Children and Young Persons Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 51: 51: After Clause 10, insert the following new Clause— ““Recording the child’s wishes and feelings (1) The 1989 Act is amended as follows. (2) In section 17 (provision of services to children) after subsection (4A)(a) insert— ““(aa) record in writing the child’s wishes and feelings; or (ab) record in writing why it has not been reasonably practicable to ascertain the child’s wishes and feelings; and””. (3) In section 20 (provision of accommodation for children: general) after subsection (6)(b) insert— ““(c) record in writing the child’s wishes and feelings; or (d) record in writing why it has not been reasonably practicable to ascertain the child’s wishes and feelings.”” (4) In section 22 (general duty of local authority in relation to children looked after by them) after subsection (4) insert— ““(4A) Following an ascertainment under subsection (4)(a) the local authority shall record in writing the child’s wishes and feelings or why it has not been reasonably practicable to ascertain the child’s wishes and feelings.”” (5) In section 47 (provision of services to children) after subsection (5A)(a) insert— ““(aa) record in writing the child’s wishes and feelings; or (ab) record in writing why it has not been reasonably practicable to ascertain the child’s wishes and feelings; and””.”” The noble Baroness said: This amendment concerns recording the child’s wishes and feelings, which is rather appropriate in the light of what the noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley, has just said. It would introduce a new duty on local authority social workers to record in writing the child’s wishes and feelings or, where it has not been possible to find out what these are, the reasons for this. That is in relation to the provision of services for children, including accommodation, and decisions made by the local authority with respect to looked-after children. The amendment would ensure closer compliance with Article 12 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which grants all children the right to express their views and have them given due weight in all matters concerning them. It is clear that current practice does not adequately ensure that children’s views are listened to or recorded. An online survey of children conducted by the Department for Children, Schools and Families in autumn 2006 found that almost one-quarter of respondents—23 per cent—who had a social worker said that they felt that they ““never”” had their views taken into account. Inspectors of foster care services have also noted that children do not always feel confident that their views are listened to. The amendment would ensure that all children in care are consulted where decisions affecting them are made. It would also ensure that there is evidence that every young child is asked their view, even if they do not participate in care reviews. That is important in the light of government statistics for the year ending 31 March 2006, which show that only 8 per cent of children aged between four and nine expressed their views in their statutory review meeting, compared with 18 per cent of those children who were rather older. It looks as though more encouragement or specialist ways of getting those youngsters to express their views is necessary. Finally, the amendment would ensure that care notes present a fuller picture of the child’s life and progress. That would not only enable new staff to develop a better understanding of a child’s views but also help to avoid the missed signs that have been the hallmark of inquiries into children’s deaths from Maria Colwell to Victoria Climbié. I also have concerns that in the training of teachers—I hope to bring this up in an amendment on Report—more attention may need to be given to how you look for signs that could cause problems in future. It is surprising that a similar amendment was rejected during the passage of the Children Act 2004, on the somewhat strange grounds that entries made into electronic recording systems would not count as writing and that visually impaired social workers might not be able to record a child’s wishes in writing. Those seem rather extraordinary reasons for rejecting the amendment. They would be even less reason to reject it in today’s world. It is certainly unclear whether a visually impaired social worker would not have other methods of communicating. Quite a number of them are rather good—rather better than I am, I have to say—on the internet, and so on. Anyhow, it seems extraordinary that we are still left with this situation. May we please have some guarantee that ““writing”” is writing, whether it is recorded in an e-mail or whatever? The view that I have heard is that that should count as writing and as a proper method of recording the wishes and feelings of the child. I beg to move.