Children and Young Persons Bill [HL]

I support all these amendments for a particular personal reason. I have a friend who was, some months ago, asked to take over the care of a little girl whose mother patently cannot care for her because of drink and drugs problems. The mother agreed that she should take over the care; otherwise, the child would have gone into local authority care. The local authority was told by my friend that she was prepared to be considered as a foster mother, but she was very much discouraged from going down that route. She was asked to apply to have a residence order. She was given a certain amount of money—most of it in arrears and only a part of what was due to her—while the child was informally with her through the local authority. At the moment when, with local authority support, she made the application to have a residence order and take over the care of the child formally, she was told that in future the authority would not pay a penny. She was therefore discouraged from the idea of becoming a foster carer. Clause 21 is, as the noble Baroness, Lady Massey, said, extremely helpful, but it needs some teeth, because it applies only in circumstances where a local authority chooses to make payment. This friend of mine is not asking for a foster carer’s payment, but she wants some practical support to enable the child to be with a childminder while she completes her job. She will have 10 or 15 years of caring for this child on a long-term basis and she is told that she will get no money. That is outrageous. Clause 21 takes us part of the way, but not far enough. Consequently, I strongly support the amendments.