Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Bill

I shall speak also to Amendment 281. I thank the Minister for the detailed draft indicative regulations and statutory guidance on Clauses 191 and 192 which have recently been sent through. We all know the evidence that educating parents, in particular educating mothers, provides children with a better start in life. Many studies have shown that you can often predict the educational attainment of children by looking at the levels their parents reached. In particular, if parents receive education and support in the skills and knowledge needed to be a good parent, that inevitably benefits the child. According to proposed new Section 5A(2) in Clause 191, children’s centres exist to meet the needs of, ""parents, prospective parents and young children in the authority’s area"." While they may focus on the child, they are also de facto centres for adult education. This amendment was suggested to us by the National Institute for Adult Continuing Education which does valuable work in adult education in other areas. The amendment clarifies that family learning is legitimate and appropriate for children’s centres, and recognising this in legislation will strengthen this rather than risking it becoming a marginalised afterthought, or even being seen as an improper activity. Family learning enables parents to discuss not only parenting and childcare skills, and to understand their children’s development, but also should provide an opportunity for them to reflect on their own careers in the labour force and how they may need or want to upskill or reskill in order to offer better lives to their children. Family learning plays a significant role in delivering the skills for life agenda of language, literacy and numeracy, and statutory recognition that it has a place in children’s centres would allow it to become more effective. Educating parents is good for children. This is a probing amendment and we would welcome some reassurances from the Minister. Amendment 281 requires each Sure Start children’s centre to have a designated lead on child safeguarding, as schools are required to do. This would be particularly helpful in the multi-agency context of the children’s centre as early identification of dangers to children could quickly lead to multi-professional intervention. This follows on from the words of my noble friend Lady Walmsley on the previous amendment; these are all linked issues. Understanding the early indications of child neglect or abuse can require considerable skill and experience. We know of cases where many experts have missed the signs in the children who have sadly died, where identification and strong action might have prevented tragedy. The amendment has been suggested by Action for Children, which provides many of the children’s centres. It has noted that within some SSCCs each agency has a separate file for each child. It believes that this is a very risky practice that has already been identified in some serious case reviews. It can be impossible to build up a full picture of the situation when each professional has only one or two pieces of the jigsaw and we strongly recommend better interaction between professionals. We need SSCCs to have a designated lead who has proper training, clear lines of accountability for safeguarding and access to all the relevant information. There should be an expectation for recording and sharing information. The role of SSCCs in child protection is key to this and should be acknowledged. I look forward to the Minister’s reply. I beg to move.