This bill and many others put in place, | :24:25. | :24:30. | |
laws and procedures and protocols to help protect and improve the welfare | :24:31. | :24:34. | |
of children through a whole host of agencies but it does not actually | :24:35. | :24:39. | |
directly address what it is we're going to do do have those children | :24:40. | :24:43. | |
themselves to make sure that they are armed with the knowledge they | :24:44. | :24:47. | |
need help make the right choices to be able to safeguard themselves. | :24:48. | :24:52. | |
This is the new concept, what we've done for many years. To try and | :24:53. | :24:56. | |
encourage children to understand the dangers around drugs and alcohol. | :24:57. | :25:09. | |
It is hugely important as parents and carers who now we have the prime | :25:10. | :25:15. | |
responsibility to protect our children, we know that but we also | :25:16. | :25:19. | |
know that our children need the ability to make good choices too, we | :25:20. | :25:24. | |
can't be there 24 - seven. Social workers can't be there 24-7 and it | :25:25. | :25:30. | |
is absolutely important that children have the ability to be able | :25:31. | :25:36. | |
to make these decisions themselves in an informed way. This bill | :25:37. | :25:40. | |
provides I think the perfect opportunity for the government to | :25:41. | :25:44. | |
positively respond to the five select committee chair who have | :25:45. | :25:50. | |
called for that and sex and relationship education to meet | :25:51. | :25:55. | |
compulsory for school age children and I'm one of those select | :25:56. | :26:00. | |
committee chair as a result of the work we did around our most recent | :26:01. | :26:04. | |
report, sexual harassment and sexual violence in schools report which I | :26:05. | :26:10. | |
think was a very sobering experience for all of our select committee | :26:11. | :26:15. | |
members to take it on. What I'm talking about is to help empower | :26:16. | :26:19. | |
children to be able to make their own decisions and when you start to | :26:20. | :26:24. | |
hear some of the evidence and the statistics are run the challenges | :26:25. | :26:29. | |
young people face in terms of personal welfare then I think this | :26:30. | :26:35. | |
becomes clear that the debate is overdue and needs to happen and take | :26:36. | :26:40. | |
action now. Two thirds of girls are experiencing sexual harassment in | :26:41. | :26:41. | |
schools a regular basis. Our third of them were where | :26:42. | :26:59. | |
children were perpetrated against other children. Community should be | :27:00. | :27:05. | |
able to enjoy some sort of freedom and safety and school communities | :27:06. | :27:12. | |
are no different to any others. When we look at what happens to children | :27:13. | :27:17. | |
after their school life, 68% of students say that they are subject | :27:18. | :27:21. | |
to verbal, physical or sexual harassment on campuses and the | :27:22. | :27:29. | |
problem doesn't stop there. 85% of women are experiencing unwanted | :27:30. | :27:33. | |
sexual attention in public places. I think the honourable lady from | :27:34. | :27:39. | |
Walthamstow is right when she says it's about prevention, it's about | :27:40. | :27:42. | |
making sure that we can prevent these problems happening in the | :27:43. | :27:45. | |
first place by ensuring that children have the knowledge about | :27:46. | :27:49. | |
how to make good decisions about what consent is and what control | :27:50. | :27:51. | |
they can have over their own personal space. There has been a | :27:52. | :28:01. | |
great deal of debating on this bill and many amendments in the other | :28:02. | :28:05. | |
place particularly around the importance of joint working between | :28:06. | :28:10. | |
agencies and particularly demonstrated by the importance of | :28:11. | :28:15. | |
local authorities, the police and CCGs working together for the | :28:16. | :28:19. | |
welfare of children in government amendment 103 in the other place. In | :28:20. | :28:23. | |
placing that amendment the government recognised that a | :28:24. | :28:28. | |
multifaceted strategy in this area in terms of welfare for children is | :28:29. | :28:32. | |
absolutely vital. But there's another set of organisations that | :28:33. | :28:37. | |
have a crucial role to play as well with children's welfare and those | :28:38. | :28:40. | |
are schools. If this bill is to do as it sets out to to promote welfare | :28:41. | :28:48. | |
for it also needs to make sex and relationship education compulsory to | :28:49. | :28:51. | |
make sure that it is doing absolutely everything it can to | :28:52. | :28:53. | |
protect children's welfare for future. What is compulsory in | :28:54. | :29:00. | |
secondary schools at the moment is the science of reproduction, the | :29:01. | :29:06. | |
rest is guidance that was last updated in the turn of the | :29:07. | :29:12. | |
millennium in 2000 which makes no reference to pornography which we | :29:13. | :29:14. | |
know as a way that more young children are finding out about sex. | :29:15. | :29:21. | |
We know that 40% of schools do not teach sex and relationship education | :29:22. | :29:25. | |
very well. Perhaps all of this is why organisations like Barnard is | :29:26. | :29:28. | |
clear that the development of an early understanding and respect for | :29:29. | :29:38. | |
each other's bodies and went to ask for help can help build resilience | :29:39. | :29:42. | |
and understanding of what healthy relationships looked like and also | :29:43. | :29:47. | |
to mitigate the effects of exposure to things like pornography. | :29:48. | :29:53. | |
Following closely in agreeing with much of what she's saying and as is | :29:54. | :29:57. | |
the want of various children's bills it strays into all sorts of subjects | :29:58. | :30:00. | |
concerning children that are not in the bill but on this one I support | :30:01. | :30:04. | |
her but there she agree me that one way of getting better quality sex | :30:05. | :30:10. | |
and relationship education which we definitely need is by bringing | :30:11. | :30:13. | |
experts in from outside of skills particularly young youth workers and | :30:14. | :30:17. | |
others who can empathise with young people who they will listen to, take | :30:18. | :30:22. | |
notice of and act on their advice rather than try to rely on Mrs Megan | :30:23. | :30:26. | |
is the geography teacher who happen to have a couple of free period on a | :30:27. | :30:31. | |
Thursday afternoon. I thank my honourable and for that intervention | :30:32. | :30:34. | |
and he's absolutely right, we have to have expertise when it comes to | :30:35. | :30:39. | |
teaching the subject but what I set out is the reason I am reading this | :30:40. | :30:43. | |
is if we are going to tackle the welfare of children and we have to | :30:44. | :30:47. | |
make sure we are effective in what we do, it's no good leading children | :30:48. | :30:51. | |
out of the equation, we have to tackle that head-on. We don't | :30:52. | :30:57. | |
disagree with him that under trained teacher are not the way to put in | :30:58. | :31:03. | |
place effective sex and relationship education. All teachers whether they | :31:04. | :31:06. | |
are Mrs Megan 's teaching geography or anybody else. They have to have | :31:07. | :31:11. | |
an understanding of how they can stop the violence sexual harassment | :31:12. | :31:15. | |
and sexual violence that too many young people | :31:16. | :31:35. | |
told us. I agree with everything she is saying. This is in the bill | :31:36. | :31:45. | |
because close 16 not only talks about promoting the welfare of | :31:46. | :31:48. | |
children but also requires local authorities to work with relevant | :31:49. | :31:56. | |
agencies. That is exactly what schools do, this is entirely an | :31:57. | :32:01. | |
order and why we need to do it now. Thank you for that intervention. | :32:02. | :32:11. | |
Sometimes in this place we can be concerned of raising the issue of | :32:12. | :32:15. | |
sex education and information because we feel we are taking away a | :32:16. | :32:18. | |
primary function of parents and that is simply not the way parents see | :32:19. | :32:28. | |
it. That would show that 90% of parents want compulsory sex and | :32:29. | :32:33. | |
relationship. Because they understand the pressures their | :32:34. | :32:42. | |
children are under. Teachers understand this to because they | :32:43. | :32:48. | |
understand the importance of helping when people navigate an appropriate | :32:49. | :32:53. | |
way the pressures of being a teenager in the Internet world. | :32:54. | :33:05. | |
Five select committee chairs as a result of the work that those select | :33:06. | :33:11. | |
committees have done, indeed the DfEE has told the education | :33:12. | :33:17. | |
committee that good PS H E underpins good academic achievement, we know | :33:18. | :33:21. | |
that children who have received sex and relationship education and PA | :33:22. | :33:25. | |
said she broadly are less likely to engage in risky behaviours and are | :33:26. | :33:30. | |
much more likely to seek help when things go wrong. Children need to be | :33:31. | :33:37. | |
able to recognise grooming and predatory behaviour and as Alison | :33:38. | :33:41. | |
Hanley of the University of Bedfordshire told the education | :33:42. | :33:43. | |
committee, if children have no ammunition to understand no wonder | :33:44. | :33:49. | |
they end up in dangerous situations. Educating children about this is not | :33:50. | :33:55. | |
an optional extra, it needs to be mandatory. | :33:56. | :34:17. | |
The government established a group for PHSE. It is an area that 90% of | :34:18. | :34:38. | |
children of parents want action on, violence against women are calling | :34:39. | :34:43. | |
for action on it, the NSPCC and the list goes on and Colin the Minister | :34:44. | :34:50. | |
to put in place a timetable for action including compressors a | :34:51. | :34:54. | |
consultation to make sure that we get this right. Nobody is calling | :34:55. | :34:59. | |
for rushed measures. This has been something as honourable members have | :35:00. | :35:03. | |
already said that has been ongoing for some time. To make sex and | :35:04. | :35:12. | |
relationship education compulsory and to do it in a way that brings | :35:13. | :35:14. | |
this whole house together. I'm very pleased to be following my | :35:15. | :35:29. | |
honourable friend from Basingstoke this afternoon. Firstly, I would | :35:30. | :35:34. | |
like to say that I very much welcome this debate with the time and the | :35:35. | :35:39. | |
focus it is spending looking at the outcomes for our children to be | :35:40. | :35:46. | |
looked after and also that of the social work profession. However I | :35:47. | :35:50. | |
must declare an interest. My sister is a senior practising social worker | :35:51. | :35:56. | |
and I prior to coming to the member of Parliament worked for supporting | :35:57. | :35:59. | |
fostering service and a contact supervisor capacity. I am also still | :36:00. | :36:04. | |
connected with this charity as I remain an independent visitor for | :36:05. | :36:08. | |
one of our looked after children. Madam Deputy is bigger, I consider | :36:09. | :36:13. | |
myself to be extremely lucky. I was brought up in a safe and loving | :36:14. | :36:17. | |
environment and was given the necessary tools to go out into the | :36:18. | :36:23. | |
big bad world and make my own way. In 2007, I got involved for the | :36:24. | :36:28. | |
first time in the charity supporting fostering services via my sister. | :36:29. | :36:32. | |
This was the first time I had the privilege to meet and work after | :36:33. | :36:40. | |
children, their families, carers and social workers and see first hand | :36:41. | :36:44. | |
the challenges that young people face and those of the social work | :36:45. | :36:49. | |
profession. There has been an increase in children becoming looked | :36:50. | :36:53. | |
after and some of this has been attributed to a number of | :36:54. | :36:57. | |
unaccompanied asylum seeking children representing 6% of the | :36:58. | :37:01. | |
looked after population. I have also seen at local level the increase of | :37:02. | :37:05. | |
children in care. In this environment it is right that this | :37:06. | :37:09. | |
government and society are putting the outcomes of our young people at | :37:10. | :37:13. | |
the top of the agenda, it's also right that focus is given to | :37:14. | :37:18. | |
decisions made about the futures of our young people. In my limited | :37:19. | :37:24. | |
involvement over the last nine years, I have seen some fantastic | :37:25. | :37:27. | |
outcomes for our young people but far too many disappointing ones, | :37:28. | :37:34. | |
some due to decisions made about their futures and also down to a | :37:35. | :37:37. | |
lack of proper understanding of the Child and the use of timely best | :37:38. | :37:42. | |
interventions. There is one young person who has been in care for over | :37:43. | :37:48. | |
ten years since the age of four and has had to go through unbelievable | :37:49. | :37:52. | |
experiences which even an adult would struggle to cope with. Being | :37:53. | :37:59. | |
split from siblings, attending therapy, a failed adoption, a time | :38:00. | :38:03. | |
in a therapeutic centre and a number of foster placements and social | :38:04. | :38:08. | |
workers. Luckily, this young person has found now an amazing placement | :38:09. | :38:12. | |
and has an amazing strength of character and resilience which we | :38:13. | :38:17. | |
could only hope to have. They will succeed but this will be in spite of | :38:18. | :38:21. | |
intervention is not solely because of them. Nobody can disagree that if | :38:22. | :38:27. | |
a young person is ready for adoption and there is a family which is a | :38:28. | :38:32. | |
perfect match that adoption should always be a major consideration by | :38:33. | :38:36. | |
social services and the courts for that child. Achieving the best | :38:37. | :38:39. | |
future outcomes for that young person should be the absolute focus | :38:40. | :38:45. | |
and duty of social services and the courts. Unfortunately I have seen | :38:46. | :38:50. | |
decisions about adoption delayed, in my opinion due to too much focus | :38:51. | :38:54. | |
being given to the challenges by the birth parents and the focus of their | :38:55. | :39:01. | |
needs, even with report after report, recommending a decision. | :39:02. | :39:05. | |
This is not putting the child first when judgments are allowed to be | :39:06. | :39:09. | |
challenged for longer of time. A social worker once said to me, I | :39:10. | :39:14. | |
don't like adoptions, they make me feel nervous. I asked why and they | :39:15. | :39:19. | |
said the stakes are too high, and the time I didn't quite know what | :39:20. | :39:22. | |
she meant and thought it was rather an odd thing for a social worker to | :39:23. | :39:27. | |
say. However after being present and seeing the damage that a failed | :39:28. | :39:30. | |
adoption can cause, I finally understood. Relationships with | :39:31. | :39:36. | |
children are like all relationships. We as adults don't like everybody | :39:37. | :39:39. | |
that we come into contact with and this is the same for children. We | :39:40. | :39:43. | |
ask a lot of children and adopters when maybe after only two week | :39:44. | :39:49. | |
introduction period we put strangers together and hope it works out OK. I | :39:50. | :39:53. | |
