Child Poverty Bill

My Lords, I suspect that the Minister will tell the noble Lord, Lord Northbourne, that his amendment is not necessary; these things are in this Bill, in another Bill, in a strategy or in a government initiative, and are all being dealt with. I might even put a Lady Butler-Sloss bet on it. However, it would be nice to see a reference to parents somewhere in the Bill, because there is no question that there is nothing more important to how happily, comfortably and healthily a child grows up than its parents. It is not for the Government to substitute for parents, except in extremis and to protect the child. No Government can give a child the love and care that caring parents can, and nor should they try. However, there is an enormous difference between the abilities of one set of parents and another to bring a child up healthily and happily. In the case of two families with exactly the same income—let us say, £15,000 a year—the outcome of family A may be totally different from the outcome of family B, and the factors that affect that are many and complex. Family A may live in a very high-cost housing area and have less money to spend on the child, and family B might live in a very remote area of the country and have to spend a lot of money on transport, but the factor that probably has the most effect is the knowledge, understanding and skills of the parent as to how best to bring up the child: knowledge and understanding of child development, child nutrition, the need for a child to learn by playing, the communication skills to help them to interact well with the school—lots of things of that nature. Here, Governments can help. They can help and support parents and ensure that, in schools, teenagers, before they ever become parents, get to know a good deal about the responsibilities and the skills that are needed to become a good parent. It happens in many of the best schools, although not all. There is a role for the Government, particularly when looking at the specific issue of the poverty in which too many children are growing up. I would like to hear from the Minister how he is going to make sure that the Bill recognises the importance of the role of parents in ensuring that children grow up happy, healthy and able to fulfil their potential.