Children and Young Persons Bill [HL]

As several noble Lords have said, young people without parental and family support are exposed to greater risks than others are. It is therefore not surprising that care leavers are overrepresented in some of the most vulnerable adult groups, including young parents, prisoners and the homeless. Precisely to tackle this issue, we intend to run the pilots described by the noble Baroness, Lady Sharp, which will support arrangements to allow young people to remain with their former foster carers when they are no longer in care. Such arrangements will, in certain circumstances, include support from the local authority in the form of payments to the foster carer. These young people will be able to stay with their carers until they are 21. The intention is to create an environment where young people can move on at a time of their choosing with the right support, in precisely the way described by the noble Earl. We hope that these pilots will give us a better understanding of the possible practical and financial barriers, including such issues as the tax status of carers and how, if young people are remaining longer with former foster carers, local authorities manage to develop new fostering capacity to offer placements to younger children entering care. The pilot period is intended to give us the time needed to develop practical solutions so that we are able to make it standard practice for young people to leave their final placement in a more gradual way in the future. The noble Earl asked about funding for the pilots. We are providing £1.5 million each year for three years to support them. The noble Baroness, Lady Sharp, was particularly concerned about the legal basis for and regulation of the pilots. Carers of 18 to 21 year-olds are not foster carers and are therefore not legally treated as such. We will consider whether and how these carers should be regulated, which will of course be an important issue. It could be achieved through the powers in the Care Standards Act 2000. Extensive amendments are planned to the 2000 Act in the Health and Social Care Bill, which was introduced in another place on 15 November. That Bill would permit registration of carers of 18 to 21 year-olds, or any other particular group of adults, and regulation of their activities by the new Care Quality Commission. There is therefore no need for any additional powers to regulate that type of care. As for wider changes concerning the rollout of foster care practice beyond the age of 18, it would be premature to legislate around foster carer status further at this stage. We want to be in a position to evaluate the pilots to assess how best to arrange such provision for both carers and care leavers in the future.