Children and Young Persons Bill [HL]

I am pleased to register my support for the amendments of the noble Baroness, Lady Massey, and I appreciate her addressing this vital issue. We strongly support the assistance for family and friends care for vulnerable children and young people. I find it extraordinary that we are not making far better use of extended family members when children are, for whatever reason, unable to stay with their birth parents. Our position on these Benches has always been to try to find ways in which children can be looked after in the most continuous and stable way possible; kinship care offers that. By every measure, kinship carers have proven to offer a far greater chance of a stable alternative placement, even when there has not been the full support of the local authority. It is time that we gave family and friends carers better support. There is an estimated shortage of 10,000 foster carers in this country. Surely this makes the need to extend support to extended families and friends willing to look after a child even more acute. It is particularly important if we consider children with uniquely complex needs and older, more challenging, children for whom stability and a sense of continuity are key. When extended families are given the right support from social services or voluntary organisations, there is a far greater chance of making a success of a foster placement or, ultimately, adoption by family members. What is necessary, and what I am pleased to see addressed in the amendment, is a holistic approach that allows family and friends access to counselling and support that would enable them to be prepared, both practically and emotionally, to look after their relatives. Of course, there might be scenarios where this will not be appropriate—I am thinking of instances of family breakdown where what is necessary for the child’s welfare is a clean break from their previous situation. However, it is difficult to imagine that it would not be appropriate for very many more children than those who now have had a second chance with another family member. One authority that has a wonderful track record of kinship care is Hampshire. It puts great emphasis on research findings that show that children in kinship care feel loved—they feel that that they belong—and that such care helps them to maintain their identity and their family ties. Kinship care in Hampshire has, as the outcomes show, offered the children a high level of stability. Yet kinship care is not one of the key indicators and so its success is not marked. Indeed, the converse happens, because the authority’s fostering and adoption placements are down. Will the Minister look urgently at how this crucial service can be valued and recognised?