Housing and Regeneration Bill

I am grateful that we have had an opportunity to debate this issue. Like other noble Lords, I pay tribute to the work of the noble Earl, Lord Listowel, over the years. I do not think that there has been a Bill in which the noble Earl has not brought our attention to what we can do to improve the lives of these young people. The whole House is grateful to him for that. He was right to move the amendment in the way that he did at this point. The question for me is: how do we make the lives of those young people better? I have to say, as the noble Lord anticipated, that I do not think it is served by including this in the Bill, not least because once we identify these particular young people, we have to think of other young people with other problems and whether they should be named in the Bill as well. The broader point is that the HCA would not be fulfilling its objectives if it were not meeting the needs of people, as it states in Clause 2, which is about meeting the needs of the people and the well-being of the community. For all the reasons that noble Lords have given in the many ways that they have brought it to our attention—not least my noble friend Lord Graham, the noble Lord, Lord Brooke, and the noble Earl, Lord Onslow—we see all the implications of a life spent in care, not by choice, written in our criminal justice system, in the people on our streets, in people with mental health conditions who are very difficult to help. As the noble Baroness, Lady Hamwee, pointed out, it is not a question of a single solution. It is a question of finding the right housing for the young person involved. It is about providing support through agencies in programmes such as Supporting People, for which my department is responsible, which literally supports people in their home environment. It is a question of dealing with the small but hugely significant group of people, this 8,000 population, who have so much to contend with not just when they are in care but especially in transitional states. They need a place that they can call home, but we have not been very good at providing that and we are living with the consequences. However, thanks not least to the efforts of the noble Earl, children in care have never been so much in the forefront of our minds in what we are trying to do through the work of the education department and our emphasis in the care pathway on providing support at critical times. I turn to what we can do through the HCA and in the DCLG. Traditionally, we have had responsibility for social exclusion, which has now passed to the Cabinet Office. We are working for the first time on a cross-government PSA, PSA 16, which is about social exclusion. How do we help four particular groups of very vulnerable people access services that they need, including accommodation? One of those groups is care leavers. We will be working very closely with the Homes and Communities Agency and with local authorities as they put in their bids for supported accommodation, and so on, to plan for the needs of those young people more intensively than we have been able to do before. Beyond that is the responsibility of the local authority to know what is going on in its community and to address housing needs. There are not many people more vulnerable than those young people, who have a higher call on the concern not simply of housing officers in local authorities but all those dealing with the Children’s Plan, with transitional arrangements and with what happens to those young people as they leave school. That is the work that the Housing and Communities Agency will take forward, informed by the work of local authorities in its partnership identifying local needs within the regional context. That is a key aspect of the agency knowing where to invest—which housing associations or which types of building to support. That is what will make a difference on the ground. As the noble Earl will know, that is happening much more positively following the passage of the Children (Leaving Care) Act. That has led to regulations that require the responsible authority to take steps to ensure that 16 and 17 year-old care leavers are maintained in suitable accommodation. That is one of the things that the HCA would also have a care to. Eighteen year-old care leavers should have the same entitlement to accommodation as other young people, but they should also be able to depend on continuing support and planning by the responsible authorities, not least the mental health services. Investment is going into the county services too. The Care Matters White Paper that we published last June includes a range of commitments to improve the quality of care provided to looked-after children. Crucially, leaving care is seen not as a single event but as a transition into a new life with greater adult responsibilities. That means we need to know how to bring the services together. We are taking forward 11 ““right to be cared for”” pilots that give young people a greater say over when they leave care. Young people are going to be more involved in managing their own transition to adulthood. Through the Children and Young Persons Bill—and there are veterans of that Bill in this Committee, not least the noble Baroness, Lady Meacher—we are introducing a requirement that children in foster placements or children’s homes who move to independent living do so only as a consequence of a review of their care plan, so that they move on to their final care placement only when it is recognised by all the people responsible that they are ready to take that step. That will help as well. We are also legislating to extend the personal adviser role for care leavers up to the age of 25 for young people who wish to resume courses of educational training. As part of our Care Matters programme, we have allotted funding to contribute to the costs of building additional units of supported accommodation for care leavers. We hope that discussions about that commitment will take place among the Housing Corporation and the other stakeholders later this year. That work will be taken forward by the HCA. There is a great deal of thought, care and action going on. In that context, I can mention the good practice guidance on housing and children’s services co-operation, in relation to homelessness for young people. We have new pilots—Staying Put, 18 Plus family care—to enable young people to remain with foster carers. I will not go into endless detail, but I hope I am giving the impression that not only are we serious about co-ordinating services and identifying those 8,000 young individuals in different circumstances with different backgrounds but we are also piloting some new ways of doing things. The noble Earl asked me some specific questions. I have some very long answers, but if he does not mind I suggest that he and I meet officials and someone from the DCSF to go through them. We will also discuss how much more we may be able to do within the new constructs that are emerging, particularly within the HCA. I hope that will be helpful to him. We can certainly involve him in the way we take those things forward.