know the process is far more confiscated our fundamentally we | :39:54. | :39:57. | |
hope the good relationship is built after an initial honeymoon period | :39:58. | :40:00. | |
and the adopters and children are given the support they need for it | :40:01. | :40:05. | |
to be a success. I have seen children given the best chance of a | :40:06. | :40:09. | |
great life when adoptions have worked at once an adoption order has | :40:10. | :40:12. | |
gone through, the support from the agency stops. The stakes are high | :40:13. | :40:19. | |
with adoption and it is therefore my believe that adoption, if possible, | :40:20. | :40:25. | |
be regarded as the perfect solution but it will always be very much | :40:26. | :40:30. | |
dependent on the individual child and the use of special guardianship | :40:31. | :40:33. | |
is a long-term placements should not be undermined by a focus on | :40:34. | :40:40. | |
adoption. I welcomed the fact that the support for care leavers are | :40:41. | :40:43. | |
featuring heavily in this bill with the local offer and the extension of | :40:44. | :40:49. | |
personal advisers, this is a major step forward for supporting this | :40:50. | :40:52. | |
very vulnerable young group of people as they make the difficult | :40:53. | :40:56. | |
transition coming out of care to going it alone. Some of our young | :40:57. | :41:00. | |
people have been exposed to experiences and upbringing some of | :41:01. | :41:06. | |
us would travel to comprehend also because the care system tries to | :41:07. | :41:09. | |
wrap them in a safety blanket, a child care can be far less prepared | :41:10. | :41:13. | |
to go it alone without having a supportive network of trusted people | :41:14. | :41:18. | |
giving guidance and having to make decisions for themselves. Most | :41:19. | :41:20. | |
decisions in the past would have been for them. It is a long outdated | :41:21. | :41:25. | |
view that once you reach 18 or even into your early 20s that you don't | :41:26. | :41:30. | |
need help. The extension of personal advisers working with our young | :41:31. | :41:34. | |
people to make sure they are getting the right access to the right | :41:35. | :41:37. | |
services that they need, being given the support they deserve in order | :41:38. | :41:41. | |
for them to succeed, putting them on a pathway to achieve their full | :41:42. | :41:46. | |
potential is great and I very much welcome this. However I would like | :41:47. | :41:50. | |
the Minister to outline further out in practice this would work. That | :41:51. | :41:54. | |
all personal advisers would always be social workers and how plans for | :41:55. | :41:57. | |
young people leaving care will be monitored and evaluated so that it | :41:58. | :42:01. | |
is not just a tick box exercise by local authorities but providing | :42:02. | :42:08. | |
meaningful help, support and advice to our vulnerable young people and | :42:09. | :42:10. | |
the personal advisers getting to know the young person and truly | :42:11. | :42:18. | |
understanding their needs. The local offer would be extremely important | :42:19. | :42:22. | |
to these young people but we know due to budget burdens of local | :42:23. | :42:25. | |
authorities, unless there is a statutory obligation to deliver | :42:26. | :42:28. | |
services in very much depends on the local priorities of the Council | :42:29. | :42:33. | |
delivering that support. Investment in our most vulnerable young people | :42:34. | :42:37. | |
at this most crucial time in their lives can only bring future awards. | :42:38. | :42:43. | |
I would like to see a high-quality offer by local authorities for our | :42:44. | :42:50. | |
young people. We know there is a higher proportion of formerly looked | :42:51. | :42:54. | |
after children that are not in education, employment or training. | :42:55. | :42:58. | |
We also know that leaving care and going it alone can present barriers | :42:59. | :43:01. | |
to the young person to move forward in a positive way with their lives, | :43:02. | :43:06. | |
even though they can think of this time as being an exciting time and | :43:07. | :43:09. | |
when they're full of hope. However we do know that some of these young | :43:10. | :43:14. | |
people will never had to manage their own finances whilst being in | :43:15. | :43:18. | |
care and they are much more vulnerable to getting into debt and | :43:19. | :43:21. | |
not being able to manage without that safety net which a family or | :43:22. | :43:26. | |
care can provide. We must make sure that our young people are given all | :43:27. | :43:30. | |
the tools to help them succeed and I do believe that the group of | :43:31. | :43:34. | |
individuals deserve to be treated differently with regards to | :43:35. | :43:38. | |
accommodation provision, access to funds in order for them to be able | :43:39. | :43:40. | |
to move forward and be given the best chance to succeed. I represent | :43:41. | :43:46. | |
a constituency which has a young offenders Institute and a training | :43:47. | :43:55. | |
centre. All too often these institutions have been looked after | :43:56. | :43:58. | |
and I believe this is a direct outcome of not only are they having | :43:59. | :44:02. | |
experience growing up but because of the life support and access to | :44:03. | :44:06. | |
services they require as they into adulthood. Finally, I would like to | :44:07. | :44:14. | |
touch on social workers. Policeman, doctors, nurses and firemen are | :44:15. | :44:18. | |
public servants which many sectors of our society stand up to defend. | :44:19. | :44:24. | |
And who will hear no criticism, yet when it comes to our social workers, | :44:25. | :44:28. | |
so often they are criticised, blamed, singled out when something | :44:29. | :44:34. | |
goes wrong. They put out with a negative dialogue to do with their | :44:35. | :44:39. | |
possession with stereotypes as who they are, dismissed as do-gooders | :44:40. | :44:43. | |
but the realities is that our social workers should be held in the | :44:44. | :44:47. | |
highest esteem as a profession who every day are making decisions and | :44:48. | :44:51. | |
intervening to protect children and families from harm. Working with | :44:52. | :44:56. | |
families to help them stay together and having an impact on outcomes. On | :44:57. | :45:01. | |
a daily basis they are seeing some of the most terrible situations | :45:02. | :45:05. | |
where children are being neglected, and used physically and mentally or | :45:06. | :45:09. | |
working with children who have severe and complex disabilities. | :45:10. | :45:15. | |
Social workers don't go into social work for money, they going to social | :45:16. | :45:18. | |
worker because they want to protect children and very often it's a | :45:19. | :45:23. | |
thankless task. I remember when my sister was working in the duty team | :45:24. | :45:27. | |
she was struggling to sleep at night as she would be worrying what was | :45:28. | :45:30. | |
happening with in some of the family she was working with when she went | :45:31. | :45:34. | |
home, fearing what she would be presented with in the morning when | :45:35. | :45:39. | |
she got back to work, this is not unusual, this is the daily life of a | :45:40. | :45:43. | |
front line social worker, I welcomed the formulation of social work | :45:44. | :45:48. | |
England, even though there is some concerns within the profession about | :45:49. | :45:52. | |
this change. Social work as a profession is so important and it is | :45:53. | :45:56. | |
right there is a regulator focused on raising standards and good | :45:57. | :46:00. | |
practice, strengthening formal training pathways, however I must | :46:01. | :46:04. | |
note that I have spoken to a number of social workers before this debate | :46:05. | :46:09. | |
today and because of some of the case notes they are experiencing and | :46:10. | :46:13. | |
a level of work that they're involved with actually some of them | :46:14. | :46:19. | |
weren't even aware of this bill. I feel, however an element that has | :46:20. | :46:23. | |
been missed, social workers carry out a job which is mentally, | :46:24. | :46:28. | |
emotionally demanding. We know there is a high burn-out rate of social | :46:29. | :46:31. | |
workers who work in front line social worker, we also know that in | :46:32. | :46:35. | |
some parts of the country's individual caseworker loads are far | :46:36. | :46:40. | |
too high, which in some cases leaves social workers feeling unsafe in | :46:41. | :46:44. | |
carrying out their work. For example, a social worker who has a | :46:45. | :46:49. | |
caseload of 20 working 40 hours a week would leave only two hours a | :46:50. | :46:52. | |
week per case, the casework could be a mixture of children in need, cases | :46:53. | :46:58. | |
going through court or child protection, all requiring a | :46:59. | :47:01. | |
different amount of attention in one week. Some cases require a | :47:02. | :47:05. | |
significant amount of time yet we are expecting social workers to know | :47:06. | :47:09. | |
the children and the family and be able to make safe decisions. This | :47:10. | :47:15. | |
does not leave opportunities for our professionals to have thinking space | :47:16. | :47:21. | |
or to allow social workers to carry out the preventative work which many | :47:22. | :47:25. | |
social workers want to be doing. By the very nature of their work, every | :47:26. | :47:30. | |
child and family is different and they innovate every day with the | :47:31. | :47:35. | |
current framework under sometimes very challenging circumstances. In | :47:36. | :47:43. | |
closing, everyone in this house should be championing the outcomes | :47:44. | :47:47. | |
of our children and society. As they become our parents, our workers and | :47:48. | :47:52. | |
leaders of the future. It is not acceptable that in this century, the | :47:53. | :47:58. | |
futures of some of our young people can be predicted because of their | :47:59. | :48:02. | |
pasts and where they have come from. State intervention must work and I | :48:03. | :48:08. | |
hope this government will continue to push for better outcomes for our | :48:09. | :48:15. | |
vulnerable looked after children. It was my choice to be last today so | :48:16. | :48:22. | |
I'm very pleased to be here. It was a great honour to follow the | :48:23. | :48:26. | |
excellent speech by Mike very honourable friend and I completely | :48:27. | :48:30. | |
agree with her on the support for adoptive parents and I haven't close | :48:31. | :48:35. | |
relative who has adopted three children and it's really not easy so | :48:36. | :48:39. | |
I completely agree. I'm really pleased about this bill and will | :48:40. | :48:43. | |
come some of the things in it, including the decision-making | :48:44. | :48:46. | |
support for looked after children. I particularly welcome the raising of | :48:47. | :48:52. | |
the age of care leavers to 25 for local authority services. I know | :48:53. | :48:56. | |
that young people in their 20s still need looking after having got four | :48:57. | :49:01. | |
of my own in their 20s. There is plenty of evidence to note that the | :49:02. | :49:07. | |
brain does not develop until 25 and the state does need to keep their | :49:08. | :49:12. | |
parental responsibility and to young people firmly launched. In March | :49:13. | :49:18. | |
2016 there were 70,440 looked after children in England and based on the | :49:19. | :49:28. | |
2016 data, 26,344 K leavers aged 19-21 out of which 40% are not | :49:29. | :49:32. | |
employed in education or training compared with 14% of all 19-21 | :49:33. | :49:38. | |
-year-olds who didn't go through the care service. As my honourable | :49:39. | :49:47. | |
member for East Worthing and Shaw said 4% actually end up in the | :49:48. | :49:51. | |
criminal justice system. The role of the corporate parent is to safeguard | :49:52. | :49:54. | |
the young but there is a resource aspect in this. Portsmouth children | :49:55. | :50:00. | |
services estimate that if you keep a young person in care out of a single | :50:01. | :50:03. | |
involvement in the criminal justice system it says the state 100,000 in | :50:04. | :50:10. | |
various ways, for instance avoiding the need for probation services, the | :50:11. | :50:14. | |
cost of the criminal justice system and social services for | :50:15. | :50:22. | |
rehabilitation. I mentioned also the reading of this bill and the second | :50:23. | :50:33. | |
debate. That protection should follow the care leavers around the | :50:34. | :50:37. | |
country select any other young person they are looked after by | :50:38. | :50:40. | |
either the local authority from their original local authority. I | :50:41. | :50:46. | |
welcomed the amendment for a national offer for care leavers. | :50:47. | :50:51. | |
Independent living is very different in budgeting, looking for jobs and | :50:52. | :50:56. | |
setting up home including bills and your council tax. I hope the | :50:57. | :50:59. | |
National offer will be accepted and personal advisers clearly | :51:00. | :51:04. | |
identified. The second front I want to speak about is the part about | :51:05. | :51:09. | |
social workers and I completely welcome the social workers England | :51:10. | :51:15. | |
as a non-departmental public body. Which will be independent. As the | :51:16. | :51:20. | |
honourable member for Worthing East mentioned, I worked on a commission | :51:21. | :51:26. | |
with him in 2007 called the no blame game commission on children's social | :51:27. | :51:29. | |
workers and some of the recommendations were adopted, for | :51:30. | :51:35. | |
instance the chief social worker but the general social care Council | :51:36. | :51:39. | |
which was the regulator folded in 2012 and the new regulator, the | :51:40. | :51:42. | |
health care and professional council looked after many other jobs and I | :51:43. | :51:46. | |
think it's very important that the social workers are seen as unique | :51:47. | :51:51. | |
job. Therefore we have to recognise it's a separate profession to level | :51:52. | :51:56. | |
with other professionals such as doctors and nurses. Some of the | :51:57. | :52:00. | |
other recommendations have already been accepted but I thought it would | :52:01. | :52:02. | |
be good to remind a minister in hadn't read the report. For | :52:03. | :52:08. | |
instance, the first recommendation, the generic nature of social work | :52:09. | :52:12. | |
must be maintained and resources better targeted to enable social | :52:13. | :52:16. | |
workers to work with family and preventative role that think that's | :52:17. | :52:19. | |
largely happening already. I mentioned the role of the consultant | :52:20. | :52:24. | |
social worker, also the role of the consultant social worker which I | :52:25. | :52:28. | |
think my honourable friend for Rochester and your sister does that, | :52:29. | :52:34. | |
a senior practitioner that had to be introduced to keep the experience | :52:35. | :52:37. | |
social workers on the front line rather than putting them to | :52:38. | :52:41. | |
management, so therefore needed an appropriate career and pay structure | :52:42. | :52:43. | |
should be put into place to support them because you don't want to go | :52:44. | :52:46. | |
into management there was no other way of going forward. Every social | :52:47. | :52:51. | |
worker should be encouraged and have the opportunity to become a member | :52:52. | :52:55. | |
of professional similar to the British Medical Association Royal | :52:56. | :52:59. | |
College of novices which could advocate on their behalf, negotiate | :53:00. | :53:03. | |
