My Lords, I shall speak also to Amendment 37 in my name. Amendment 35 is about the effectiveness of local authorities with respect to care leavers. At its core is the need for monitoring and evaluation of their effectiveness.
In a debate on a previous amendment, I spoke about the Department for Education’s data pack on improving the performance of local authorities with regard to looked-after children. This data pack contains checklists and recommendations. I will not repeat the advice given there, but simply say that monitoring and evaluating effectiveness is good not only for clients—in this case, care leavers—but for the local authority. The duties on care leavers are set out in the Children Act 1989 and are clear. We all know that local authorities have many duties, and perhaps not much money, but surely evaluating practice is an important one. There is also good practice to share. After all, if local authorities do not monitor and evaluate practice, how do they know what is going on and how it might be improved? I was intrigued by the intervention of the noble Lord, Lord Northbourne, which seemed to be about the difference between “should” and “must”. Guidance is presumably the “should” bit, but guidance is not always respected. Does that therefore give rise to the need for a “must”?
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Amendment 37 involves the improvement of safeguarding and the educational achievement of looked-after children. I understand that the Government are planning to revise the guidance on promoting the education of looked-after children to reflect that the virtual school head teacher will be statutory early next year; maybe the Minister can confirm and clarify that. At least 15 local authorities have virtual school head teachers already working with care leavers up to the age of 25. Pilots have taken place, with positive results in, for example, Hertfordshire and Oxfordshire. The purpose of my amendment is to seek to ensure that the education of looked-after children covers young people after the age of 18, just as local authorities have a duty to support the educational achievement of care leavers up to the age of 25.
In the special educational needs reforms proposed in the Bill, the Government have recognised the importance of extending support to vulnerable pupils beyond statutory school age, from birth to 25 years, through education, health and care plans. This is, of course especially important as care leavers are less likely than their peers to achieve academically. It is vital that care leavers benefit from the same overview provided by virtual school heads as do looked-after children.
The Minister in another place stated that the vast majority of local authorities have some form of virtual school head, but there is variation across the country and legislation was to ensure that this variation was eliminated; again, I look to the Minister for clarification. I am asking for that support to be genuinely extended to looked-after children and care leavers, not simply for reinforcing practice which exists already. I hope for a positive response in this House and look to the Minister for that. I beg to move.