Children’s Rights: Digital Environment

Baroness Massey of Darwen Excerpts

Thursday 1st July 2021 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Berridge (Con)]

My Lords, I can confirm to the noble Earl that age-appropriate and age-verification services are part of the structure of the online safety Bill. Providers of services that are a high risk to children will be expected to have significant levels of security, such as age verification. For lower risks, age appropriate will be the provision. I will have to write to the noble Earl in relation to the suggestion of repealing some legislation.

[Baroness Massey of Darwen (Lab) [V]]

My Lords, the Government’s digital charter states that rights online must be the same as those offline and that the benefits of new technologies must be “fairly shared”. The House of Lords communications committee has called for regulation to ensure that human rights and children’s rights are upheld. There have been clear failures in both fairness and the delivery of children’s rights during the Covid pandemic. How will these rights be protected and monitored in future?

[Baroness Berridge (Con)]

My Lords, after the last review under the UN convention, suggestions and recommendations were taken forward. There is now a children’s rights assessment in the development of policy and there has been training of civil servants, as was suggested.

Covid-19: Children

Baroness Massey of Darwen Excerpts

Thursday 17th June 2021 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Massey of Darwen (Lab)]

My Lords, we are indeed indebted to my noble friend Lady Morris of Yardley for this timely debate and for her dedication to the well-being of children. As a former teacher, a parent and a grandparent, I am heartened by this debate and by its passion, wisdom, love and energy in respect of children’s rights and well-being. I have wanted to cheer many contributions, but, of course, I have not, because I am too well behaved.

I believe that Covid-19 is a call for urgent action on behalf of children. Many have suffered badly. If we want to address this imbalance, we must act decisively to take on board the lessons of Covid-19 and develop strategies to improve the lives of children, particularly the most vulnerable. The question I want to ask the Government is: will children be placed at the heart of recovery, and if so, how?

Children have rights as set out in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, ratified by the UK in 1991. Articles of the convention apply directly to poverty, education and children’s services. Other articles address the child’s right to be heard, which I shall refer to today. I should declare an interest in that I have recently produced a report for the Council of Europe on Covid-19 and its impact on children’s rights.

We now have a compelling opportunity to re-examine our systems that relate to children and their well-being, discussed by many noble Lords today, and to develop policy and practice. Children’s rights are not about letting children have their own way but about enabling them to develop responsibility for self and others, to engage with systems that affect them, and to be listened to and have their views respected. It is about enabling children to become positive and active members of society and to have the confidence to make a difference.

I wish that I could show a diagram with a picture of a child in the middle and the influences on that child surrounding them—influences such as education, poverty and services. The child is at the centre; we must bear that in mind and ensure that every service that we have for children links with other services and focuses on the child. Children should be consulted about what they want and need from services. They, like all of us, are a mixture of emotional, physical and intellectual capacities, yet we so often divide these capacities into siloes—we do not communicate with each other. We would gain a great deal by asking people to identify their own needs rather than making assumptions about them. We must ask questions of families, communities, professionals, the homeless and children. I remember a workshop on mental health a few years ago where one young woman said, “We are the experts by experience”. We need to ask for and unlock such expertise, and use it to influence policy.

During Covid, children have experienced increased poverty, mental health issues, educational disruption and a lack of access to learning, healthcare, sport, the arts and socialising. When interviewing children with professionals for my Council of Europe report, some said that they had actually enjoyed being locked down because they could plan their lives and their learning and have more contact with family. But these were children from more affluent and settled backgrounds; they were not suffering or observing domestic abuse, and they were not homeless, disabled, suffering from mental health problems, poor, migrants, refugees or young carers. Covid has again emphasised the disparities in our society between children who are in poverty or are otherwise vulnerable and those who are more affluent.

If the Government are serious about levelling up society, they need to urgently and purposefully look at the lives of children and how they can be made better from birth onwards. I know that many of us in this Chamber and beyond think that services for children should be synchronised to be effective. A Cabinet Minister for children is needed, as the noble Lord, Lord Moynihan, and others have so eloquently said—someone who is dynamic and resourceful and who can pull together the strands of childhood, listen to children, be a force for action across government and develop a national strategy for children. I hope that the Minister will say more about this.