on salaries and conditions of services, very good public relations | :53:04. | :53:06. | |
on behalf of the profession as a whole and influence future | :53:07. | :53:09. | |
government policy. Consideration should be given for a requirement | :53:10. | :53:13. | |
that employers and couldn't agency employers fund this membership for | :53:14. | :53:16. | |
the first year to ensure all entrants to the profession can | :53:17. | :53:20. | |
become members. We also recommended the chief social worker, which we | :53:21. | :53:25. | |
got the idea from the chief social worker in New Zealand which works | :53:26. | :53:31. | |
incredibly successfully. They would work across government departments | :53:32. | :53:34. | |
with Unison, the British Association of social workers and other | :53:35. | :53:36. | |
representative bodies but particularly with the | :53:37. | :53:49. | |
Students are poorly because it is an incredibly tough profession. They | :53:50. | :53:59. | |
need them to be provided with good news stories and cases, I don't know | :54:00. | :54:02. | |
if anybody is watching a programme on one of the channels, that shows | :54:03. | :54:07. | |
how hard it works. It is meant to be quite amusing but it would be nice | :54:08. | :54:10. | |
if we could have positive stories coming out of that and the media. | :54:11. | :54:16. | |
The next thing that we recommend it was the social work which continues | :54:17. | :54:20. | |
to be generic to allow social workers good foundations in all | :54:21. | :54:22. | |
aspects of the social work so they could get a good grasp of all of the | :54:23. | :54:28. | |
different aspects of looking after children who need looking after in | :54:29. | :54:31. | |
the care service. The content and length of degree might be reviewed | :54:32. | :54:35. | |
to quit them with the right knowledge and skills, which I think | :54:36. | :54:38. | |
is in the bill as well and that is beginning to happen. But we also | :54:39. | :54:43. | |
consider it should extend for four years so that they have a year out, | :54:44. | :54:49. | |
in practice. And get a very good grasp of what they are getting | :54:50. | :54:54. | |
themselves into. The seventh recommendation was multi-agency | :54:55. | :54:57. | |
training should be incorporated into the qualifying degree and should be | :54:58. | :55:00. | |
continued to be more of a continuing professional developer and. I think | :55:01. | :55:05. | |
in many professions, professional development is incredibly important | :55:06. | :55:08. | |
whether it is teaching, but it is social work and they need to have | :55:09. | :55:11. | |
their continuing professional development and support throughout | :55:12. | :55:15. | |
their career. We also recommended that the Department of Health and | :55:16. | :55:19. | |
the Department of children's services work with local authorities | :55:20. | :55:24. | |
and others to insure that resources, are available. To insure that all | :55:25. | :55:29. | |
social workers can undertake the level of post-qualifying education | :55:30. | :55:32. | |
and training necessary for the roles and tasks that they are employed to | :55:33. | :55:37. | |
undertake. So again that goes back to the continuing development. There | :55:38. | :55:40. | |
should be a combination of a national recruitment campaign and | :55:41. | :55:44. | |
local headhunting to encourage people to go into more social work. | :55:45. | :55:49. | |
There is a lot of vacancies and people, social workers who are | :55:50. | :55:51. | |
already in the profession are incredibly overworked but it is | :55:52. | :55:55. | |
incredibly rewarding as a profession and we need to make sure that we get | :55:56. | :56:00. | |
more people into that. We need a national recruitment campaign to do | :56:01. | :56:04. | |
that. One of the ways you can do that, is by the advertising high | :56:05. | :56:09. | |
impact advertising like for the army and police and teaching to send a | :56:10. | :56:12. | |
clear message that the role of social work it is important to | :56:13. | :56:16. | |
society and should be respected. One of the other recommendations which I | :56:17. | :56:20. | |
know has come forward is the establishment of the newly qualified | :56:21. | :56:23. | |
social worker status which is essential to report and is retained | :56:24. | :56:27. | |
in experience social workers, who are coming out of university and | :56:28. | :56:32. | |
straight into work, into very harrowing circumstances, without | :56:33. | :56:35. | |
getting the support that they needed. I hope that we will be | :56:36. | :56:39. | |
looking at apprenticeships to. I know, it would be a great thing if | :56:40. | :56:46. | |
we could do it through social work. They need to have protected | :56:47. | :56:49. | |
caseloads and qualifying study and training time, so that we retain the | :56:50. | :56:55. | |
social workers that we have got already. There needs to be a | :56:56. | :56:58. | |
flexible pay structure that corresponds with other similar | :56:59. | :57:02. | |
professions, and recognises the difference in living costs around | :57:03. | :57:09. | |
the country. The last thing, we have already done, I think, it has | :57:10. | :57:13. | |
already been adopted, the numerical adoption targets which are not in | :57:14. | :57:17. | |
the best interest of the charge should be phased out and that has | :57:18. | :57:20. | |
already been adopted, I'm very pleased to find that and better | :57:21. | :57:24. | |
targeted funding should go into research and development of social | :57:25. | :57:28. | |
care. Some of these have already been accepted but it was a very good | :57:29. | :57:32. | |
report, it is now nearly ten years old. If the Minister hasn't read it, | :57:33. | :57:37. | |
I do insist that he does read it and anything we haven't done already, | :57:38. | :57:41. | |
look at that and put it into practice. I hope the new regulator | :57:42. | :57:45. | |
continues the improvements that is already happening in the social | :57:46. | :57:48. | |
working profession. It is a tough job in the front line but a very | :57:49. | :57:52. | |
necessary and rewarding one to hand I look forward to seeing this bill | :57:53. | :57:55. | |
as it passes through the committee stage. Layla thank you very much | :57:56. | :58:03. | |
Madam Deputy Speaker. As I have already said, we will be dividing | :58:04. | :58:07. | |
the house this evening. However I'm going to take this opportunity to | :58:08. | :58:10. | |
deliver the government some home truths. This is a bill that from its | :58:11. | :58:15. | |
very inception has been ill thought out and hastily put together without | :58:16. | :58:19. | |
any guidance from children or the industry that it purports to be | :58:20. | :58:24. | |
helping and improving. In short, it is a bill about short and social | :58:25. | :58:28. | |
work with negligible input from children and social workers. By not | :58:29. | :58:32. | |
listening to the profession, the government has once again showing | :58:33. | :58:35. | |
how little value it sees in using the professional experience and | :58:36. | :58:40. | |
expertise of those who work day in and day out, often risking their own | :58:41. | :58:43. | |
welfare to protect children and families. What social workers want | :58:44. | :58:49. | |
is to be out in the field with vulnerable children and families, | :58:50. | :58:51. | |
because the more time that they spend with them, the more vulnerable | :58:52. | :58:55. | |
children are identified and supported or saved from harm. It | :58:56. | :59:03. | |
couldn't be simpler than that. So far the government social work | :59:04. | :59:06. | |
reform agenda has been a total failure. Rooted instructor all | :59:07. | :59:12. | |
system change and tinkering around with individual, Labour held local | :59:13. | :59:17. | |
authorities. Adam Deputy Speaker, the Minister twists, he will get his | :59:18. | :59:22. | |
term I'm sure. They continues to be an accession with adoption, to the | :59:23. | :59:26. | |
detriment of early intervention with work that can keep families together | :59:27. | :59:31. | |
and children out of the care system. This government is completely | :59:32. | :59:35. | |
oblivious to the severe impact of their austerity measures, the | :59:36. | :59:38. | |
punitive welfare policies which are causing untold damage to our most | :59:39. | :59:43. | |
vulnerable children and families. I will remind the Minister has I have | :59:44. | :59:47. | |
many times that social work is a holistic profession. The government | :59:48. | :59:51. | |
's closure of sure start units and removal of early years help and | :59:52. | :59:56. | |
family support centres, the disproportionate cuts to local | :59:57. | :59:59. | |
authorities and the most deprived areas as measurably taken its toll. | :00:00. | :00:04. | |
All this government seems to be doing for desperate families is | :00:05. | :00:08. | |
turning the screw, tighter and tighter, year-on-year until they | :00:09. | :00:15. | |
break. In fact, as the honourable members have already said, the | :00:16. | :00:19. | |
demand for help and protection is rising. Over the last ten years | :00:20. | :00:24. | |
there has been 124% increase in serious cases where a local | :00:25. | :00:27. | |
authority believes that HR may be suffering or is likely to suffer | :00:28. | :00:32. | |
significant harm. In the varied spending on social work has been | :00:33. | :00:35. | |
found to be totally unrelated to quality. In short, all of the | :00:36. | :00:41. | |
government initiatives and changes are not yielding positive results. | :00:42. | :00:47. | |
This is systemic, not local failure. In other words it is the government | :00:48. | :00:52. | |
's full. Fourth, the NAR and the education select committee report | :00:53. | :00:56. | |
into social work reform notices there are significant weaknesses in | :00:57. | :01:01. | |
the government agenda. In that the reforms focus disproportionately on | :01:02. | :01:04. | |
changing structures potentially to the detriment of the very people | :01:05. | :01:11. | |
delivering this key public service. What the social work profession | :01:12. | :01:15. | |
needs is continuity, stability and confidence. A government that can | :01:16. | :01:19. | |
hold their nerve on how best to help children and their families by | :01:20. | :01:24. | |
putting in place, and embedding and policies. Policies perhaps such as | :01:25. | :01:31. | |
the introduction, as PSA Chi, and supported by the right Honourable | :01:32. | :01:34. | |
member for Basingstoke. The government though are failing to get | :01:35. | :01:40. | |
the basics right. Reducing the social worker caseloads, preventing | :01:41. | :01:43. | |
experienced professionals from quitting the profession, training | :01:44. | :01:48. | |
social workers in a holistic way, not fast tracking them and forcing | :01:49. | :01:51. | |
them to specialise before they had even been trained in the basics. | :01:52. | :01:56. | |
Amending IT and the bureaucratic process across the board, to achieve | :01:57. | :02:00. | |
the goal of getting social workers where they want is to be. From | :02:01. | :02:04. | |
behind their desks and seeing the families with whom they work. This | :02:05. | :02:10. | |
bill does nothing to respond to the crisis in social work into the | :02:11. | :02:14. | |
hundreds and thousands of children who need better services right now. | :02:15. | :02:19. | |
Madam Deputy Speaker, I would also like to take this opportunity as | :02:20. | :02:23. | |
others have done, to thank the labour lords and other peers whose | :02:24. | :02:27. | |
tireless work has resulted in the bill before us today being markedly | :02:28. | :02:30. | |
different from that which was first introduced. I would in particular | :02:31. | :02:36. | |
like to congratulate peers on defeating the government and forcing | :02:37. | :02:39. | |
them to remove dangerous clauses from the bill that would pave the | :02:40. | :02:43. | |
way for the privatisation of children social care. It is | :02:44. | :02:49. | |
scandalous that these clauses are soon to reappear in committee stage. | :02:50. | :02:54. | |
The government's proposals would allow local authorities under the | :02:55. | :02:58. | |
guise of innovation to opt out of protective primary legislation, | :02:59. | :03:02. | |
decades of legislation that has led to us having one of the safest child | :03:03. | :03:07. | |
protection systems in the world. Legislation that was hard fought for | :03:08. | :03:11. | |
by the profession in this place, and in the other place. These proposals | :03:12. | :03:17. | |
have caused alarm and outrage, amongst the profession and sector | :03:18. | :03:23. | |
overall. I have yet to meet a social worker that supports the changes, we | :03:24. | :03:27. | |
have had no real clarity from the Minister as to where the demand has | :03:28. | :03:33. | |
come from, who is the mundane yet, what pieces primary legislation is | :03:34. | :03:36. | |
it that local authorities and social workers are saying prohibits them | :03:37. | :03:40. | |
from carrying out good social work. Will the Minister tell now today? | :03:41. | :03:46. | |
This is the legislation is formed in the worst possible way, without | :03:47. | :03:50. | |
demand and without any evidential basis for fixing the problems it | :03:51. | :03:55. | |
purports to fix. The government have invented a solution to an invented | :03:56. | :04:00. | |
problem, because it won't solve any of the problems in social work. What | :04:01. | :04:05. | |
I know from my time in social work practice, is the things that social | :04:06. | :04:10. | |
workers find prohibitive such as case recording are in secondary | :04:11. | :04:14. | |
legislation, guidance or in the custom and practice in their | :04:15. | :04:18. | |
particular local authority, all of which can be changed without primary | :04:19. | :04:23. | |
legislation. The government have denied time and time again that the | :04:24. | :04:27. | |
opt out clauses in the bill were not about privatisation. Yet late last | :04:28. | :04:33. | |
week, two years after it was written, and inextricable delay in | :04:34. | :04:38. | |
responding to freedom of information requests, the education Department | :04:39. | :04:40. | |
released a report referred to by my honourable friend which sets out how | :04:41. | :04:47. | |
children's social care can be moved out of local authority control. A | :04:48. | :04:52. | |
report which states that independent contractors have said that they are | :04:53. | :04:57. | |
willing to play the long game, wait for councils to hand over the | :04:58. | :05:00. | |
majority of not all of their children social care services after | :05:01. | :05:04. | |
they have developed their experience, in children and family | :05:05. | :05:10. | |
social work. So there you have it Madam Deputy Speaker. Independent | :05:11. | :05:11. | |
contractors are going to use probable children and families to | :05:12. | :05:16. | |
experiment with once the government allows local authorities to opt out | :05:17. | :05:21. | |
protective legislation. These are the most dangerous changes to child | :05:22. | :05:32. | |
protection either the scene. Labour, with stakeholders have expressed | :05:33. | :05:35. | |
outrage will fight the government every step of the way on these | :05:36. | :05:41. | |
clauses. Gala ball children are not to be used as market experiments in | :05:42. | :05:46. | |
