Mental Health: Children in Local Authority Care

Baroness Hollins Excerpts

Monday 23rd May 2011 Lords Chamber

[Earl Howe]

My Lords, with his experience in this area, the noble Earl hits upon some extremely important points. As he will be aware, support for the mental health needs of looked-after children is at its most effective when child and adolescent mental health services, CAMHS, provide dedicated resources to work with looked-after children and their carers with trained and experienced staff. It is up to local authorities to decide the level at which staff should be appropriately deployed. Targeted CAMHS for looked-after children should work closely alongside the child’s social worker, carers and other professionals such as nurses and paediatricians. It is reassuring that data collected over past years for the CAMHS mapping survey by Durham University show an increase from 2003 to 2009 in the number of social services teams and teams with a focus on looked-after children, although those data carry a slight health warning in that participation in the survey, I understand, was voluntary.

[Baroness Hollins]

My Lords, how much research are the Government funding into the mental health and social outcomes for looked-after children and for adults who were looked after as children?

[Earl Howe]

My Lords, the noble Baroness may know that NICE and the Social Care Institute for Excellence prepared guidance recently on promoting the quality of life of looked-after children and young people. In doing so, they considered evidence including research reviews, a practice survey, a consultation with young people who have been in care, field work with practitioners and the testimony of expert witnesses. The evidence demonstrated that the health and well-being of looked-after children and young people are affected by nearly all aspects of their lives and care. The noble Baroness may like to know that a detailed list of that evidence is contained in appendix C to the guidance.