Savings Accounts and Health in Pregnancy Grant Bill

Let me begin by complimenting my right hon. Friend the Member for Delyn (Mr Hanson) and, indeed, all my hon. Friends for their sterling work on the Bill and exposing clearly its impact on looked-after children and children from all backgrounds. My right hon. Friend said that he wanted to be helpful and conciliatory. I have worked with him for many years and I thought he was very helpful and conciliatory this afternoon. I want to adopt the same approach regarding amendments 51 and 52, which stand in my name. They would place a duty on the Chancellor to report, by the end of 2011, on two things: the impact of clause 1 on looked-after children, and the take-up rate of tax-free savings accounts for looked-after children. Admittedly, this is in its early stages because we do not have the details on the child ISA that have been promised. Whatever divisions there are in the House, we should always try to reach consensus on our obligations and duties in relation to looked-after children. We should not be divided on that and should constantly seek answers that we can all agree on and that clearly show we are prepared to meet our obligations. Whatever other motives might be attributed to the Minister in bringing the Bill to the House, I do not believe that he came here intending to cause children in care any harm. I believe that the impact the Bill will have on looked-after children is a genuinely unintended consequence. Equally, however, if it is enacted without steps having been taken to ensure that looked-after children are not disadvantaged by its measures, the Government—indeed, all of us—will have failed to meet our obligations. The Minister has said on several occasions that he wants the new junior, or child, ISA to be the replacement for the child trust fund, which might have merit—I shall not discuss this in too much detail. That policy might well make sense for the child who has a parent who can afford to set up and contribute to an ISA, but for the child who does not have a parent or who does not have a parent who is in a position to invest on his or her behalf, it is meaningless. It is therefore essential to establish in the Bill the principle that the Government should open and make suitable contributions to a child ISA when a child is in care for a reasonable length of time. For me, that is a fundamental principle. I will be listening carefully to the Minister's response, because its nature and content will be important when I decide whether to press the amendment to a Division. It was many years ago, but I worked with looked-after children for about 10 years, most of which were spent in a local authority assessment centre in Wigan. The centre was the point of entry for many of the children in the area who came into care. Generally, we worked with those children for about three months. After that, about half of them, thankfully, were able to go back home, often with support from others in the community, because we had been able to iron out the problems, whatever they were. The other half went on in their care journey to other situations, such as foster care. It is the children in that group for whom we should have the greatest concern, because they face the greatest disadvantage. It is those children who end up over-represented in our custodial institutions, and in so many other aspects of our society that cause us difficulty. My hon. Friend the Member for Kilmarnock and Loudoun (Cathy Jamieson) is right that we take on the responsibility as parents when those children come into the care of the state, and with that responsibility comes a range of actions that we need to take. We have an obligation to support looked-after children in different ways. Government Members are quite right that a good way to help children when they leave care is to ensure that they have a job to go and that they have been properly educated and trained. Any actions that the Government take to make that more likely will have my full support, because it is important. If setting up a child ISA is good enough for children in reasonably well-off families, it is good enough for the children whom we are obliged to support and look after. I believe that a savings account, a nest egg or some such asset could make a real difference for a young person who has been looked after as they move into adult life. The reports that I am calling for in amendments 51 and 52 would offer the Government an opportunity to demonstrate their support for looked-after children. If, in the context of the Bill, they were prepared to put together a package that would deliver both the opening of accounts and contributions to them, they would have something very positive to say in those reports. I first raised the issue with the Prime Minister on 27 October and was heartened by his response. I asked him whether he would ask his Ministers to work with me and others to produce an affordable alternative to the child trust fund, and he said yes. In a way, that did not surprise me; whatever other differences I have with him, he has made it clear that we need to do more for looked-after children and get better outcomes for them. In that sense, it did not surprise me that he was so positive. I had a discussion with the Minister last week, which, again, was a cordial exchange. I left him several things to think about, and I look forward to hearing his observations this evening and any further thoughts he has had. The scheme that I propose is outlined in some detail in new clause 3—it was not selected for debate, and I understand why. I have been working with a number of Members and senior representatives of Barnardo's and Action for Children, the two largest children's charities in the country. We propose a very simple scheme that would apply to children throughout the UK: for any child who enters care and remains in care for a minimum of three months, the Government should open a junior ISA and make an opening deposit of some £250, which is consistent with the previous scheme, and there should be a top-up of £100 for every year that the child remains in care thereafter. Of course, it would be open for others to make contributions to that ISA, such as members of the extended family who were not in a position to look after the child but who could contribute. Nothing in our proposals would prevent local authorities, trusts and other benefactors from making contributions.