each are protection strategy that requires the dispensation of the law | :05:47. | :05:50. | |
to achieve it is counter-productive and downright dangerous. Of course | :05:51. | :05:55. | |
Madam Deputy Speaker there are parts of the bill that we can support. The | :05:56. | :06:02. | |
deduction of details caught staff, the extension of the person advising | :06:03. | :06:08. | |
role, and the local offer for care leavers are all steps in the right | :06:09. | :06:12. | |
direction. The concern from this side, is can they deliver it? The | :06:13. | :06:17. | |
government for example in the bill has promised to promote the physical | :06:18. | :06:21. | |
and mental health of looked after children. But under their watch, | :06:22. | :06:25. | |
child and adolescent mental health services are in total meltdown with | :06:26. | :06:29. | |
many looked after children waiting not just months but years for | :06:30. | :06:34. | |
specialist help. Changes need to be properly resourced, because if not, | :06:35. | :06:37. | |
they are warm words and nothing more. It is confirmed that these | :06:38. | :06:44. | |
resources will be properly resourced, the bill also establishes | :06:45. | :06:49. | |
a new social work regulator. We will be carefully considering this change | :06:50. | :06:54. | |
and those that relate to the local safeguarding board in child | :06:55. | :06:56. | |
safeguarding practice review panel in committee. Because reaction share | :06:57. | :07:01. | |
some of the concerns of the Right Honourable member for East Worthing | :07:02. | :07:06. | |
and Shoreham. We also have ongoing concerns about the independence and | :07:07. | :07:12. | |
impact of the non-Department public body model now proposed, especially | :07:13. | :07:20. | |
the lack of detail in the current proposals, which have government | :07:21. | :07:22. | |
appoints direct it to the organisation. Can the Minister | :07:23. | :07:27. | |
please explain why is it that the social work profession is treated so | :07:28. | :07:30. | |
differently to other health and care professionals. Finally, the bill is | :07:31. | :07:39. | |
not talking about its response to child seeking children. These | :07:40. | :07:42. | |
children are seeking the most immense suffering and trauma, and | :07:43. | :07:48. | |
whilst thanks to the noble Lord's hand in reminding them of this | :07:49. | :07:53. | |
crisis, we will see a strategy in May next year but these are urgent | :07:54. | :07:57. | |
matters and deserve further debate in this place. We fully support the | :07:58. | :08:01. | |
amendment so eloquently and passionately outlined why my | :08:02. | :08:08. | |
honourable friend from Walthamstow. But in essence Madam Deputy Speaker, | :08:09. | :08:12. | |
what we have here, is a bill with some nice sounding elements, that | :08:13. | :08:18. | |
don't appear to be fully resourced. Therefore not guaranteed, in a | :08:19. | :08:21. | |
continual threat to open up children social care to the market, by | :08:22. | :08:23. | |
allowing opt outs of legislation. In Fact We Will Actually Have A Bill | :08:24. | :08:32. | |
Presented To Us In Committee That If It Became Law It Could In Theory Be | :08:33. | :08:38. | |
Dispensed Less By Local Authorities. It Is A Completely Ridiculous | :08:39. | :08:40. | |
Approach To Legislation And Insults To This House. Sentence Case Back -- | :08:41. | :08:49. | |
Sentence Case --. I know that getting work as a social convener is | :08:50. | :08:55. | |
a difficult task. But trust me, this bill is not the answer. We will be | :08:56. | :09:00. | |
seeking significant amendments in committee, in making clear that the | :09:01. | :09:04. | |
government understands the answer to every problem is not privatisation | :09:05. | :09:09. | |
and micromanagement, because Labour will never allow this government to | :09:10. | :09:14. | |
use our most foldable children as experiments in Tory ideology. Can I | :09:15. | :09:26. | |
begin by thanking honourable members for the enthusiastic engagement with | :09:27. | :09:30. | |
the issues at the heart of this bill. I know we all share a | :09:31. | :09:35. | |
commitment to improving the lives of our most foldable children and this | :09:36. | :09:40. | |
has been demonstrated by the energy by which this has happened | :09:41. | :09:48. | |
throughout this debate as the aspect of the bill are being today in much | :09:49. | :09:52. | |
more detail as we enter into committee. My honourable friend the | :09:53. | :09:56. | |
Minister for school standards set out in the opening of this debate, | :09:57. | :10:00. | |
protecting our most probable children and giving them the care | :10:01. | :10:02. | |
and support they need to thrive as one of the governments most | :10:03. | :10:07. | |
important responsibilities. The children who need support have often | :10:08. | :10:11. | |
faced challenges that most of us can only ever imagined. They have | :10:12. | :10:17. | |
disabilities or have faced abuse and neglect, we have been let down by | :10:18. | :10:20. | |
the people who are supposed to love and protect them. They may be being | :10:21. | :10:24. | |
exploited by perpetrators preying on the vulnerability. As children's | :10:25. | :10:28. | |
social care professionals deal with these highly complex highly | :10:29. | :10:34. | |
demanding challenges every day. They step up and take responsibility for | :10:35. | :10:38. | |
protecting our vulnerable children. In my time as children's minister, | :10:39. | :10:41. | |
as a family barrister Foster sibling I have often been inspired by | :10:42. | :10:47. | |
stories of children whose lives are transformed by social workers, | :10:48. | :10:51. | |
Foster carers, residential care staff, doctors and others. These | :10:52. | :10:56. | |
people epitomise the compassion and deep desire in our society to help | :10:57. | :11:00. | |
others, without which we and our children would be so much the | :11:01. | :11:05. | |
better. So the bill we are debating today is a critical part of creating | :11:06. | :11:08. | |
a children's social care system that enables these people to do the very | :11:09. | :11:12. | |
best job possible for our children. -- and our children would be so much | :11:13. | :11:19. | |
the poorer. This takes forward important measures for putting | :11:20. | :11:23. | |
children first. A strategy which I think represents the most | :11:24. | :11:26. | |
fundamental reforms to the system in a generation. The bill places the | :11:27. | :11:30. | |
interests of vulnerable children right at the heart of the social | :11:31. | :11:36. | |
care system. It defines what good corporate parenting website, and | :11:37. | :11:39. | |
secures the involvement of the whole council in looking out for children | :11:40. | :11:42. | |
in or leaving its care. It requires every local area to spell out | :11:43. | :11:47. | |
exactly what support they are offering to care leavers and extends | :11:48. | :11:51. | |
the help of a personal adviser to all care leavers up to the age of | :11:52. | :11:58. | |
25. It introduces improved national arrangements and strengthened | :11:59. | :12:01. | |
arrangements for multi-agency co-operation and safeguarding. It | :12:02. | :12:04. | |
extends educational support to children leaving care through | :12:05. | :12:08. | |
adoption or special guardianship. It creates the conditions for good | :12:09. | :12:12. | |
placement decisions to be made by -- for children coming into the care | :12:13. | :12:15. | |
system by ensuring that the child's long care -- long-term needs are | :12:16. | :12:20. | |
properly considered and introduces a new bespoke regulator for social | :12:21. | :12:25. | |
work. Social work England. An organisation that will be empowered | :12:26. | :12:29. | |
to raise standards and social work and raise the status of this vital | :12:30. | :12:35. | |
profession. Madam Deputy Speaker, members have raised a whole | :12:36. | :12:38. | |
multitude of important points in today's debate that I'll do very | :12:39. | :12:42. | |
best to respond to events detailing the house longer than would be | :12:43. | :12:46. | |
deemed acceptable. I am grateful for the constructive engagement of | :12:47. | :12:49. | |
members and I do want to work together to move forward with these | :12:50. | :12:51. | |
legislative provisions that have huge potential to improve the life | :12:52. | :12:57. | |
chances of children that we all care so deeply about. The honourable | :12:58. | :13:04. | |
member for Ashton-under-Lyne asked where her strategy for children in | :13:05. | :13:08. | |
care is, we have it, it is the putting children first document and | :13:09. | :13:10. | |
I would encourage her to refresh your memory of that all-encompassing | :13:11. | :13:16. | |
strategy for children in care to 220 20. She asked about spending on | :13:17. | :13:19. | |
children's services, and it is right to say that the pattern of | :13:20. | :13:23. | |
inspection outcomes is not about how deprived area is or local geography | :13:24. | :13:29. | |
or even the money being spent on children's social care, some of the | :13:30. | :13:31. | |
local authorities judged inadequate by Ofstead this year when among the | :13:32. | :13:35. | |
highest spending well high performance referred to spend their | :13:36. | :13:38. | |
money more effectively, investing in the best services and bringing costs | :13:39. | :13:44. | |
down and the key here is identifying where investment makes a difference | :13:45. | :13:50. | |
in spreading knowledge and practice about what works. She also asked | :13:51. | :13:56. | |
about the local offer and what kinds there would be for local | :13:57. | :14:00. | |
authorities. The legislation already censored the areas local authorities | :14:01. | :14:04. | |
should provide support under, was being health and well-being, | :14:05. | :14:07. | |
education and training, employment, participation in society and Laois | :14:08. | :14:11. | |
ships and we expect this to cover a wide range of services from relevant | :14:12. | :14:18. | |
universal health and financial support that care leavers can access | :14:19. | :14:23. | |
and benefit from. We have developed a prototype offer that we expect | :14:24. | :14:27. | |
local authorities to consider and provide access that I provide | :14:28. | :14:31. | |
examples of more specific support. I am happy to share this with the | :14:32. | :14:34. | |
honourable ladies achievements which denies it in more detail. She asked | :14:35. | :14:40. | |
about the new regulator 's independence, the bill makes clear | :14:41. | :14:45. | |
that this will be a separate legal entity with its own staff as a | :14:46. | :14:50. | |
non-departmental public body. The government has always been clear | :14:51. | :14:54. | |
that it has no desire to make decisions about individual social | :14:55. | :14:58. | |
workers. The chair of the education select committee made some central | :14:59. | :15:04. | |
points about the foundations of the bill which he welcomed, including | :15:05. | :15:08. | |
the regulatory changes. He raised the issue of a professional body for | :15:09. | :15:12. | |
social work and I agree I think it is absolutely important for the | :15:13. | :15:16. | |
profession to have a strong body to represent it to provide support and | :15:17. | :15:19. | |
guidance as to help them develop their own practice. I have already | :15:20. | :15:25. | |
set out at the end Cass conference a few weeks ago exactly how I want to | :15:26. | :15:29. | |
work with the profession to make sure we come up with the right | :15:30. | :15:33. | |
solution. We have tried a whole host of different ways of making that | :15:34. | :15:36. | |
work and we need to know go for the connection we have something we want | :15:37. | :15:41. | |
your -- that will endure long into the future. He alluded to one of the | :15:42. | :15:46. | |
outstanding care leading services we have in England and the virtue of it | :15:47. | :15:50. | |
having strong leadership and I agree with them, and I have been hugely | :15:51. | :15:55. | |
impressed by the work that has gone on the by Mark Redhill and his team | :15:56. | :15:59. | |
and there's a lot that the casual others as to what works. The | :16:00. | :16:04. | |
honourable member for Motherwell and Wishaw told us to look at the work | :16:05. | :16:10. | |
in Scotland and I am always happy to look at the Scottish prospective, I | :16:11. | :16:14. | |
always as ever invite her to look at what we are doing in England, two, | :16:15. | :16:17. | |
Scotland have children at the heart of the system she says. So do we and | :16:18. | :16:22. | |
if she looks also putting children first strategy documents you will | :16:23. | :16:26. | |
see that. And of course although Scotland may lead the way in some | :16:27. | :16:30. | |
areas, we lead the way in others. Staying put being a good example. | :16:31. | :16:33. | |
She asked about corporate parenting principles and why they are only to | :16:34. | :16:39. | |
have regard, the reason for that is that the local authority is the | :16:40. | :16:41. | |
corporate parent and is legally responsible for the catholic | :16:42. | :16:45. | |
children in care leavers and we believe maintaining this clear | :16:46. | :16:50. | |
accountability is right. -- legally responsible for the children and | :16:51. | :16:56. | |
care leavers. The intention is that this will help improve the response | :16:57. | :17:01. | |
to them carrying out the duties that they already have set out in | :17:02. | :17:06. | |
legislation. She asked about the government's commitments to the UNC | :17:07. | :17:11. | |
RC, the government remains fully committed to protecting children's | :17:12. | :17:13. | |
rights and the United Nations Convention on the right of the | :17:14. | :17:18. | |
child. We have responded to the written ministerial statement | :17:19. | :17:21. | |
published in October and to the permanent Secretary's letter to his | :17:22. | :17:24. | |
counterparts across government. That there was an example of how we | :17:25. | :17:27. | |
constantly seek to not only protect children tried also to enhance them, | :17:28. | :17:32. | |
and there is a full trial rights impact assessment that was conducted | :17:33. | :17:36. | |
during the development of the bill and I know there is considerable | :17:37. | :17:39. | |
debate in the Lords on this issue and that is one that we have | :17:40. | :17:43. | |
recently reaffirmed as a commitment to the WMS to reinforce the message | :17:44. | :17:47. | |
of the importance of the UNC RC across every development and making | :17:48. | :17:53. | |
sure that there is a proactive role in considering children's rights in | :17:54. | :17:58. | |
policy-making. The member for East Worthing and Shoreham, I will do my | :17:59. | :18:01. | |
utmost to address all of the point series, but I do join him and my | :18:02. | :18:05. | |
honourable friend the member for Portsmouth South in praising the | :18:06. | :18:09. | |
incredible work and dedication of our social work force. Something | :18:10. | :18:13. | |
which was reactivated by the honourable member for South Shields. | :18:14. | :18:18. | |
Both children and adult social workers who all do a fantastic job. | :18:19. | :18:25. | |
It is so difficult day in day out. I do agree with him that the | :18:26. | :18:28. | |
administrative burdens on social workers sitting in front of | :18:29. | :18:31. | |
computers and filling in forms has hampered much of the progress of | :18:32. | :18:36. | |
social work, and I have read the report, no more blame game, on | :18:37. | :18:41. | |
