Child Poverty Bill

My Lords, I am conscious that in this amendment I am moving well away from the area of financial targets and deep into what the Minister would no doubt classify as socio-economic disadvantage. These are children who technically may not fall within the definition of poverty but who are disadvantaged. In fact, if we reach the target in 2020, many of these children would still be at severe risk even if they were not poor, according to the rather narrow definition used for the targets. I have expressed my concern more than once that, by setting targets to achieve one set of objectives, we will undermine other objectives that are equally important; indeed, they may be more important. I particularly want to use this group of amendments to discuss the issues surrounding children in care. As noble Lords will know, the outcomes for such children are relatively poor and in this country we are hesitant about putting children into care, possibly as a direct result. We have half the number of children in care as countries such as France and Denmark. I am indebted to the noble Earl, Lord Listowel, for pointing me towards a research paper by Professor Donald Forrester of the University of Bedfordshire entitled ““Is the Care System Failing Children?””. Published in the Political Quarterly, April to June 2008, it addresses the central issue about the performance of our system. It concludes that, on balance, the reason why the system has poor results is that many children are deeply damaged by the time they enter it rather than that the system inflicts the damage. If that conclusion is true, it raises big question marks about our intervention strategy. Professor Forrester concludes: "““More important is a commitment to provide quality services for families with the most serious problems in society, including public care when that is what children need. It is only when there is the political will to make such a profound change that we are likely to begin to make lasting differences to the lives of these most vulnerable children and their families. It is the failure to appreciate both the nature and the scale of the task that is the true tragedy of the current government proposals””." Professor Forrester is referring to the Care Matters: Time for Change White Paper, which was then current, but I suspect that he would feel rather the same about this Bill with its broad-brush approach to intransigent problems. My amendment would ensure that the Government’s focus remained on the most vulnerable children in our society. I beg to move.