Children in Care

Baroness Garden of Frognal Excerpts

Thursday 30th April 2020 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Berridge]

My Lords, I assure noble Lords that the primary legislation in relation to the duties on local authorities to safeguard the welfare of children in care remains unchanged, and that decisions still need to be made in accordance with the best interests of children. I am grateful to my noble and learned friend for raising the vital role that foster carers play. Many of them are within the older cohort and therefore may be more vulnerable to this disease. Some of the changes to the procedure in these regulations have been made to ensure that we have enough foster care placements so that, if an emergency call comes from a family in a lockdown situation where unfortunately the local authority may need to remove a child, there is capacity among other foster carers to ensure that places are available for such children to move to. That is the spirit and the purpose behind these regulations.

[Baroness Garden of Frognal (LD)]

My Lords, we are only too well aware of the problems of older people in care homes, but young people in care are also facing the risk of losing their carers to Covid-19 or through self-isolation. They are therefore more likely to suffer during the lockdown than other young people. What education provision is being made available to these young people, including suitable computer equipment to enable them to take part in virtual lessons?

[Baroness Berridge]

My Lords, I assure noble Lords that the recent £100 million computer and access to wi-fi provision that has been offered by the Government includes provision of laptops and tablets to vulnerable children who are included in the Children Act need group. They will have access to online facilities to ensure that they do not miss out on their education.