Children and Adoption Bill [HL]

My Lords, it is a pleasure to follow the noble Baroness, Lady Gould of Potternewton, who eloquently called for the welfare of the child to be thoroughly imprinted through the Bill. I support her remarks about the importance of better resourcing of contact centres and recognising the work that they do. The right reverend Prelate referred to concerns about overlegalising processes in this area. I was reminded of what happened with the establishment of the Child and Family Court Advisory and Support Service. Members of both Houses expressed concern that that service was placed in the Lord Chancellor’s Department and, as the right reverend Prelate may be aware, a very sad haemorrhaging of guardians from that service followed because of the poor and insensitive management of that new setting. It is due to the very hard work of the two deputy chairmen who are to speak today that that is being redressed. I note what the noble Baroness, Lady Sharp of Guildford, said about offenders and about the number of young parents on low incomes, often from difficult backgrounds, involved. We know, I think, that about 40   per cent of men in young offender institutions are fathers. They are highly overrepresented. We also know that an important means of preventing re-offending when offenders leave prison is ensuring that they sustain their family contacts. I welcome this opportunity to look extremely carefully at the sensitive arrangements for ensuring that children can have contact with their parents wherever it is safe for them to do so, and vice versa. It is crucial. Children in local authority care were consulted by the advocacy charity Voice for the Child in Care and asked for their views for a blueprint of the best way forward for foster care and residential childcare. Their first priority was the quality of relationships and sustaining relationships with their siblings, their foster carers and their families wherever possible. We must bear that in mind. We should also remember that we are not just talking about parents and children but about siblings. I welcome the clear layout of the purpose of the Bill given by the Minister and, in particular, the determination that it should achieve better outcomes and more and better resolutions in a positive direction of these controversies. My concerns are fourfold. The first is the context. Contact centres are not properly resourced. We are striving to achieve contact through this Bill, yet improperly resourced centres may, with the best will in the world, be letting down parents and relationships may be collapsing as a result. I turn to enforcement. Of course one wishes the law to be followed properly, but these families are in very complicated situations and the parents often have very complex relationships. Your Lordships may be acquainted with individuals who have a string of destructive relationships. One must be careful that the courts and the state do not in some way become that sadistic ““other”” person to some of these parents by being drawn into overly punitive reactions to their behaviour. As noble Lords will understand, this is an extremely sensitive area. In terms of the voice of the child, throughout the passage of the Bill we need to ensure that we thoroughly involve the feelings and wishes of children and that the interventions are effective. On compulsion, some time ago I had a very interesting conversation with the noble Lord, Lord Warner, when he was head of the Youth Justice Board. He said that compulsory parenting orders were effective. There was a lot of concern that such compulsory orders would be ineffective. But many parents welcomed them. He described them as a very cost-effective and effective way of preventing young people re-offending. Perhaps that needs to be borne in mind in this matter. I turn to the detail of my concerns. On a previous occasion when such legislation came before your Lordships’ House the scarcity of provision and the geographical lottery of availability of contact centres was made clear to me. I welcome the additional investment made by the Government in the mean time. On Saturday I visited a contact centre run by the Welcome group. I was shown the play area outside and saw one father playing ball games with his twins and other fathers playing with their children, and a waiting room with a parent in it. I spoke with a volunteer co-ordinator. She expressed to me the difficulty of retaining volunteers—most contact takes   place at weekends and that is a difficult time to recruit volunteers—and the vital importance of supporting and training volunteers for this important work. There is uncertainty in some of these centres about their future and therefore uncertainty of volunteers in terms of investing in training. We must ensure that in the future there is proper investment in these centres. I look to the Minister for reassurance that there is a plan to build continually and to support the work of these centres. I have probably said enough about enforcement. On the voice of the child, perhaps the noble Baroness will   say in her reply—or perhaps she will write to me—to what extent children involved in contact were consulted in the process of developing this legislation. During the passage of the Bill I would welcome some investigation regarding consultation with children who have experienced contact on their views on this legislation and their advice and experience. We need to know more clearly what exactly the interventions will be. Several noble Lords have alluded to that matter. I welcome the opportunity to look extremely carefully at the mechanisms for promoting better outcomes for children in this area. I have a point to make on contact, which brought the matter home to me. A parent may not have had contact with his child for nine years before seeing him   in a contact centre. At the centre the parent is supported by volunteers in making the contact. So we need those volunteers to be extremely well supported to make such things possible and not for a father not to see his child for another nine years because the contact does not work. How would your Lordships feel if the only opportunity you had to see your child in his childhood was inside a building? Most contact centres are in church halls with no exterior play area. How would your Lordships feel if you gained contact and then, because the building was cramped and because of the lack of expertise of the workers there, you came across the resident parent, there was an altercation and you   lost access to your child? We need to consider extremely carefully that part of the Bill. With that, I look forward to the Minister’s response.