Welfare Reform Bill

My Lords, I have two brief points to make. I was delighted to hear the warmth of the Minister’s response. If he is thinking about this area, perhaps I could punt two thoughts at him. First, I can see that he will be concerned that there may be a range of other circumstances that may appear similar on the face of it, where there is a disruption to the circumstance of an older child, perhaps moving house, and therefore there might be some wish to have that taken into account; for example, a family break-up where the children are suddenly moving to a different house and although the children are of school age, the disruption to the household might make the parent feel that they should stay at home; or the formation of a step-family where there is some significant upheaval in the household which might put a parent who might normally want to go out to work in that situation. If the Minister is thinking, perhaps he can think about those issues as well. The reason he might want think that this is a different case is that the grandparents or the other kinship carers have a choice: they do not have to take these children on. The danger must be that they have to do so unless they have absolute assurances. That is the distinction, which is why I think there is a particularly compelling case for a legislative requirement. I was going to ask my noble friend Lady Drake the other question, but perhaps I should ask the Minister instead. In doing so, I declare an interest as the honorary vice-president of NEPACS, a charity in the north-east that works with prisoners’ families. I visited an excellent visitor centre and for the first time became aware of the plight of grandparents who suddenly find themselves—almost literally overnight—taking children home with them from a court. Many told me they had thought their child-caring days were long gone. I was very struck by that. I am not sure from the wording of the amendment whether that group will be covered. A number of kinship carers take care of grandchildren because their own child, the principle carer, is in prison. Will the Minister consider making sure that this group is covered in any solution he finds?