Children and Young Persons Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 54: 54: After Clause 10, insert the following new Clause— ““Care prevention through minimum entitlement to short breaks (1) Section 6 of the Carers and Disabled Children Act 2000 (c. 16) (right of carer to assessment), is amended as follows. (2) In subsection (5) after ““the 1989 Act”” insert ““provided, however, that where as a result of the assessment it is satisfied that it is necessary to meet the needs of the person with parental responsibility by the provision of a carers break service, then it shall be under a specific duty to provide or secure the provision of such a service””. (3) After subsection (5) insert— ““(5A) Subject to any directions given under subsection (3) a local authority shall be satisfied for the purposes of subsection (5) that it is necessary to meet the needs of the person with parental responsibility by the provision of a carers break service where a failure to provide such a service would or could result in that person’s caring role becoming unsustainable. (5B) For the purposes of subsection (5) a carer’s break service is a service provided to a child which enables the carer to take a break from his caring responsibilities.”””” The noble Baroness said: The amendment stands in my name and the names of my noble friend Lady Walmsley and the noble Lords, Lord Rix and Lord Judd. It would create a specific duty on local authorities to provide short breaks as a care prevention measure. The duty would apply only where a parent or carer was, or would be, unable to continue caring for a disabled child. Parents tell us that regular, reliable and appropriate short breaks help to keep disabled children and their families out of the care system. Families who get such breaks describe them as essential in helping them to sustain their caring role. This is what one family has written: "““I am fortunate to finally receive respite. What a wonderful relief. One night a week we can be a normal family. Go to the cinema, pub or for a meal or just be. No strict routine, no bathtime, no struggle to medicate, no getting up four or five times in the night. Bliss””." Breaks can be provided in a variety of ways: within the family home, through accessing community facilities or by the child staying overnight with another family or in a residential setting. The report from the parliamentary hearings on services for disabled children stated that, "““the lack of short breaks was the biggest single cause of unhappiness with service provision””." That was in the submissions from parents to the hearings. On Monday last week, the noble Lord, Lord Rix, received a letter from the Minister, which he very kindly copied to us all, telling us that the programme set out in Aiming High for Disabled Children is to begin with 21 pathfinders. As I understand it, those pathfinders are to be pilots for a three-year transformation in short breaks for disabled children. This has come as a result of an additional £370 million to develop a step change in the provision for short-break services for the years 2008 to 2011. The Every Disabled Child Matters pressure group—it is for that group that we are arguing this amendment—welcomes this vital investment, but it is clear that families also need and deserve a legal minimum entitlement to breaks to prevent unacceptable local variations in service provision. New funding is very welcome but, without a legal right, there are real concerns that those families most in need will continue to miss out on the short breaks from caring that they so desperately need in order to sustain their caring role. That will continue the unacceptable situation in which those families who shout the loudest get the most support. As the majority of the new funding is weighted to the 21 pathfinder areas, without a change in the law families will be at the mercy of a postcode lottery, with access to breaks being largely dependent on where they happen to live rather than on their level of need. Without a change in the law, there is a risk that this three-year funding package will be seen as a one-off project. Creating a right to short breaks would ensure that the £370 million was invested as the start of a long-term strategy finally to give those families with severely disabled children the support that they need to keep caring for their children and to keep those children out of the care system. Without that right, at the end of the three years’ funding, we may end up with short-break provision that we can no longer afford to staff. The Children and Young Persons Bill provides a critical opportunity to remedy the gap in the legal framework for families with disabled children and to keep more disabled children with their families out of the care system. Following an assessment under the Carers and Disabled Children Act 2000, the amendment would impose a specific duty on local authorities to provide short breaks for families who provide a substantial level of care already on a very regular basis. While on the subject, I ask the Minister to clarify in guidance the distinction between short breaks as a regular, planned family support mechanism, where full parental responsibility is retained, and those short breaks that are effectively a family placement mechanism in crisis or in emergency situations where looked-after children status is needed. It is important that the entitlement to short breaks on a regular respite basis does not increase the number of those classed as looked-after children. I beg to move.