Queen’s Speech

Baroness Massey of Darwen Excerpts

Wednesday 12th May 2021 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Massey of Darwen (Lab) [V]]

My Lords, at the end of a long and fascinating debate, I wish to speak about children—those under the age of 18. I echo the words of one of the first speakers, the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Durham, who spoke about child well-being. Many other speakers have mentioned child development in a very moving way, and it is reassuring to know that that concern in very much alive in your Lordships’ House.

The Local Government Association report in relation to Covid, A Child-centred Recovery, speaks of working together to achieve change and development, following a crisis that has had a disproportionate impact on children’s lives. If this is not addressed in an inclusive way, many children will be damaged and will not achieve their full potential, thereby making levelling up almost impossible. A holistic approach to the problem would involve local authorities and services, the voluntary sector, communities, families, children and government departments talking and acting together. We have seen how a lack of consultation and working together is more costly and less effective. Systems must work together. Head teachers, while welcoming extra money for schools, have pointed out that more should be spent on the underlying causes of problems such as child poverty. Levelling up has to start way before children become adults.

With Covid-19, we have had a situation of monumental complexity and distress. Children have faced family bereavement, isolation, increased poverty, loss of public services such as in health and education, increased domestic violence and increased child abuse. Some services were inadequate before Covid struck due to lack of funding, giving rise to inadequate structures and severely overworked professionals. Child and adolescent mental health services are an example, and now we will need them more than ever, as Covid has given rise to enormous increases in the number of children needing mental health support.

Schools have gone through crises of indecision and have had to adapt teaching methods, including online learning. Parents have had to pick up the pieces, and many have found this difficult. Children have not been able to socialise, and speech and language development has suffered, with the potential for poor reading skills. Babies have had less interaction with other adults, including grandparents. Access to sport, the arts and culture has suffered. Catching up on education must consist of not just academic inputs but a broad range of educational experience, both for its own sake and to open up opportunities for young people, to enable them to gain social skills, confidence, empowerment and resilience.

What can the Government learn from the specific example of children during Covid? Well, children are the future and, if they do not function well, the future is bleak. And we need to create a society that functions well. I suggest emphasising the following. We need to ensure a minimum level of income for families, as well as sustainable resources for services dealing with children and adequate salaries for professionals dealing with children, especially vulnerable children. We need to consult professionals and communities, including children, about the best ways forward. We need to carry out longitudinal surveys that show how children are affected by Covid and how they develop over the next few years of their lives, and then act on that learning. We need to ensure that children have a voice, as they bring fresh perspectives, and we need to ensure that all legislation has a child impact assessment attached. We need to identify good practice; there are many wonderful efforts involving children, but who knows about them? We need a Cabinet Minister responsible for children who would co-ordinate all action for children in a visionary development plan and identify good practice. That is now accepted by parents, children, the voluntary and statutory sectors, and many politicians. I hope that the Government will listen to those pleas.

We must look at what comes next, building on deficiencies revealed by Covid and looking for new ways to work and treat people, paying particular attention to the future of our children.

Education and Training (Welfare of Children) Bill

Baroness Massey of Darwen Excerpts

2nd reading
Friday 19th March 2021 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Massey of Darwen (Lab) [V]]

My Lords, I am pleased to support this Bill. I have a few comments on the issues that it throws up in relation to welfare for children. The aim of the Bill is clear and was well described by my noble friend Lady Blower, and I congratulate her. Crucially, it is about extending safeguarding the welfare of children to all providers of publicly funded education and training in England. The Bill is supported by many previous conventions, laws and practices. Safeguarding and promotion of welfare is defined in the articles of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, ratified by the UK in December 1991. A child is defined there as a person under 18.

I thank the House of Lords Library for its excellent notes on the Bill and for helpfully recalling the statutory guidance in January this year from the DfE and the DfE guidance of July 2018 around interagency working to safeguard and promote the welfare of children. It is worth noting that the guidance makes it very clear that:

“Nothing is more important than children’s welfare ... We want a system that responds to the needs and interests of children and families and not the other way around.”


It is clear also that local authorities working in partnership with other organisations have

“specific duties to safeguard and promote the welfare of all children in their area”,

as set out in the important Children Acts 1989 and 2004. The Children and Social Work Act 2017 places specific

“new duties on key agencies in a local area ... the police, clinical commissioning groups and the local authority are under a duty to make arrangements to work together, and with other partners locally, to safeguard and promote the welfare of all children in their area.”

That includes a child-centred approach, with early interventions and information, taking account of the needs and views of the child, assessing disabled children and their carers, children in need and secure youth establishments.