several occasions, which only he was instrumental in reducing. I would | :18:42. | :18:45. | |
say to him that the whole purpose of the changes we're making to the | :18:46. | :18:49. | |
serious review process is to address exactly that issue, that we get away | :18:50. | :18:54. | |
from pointing the finger and we get into looking at where things have | :18:55. | :18:58. | |
gone wrong and why and how we make sure it does not happen again in the | :18:59. | :19:03. | |
future. He set out some of the highlights of the reform programme | :19:04. | :19:05. | |
over the last six years on children's social care, anti-racist | :19:06. | :19:11. | |
staying put as perhaps one of those -- and he raised staying put is | :19:12. | :19:15. | |
perhaps one of those and I would like to enforce that there has been | :19:16. | :19:20. | |
an exceptional response to that duty with 54% of 18-year-olds now | :19:21. | :19:24. | |
choosing to stay put, 30% of 19-year-olds and 16% of 20 a lot but | :19:25. | :19:28. | |
of course the mechanisms of that are under review to ensure that it will | :19:29. | :19:34. | |
continue to benefit more children. He talked about some of the | :19:35. | :19:37. | |
deficiencies in the system and one of those being sharing best practice | :19:38. | :19:42. | |
and again I agree with him, that is exactly why we are setting up what | :19:43. | :19:47. | |
works centre for children's social care that will build a robust | :19:48. | :19:51. | |
evidence base and disseminate learning about what does and doesn't | :19:52. | :19:55. | |
work in children's social care practice to really help local | :19:56. | :19:58. | |
practitioners and commissioners employ the most effective, | :19:59. | :20:00. | |
cost-effective front line practices to support children. Visually we | :20:01. | :20:05. | |
will work closely with the child safeguarding practice review panel | :20:06. | :20:09. | |
to ensure practice development identified through reviews that are | :20:10. | :20:14. | |
widely disseminated. An adoption I share his pride in the work this | :20:15. | :20:17. | |
government has done to improve the adoption process, but for | :20:18. | :20:20. | |
prospective adopters and crucially for children, we have seen a rise in | :20:21. | :20:26. | |
the number of children being adopted to over 5000 per year and we have | :20:27. | :20:32. | |
seen them adopted more quickly. But on the back of the judgment there | :20:33. | :20:38. | |
has been a disappointing fall in those numbers and we are seeking to | :20:39. | :20:41. | |
do all we can to address that so we don't lose the ground that we made | :20:42. | :20:45. | |
up in the early years of this government. He should also know as | :20:46. | :20:50. | |
was raised by my right noble friend the member for Basingstoke, that in | :20:51. | :20:56. | |
raising the adoption support for their been 10,000 families that have | :20:57. | :20:59. | |
directly benefited from that fund and although we have had to | :21:00. | :21:02. | |
reluctantly put a fair access limit in the short-term to enable more | :21:03. | :21:08. | |
families were at all possible to benefit from that fund we want to | :21:09. | :21:12. | |
find a sustainable solution so we continue that support in the long | :21:13. | :21:17. | |
term and I am very happy to meet with my right honourable friend the | :21:18. | :21:21. | |
member for Basingstoke who has a particular case that she has raised | :21:22. | :21:25. | |
acid make-up advice of the wider issues we face in getting this | :21:26. | :21:28. | |
right. He raised the question about corporate parenting principles, are | :21:29. | :21:36. | |
they in addition to section 23, the answer is that the principles are in | :21:37. | :21:39. | |
addition to existing legislation, it is not strike to put new duties on | :21:40. | :21:43. | |
local authorities. They are already very clearly set out. What we're | :21:44. | :21:47. | |
trying to do is engender a whole council approach to taking for | :21:48. | :21:52. | |
children in the care and then having regard to those principles in any | :21:53. | :21:56. | |
decision they make on their behalf. On personal advisers, although we | :21:57. | :22:00. | |
are extending the use of personal advisers, I concur with his view | :22:01. | :22:02. | |
that there is a whole range of quality and access for care leavers | :22:03. | :22:12. | |
to personal -- to personal advisers that is why we get the scope of what | :22:13. | :22:16. | |
a personal advisers is there to do in the types of people have become | :22:17. | :22:18. | |
personal advisers together with the training they get truly matters the | :22:19. | :22:22. | |
need for those care leavers that they have told us they desperately | :22:23. | :22:29. | |
want. He raised drafting issues and details on the additional support | :22:30. | :22:33. | |
for children in care, I will look carefully at that and I'm sure we | :22:34. | :22:36. | |
can address was in committee. An serious case reviews, I could not | :22:37. | :22:41. | |
agree more with him about the need for transparency. We worked hard and | :22:42. | :22:45. | |
opposition on the publication, I remember substituting my honourable | :22:46. | :22:50. | |
friend on Newsnight to talk about this very subject. We now need to | :22:51. | :22:57. | |
make sure that the new system reflects what we know is an | :22:58. | :23:01. | |
important element of an approach which will provide is with a shining | :23:02. | :23:06. | |
light on the practice has fallen short. He asked about active | :23:07. | :23:12. | |
participation in your local safeguarding arrangements, including | :23:13. | :23:16. | |
in financial contributions. That is an important part of the new system | :23:17. | :23:19. | |
and we set out in games in more detail about how we expect to | :23:20. | :23:26. | |
engender such an approach. -- set out in guidance. He made a very | :23:27. | :23:29. | |
clear pitch which I will to four where we should go next with the | :23:30. | :23:34. | |
power to intervene but I will talk more about that at the end of my | :23:35. | :23:36. | |
speech. The member for Enfield Southgate asks about cases where | :23:37. | :23:40. | |
mothers have repeated pregnancies. He should know that we have spent | :23:41. | :23:46. | |
and will spend a total of around ?11 million up to 2020 on its logic that | :23:47. | :23:49. | |
has been extremely successful in trying to break that cycle and help | :23:50. | :23:54. | |
mothers find a different path through the lives and reduce the | :23:55. | :23:57. | |
number of children coming into the care system. The honourable lady for | :23:58. | :24:02. | |
Walthamstow talked about the need to concentrate on prevention. That is | :24:03. | :24:05. | |
something that we always need to have at the heart of any decision | :24:06. | :24:09. | |
that we make on where money is spent, where policy should move | :24:10. | :24:10. | |
towards. The there are the number of other | :24:11. | :24:21. | |
honourable members who raise that issue. On child refugees she made | :24:22. | :24:26. | |
reference to my written ministerial statement on a safeguarding strategy | :24:27. | :24:29. | |
across government and I'm grateful for her support for it but she does | :24:30. | :24:33. | |
query how it sits alongside the Home Office guidance. I will that | :24:34. | :24:37. | |
carefully at what she says and I will talk to Home Office ministers | :24:38. | :24:40. | |
but the Home Office have published that guidance setting out the | :24:41. | :24:46. | |
legibility criteria, and they are all children aged 12 and under, all | :24:47. | :24:52. | |
children and referred by the French authorities. Those nationalities | :24:53. | :24:55. | |
most likely to qualify for refugee status in UK aged 15 or below and as | :24:56. | :25:01. | |
the Dubbs amendment, children transfer should be refugees, the | :25:02. | :25:06. | |
best interest of a child who is also established as part of the process. | :25:07. | :25:12. | |
Although the Honourable lady would have two appreciate that we need a | :25:13. | :25:17. | |
method, to prioritise, I am happy to discuss the matter further with her | :25:18. | :25:20. | |
with my colleague in the Foreign Office. I thank the Minister giving | :25:21. | :25:26. | |
way, witty knowledge that nationality is put before the child | :25:27. | :25:31. | |
and further identifies particular nationalities, ignoring for example | :25:32. | :25:37. | |
certain children France, like the Afghan children a third of whom have | :25:38. | :25:41. | |
gone missing because of the gap this has caused. I appreciate, but we are | :25:42. | :25:49. | |
worried about them in the run-up to Christmas. I'm happy to do that, | :25:50. | :25:55. | |
like her I don't want to create conditions which are | :25:56. | :25:57. | |
counter-productive to the shared mission that we have. And I will | :25:58. | :26:02. | |
make sure that there is as rapid as we can possibly be, acknowledgement | :26:03. | :26:07. | |
of the further work that needs to be done, to ensure that we are in way | :26:08. | :26:13. | |
that doesn't create more difficulties, but brings about more | :26:14. | :26:18. | |
positive solutions. My right honourable friend the member for | :26:19. | :26:22. | |
Basingstoke raised the issue of the adoption case in her constituency | :26:23. | :26:26. | |
and I will say I'm happy to discuss that further with her. We do need to | :26:27. | :26:32. | |
move to a more sustainable approach but of course what the adoption | :26:33. | :26:35. | |
support fund has shown is that there is a real need for that additional | :26:36. | :26:40. | |
therapeutic support and I'm committed as the children's minister | :26:41. | :26:43. | |
to do what we can to continue to do that into the future. The honourable | :26:44. | :26:54. | |
member for Rochester talked with experience about touching this bill, | :26:55. | :26:58. | |
she particularly raised the delays in the adoption process and I agree | :26:59. | :27:05. | |
with much of what she has said. I agree that the time it takes has | :27:06. | :27:10. | |
reduced to 18 months, a reduction of four months from its peak although | :27:11. | :27:13. | |
there is still more work that needs to be done because every month that | :27:14. | :27:17. | |
goes by is one that a child will never get back. As I say, more | :27:18. | :27:21. | |
children are receiving that adoption support. And I know that she was | :27:22. | :27:30. | |
unable in her own area that the message goes through to families who | :27:31. | :27:34. | |
may not yet realised that the support is available. She was also | :27:35. | :27:38. | |
clear, that the new provisions for care leavers, a major step forward, | :27:39. | :27:43. | |
I recognise again that we need to make sure that social workers have | :27:44. | :27:47. | |
the tools they need to make the most of those changes. My honourable | :27:48. | :27:54. | |
friend the member for Portsmouth South, I'm grateful for measures to | :27:55. | :27:59. | |
improve, she raised, the National offer, I can tell her that I met, | :28:00. | :28:04. | |
with the Minister in the Department for Work and Pensions to see what | :28:05. | :28:08. | |
further action we can take and I will be able to elude two more in | :28:09. | :28:13. | |
detail in committee and I take a point called social worker training | :28:14. | :28:16. | |
which is very much behind the work around the assessment accreditation | :28:17. | :28:20. | |
process and making sure that we raise standards wherever possible. | :28:21. | :28:25. | |
The honourable lady for South Shields, we do get on very well | :28:26. | :28:31. | |
Madam Deputy Speaker, but I have to say I agree very little with what | :28:32. | :28:36. | |
she had to offer this afternoon. She questions the value that we put on, | :28:37. | :28:41. | |
of social workers. I have to say that is exactly what this bill is | :28:42. | :28:45. | |
about and I would ask also to look more widely at the work that the | :28:46. | :28:49. | |
government is doing, the innovation programme, where we have already | :28:50. | :28:54. | |
spent over ?100 million Trekkie to local authorities to try and test | :28:55. | :28:58. | |
new ways of working with another 200 million harp until 2020. That is 300 | :28:59. | :29:05. | |
million worth of value that is put directly into improving children's | :29:06. | :29:11. | |
services. When she started her a response, I felt she was determined | :29:12. | :29:14. | |
to try and turn this, I don't think she's wanting to, seems to be moving | :29:15. | :29:19. | |
in the direction of a sort of ideological struggle about many of | :29:20. | :29:23. | |
these issues. I do understand her desire to oppose and to be seen to | :29:24. | :29:28. | |
oppose, but I hope when we get into committee we can have a constructive | :29:29. | :29:33. | |
debate about what is in the bill and how that fits into the wider | :29:34. | :29:36. | |
government programme because what I have no doubt is that we do have a | :29:37. | :29:42. | |
shared desire to prove outcomes for vulnerable children and I do have a | :29:43. | :29:47. | |
pragmatic streak running through me. I'm not some ideologues who will | :29:48. | :29:53. | |
just sit there, and create a wall of noise. I wanted to hear the argument | :29:54. | :29:58. | |
but I'll am also wanting her to hear mine too. She raised a report | :29:59. | :30:02. | |
although she did fail to show the official government response to that | :30:03. | :30:05. | |
report which says" we disagree with the option in the report relating to | :30:06. | :30:10. | |
the privatisation of children's social care services and we will not | :30:11. | :30:14. | |
be implementing this option." So it couldn't be clearer about our | :30:15. | :30:22. | |
position. Madam Deputy Speaker if I can move briefly about the power to | :30:23. | :30:25. | |
innovate, that has generated the most debate in this bill and the | :30:26. | :30:28. | |
honourable members have raised questions over the power, a | :30:29. | :30:32. | |
provision to remove the bill and referred to by the right honourable | :30:33. | :30:36. | |
member, Mr for skill standards at the opening of this debate. We do | :30:37. | :30:40. | |
intend to revisit these powers in this house because of the important | :30:41. | :30:45. | |
role that they stand to play in improving the quality of children's | :30:46. | :30:48. | |
social care and I'm grateful to my right honourable friend, the member | :30:49. | :30:54. | |
for Basingstoke her support in explaining the new ways of working | :30:55. | :30:57. | |
are a way to drive improvement in practice. Whenever I visit local | :30:58. | :31:02. | |
authorities and speak with front line social workers, I am obviously | :31:03. | :31:06. | |
not meeting the same ones as the honourable lady opposite because I'm | :31:07. | :31:10. | |
always struck by the passion, energy and dedication that they bring to | :31:11. | :31:13. | |
their work and to offer my leave with a message that rather than | :31:14. | :31:17. | |
helping them in their task, the structures and processes that we put | :31:18. | :31:21. | |
them in place top them from using their professional judgment to truly | :31:22. | :31:23. | |
respond to the needs of the children they look after. As the Munro | :31:24. | :31:28. | |
landmark review told us, overregulation gets in the way of | :31:29. | :31:33. | |
social workers ability to put children first. So this power | :31:34. | :31:37. | |
dresses that challenge has been called for by local authorities | :31:38. | :31:42. | |
