Children and Adoption Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 115:"After Clause 5, insert the following new clause—"    ““SUPERVISION OF AND SUPPORT FOR CONTACT ORDERS    After section 9 of the Children Act 1989 (c. 41) (restrictions on making section 8 orders) insert—    ““SUPERVISION OF AND SUPPORT FOR CONTACT ORDERS    In deciding whether to make a contact order under section 8(1), the court must take into account the ability of the relevant local authority to provide adequate supervision of and support for the contact between parent and child.”””” The noble Earl said: The amendment would introduce a duty on the courts to ensure that they are confident that the relevant local authority would be able to provide adequate supervision of and support for the contact between parent and child. I apologise if the amendment is somewhat opaque; its intention is to gather more information from the Government on issues around supervision of contact orders and of support for contact orders. This follows concerns raised at Second Reading. I am looking for information about the future funding of supervision and support for contact orders. I am aware of plans only for the coming two years and it would be helpful to have an idea of what will happen after that. I have not given the Minister notice of the question so perhaps he could write to me. I would also be interested in hearing about the responsibilities for local authorities in this area. As yet, I do not believe they have any responsibility to provide these services. Are the Government considering introducing that requirement? If not, what other means will be developed to ensure that there is adequate resourcing and capacity for supervision and supported contact? How will the courts assure themselves that an order for supervision of a contact will be properly and professionally supervised? What is its importance to the Bill? If the Bill is to work effectively for families and improve outcomes for children, it is crucial that we are assured that there will be continued development of the capacity for supervised and supported contact. I visited the Coram Family Child Contact Service in Holborn. It is a centre of excellence which provides very high level services and supervised contact. Its guidance, A Guide to Best Practice in Supervised Child Contact, says:"““What is clear from the research into both public and private law child contact is that it is not the frequency and quantity of contact that matters, it is the quality””." That seems quite counter-intuitive, but it is an interesting observation in relation to our earlier debates. The guidance continues:"““All too often, it seems that contact is seen as an end in itself, as somehow intrinsically beneficial. It is not, of course, it is beneficial only if it serves to foster the physical, psychological, social and emotional development of the child. In circumstances where there are serious concerns for the welfare of the child, supervisors of contact have a crucial and potentially life-impacting role in determining what is good quality contact, and what is and who are responsible for poor quality contact””." I have spoken to women who have experienced domestic violence and they have been keen that their child should have contact with the non-resident parent, but only where such contact is very well supervised. The Accord Centre in Kilburn, which I visited, has provided an excellent service since the 1990s, but it has a hand-to-mouth existence. It has had the bailiffs in; it has had offers of government funding, with expectations raised and then disappointed. It does not advertise its services; it tries to keep a low profile because it is afraid of being swamped by applications. There is a great demand for this sort of support and the Bill may well incur further obligations on these services. We need to be assured that adequate work is being done to develop capacity. In his letter to me, the Minister described the increased investment in this area in recent years. About £1 million a year has been invested over the past five years; in the coming two years, that figure will rise to £4 million each year, which is very welcome. However, the committee appointed by the Department for Constitutional Affairs and led by Beverley Brooks, the chief executive of the National Association of Child Contact Centres, found that £8 million a year would be appropriate for this area. So any assurance that the Minister can provide about future funding and development would be very helpful. I beg to move.