Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill

I support the amendment tabled by the noble Earl, Lord Onslow. I welcome the strong emphasis on the welfare of children. I recognise what my noble and learned friend Lady Butler-Sloss said about the need for sanctions, boundaries and punishment for children where appropriate. However, considering that there are more than 3,000 children in custody in this country, while France and Germany combined have only 1,300, we have to say that we are not getting the balance between welfare and punishment right. I particularly welcome this amendment because, despite the welcome efforts of this Government in the provision for foster care, social work, psychiatric units and residential care, we still have so much further to go in that. We still lack about 10,000 foster carers, and demand for social workers still exceeds supply. We put the most vulnerable children into children’s homes to be cared for by the least qualified staff. A survey looking at residential childcare workers in this country and on the continent found that in this country 20 per cent had a degree-level qualification, but in Germany it was 50 per cent and in Denmark it was 90 per cent. We have so far to go in this area. I welcome the emphasis on considering the welfare interest of the child because it forces us to think that we are imprisoning—putting behind bars—many children. Of course we have to punish some, and we have to put some children in those settings, but we, as a society, have failed many children by failing to provide them with consistent, well supported carers, by failing to support our foster carers over a long period of time, and by failing to put what is necessary into children’s homes. The noble Lord, Lord Thomas of Gresford, referred to the mobile phone incident and the children who were given a three-and-a-half year sentence. At that time, a young man called Joseph Scholes was in a children’s home. When that response to the mobile thefts took place, he was newly there and went out with a group of his peers. One of the others stole a mobile phone and because of the strength of feeling about that at the time Joseph Scholes ended up with a custodial sentence—that very vulnerable young man. I cannot speak specifically about the children’s home, but I know that generally speaking staff in children’s homes need far more support than they get. If only the staff in that children’s home had had the support to engage that young man and stop him going out in the street. He ended up being sent into custody. It was recognised that he was highly vulnerable, but there was no place for him in an overcrowded system, and he ended up in a young offenders institution. He was put under watch, but it was not good enough, and he hanged himself. I think I am correct to say that there was a history of abuse in the family. I welcome this amendment, and I look forward to the Minister’s response. This amendment implies that it is no longer acceptable to lock up children as frequently as we do—to put them behind bars as frequently as we do—because of the lack of a decent welfare alternative: foster carers, social workers and residential carers. I hope the Minister will welcome the spirit of this amendment.