Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Bill

My Lords, this is again an important and stimulating debate as we move on to talk about children's services, the Bill's provisions for children's trusts and the children and young people's plan. I start by focusing on Amendments 276A, 276B and 276BA, proposed and spoken to by the noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley, which concern housing. I put on record the importance of good housing and its impact on the well-being of children and young people and acknowledge that decent housing is a major factor in improving children's outcomes. I join others around the Committee in paying tribute to the work that charities such as Shelter do to promote issues of concern about housing—in this case, the impact on the quality of life for children that poor housing can have. I therefore fully support the aim of those three amendments to ensure that housing is integral to the work of children’s trusts. It is important that the amendments allow us to have that debate. The five Every Child Matters outcomes are what we mean by children’s well-being, and we expect local services to work together more effectively to deliver them. The addition of services such as housing to the list of outcomes is therefore inappropriate, but I agree that good housing will be an important contributory factor in delivering the Every Child Matters outcomes. The noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley, pointed to the fact that housing authorities are already captured by existing legislation. Top-tier and unitary authorities are the establishing authorities and district councils are relevant partners in children’s trusts. Their housing departments are therefore already involved. However, the Government recognise that housing departments need to get more engaged; I support the noble Baroness in her remarks on that. I can reassure her that the new statutory guidance, going out for consultation shortly, will state that the chief executive, along with the director of children’s services, should ensure that those links are forged and are working well. We also recognise the important role that registered social landlords play. Through the children and young people’s plan regulations, we intend to require children’s trust boards to consult them when drawing up their plan. Also, the new statutory guidance will seek to ensure those responsible for housing locally are involved in the work of the children’s trust board itself. The noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley, was especially concerned about the lack of information-sharing between local housing departments and children's trusts. I make clear that we are strengthening statutory guidance there. Through the comprehensive area assessments, we will assess whether the new arrangements are working effectively in practice. That is an important development to watch. Turning to Amendments 276AA and 276C, I can assure the Committee that the clauses do not threaten academies’ independence. I can reassure the noble Baroness, Lady Verma, in that regard. Adding academies to the list of relevant partners empowers them—in the way that I think that she is looking for—not only in local strategic decision-making, but also in forging strong links with other children’s trust partners. Although Amendment 276C would give academies the right to be represented on the children’s trust board, that is different to the automatic representation that would be given to academies as relevant partners. Under that amendment, academies could choose not to be represented on the board. That could leave academies, which educate some of the most vulnerable children in our country, outside the most important partnership in the children’s services world. We are about empowering academies. I can assure the Committee that that is about better outcomes in services for young people and their families by making services integrated, accessible and available, not about academies losing their autonomy. Yes, we are requiring academies to work with children's trusts, but let me be clear: we expect children's trusts to engage positively with academies, as with other schools. There will be significant benefits from that way of working. As a post script to my response to those two amendments, I remind the Committee that the consultation conducted last year into legislative options for strengthening children’s trusts gave a clear steer that academies should be included on the same basis as maintained schools. On Amendment 277, we wholeheartedly support the principle that the noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley, promotes of involving children and young people. I am happy to place on the record a clear commitment to set out in statutory guidance that we will expect children’s trust boards to produce a child-friendly version of their children and young people’s plan. That represents a significant strengthening of the current position. On Amendment 277A, I am happy to confirm that the indicative regulations, which we have sent to Peers, will be placed in the House Library. They set out the different groups and bodies that we intend the children's trust board to have to consult when preparing the children and young people's plan. The statutory guidance will also emphasise the need to consult widely when preparing the plan. I shall pick up on another point made by the noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley, about the importance of consulting young people. We recognise that the genuine participation of children and young people is vital for the success of the children and young people’s plan, as our indicative regulations will show. I now come to the powerful contribution made by my noble friend Lord Morris and the noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley, regarding the UNCRC. I am happy to put on record again a clear commitment to reference the convention in statutory guidance to which the local authority and its relevant partners must have regard. We will also look to offer practical advice and guidance to children’s trust boards on how to ensure that their children and young people’s plan is consistent with the principles of the convention. We may have the opportunity to debate again—I hope we do—the Government’s commitment to the convention. We are strongly committed to the implementation of the convention. We have had some very positive feedback on our approach to the children’s plan and the UNCRC within that. However, the responsibility for implementing the convention lies with the state. In general, treaties and international conventions are not incorporated into UK law, as happens in some other countries. Our approach to the UNCRC has been to implement it through a combination of policy initiatives, guidance and legislation. The children’s plan brings that together coherently. Our primary concern is to focus on the outcomes that the convention requires and their delivery. Using specific pointers and instructions in guidance will be very successful in achieving the kind of change that is required to have regard to the convention in legislation. It is an extremely significant step forward for those who are concerned to see the UNCRC progressed in this country. For example, we plan to state in the guidance that children and young people should be engaged in line with Article 12 of the UNCRC, which states that, as the noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley, wants, children have the right to say what they think should happen when adults are making decisions about them. I believe this is a significant step forward. I am happy to put this clear commitment on record, and I hope that with that the noble Baroness will withdraw her amendment.