Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Bill

I am delighted to respond to this important discussion. The noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley, has identified an extremely important step or principle, which should underpin the approach taken by children’s services when engaging with vulnerable children. This is an important point in our deliberations. I do not wish to be facetious, but it would be possible to put something in statute, as well as in guidance, and still no action is taken. We have to do all those things. I will say why we do not need this on the statute book. For me, this is about how we make the right statutory guidance and make it happen. The message that came through to me from the report of the noble Lord, Lord Laming, was how you go about doing it. "Just do it" was one of his mantras. However, I am for ever in the business of dialogue, as noble Lords have realised through this Committee stage. When the safeguarding clauses were introduced in the other place we made reference to the current provisions set out in statute and guidance designed to ensure that, where appropriate, local authority social workers see children separately from their parents and caregivers. The noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley, referred to the comments made by my right honourable friend, Ed Balls. But we know that there are concerns that, however strong the legislative and guidance framework is, this will not in itself ensure that all children are seen alone when appropriate. We have to think about how we will make that happen. We need to ensure that all children are seen alone, when appropriate, that their wishes and feelings are ascertained and that they are protected from harm in every circumstance. The progress report of the noble Lord, Lord Laming, emphasised the importance of children being seen and their family circumstances being understood through their eyes. It is absolutely right that we tackle this issue of professionals losing sight of the child, which, as we have heard, again and again comes from the feedback and analysis that we see from serious case reviews. This is in line with the Government’s statutory guidance, Working Together to Safeguard Children, which sets out the local authority’s responsibilities when children are the subject of Section 47 inquiries and of child protection plans. We have committed to publishing revised guidance later this year and we will make sure that seeing the child, alone when appropriate, and ascertaining their wishes and feelings are placed at the centre of undertaking Section 47 inquiries and implementing child protection plans. We will also emphasise that the social worker should record each visit to a child. I know that there is a debate about the level of paperwork and bureaucracy to which social workers are subject, but we are committed to the important step of record keeping. Where the child is not seen alone during such a visit, the social worker should record why not, which is an important step. As we know, social work is a profession under significant pressure at the moment. There are significant challenges in capacity and in quality, which is well understood in this Committee. We cannot solve these problems necessarily through more legislation. We are addressing them through investment in, among other things, a support programme for newly qualified social workers to ensure that they have appropriate case loads and the high quality supervision that they need to develop into social workers who can prioritise the face-to-face engagement with children, and make good, professional judgements, as part of a strong profession, about the best way to work with parents and families. We are also investing in the training and development of managers, as well as encouraging returners back to the workplace by creating new, advanced professional roles within the marketplace that will keep the best social workers at the front line. We are committed to building on this with a comprehensive reform of social work and, most important as this Bill progresses through Parliament, we will look at the report of the Social Work Task Force which is due soon. As I have said, social workers have an incredibly difficult job to do, and it is vital that the child’s wishes and feelings are taken into account. Section 53 of the Children Act 2004 amended Sections 17 and 47 of the Children Act 1989. As a consequence, local authorities are already required, so far as is reasonably practicable, to ascertain a child’s wishes and feelings about what services might be provided or what action should be taken to safeguard and promote their welfare. It is about how we translate statutory guidance and requirements into practice. We are revising the guidance entitled Working Together to Safeguard Children 2006 to make clear the responsibility of local authorities’ child social workers and what kind of support and improvements are needed in the field. We are looking at new arrangements for the comprehensive area assessments of local areas, which were introduced in April 2009. Under these, Ofsted will undertake an annual inspection of each local authority’s contact, assessment and referral centres. This is an important lever for driving up standards as part of the new arrangements for comprehensive area assessments. We will see a programme of inspection of services for looked after children at least once every three years. These inspections will include sampling of case files where visits to the child have taken place and whether it has been recorded that the child has been seen alone. The inspectors will look at gathering reviews of children and their families and thus provide a check on practical arrangements, which I believe will provide a significant step forward. I shall close by saying that in no way are we complacent about the amount of work that needs to be done in order to promote a comprehensive safeguarding framework in this country so that the concerns that the noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley, is talking about are tackled as a matter of course. I hope that, with those reassurances, the noble Baroness will consider withdrawing her amendment.