Welfare Reform Bill

My Lords, before I speak to my amendment in this group, Amendment 51FZA, I thank the Minister for asking his officials to provide me with information in this area. I also apologise for being absent from the discussion of the first grouping today which was relevant to this debate now. I apologise if I repeat information raised then. I also remind your Lordships of Article 3 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child: "““In all actions concerning children, whether undertaken by public or private social welfare institutions, courts of law, administrative authorities or legislative bodies, the best interests of the child shall be a primary consideration””." I should be grateful if the Minister could make his best endeavours to demonstrate how the Bill is considering the best interests of the child in relation to this debate. My Amendment 51CED states: "““It is not a failure sanctionable under this section if a claimant falling within section 22 does not have guaranteed and predictable access to high quality, flexible and affordable child care acceptable to the parent and child or children””." The lack of widely available, affordable and acceptable childcare has been referred to. The purpose of this amendment is to ensure that claimants with a dependent child will not face sanctions if they are unable to work or participate in work-related activity due to a lack of suitable high-quality, flexible and affordable childcare appropriate to the parents’ and children’s needs. As we have heard, most lone parents want to have the opportunity to combine paid work with the vital job of being a parent. However, so far the Bill seems to fail to recognise that the required childcare infrastructure is lacking in many parts of the UK, including Scotland. There also continues to be a serious lack of childcare settings that are properly equipped and which have staff who are properly trained to deal effectively and positively with children with disabilities, learning, communication or behavioural challenges or who have a wide range of additional support needs. To make a slight aside, I know how important it is to the Minister and to all your Lordships that we encourage a culture of independence and attack a culture of dependency. The kinswoman of the noble Lord, Anna Freud, whom I believe was a child psychotherapist and an early-years teacher, established in her work dating from the 1940s the absolute importance of the relationship between the child and parent in making the move from infant dependency—absolute dependence—on the parent to adult independent emotional maturity. The danger is that if we do not do all we can in this Bill to strengthen the relationship between parents and children we might inadvertently build in the problem of dependency in the next generation. For adults to be independent they need to have had strong relationships in their early childhood. That is what gives them the strength to be independent in their adulthood. The nature of the relationship between parents and children also colours the relationships that those children will have as adults with other adults. Therefore, the strength of parental bonds between partners is coloured very much by their early experiences in childhood. I wish to cite a couple of case histories of lone parents in Scotland. I should say that this amendment is supported by 20 charities working in Scotland and Northern Ireland. Judy says: "““All very well and good expecting lone parents to work once their children are in fulltime education, personally I don’t have an issue with it. For me personally, voluntary work & eventually paid work turned my life around albeit not financially. However, where is the childcare to go along with this? Where is the flexible working? Where is the long term thinking? It’s all very well providing ‘some’ funding for childcare, what use is it if there is none? We now face a new generation of children who are ‘forced’ by the Government to be latchkey kids … These same children are often (not always) the ones who require the most emotional support and stability, in particular during difficult times (separation/divorce) … who is going to be around to support them at the times where parents have to be working?””." I took part in the proceedings on the Childcare Act 2006. What was noteworthy about that was the recognition of how far behind our continental neighbours we were in developing an effective childcare strategy. We were 30 years behind Sweden in having our first childcare strategy. We start from a very low base in terms of thinking and providing for early-years and other childcare. We are also at a time of heavy cuts. They seem to be hitting, in particular, out-of-school childcare provision for children, including holiday provision. There is also concern about the quality of such provision. In the Childcare Act 2006, family information services were established throughout the country and local authorities to help parents find childcare. A recent survey by these family information services found that only 20 per cent of parents said that they could find appropriate holiday provision for their children. This was a decline on the one-third of parents who reported that in the previous year. I will cite one more case: that of Hayley. She said: "““My mum works … An option which the lady at the job centre suggested was a holiday scheme club, you know the ones you see that are run by teenagers. Do I feel comfortable in the knowledge that they will look after my children—no I don’t! If I was still with my husband I would still be a stay at home mum and no one would care, because I’m on my own and struggling to bring my kids up as best as I can they are saying it’s wrong””." I used to work as a play scheme worker in my early 20s. On one occasion I had a day's induction, but I was unqualified to do this work. I particularly remember working with a group of 10 year-old boys. We had a lot of fun together. We went ice skating, dry ski slope skiing and swimming. It was tremendous, but I had no qualifications to do that work. The regret for me was although it was a great pleasure to teach boys to ice skate, it should have been their parents who were doing this. My father introduced me to swimming and to many other experiences. It should be parents who do this. Sometimes they will be unwilling to, but they should have time to have these important formative experiences with their children. I had another placement about five years ago in a play scheme. Although the requirements for play scheme workers have improved, we still have a long way to go. The play scheme workers I worked with were young and pretty inexperienced. I understand this mother's concern at placing her child in these settings—if they are available. Another issue is that for parents with children under five who are not caught by the Bill there is such a lack of availability of good-quality, affordable childcare that while they may want to get into training and education so that they can get a better job, by the time their child is five and they are compelled to go to work, they can only do the most menial, low-paid work. Currently one hears from education colleges that their crèches are being cut back. This is such a counterproductive step. Parents who might learn to read and write and who might then be able to teach their children to read, write and do arithmetic are now unable to access that educational resource. I cited research from the United States Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation in March 2001. It is a synthesis of how welfare and work policies affect children. Two studies found that work programmes in the United States decreased school achievement and increased behavioural problems in adolescents. It is quite a different experience, but it is concerning that it was found there. I hope that there will be some reassurance that there will be research into and monitoring of how encouraging more parents to go to work when their children are adolescent impacts on educational outcomes. I have spoken for too long: I apologise. My final point is to reinforce Anna Freud’s work on the developmental lines of childhood, from infantile dependence to adult emotional independence. It is very important that we ensure that we support the parent/child relationship as far as we can so that children grow up into independent adults who will go out, find work, make positive, strong relationships with their future partners and keep strong relationships with their own children as they grow up. I am not sure whether that is clear. I look forward to the Minister's response to these concerns.