around the country. Because it would give councils the ability to test | :31:43. | :31:44. | |
new ways of working designed to improve outcomes for children in a | :31:45. | :31:48. | |
safe and controlled environment where the impact of removing a | :31:49. | :31:52. | |
specific requirements can be measured carefully. That is not to | :31:53. | :31:58. | |
say that important points haven't been raised in this house, all of | :31:59. | :32:01. | |
which I have and will consider carefully and will bringing back a | :32:02. | :32:07. | |
power with significant changes, and additional safeguards that I hope | :32:08. | :32:11. | |
provide the reassurances requested. What I do want to be clear Madam | :32:12. | :32:16. | |
Deputy Speaker, we don't want to privatise protection services for | :32:17. | :32:22. | |
children. We would privatise child protection services, they are | :32:23. | :32:25. | |
already, there is already clearly just the tip restrictions on the | :32:26. | :32:29. | |
outsourcing of children social care functions, it was never the | :32:30. | :32:33. | |
intention to use the power to innovate to revisit these but to put | :32:34. | :32:39. | |
these beyond doubt. Bringing for the classificatory amendments in the | :32:40. | :32:42. | |
other place. And we went either remove fundamental rights or | :32:43. | :32:46. | |
protections from children dash Ashley went either. Our aim is to | :32:47. | :32:50. | |
strengthen and not weaken. My mission, has always been, to improve | :32:51. | :32:57. | |
the lives of vulnerable children. It is our job as a government to create | :32:58. | :33:02. | |
the conditions in which excellent practice can flourish and I'm | :33:03. | :33:05. | |
convinced that with proper safeguards in place, the ability to | :33:06. | :33:09. | |
pilot new approaches will be in the long-term allow this house to enact | :33:10. | :33:14. | |
more effective evidenced -based legislation, drive wider improvement | :33:15. | :33:17. | |
from another tip people across the system. And I agree, with a | :33:18. | :33:24. | |
professor when she says, "I welcome the introduction of the power to | :33:25. | :33:29. | |
innovate, this is a critical part of the journey set out in my | :33:30. | :33:32. | |
independent review of child protection towards a child welfare | :33:33. | :33:36. | |
system that reflects the complexity and diversity of children's needs. | :33:37. | :33:40. | |
This quote it goes on to say "Trusting professionals to use their | :33:41. | :33:44. | |
judgment rather than be forced to follow unnecessary legal rules will | :33:45. | :33:47. | |
help to ensure that children get the help that they need when they need | :33:48. | :33:52. | |
it". Testing innovation in a controlled way to establish the | :33:53. | :33:55. | |
consequences of the change is a sensible and proportionate way | :33:56. | :33:58. | |
forward. However, I would ask the honourable members, but forecasting | :33:59. | :34:05. | |
a final judgment to consider the amendments that we intend to table | :34:06. | :34:09. | |
that I believe provide that sensible proportionate approach built on a | :34:10. | :34:13. | |
clear and single purpose of improving the outcomes of vulnerable | :34:14. | :34:18. | |
children. Finally Madam Deputy Speaker, I want to talk about sex | :34:19. | :34:23. | |
and relationship education. And my right honourable friend the member | :34:24. | :34:27. | |
for Basingstoke and the member for Stroud and wharf in Stoke, spoke out | :34:28. | :34:32. | |
on the question of sex and relationship education. I also want | :34:33. | :34:40. | |
to recognise its importance. And of course the government already issued | :34:41. | :34:43. | |
stat tree guidance on teaching relationships and has made funding | :34:44. | :34:47. | |
ready, to improve the quality of that teaching. I have heard the call | :34:48. | :34:52. | |
to go further in this area. To help build the resilience and confidence | :34:53. | :34:55. | |
of children and young people, in tackling what the modern world | :34:56. | :35:00. | |
throws at them, not least online. This is of course a topic on which | :35:01. | :35:04. | |
there are many and strongly held views, and it will be important to | :35:05. | :35:08. | |
look at those in the round. Not least because PSHE, and H REI | :35:09. | :35:22. | |
linked. And it is, pay per job the Secretary of State and have asked | :35:23. | :35:25. | |
people to advise me further on these matters. And I will ask them to | :35:26. | :35:29. | |
accelerate this work so that I can report on our conclusions at a later | :35:30. | :35:33. | |
port in the bill 's passage, when has everyone in this house we will | :35:34. | :35:36. | |
be able to look at them and have their say. Madam Deputy Speaker I'm | :35:37. | :35:40. | |
sure that these reflections only started do justice to the range of | :35:41. | :35:43. | |
important issues that we have debated today. I look for to picking | :35:44. | :35:48. | |
up these matters in greater detail as it moves into committee stage. I | :35:49. | :35:53. | |
see the contents of the children social work Bill as a major step | :35:54. | :35:56. | |
forward in making sure that our most honourable children get the levels | :35:57. | :36:00. | |
of support and opportunity that any of us would want for our own | :36:01. | :36:04. | |
Georgian. I welcome the debate and the challenge we have engaged this | :36:05. | :36:08. | |
afternoon, it helps to maintain momentum find a shared endeavour, | :36:09. | :36:13. | |
the United commitment to improving the lives of our most honourable | :36:14. | :36:17. | |
children. Please let me leave this out in no doubt, that I recognise | :36:18. | :36:22. | |
and accept the challenges that we face. This government is more | :36:23. | :36:27. | |
determined than ever, to rise to those challenges without clear and | :36:28. | :36:30. | |
ambitious plan to fundamentally reform the system. How vulnerable | :36:31. | :36:35. | |
children deserve no less and I commend this bill to the house. The | :36:36. | :36:42. | |
question is that the bill now be read a second time, as many that | :36:43. | :36:53. | |
think yes say ayes ayes. The ayes habit. As many of that opinions say | :36:54. | :37:02. | |
aye. . The Monday resolution to be moved formerly. As many of the | :37:03. | :37:08. | |
opinion say aye. And the contrary, no. Ways and means resolution to be | :37:09. | :37:12. | |
moved formerly. The question is as on the order paper, as many say | :37:13. | :37:19. | |
ayes. I think the ayes have it, the ayes habit. Davis six, the Minister | :37:20. | :37:26. | |
to move. The question is as on the order paper, as many say aye. The | :37:27. | :37:33. | |
contrary no. The ayes habit. The ayes habit. We come to motion seven, | :37:34. | :37:42. | |
the defence committee, Jackie Doyle Price. As many of that opinions say | :37:43. | :37:49. | |
aye. The ayes habit. We now come to motion number eight relating to | :37:50. | :37:52. | |
Northern Ireland affairs committee. Jackie Doyle price. The question is | :37:53. | :37:59. | |
on the order paper. I think that the ayes habit. We now come to motion | :38:00. | :38:04. | |
number nine relating to women and equality is committee. The question | :38:05. | :38:12. | |
is has on the order paper. I think that the ayes habit, the ayes habit. | :38:13. | :38:16. | |
I beg to move that the house now adjourned. Catherine McIndoe. Thank | :38:17. | :38:25. | |
you Madam Deputy Speaker I have called on this debate I issue that | :38:26. | :38:29. | |
will touch millions of people and their families at some point in | :38:30. | :38:34. | |
their lives. Indeed it is particularly appropriate that this | :38:35. | :38:37. | |
debate is taking place today with the 5th of December having been | :38:38. | :38:41. | |
designated International volunteer Day by the United Nations since | :38:42. | :38:43. | |
1985. In order to celebrate the power and | :38:44. | :38:53. | |
potential of volunteerism. The UN says international volunteer Day is | :38:54. | :38:56. | |
an opportunity for volunteers to reason where is of the contribution | :38:57. | :39:01. | |
they make to their communities and this year 's theme of global plus, | :39:02. | :39:06. | |
hash tag, ceased to give volunteers around the world the recognition | :39:07. | :39:12. | |
they deserve well also giving a hand to potential volunteers buying | :39:13. | :39:15. | |
Courage and then to give up some of the time for others. Of course the | :39:16. | :39:18. | |
link between International volunteer Day in this debate is the vast | :39:19. | :39:23. | |
majority of end of life palliative care outside of hospital. It is | :39:24. | :39:28. | |
provided by the charitable sector and is only partly funded by the | :39:29. | :39:32. | |
NHS. People who don't need the money and time through volunteering with | :39:33. | :39:38. | |
end of life care charities play an immeasurably important role in | :39:39. | :39:41. | |
ensuring that the majority of us and our loved ones will get the right | :39:42. | :39:46. | |
care and support when we are buying. We are also going to need more | :39:47. | :39:51. | |
volunteers, as more people die each year the demand for high-quality | :39:52. | :39:55. | |
palliative care at end of life care increases. Something which I will | :39:56. | :40:01. | |
return to later. Madam Deputy Speaker, I have long been an | :40:02. | :40:03. | |
advocate of the need for a good palliative care and support to be | :40:04. | :40:07. | |
available to those who need it. However, it is a result of my recent | :40:08. | :40:11. | |
work with the charity managerial locally that I saw this debate. As I | :40:12. | :40:16. | |
am sure honourable members will know, man HUD happened providing | :40:17. | :40:19. | |
care and support for people living with terminal illness and their | :40:20. | :40:23. | |
families for several years. -- marry Curie. They were able to care for | :40:24. | :40:32. | |
thousands of people across the UK. In October, I have the absolute | :40:33. | :40:37. | |
privilege of meeting with my constituent who has terminal cancer. | :40:38. | :40:42. | |
And Fay Morrison, a 21-year-old student who has befriended Don to | :40:43. | :40:49. | |
the marry furious service. This pioneering service which has been | :40:50. | :40:53. | |
available since last year but has volunteers who they trade with | :40:54. | :40:56. | |
people living with terminal illness. Dividing them of their loved ones | :40:57. | :41:01. | |
with companionship emotional support and practical help with the aim of | :41:02. | :41:04. | |
ensuring that the quality-of-life is the best that can be in its final | :41:05. | :41:11. | |
stages. Last December, since last December, Fay has been making | :41:12. | :41:14. | |
regular visits to see Don in his home and over that time they are | :41:15. | :41:18. | |
clearly developed a close friendship. Fay is able to insure | :41:19. | :41:22. | |
that Don who can no longer drive can still get out the house to places | :41:23. | :41:25. | |
such as North Shields for fish and chips and perhaps most importantly | :41:26. | :41:29. | |
Fay is a nonfamily member that Don can talk to and share his concerns. | :41:30. | :41:34. | |
The impact of volunteering honours quality-of-life and that of his wife | :41:35. | :41:38. | |
is clear to anyone who meet them. But Fay is the first to say that she | :41:39. | :41:42. | |
has gained as much from giving her time and being part of the helper | :41:43. | :41:48. | |
service done has. The Marie Currie helper service also helped | :41:49. | :41:49. | |
coordinate local services enabling people affected by terminal illness | :41:50. | :41:54. | |
and their families to understand what is happening and to ensure that | :41:55. | :41:57. | |
they are supported throughout this challenging journey. In the case of | :41:58. | :42:02. | |
Fay and Don it has involved signposting gone to the services | :42:03. | :42:06. | |
provided by Marie Currie's Newcastle Hospice which I also heard what | :42:07. | :42:09. | |
about from the nurse Michelle Scott when I recently visited the facility | :42:10. | :42:15. | |
located in the West End of the city in the constituency of my honourable | :42:16. | :42:18. | |
friend the member for Newcastle Central. I was able to see for | :42:19. | :42:22. | |
myself the newly opened, alleges that and relaxation area, with the | :42:23. | :42:27. | |
garden theme, the different types of accommodation available to patients | :42:28. | :42:30. | |
and their carers, including respite care, and learn more about the wide | :42:31. | :42:34. | |
range of medical and nursing care, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, | :42:35. | :42:40. | |
tactical psychological, emotional and spiritual support provided by | :42:41. | :42:46. | |
the highly expert Hospice team. But I think with vertical remorse from | :42:47. | :42:50. | |
my visit was the Hospice's absolute dedication to celebrating life. And | :42:51. | :42:56. | |
to ensuring that those using the services whether terminally ill | :42:57. | :42:59. | |
parents with young children are those such as my constituent Don who | :43:00. | :43:03. | |
use the services they -- daily and use the activities to receive the | :43:04. | :43:11. | |
best possible support to achieve the best possible quality-of-life has | :43:12. | :43:14. | |
the time comes to an end. As Don told me, he was concerned that once | :43:15. | :43:18. | |
he stepped inside the Hospice you would never leave. But that is just | :43:19. | :43:21. | |
not the case and thanks to the helper service and Fay he was a sign | :43:22. | :43:26. | |
posted to the care and support that they can provide at all stages of a | :43:27. | :43:31. | |
terminal illness. Support which is not negative about death and dying | :43:32. | :43:36. | |
but treated as part of life. Of course not all of Marie Currie's | :43:37. | :43:39. | |
nursing care takes place in a hospice setting, territory nurses | :43:40. | :43:44. | |
also provide overnight care in people's own homes for example and | :43:45. | :43:49. | |
Ken Mackie certainly not the only charitable organisation providing | :43:50. | :43:51. | |
end of life care in the Newcastle area, with other vital organisations | :43:52. | :43:54. | |
including the military to support, for whom I recently had the pleasure | :43:55. | :44:00. | |
of enjoying coffee cake -- MacMillan Cancer Support. And of course Saint | :44:01. | :44:07. | |
Oswald 's Hospice in God is worth which has worked to make the most of | :44:08. | :44:12. | |
time and improved quality of life for everyone in the north-east | :44:13. | :44:15. | |
living with an incurable condition and their families for the last 30 | :44:16. | :44:20. | |
years. Yet despite the incredible efforts of these charities and the | :44:21. | :44:26. | |
NHS, for people who are dying the risk of not getting the care they | :44:27. | :44:29. | |
need to manage the symptoms and maintain the quality of life is | :44:30. | :44:35. | |
worryingly high. Research undertaken by the London School of economics on | :44:36. | :44:40. | |
behalf of Marie Currie last year found that 80 deeply concerning | :44:41. | :44:44. | |
92,000 people who need palliative care in England each year are not | :44:45. | :44:49. | |
receiving it. That means one in four people are not getting good end of | :44:50. | :44:54. | |
life care, he care to manage pain and other symptoms alongside | :44:55. | :44:58. | |
psychological social and spiritual support that they clearly need. The | :44:59. | :45:02. | |
