Child Poverty Bill

My Lords, one of the deepest forms of poverty that a person can experience is isolation and not being loved. What I have already said will have made it clear why I believe that the engagement of parents—and, when appropriate, of other members of the family—must be an essential ingredient in any serious attempt to address child poverty. I shall quote from the Minister's colleague, the noble Lord, Lord Layard. In A Good Childhood, written recently for the Children's Society, he states: ""Children need above all to be loved. Unless they are loved they will not feel good about themselves, and will in turn find it difficult to love others"." In the afterword to the report, the most reverend Primate the Archbishop of Canterbury writes that, ""we are in the territory of changing hearts. We need to develop a culture in which people are not only interested in their right to have a child but also in how they guarantee the conditions in which a child can be brought up in security and emotional confidence"." As has been mentioned several times, the Government recently published a Green Paper, Support for All. Page 2 states that, ""the evidence is clear that stable and loving relationships between parents and with their children are vital for their progress and well-being"." Research shows, too, that stable, loving relationships and a strong, supportive family life are key factors in the well-being of children, and strong weapons in the fight against child poverty. This fact is so important that it should be acknowledged in the Bill. I turn to the proposed new subsections in my probing amendments, which attempt to determine how this could be done. I hope that the noble Lord caught my last point; that the importance of loving relationships is an issue that should be acknowledged in the Bill. The first proposed new subsection in Amendment 35 would be one way to do this. The second emphasises the importance of long-term parental commitment and strong, supportive family relationships. The fourth and fifth emphasise the case for education and guidance on the subject of relationships and parenting, both in schools and to prospective parents around the time of the birth of their first child. They should be delivered alongside education and information about parenting. My third proposed new subsection draws attention to the need for effective measures to reduce unwanted teenage pregnancies. This is no new theme, and has been the policy of the Government for some time. Sadly, outcomes so far have been disappointing. There may be a case for bringing new thinking to bear on the subject. Finally, my last suggested subsection would define more clearly, for the benefit of parents and professionals, what our society expects of parents in bringing up their children. On this point, Scottish law is quite clear, simple and reasonable. The Children (Scotland) Act 1995 says: ""Subject to section 3(1)(b) and (3) of this Act, a parent has in relation to his child the responsibility ... to safeguard and promote the child’s health, development and welfare ... to provide, in a manner appropriate to the stage of development of the child ... direction ... guidance ... to the child ... if the child is not living with the parent, to maintain personal relations and direct contact with the child on a regular basis; and ... to act as the child’s legal representative, but—" there is a qualification— ""only in so far as compliance with this section is practicable and in the interests of the child"." That is a remarkably simple statement that is easy to understand and is probably what we all believe is the role of a parent in our society today. The Minister is not responsible for this, but in 2008 and 2009 the Government resisted all my attempts to get this form of words into English law. At present, we have to make do with Section 1 of the Children Act 1989, which is strong on rights but vague on parental responsibilities. Its interpretation is very dependent on case law. We need some guidance that clarifies the Government’s intentions on this issue. If we want parents to play their part in reducing child poverty and socio-economic disadvantage, surely our starting point must be to tell them clearly what is expected of them. Many fathers are not at all clear about their responsibilities today. If we cannot have the definition in law that the Scots have, let us at least have clearly articulated guidance on the Bill from the Government. I beg to move.