All this reflects an understanding that a holistic view of children, and holistic interventions for them, are essential. The Bill follows a similar view of partnership working, which would also cover independent providers. I therefore very much welcome it.

Given the agreement that the approach to children should be wide-reaching and holistic, with responsibilities shared across a number of agencies, does it not make sense for the Government to create a Cabinet post with responsibility for children, as suggested by the noble Baroness, Lady D’Souza? This question is being asked more and more, not just by me and colleagues in your Lordships’ House but by MPs and the children’s voluntary sector. Are the Government listening?

International Women’s Day

Baroness Massey of Darwen Excerpts

Thursday 11th March 2021 Grand Committee

[Baroness Massey of Darwen (Lab) [V]]

My Lords, I thank the Minister for introducing this debate. By this point in the debate. I have listened to many informative, passionate speeches from colleagues. They demonstrate commitment to post-Covid recovery within the UK and globally. I am proud to be part of such debates, and proud to follow the noble Baroness, Lady Cumberlege, who has done so much work for women and who has listened, learned and made things happen.

The wording in the title of the debate, “empowering women”, is positive and rightly linked to women’s rights. What happens after Covid is of the utmost importance, and we must build on what we have learned. I hope the Government will vigorously promote women’s rights, and not just with rhetoric. Women—and children and men—need to know their rights and how to get support to access those rights. Women’s rights are human rights and contribute to national and global development. Human rights are not just individual, but encourage us to fight for the rights of others, as recently demonstrated in the Black Lives Matter action.

Covid has laid bare inequalities of many kinds, for many people. But the situation before Covid was not satisfactory, especially for women, those with disabilities and mental health problems, those from black and minority-ethnic groups, young people and children, and older people. Some people are of course in more than one of those categories, and women have suffered in disproportionate ways, which have been described by others. Cuts to local authority funding and services such as mental health services were having devastating effects, particularly on young people, long before Covid. It will take huge efforts to reverse a downward spiral.

There are many international conventions on women’s rights. Treaties and conventions are of course useful in their aspirations and practical suggestions, but we know that they must be implemented at a local level. We need countries to react and implement. We need nations to embody these laws and policies in practice. For example, how do local government and the public and private sectors respond? How are grass-roots movements and NGOs supported to add to their knowledge and hands-on capabilities in consolidating the rights of women and girls? Is gender equality really respected?

These rights impinge on all elements of society. We may ask how women are encouraged to stand for office or apply for senior roles. We may ask how many schools have programmes which encourage both girls and boys to examine the issue of human rights and the part that they can play. During the Covid pandemic, citizens have become more aware of rights in general. Wales and Scotland have supported the incorporation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child into legal frameworks and into school curricula. Will England follow the same path?

Women’s rights begin with girls and boys knowing their rights and responsibilities, having the confidence to stand up for them and learning how to access what they deserve. We must develop a culture where women’s rights and human rights are understood and enacted, and not just for ourselves. Supporting women in other, less developed countries is vital; I am glad that this has been demonstrated so well today. I envisage—and this is beginning to happen—global networks to empower women, not just those who are already powerful but those who could improve their lives with support such as mentoring and role models, becoming successful in whatever way that they choose.

I ask the Government to take a strong lead on human rights and make the direction clear with a high profile. Will they set out a vigorous programme to tackle the problems, identifying rights which are being abused? I ask for a declaration of intent. How does the Minister respond?

Education Return and Awarding Qualifications in 2021

Baroness Massey of Darwen Excerpts

Monday 1st March 2021 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Berridge (Con)]

My Lords, this method of assessment for grades means that teachers can take into account how much content has actually been taught. We have not mandated a minimum level, but they should be assessed using these materials only on what they have been taught—obviously not on what they have not been taught—so the teachers can know what content the child can be assessed upon. This should help with the differential learning loss. In relation to disadvantaged pupils, the £302 million of Covid premium is actually based on pupil premium—so we are targeting that at the most disadvantaged students.

[Baroness Massey of Darwen (Lab) [V]]

My Lords, will recovery schemes be compulsory for all children and fully funded? If not, vulnerable children are likely to lose out. Will such schemes ensure opportunities for sport, the creative arts and social education, which are so important in their own right but also improve academic achievement and mental health and well-being?