people the message must frequently on the support of those with a | :45:03. | :45:05. | |
terminal illness other than cancer such as heart surely or chronic | :45:06. | :45:10. | |
pulmonary disease. Indeed written evidence submitted by the National | :45:11. | :45:13. | |
Council for palliative care to the health select committee's enquiry | :45:14. | :45:18. | |
into end of life care published last year drew attention to the fact that | :45:19. | :45:23. | |
people of cancer access over 75% of palliative care services, of cancer | :45:24. | :45:28. | |
causes around 30% of deaths. And concerns about the availability of | :45:29. | :45:31. | |
palliative care for people with non-cancer diagnoses have been | :45:32. | :45:36. | |
raised with me by a constituent living with idiopathic pulmonary | :45:37. | :45:43. | |
fibrosis. Those also likely to miss out people over age 85 including | :45:44. | :45:46. | |
those with dementia, and this is despite the fact that dementia is | :45:47. | :45:50. | |
now identified as a leading cause of death in England and Wales. And | :45:51. | :45:54. | |
written evidence submitted by age concern UK to the same health select | :45:55. | :45:58. | |
committee enquiry highlighted that one third of all deaths of people | :45:59. | :46:05. | |
aged over 85, only around 15% of people gain access to speculate -- | :46:06. | :46:09. | |
specialist palliative care fall into this group so willing inequalities | :46:10. | :46:13. | |
already exist in terms of the quality of end of life support | :46:14. | :46:16. | |
available, depending on your illness, aged and as ever, where you | :46:17. | :46:23. | |
happen to live. An increasing concern is that the existing system | :46:24. | :46:25. | |
already unable to provide care for all those who need it is coming | :46:26. | :46:30. | |
under even greater pressure as social care services fast approach | :46:31. | :46:34. | |
breaking point. Marie Currie state that in the old services they are | :46:35. | :46:37. | |
seeing people wait weeks in hospital and hospices for social care | :46:38. | :46:42. | |
packages to be put in place so they can get home or into a care home to | :46:43. | :46:46. | |
spend their final days in a place of their choosing. Very sadly the | :46:47. | :46:50. | |
situation means it is not uncommon for people to die while waiting. | :46:51. | :46:57. | |
This does of course have a terrible human impact, not only on the person | :46:58. | :47:01. | |
dying but on the families, making what is a hugely dramatic situation | :47:02. | :47:07. | |
immeasurably worse. But this state of affairs is also totally cost | :47:08. | :47:11. | |
inefficient for the NHS, which could be using those hospital beds for | :47:12. | :47:16. | |
people who need acute care. Yet the situation I have outlined will come | :47:17. | :47:19. | |
as no surprise to any honourable member, given adult social care | :47:20. | :47:24. | |
budgets have been cut by some ?4.6 billion, or 31% in real terms since | :47:25. | :47:31. | |
2011. And they continue to fall in the face of an increasingly elderly | :47:32. | :47:35. | |
population and therefore increasing demand. I have no doubt that the | :47:36. | :47:39. | |
Minister will want to champion the social care Council tax precept that | :47:40. | :47:43. | |
the government has allowed authorities to raise for this | :47:44. | :47:47. | |
purpose, however, I would gently remind him that this is anticipated | :47:48. | :47:51. | |
to raise ?1.4 million a year in Newcastle yet the City Council faces | :47:52. | :47:55. | |
a social care shortfall of about some ?15 million. Will my honourable | :47:56. | :48:02. | |
friend give way? Gladly. I thank my honourable friend forgiving this | :48:03. | :48:06. | |
debate to the house, she's making a powerful speech and I want to pay | :48:07. | :48:10. | |
tribute to the hospices in my own constituency, said Peter 's Hospice, | :48:11. | :48:12. | |
and also to the Hospice which kept my father and mother in law in the | :48:13. | :48:18. | |
dying days. But she sure my concern that the government has not made | :48:19. | :48:20. | |
adequate progress against the recommendations made last year by | :48:21. | :48:23. | |
the host site committee enquiry into end of life care and will also | :48:24. | :48:29. | |
particularly explore the idea and join me in asking the Minister to | :48:30. | :48:33. | |
explore how well the five principles of end of life care are really being | :48:34. | :48:40. | |
followed through across the country? I thank my honourable friend because | :48:41. | :48:43. | |
that is the key issue I think we would all like the Minister to try | :48:44. | :48:48. | |
and explain in his response this evening, because Mane keep us Mackie | :48:49. | :48:51. | |
concern, and in write is shared across the centre, is the provision | :48:52. | :48:56. | |
of palliative care is simply not growing to meet the demands for | :48:57. | :49:00. | |
services and it is clearly extremely troubling because we know already | :49:01. | :49:05. | |
that one in four people are already unable to access the end of life | :49:06. | :49:08. | |
care and support they need and like the rest of health and social care | :49:09. | :49:13. | |
services the palliative end of life sector including those providing | :49:14. | :49:16. | |
care in hospital in care homes are facing a demographic crisis. More | :49:17. | :49:21. | |
people die each year at an older age and with more long-term and often | :49:22. | :49:25. | |
conflict conditions. Indeed the number of deaths per year will rise | :49:26. | :49:31. | |
by 100,000 over the next five years. So in July this year when the | :49:32. | :49:34. | |
government announced in its response to the independent review about the | :49:35. | :49:40. | |
end of life that it would establish a report within NHS England to | :49:41. | :49:46. | |
implement the recommendations of the Times reviewer Kim is a great | :49:47. | :49:49. | |
disappointment to all involved in the sector that the governments | :49:50. | :49:54. | |
chose to the key recommendation that ?130 million of funding should be | :49:55. | :49:57. | |
made available at the next spending review to invest in social care and | :49:58. | :50:03. | |
NHS commission services to deliver a national choice for in end of life | :50:04. | :50:07. | |
care. Therefore I and my honourable friend and I am sure all those | :50:08. | :50:12. | |
listening with like the Minister to opine on his response how without | :50:13. | :50:16. | |
this additional funding recommended by its own independent review the | :50:17. | :50:20. | |
government will ensure that palliative and social care services | :50:21. | :50:22. | |
grow to meet both existing and increasing demand in the coming | :50:23. | :50:28. | |
years. Will my honourable friend give way? I thank my honourable | :50:29. | :50:31. | |
friend and does she agree with me that the spending review, the bottom | :50:32. | :50:37. | |
review last week was an ideal opportunity was -- to come forward | :50:38. | :50:40. | |
with figures to meet the ever-increasing demand of social | :50:41. | :50:46. | |
care. And that the opportunity was missed? I think my honourable friend | :50:47. | :50:50. | |
makes the point very well that everybody was disappointed not to | :50:51. | :50:52. | |
hear the commitment from the government and I think we would all | :50:53. | :50:57. | |
like to know how without this additional funding, how will the | :50:58. | :50:59. | |
government and the current distressing and unacceptable | :51:00. | :51:06. | |
situation that one in four people, 92,000 a year, are missing out on | :51:07. | :51:09. | |
the care and support that they and their families need at the end of | :51:10. | :51:13. | |
their lives. How on earth will the government prevent this deeply | :51:14. | :51:16. | |
worrying figure from growing have bigger? Madam Deputy Speaker, I am | :51:17. | :51:22. | |
acutely conscious that there are many issues that I could have raised | :51:23. | :51:27. | |
in this evening 's debate on what is a very important issue, these | :51:28. | :51:30. | |
include the provision of end of life care to children and young people | :51:31. | :51:34. | |
with life shortening conditions, which the charity together for | :51:35. | :51:38. | |
short-lived highlights often -- is often inappropriately coupled with | :51:39. | :51:41. | |
the palliative care needs of adults when Anita much more complex. | :51:42. | :51:44. | |
However a key concern for them at all of us is that the number of | :51:45. | :51:47. | |
children and young people affected by electronic conditions is not | :51:48. | :51:52. | |
properly monitored, making it impossible for the government for | :51:53. | :51:57. | |
the NHS and local authorities to properly plan and budget for their | :51:58. | :52:01. | |
needs. If the serious issue relates to the way in which welfare system | :52:02. | :52:06. | |
and leading to many people with debilitating and cannot conditions, | :52:07. | :52:09. | |
such as motor neurone disease. Well look in the recent and overdue | :52:10. | :52:13. | |
announcement that people with severe lifting conditions will no longer | :52:14. | :52:16. | |
have to undergo the assessments for employment support allowance, the | :52:17. | :52:22. | |
MND Association and many other charities and many came the concern | :52:23. | :52:25. | |
about the government determination to devolve attendance allowance to a | :52:26. | :52:28. | |
local authority and the impact this could have an vital support, people | :52:29. | :52:34. | |
with extreme challenging conditions currently receive. I have raised a | :52:35. | :52:38. | |
number of different issues with the Minister this evening, about the | :52:39. | :52:41. | |
need for additional funding for end of life care that the NHS charities | :52:42. | :52:47. | |
and the much-needed volunteers clearly need. Not having palliative | :52:48. | :52:53. | |
care when you need it has real and damaging consequences. It can mean | :52:54. | :52:56. | |
that people die in pain or discomfort, causing distress not | :52:57. | :53:00. | |
just for the individual, but for the family, friends and loved ones. This | :53:01. | :53:04. | |
is avoidable. If the government can make a commitment today. So I look | :53:05. | :53:09. | |
forward to hearing the government's response. To the very important | :53:10. | :53:18. | |
concerns that I have outlined today. Thank you Madam Deputy Speaker. And | :53:19. | :53:24. | |
I congratulate the member for Newcastle North in taking this | :53:25. | :53:27. | |
debate to the house, this is a very important subject and it is good | :53:28. | :53:31. | |
that we get the chance to talk about it. It is good that we do it on she | :53:32. | :53:34. | |
said United Nations volunteers day, and she reminded the house, if we | :53:35. | :53:40. | |
needed reminding, of how much of the burden of that palliative care is | :53:41. | :53:46. | |
taken up by volunteers and we should always reflect and the fact that | :53:47. | :53:49. | |
there are 6 million informal carers in this country. Without that court, | :53:50. | :53:55. | |
without those people, things should be very much more difficult than | :53:56. | :54:00. | |
they are. We have a care strategy coming out during the next few | :54:01. | :54:03. | |
months and I will talk to that choosing the course of my remarks. | :54:04. | :54:12. | |
That that charity does this and indeed the help of service that they | :54:13. | :54:21. | |
have pioneered in Newcastle. I am happy to acknowledge, the fantastic | :54:22. | :54:24. | |
work that the hospices do. I have one in my constituency, paid to do | :54:25. | :54:31. | |
brilliant work. And the member for Newcastle upon Tyne used a good | :54:32. | :54:34. | |
phrase which we should recognise that hospices that their best | :54:35. | :54:39. | |
celebrate life. Because that is something that is very important. | :54:40. | :54:44. | |
The government's position Madam Deputy Speaker is that high end of | :54:45. | :54:48. | |
life care reflecting individual needs, choices should be available | :54:49. | :54:53. | |
to everybody. That is our objective and that is what we are working to | :54:54. | :55:03. | |
achieve. And much is being done, that reflects the tone of the | :55:04. | :55:07. | |
honourable ladies remarks. Of course there is more to do and this isn't | :55:08. | :55:10. | |
something that would ever be finished but I want to set the | :55:11. | :55:17. | |
context perhaps first of all. Certainly. He's right to acknowledge | :55:18. | :55:28. | |
the role of charities, can Haas, response, could we ask what does | :55:29. | :55:34. | |
this government do, for young carers, for those who are at end of | :55:35. | :55:39. | |
life and that those young carers are pressuring them, with their ability | :55:40. | :55:44. | |
to cope with a life changing decision that is going to happen to | :55:45. | :55:49. | |
them very shortly. We need something for them, can I make a plea for | :55:50. | :55:54. | |
them? He is right, there is something like a Kohlschreiber | :55:55. | :55:58. | |
million in the formal carers, half of them under the age of 16 to 18. | :55:59. | :56:04. | |
There are issues for education and in terms of future employment. The | :56:05. | :56:08. | |
carers strategy is addressing that and I will more to say about that in | :56:09. | :56:14. | |
the course of my comments. In terms of the context of this. There are | :56:15. | :56:19. | |
480,000 people in my country in England that die every year. 36% of | :56:20. | :56:25. | |
those are over 85. And something like 350,000 of those deaths are | :56:26. | :56:34. | |
expected in the sense, of, not being a surprise. Roughly half of those, | :56:35. | :56:39. | |
get some kind of specialist palliative care as part of that | :56:40. | :56:43. | |
pathway. The honourable lady talked about that not being enough and I | :56:44. | :56:49. | |
will come back to that. 47% died in hospital. Which in general is an | :56:50. | :56:54. | |
improvement from 57% of people dying in hospital ten years ago, and there | :56:55. | :56:59. | |
is an emphasis that the charities are leading in terms of Macmillan in | :57:00. | :57:03. | |
particular, of making fewer people die in hospital. In terms of | :57:04. | :57:10. | |
authoritative evidence of how that is working, she mentions some of the | :57:11. | :57:14. | |
points made, by Madam Kerry. There is a yearly survey, called bereaved | :57:15. | :57:22. | |
voices, done by the National office of statistics. How they would | :57:23. | :57:27. | |
evaluate the last months of care. Of their loved ones that have had end | :57:28. | :57:34. | |
of life care. Something like 75% of those are regarded as excellent, | :57:35. | :57:41. | |
good or outstanding. 10%, Paul. That 10%, is still 40,000 deaths a year, | :57:42. | :57:47. | |
that is still too high. Nevertheless sent via percent are excellent, good | :57:48. | :57:51. | |
and outstanding, and in terms of where those 75% are. Highest | :57:52. | :57:56. | |
proportion of those, who are receiving end of life caring | :57:57. | :58:02. | |
hospices, and homes actually, around about the same as hospices, with | :58:03. | :58:07. | |
hospitals doing less well. But there is a patching is to those figures | :58:08. | :58:12. | |
and in general, that patching is, is linked to deprivation. In errors of | :58:13. | :58:18. | |
relatively high deprivation the figures are not as good. -- the | :58:19. | :58:24. | |
areas. That is partly because hospice availability tends to be | :58:25. | :58:28. | |
