Children and Young Persons Bill [HL]

Briefly, I echo the comments made by the noble Lord, Lord Hylton. I will quote one example to illustrate my concern about the involvement of the privatisation of some of this work. Noble Lords may have heard of a local authority secure home called Orchard Lodge, which is near Crystal Palace, and which focused on the problems of young people with serious mental health disturbances. It was run exceptionally well for many years by Southwark Council. One of the things about it was the fact that the staff had an average length of stay of 11 years, and it told in the fact that not only were the children able to establish long-term relationships with people, but over time the staff developed a confidence in the use of techniques which meant that they did not have to resort to some of the restraint and seclusion that has been the subject of other debates in your Lordships’ House. Sadly, the Orchard Lodge contract was let to privatisation, and the immediate result was the exodus of good staff and the reduction of people who were prepared to stay for a time. The terrible thing that one finds most in private sector prisons and young offender establishments is staff turnover. They just do not stay. Therefore, I echo the point, when we are considering what is done, that the relationship that is established between staff and children is so crucial to any development that we should not do anything to undermine that.