Children and Young Persons Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 17: 17: Before Clause 7, insert the following new Clause— ““Contact with siblings and close family A local authority must allow a child in care the opportunity to have contact with siblings and close family members if to do so would be in the interest of the welfare of that child.”” The noble Baroness said: We now start a series of amendments on a subject that is near and dear to the hearts of many of us: contact with siblings and families. The process of entering or living in care, even for short periods, can destroy relationships between siblings. Stable relationships that reinforce a sense of belonging, trust and even dependence are among the rarest and often most necessary features of the experience of a child in care. Contact with siblings fosters these kinds of relationships. Reams of expert opinion and consultations with children in care echo this sentiment. In the response to its Care Matters Green Paper, the Department for Children, Schools and Families said that keeping siblings together is vital. As the noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley, mentioned, the Children’s Rights Director for England, Dr Roger Morgan, published the views of 433 children on improving care standards. Designing placements so that brothers and sisters can stay together was the fourth main recommendation from the children. A National Voice, the excellent organisation run by and for young people in care, found in a recent survey that 83 per cent of children and young people who do not live with their birth siblings would like to see more of them. I need not further rehearse the significance of that. Provisions in the 1989 Act should ensure that siblings are kept together wherever possible, but this is a probing amendment, designed to reignite that debate. Will the Minister explain what specific steps have been taken to keep siblings together? Is he willing to comment on the success of those attempts? Does he agree that more needs to be done? Is he willing to give undertakings that further measures will be taken to ensure that siblings are, wherever possible and when it is in their best interests, kept together? I beg to move.