somewhat skewed because of the nature of the charities, towards | :58:29. | :58:32. | |
areas, which are more affluent. Also worth saying, she mentioned in her | :58:33. | :58:39. | |
remarks the need for spread sure and emotional attention during the end | :58:40. | :58:46. | |
of life period -- for spiritual. 70% of people doing that so they | :58:47. | :58:53. | |
regarded, their loved ones of having received good or outstanding | :58:54. | :58:56. | |
spiritual and emotional care and that reflects the area well in those | :58:57. | :59:00. | |
people in the voluntary sector and VHS that give that care and we | :59:01. | :59:06. | |
should acknowledge that -- and the NHS. Without wishing also the sound | :59:07. | :59:10. | |
complacent about this because I acknowledge that things can be | :59:11. | :59:13. | |
better and should be better, I have come into this job in the last four | :59:14. | :59:17. | |
months for five months and as I look at the various areas, there are very | :59:18. | :59:22. | |
few in which it would be fair to say that we in the UK are among the best | :59:23. | :59:28. | |
in the world. If I take cancer Howard terms, I know that we do | :59:29. | :59:32. | |
worse than most other countries in Europe, for most types of cancer one | :59:33. | :59:35. | |
year survival rates. However there was a survey in the Economist last | :59:36. | :59:40. | |
year, and the survey was the Economist intelligence unit, quality | :59:41. | :59:46. | |
of death index. That evaluated all of the countries, in the world 50 or | :59:47. | :59:51. | |
60, against a number of criteria. And, the UK came top in terms of end | :59:52. | :59:59. | |
of life care. As I say, that is not a situation I know right across the | :00:00. | :00:04. | |
areas but we should acknowledge that too. Just to put that into contest, | :00:05. | :00:10. | |
Germany was seventh, France was tenth. Sweden was 16. And that it | :00:11. | :00:16. | |
achieved because of the work that people in charities and within the | :00:17. | :00:22. | |
NHS do, while acknowledging that things could always be better. I | :00:23. | :00:26. | |
will address some of the issues that the honourable member raised. She | :00:27. | :00:32. | |
talked of social care funding, a slightly different area in fact in | :00:33. | :00:35. | |
terms of delayed transfers to hospital. And of course I have | :00:36. | :00:40. | |
acknowledged in this chamber many times that social care funding is | :00:41. | :00:44. | |
under pressure, and it can cause the late transfers of care, it can cause | :00:45. | :00:49. | |
people therefore effectively bed blocking if you wanted to use that | :00:50. | :00:55. | |
term. I just wanted to say this to her, if you were to take the top 10% | :00:56. | :01:00. | |
of councils in terms of adult social care, and the bottom 10%, there is a | :01:01. | :01:07. | |
factor of 30 times their performance in the late transfers of care. A | :01:08. | :01:12. | |
factor of 30 times, that isn't around budget, that is around best | :01:13. | :01:16. | |
practice and leadership and all that go with that. So when we are moving | :01:17. | :01:20. | |
in quickly to say that the issue is always money, always budget we | :01:21. | :01:23. | |
should acknowledge that while that is part of it, it is not the only | :01:24. | :01:29. | |
issue. And it is important to understand other factors. Other | :01:30. | :01:35. | |
things that do need to be improved, we do need to continue to drive to | :01:36. | :01:40. | |
have more people, receiving end of life care, not in hospitals which is | :01:41. | :01:44. | |
generally where they don't wish to be. We do also acknowledge that | :01:45. | :01:48. | |
within the clinical commissioning groups, there can be nonuniform | :01:49. | :01:51. | |
commissioning, and we can do better in terms of that. The honourable | :01:52. | :01:59. | |
member talked about the choice review, that came out in 2014, | :02:00. | :02:05. | |
performed by the National Council of palliative care, or produced by | :02:06. | :02:08. | |
them, helped by Macmillan, by Mary Durie. In that there was something | :02:09. | :02:14. | |
like 62 recommendations. The government's position on that, which | :02:15. | :02:19. | |
came out in July. One of the last acts of my predecessor, was two, | :02:20. | :02:29. | |
respond to that review, with a 5-point charter in terms of | :02:30. | :02:33. | |
accepting that by 2020 we will have in place a personalised care plan. | :02:34. | :02:38. | |
Everybody is entitled to an honest discussion in terms of end of life | :02:39. | :02:43. | |
care, understanding the informed choices, involving family and | :02:44. | :02:47. | |
carers. And that all people going through the end of life process, | :02:48. | :02:55. | |
which have an contract for all. In terms of implementing that. That | :02:56. | :02:59. | |
will need to be done right across the NHS processes, technologies and | :03:00. | :03:05. | |
pathways and we have set up a board, and end of life care board to do | :03:06. | :03:09. | |
that. All arms length bodies will be represented on that. The requirement | :03:10. | :03:16. | |
now and this hasn't yet happened, it hasn't yet been published, and my | :03:17. | :03:21. | |
role is to make sure this is published. It is that we turned | :03:22. | :03:26. | |
these commitments in terms of the response review, into tangible | :03:27. | :03:31. | |
milestones deliverables and responsibilities. I met with a | :03:32. | :03:35. | |
number of people, and gave that undertaking that we have a | :03:36. | :03:39. | |
transparent process that between 2016 and 2020, we know what we are | :03:40. | :03:43. | |
in fermenting, when and how it is being done. It is very important | :03:44. | :03:47. | |
that it happens and our commitment to doing that is extremely high. It | :03:48. | :03:51. | |
is a priority to the government, it is an area we think as a country we | :03:52. | :03:55. | |
could do better but we do pretty well. This is something that we need | :03:56. | :04:01. | |
to do to make it even better. I thank the Minister for his responses | :04:02. | :04:05. | |
to the points made by my honourable friend. On that particular point | :04:06. | :04:10. | |
about the plan between 2016 and 2020, given that the last days of | :04:11. | :04:15. | |
someone's life are etched in the memories of those left behind, I for | :04:16. | :04:18. | |
instance can remember every single moment of the day 23 years ago when | :04:19. | :04:24. | |
I lost my father, and what if you would commit to reporting back to | :04:25. | :04:27. | |
the house at various points in that four-year period or would there be | :04:28. | :04:30. | |
other ways in which he would make reports on progress to the | :04:31. | :04:35. | |
Parliament? Certainly I think that is a very reasonable request, it was | :04:36. | :04:38. | |
not quite the intervention that I was expecting. I will commit to | :04:39. | :04:42. | |
doing that either in debates like this all in question Time or | :04:43. | :04:47. | |
whatever. I'm not sure if it of a statement I think that is an tidy | :04:48. | :04:52. | |
reasonable request to make as a minister, and something that I am | :04:53. | :04:56. | |
happy to do. I can at the very least write to her in terms of that | :04:57. | :05:00. | |
process because I'm determined that it will be a transparent and | :05:01. | :05:04. | |
meaningful programme of work. Which has clear deliverables and achieves | :05:05. | :05:08. | |
what we need to achieve. What about now? Madam Deputy Speaker, we know, | :05:09. | :05:21. | |
that, as well as if you like implementing the choice review. | :05:22. | :05:25. | |
There is an ongoing day-to-day work and activity that needs to happen. | :05:26. | :05:29. | |
Liverpool care pathway, last year was pretty much supplanted really, | :05:30. | :05:38. | |
by the five priorities, for people, that were mentioned at an earlier | :05:39. | :05:43. | |
intervention. Those are things, that are trying to be invented, within | :05:44. | :05:49. | |
the structure of the NHS, within training programmes, health | :05:50. | :05:53. | |
education England. They are in the choices that people make, in terms | :05:54. | :05:59. | |
of working in this sector. And these are not rocket science type things. | :06:00. | :06:03. | |
They are about communication, the need for individual plans. Covering | :06:04. | :06:10. | |
drink, food and also spiritual things, to the extent, to those that | :06:11. | :06:17. | |
need that. Carers of course had to be involved and fundamentally all of | :06:18. | :06:22. | |
it, is that the dying person is involved in all aspects of that. We | :06:23. | :06:28. | |
put end of life care with great priority in the NHS mandate. | :06:29. | :06:33. | |
Clinical commissioning groups, must commission end of life care, they | :06:34. | :06:37. | |
must commission bereavement care, there are nice guidelines as to how | :06:38. | :06:41. | |
they should do that. That is not to say as the member for Newcastle | :06:42. | :06:45. | |
North made the point that it can still be patchy. But those are | :06:46. | :06:50. | |
requirements. The CQC in the way that it evaluates care homes and | :06:51. | :06:54. | |
hospitals and hospices, specifically looks at the end of life care, and | :06:55. | :07:00. | |
people would expect to get high-ranking 's Allwood wants to get | :07:01. | :07:04. | |
high rankings, and do this effectively. In the time that I | :07:05. | :07:09. | |
have. There is one initiative that I think is quite important I will be | :07:10. | :07:13. | |
expecting to come out of the choice review when I talk about milestones | :07:14. | :07:17. | |
and all of that. I saw this in London recently, the need for | :07:18. | :07:22. | |
electronic palliative care records. In which the care plan is | :07:23. | :07:27. | |
accessible, too many different types of worker that would need access to | :07:28. | :07:33. | |
that. In London I think the system is called, award my care. The idea | :07:34. | :07:42. | |
is, that if a person is in need of an ambulance, or a paramedic in some | :07:43. | :07:46. | |
other way, that on the way to that house, to the call-out, The Abernant | :07:47. | :07:52. | |
Stryver, paramedic, would have access to that electronic care | :07:53. | :07:56. | |
record, it would explain perhaps that that person did not want to go | :07:57. | :08:01. | |
to hospital. May not and those sorts of decisions becoming bedded in the | :08:02. | :08:05. | |
process that we go through. I think that is important and I think that | :08:06. | :08:09. | |
is good. And the roll-out of that technology is something that I ready | :08:10. | :08:13. | |
to want to see happen. As quickly as possible. I thank the Minister for | :08:14. | :08:21. | |
the response he was making, I was concerned that he did sound | :08:22. | :08:25. | |
complacent about this issue but he does certainly seem committed to | :08:26. | :08:28. | |
making this review work over the next few years. We'll keep knowledge | :08:29. | :08:34. | |
that if the NHS is not able to get the support from the social care | :08:35. | :08:38. | |
sector and is not able to utilise the funding that is required, it | :08:39. | :08:42. | |
will fail in its efforts unless the funding is there within the | :08:43. | :08:46. | |
community sector and within the NHS in order to achieve what he sets out | :08:47. | :08:51. | |
as very important strategy going forward. | :08:52. | :08:55. | |
I am getting towards the end of my time and so I will finish by | :08:56. | :09:01. | |
answering that as best they can. Of course money matters, and every | :09:02. | :09:07. | |
process works better if there is plenty of money for it. The fact of | :09:08. | :09:11. | |
the matter are that both adult social care and NHS are under cost | :09:12. | :09:16. | |
pressures and to be honest with you Madam Deputy Speaker that will | :09:17. | :09:19. | |
always be the case and have a system and I gently say to the honourable | :09:20. | :09:25. | |
member in terms of adult social care which is a particular responsibility | :09:26. | :09:29. | |
of mind, she may be surprised to know that we spent something like | :09:30. | :09:33. | |
one third more on adult social care than either France or Germany. I | :09:34. | :09:40. | |
thank the honourable gentleman. But he himself acknowledged that the | :09:41. | :09:47. | |
challenge in addressing this issue properly is often the Apache | :09:48. | :09:52. | |
patchwork nature of our country and the postcode lottery if you like to | :09:53. | :09:56. | |
call it and he also acknowledged that some of those areas that fear | :09:57. | :09:59. | |
the worst are the most deprived and they are also the ones facing the | :10:00. | :10:04. | |
biggest cost pressures in terms of social care funding. Will he | :10:05. | :10:07. | |
acknowledge that something needs to be done in order to insure that | :10:08. | :10:13. | |
doesn't undermine these efforts? This isn't the Autumn Statement and | :10:14. | :10:16. | |
I can make commitments on funding other than to say that many members | :10:17. | :10:20. | |
of both sides of this chamber with like to see when the time is right | :10:21. | :10:27. | |
more funding for a vital public services. I gently make a post about | :10:28. | :10:32. | |
that in terms of adult social care spending the country we do spend | :10:33. | :10:40. | |
considerably more than France and Germany which are the ones that | :10:41. | :10:43. | |
would be reasonable to compare those with and it is not just about money, | :10:44. | :10:49. | |
and the care performance of different councils, it is quite | :10:50. | :10:54. | |
usual different. Let's agree that what really is important is that | :10:55. | :11:00. | |
over the next few years we do and the choice review with the | :11:01. | :11:04. | |
government commitment to comment that as a government's leading tent, | :11:05. | :11:10. | |
a signal by risky or leading dental mentation bored of this is something | :11:11. | :11:13. | |
that we will be held accountable for and I will be held accountable for | :11:14. | :11:18. | |
and I will report back to this house in due course for that and I thank | :11:19. | :11:23. | |
Madam Deputy Speaker and the member from Newcastle -- UCAS Labonte not | :11:24. | :11:30. | |
for raising this issue. The question is that this house adjourned, as | :11:31. | :11:35. | |
many have that many CIA. The ayes have it, the ayes have it. Order, | :11:36. | :11:36. | |
order. That's the end of the day in the | :11:37. | :11:52. | |
House of Commons. We now call live to the House of Lords. The member | :11:53. | :11:56. | |
you can watch recorded coverage of all of the business in the Lords | :11:57. | :11:59. | |
after the daily politics which are tonight. The bills passing through | :12:00. | :12:05. | |
Parliament and to highlight and debate that it is necessary to | :12:06. | :12:11. | |
government policy. For Northern Ireland to need is to balance the | :12:12. | :12:14. | |
house party political winds and here lately with the noble lady, party | :12:15. | :12:21. | |
politics is the job of the Commons, although practicable -- party | :12:22. | :12:24. | |
bicycle balance must be a consideration when making | :12:25. | :12:26. | |
appointments he need for filling the house with loyal party members will | :12:27. | :12:30. | |
be much less necessary than is deemed at present. Any powers the | :12:31. | :12:36. | |
Lords must -- might have come from the experience of its members and | :12:37. | :12:38. |