Debate on the Address

My Lords, I am delighted to be able, on behalf of the whole House, to congratulate the noble Baroness, Lady Butler-Sloss, on her maiden speech. It was typically penetrating, compassionate and challenging. It has provided me with a challenge in trying to say something different about looked-after children. I have long admired the noble Baroness, Lady Butler-Sloss, from afar, and now she is a good deal nearer. We share similar interests in children and families, and I am delighted that she has joined us in your Lordships' House, where I know she will make a significant contribution to its work—and not justin the Chamber. The list of her achievements is enormous: practising barrister, High Court judge in the Family Division, and president of the Family Division until last year. Her work on behalf of children and families is extraordinary and well respected. She is chairman of St Paul's Cathedral Council, a governor of the Coram Family and Merchant Taylors’ School, and chancellor of the University of the West of England. She is a DBE and a GBE, this latter honour so grand that no one I asked knew what it meant. It is not so grand, however, as her wonderful maiden speech today. We all look forward to hearing much more from her. I was pleased that the gracious Speech reinforced the Government’s commitment to supporting vulnerable groups in society and to examining the welfare system and reducing poverty. I shall speak today, as did the noble Baroness, Lady Butler-Sloss, about vulnerable children and highlight some of the issues that we need to address if we are to seriously implement strategies to improve their lives. I pay tribute to the Government for what they have done in the past few years to help the vulnerable and also to highlight the needs of children. I am pleased to have the noble Baroness, Lady Butler-Sloss, as an ally in this. Now we must further improve welfare and reduce underachievement. I pay tribute to the many individuals and organisations, in the statutory and the voluntary sector, who have worked so hard to support children and young people. I have the privilege of chairing the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Children in this House. It is encouraging to find across your Lordships' House, and across both Chambers, such a dedication to making life better for children, young people and their families. The focus must be on the child—this is paramount. Sometimes, sadly, families and children need to be separated so that the child can flourish. It is time to look again at organisations such as the Child Support Agency and to give children a better deal. Vulnerable children are found in many contexts, including the criminal justice system, asylum seekers, young carers and children in care. I should like today to focus particularly on children in care. I shallbe referring to the new consultation documentCare Matters a little later. As a recent inquiry by the Children's Society points out, children's well-being in the UK is among the lowest in Europe, despite all the reports, legislation and policies. Once policies and legislation are implemented—and I want to emphasise today the importance of implementation—we hope to see a difference. But we need to watch for that difference and challenge things that get in the way of making a difference. I know that the children’s commissioners across the UK and the children's Minister are taking a keen interest in how we make a difference to children’s lives. In the foreword to the guide to practice with looked-after children in custody, Maria Eagle, who was then the Under-Secretary of State for Children and Families, said: "““The Government is committed to supporting multi-agency working to help support all children and young people to improve the outcomes they achieve in life””." A key issue, as pointed out in Every Child Matters, that seminal document, is the willingness and preparedness of systems which support children to work together. I ask the Minister how government departments are working together on children’s behalf and how they are encouraging collaborative work across the systems. The Youth Justice Board has prioritised the provision of education and training, health and mental healthcare for children in custody, but the systems make it difficult to offer consistent, targeted and meaningful services. A National Children’s Bureau guide has said that plans for health and education are vague and not well explained to young people. I suspect the same is true when dealing with any vulnerable children. A Barnardo’s report, Giving children back their future, says that educational underachievement in looked-after children has been well researched, but despite a long-standing recognition of the problem there has been no substantial improvement in recent years. What can happen to these children is indeed shocking. Some 6,000 will leave care this year, and within two years of leaving half will be unemployed. More than 2,000 will be mothers or pregnant, and 1,200 will be homeless. They will be four times as likely to have mental health problems and three times as likely to end up in trouble with the law. Some, however, do well. The Barnardo’s report highlights some positive outcomes. We would do well to study what works, as opposed to what goes wrong, across a whole variety of issues, vulnerable children being one of them. One thing that works is not just supporting children but giving them the skills to be assertive and confident and to develop their own protective factors. I was delighted to see the recent consultation document Care Matters—Transforming the Lives of Children and Young People in Care; I hope that it will be taken very seriously once the consultation is over. Again, I am looking for effective implementation. The document makes it clear that there is an urgent need for reform, and it makes a pledge to children in care that care must be a positive experience and must offer everything that a good parent offers. It states that outcomes can be improved by support from a social worker, twice yearly health assessments for under-fives, annual assessments for older children, having an independent advocate and having influence on local authorities through participation in children in care councils. It is good to hear the voice of children in care being included. We are looking to the systems that Every Child Matters recommended so powerfully: integrated care through health, education and social services. Other factors are key, and we could learn much from other countries. German children go into care for much the same reasons as do British children, yet the majority of those children go on to further education and jobs and have little trouble with the law. There is a big difference in Germany in the way that care homes are staffed and managed, with a reputation for good structures and good discipline. Over 95 per cent of staff in German care homes have a degree, and they are paid at a much higher level than their counterparts here. Thus, they avoid the constant turnover of staff that is so bad for children who need stability. There is a 30 per cent turnover here compared to 8 per cent in Germany. One child in England said, ““They come and go and never say goodbye, just like my mum””. Neglect of these children, and of any children, is a tragedy, for both the child and society. Neglect may result in the reinforcement of the vicious circle of child neglect and underachievement. Neglect may result in criminality, substance misuse, violence, hazardous sexual behaviour and academic underachievement. I hope that every government department has its eye on the issue of vulnerable children and how to implement measures to improve their lives and to impact on the well-being of society. The Minister is sympathetic to these issues, and he will know that, having brought to the fore the fact that care matters, many of us will be watching carefully for effective strategies to benefit these vulnerable children and to see improvements.