[Baroness Berridge (Con)]

My Lords, the recovery scheme summer schools are funded to £200 million and there should be enrichment activities. I am delighted to say that all the wraparound facilities in schools for essential purposes will also be open on 8 March; I am sure that many students are looking forward to being back doing PE and all those other activities when they return to school next Monday.

Children in Care: Unregulated Accommodation

Baroness Massey of Darwen Excerpts

Tuesday 17th November 2020 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Berridge (Con)]

My Lords, obviously, if criminal activity is taking place, that is a matter for the police. Unfortunately, due to Covid, the response to the consultation has been delayed, but we see that there is a need to reform this area. There are circumstances in which, according to their needs, it is best for a young person of 16 or 17 to be in this type of semi-independent or independent living accommodation. However, we recognise that it needs to be regulated, and I will take back the noble Baroness’s concerns, looking in particular at where DBS and those kinds of barring checks will sit with any response to the consultation on regulation.

[Baroness Massey of Darwen (Lab) [V]]

My Lords, it is sad to hear that the situation is getting worse for vulnerable children placed in homes. Does the Minister agree that all forms of care should be monitored for quality standards and that all young people under the age of 18 should be classified as children under international agreements without any differentiation in being guaranteed a placement?

[Baroness Berridge (Con)]

My Lords, the local authority has the primary statutory duty to safeguard all young people in their area up until the age of 18, or beyond under certain initiatives. I pay tribute to the enormous amount of work that goes on in our children’s homes and by many foster carers, who work to improve the outcomes for these young people. We are clear that those under the age of 16 who need care, not just accommodation, should not be placed in these kinds of settings.

UN Convention on the Rights of the Child

Baroness Massey of Darwen Excerpts

Monday 16th November 2020 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Baroness Massey of Darwen]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have to incorporate the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child into legislation.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Education and Department for International Trade (Baroness Berridge) (Con)]

My Lords, the Government are fully committed to protecting and promoting children’s rights. Our existing domestic legislation already protects children’s rights. We have acted to strengthen and enhance legislation, including through the Children Acts 1989 and 2004, secondary legislation and statutory guidance to promote children’s welfare. It is not usual practice in the UK for international treaties to be incorporated into domestic law, and we therefore do not have plans to incorporate the UNCRC into legislation.

[Baroness Massey of Darwen (Lab) [V]]

My Lords, last year, Ministers stated that the promotion of children’s rights is essential and promised to redouble their commitments to strengthening protection for children. We have been consistently criticised by the Committee of Ministers for deficiencies in our implementation of the UNCRC. Wales has now committed to incorporate the convention into legislation; Scotland is working on this. What is England doing? Statements of intent are not enough.

[Baroness Berridge (Con)]

My Lords, since the UK ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1992, successive Governments have not incorporated it directly into domestic law. However, breaches of that convention can form the basis of actions in the domestic courts, and we have taken seriously any criticisms from the UN in relation to protecting children’s rights here in the UK.

Qualifications

Baroness Massey of Darwen Excerpts

Tuesday 3rd November 2020 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Berridge (Con)]

My Lords, the standards that the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education applies can include a qualification when it is a professional or regulatory requirement, or if it is recognised that somebody would be disadvantaged in the marketplace by not having it. The main way for apprenticeships is the standard assured occupational competence, which is tested at an endpoint assessment.

[Baroness Massey of Darwen (Lab) [V]]

My Lords, many employers are looking for a wide range of skills in their recruits, such as teamwork and adaptability, as well as formal qualifications. How will such skills be developed alongside formal qualifications to ensure that those entering the workforce offer a valuable range of attributes?

[Baroness Berridge (Con)]

My Lords, in the link between employers and qualifications, I have noticed that the description in relation to apprenticeships is knowledge, competences and behaviours, at levels 4 and 5. I hope that covers what the noble Baroness referred to: that certain behaviours that employers must have confidence are delivered by these qualifications, as well as knowledge.

Education (Exemption from School and Further Education Institutions Inspections) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2020

Baroness Massey of Darwen Excerpts

Thursday 29th October 2020 Grand Committee

[Baroness Massey of Darwen (Lab) [V]]

My Lords, I shall limit myself to speaking about the inspection of schools. This is an issue that has been debated for many years, and now we are in unusual circumstances with Covid-19, which could influence how inspections are carried out when they resume. Years ago, when I was a teacher and school governor, the role of inspections was discussed intensely. One argument was that too much inspection could cause disruption to teaching and the running of schools. It made staff nervous and encouraged them to prepare specially for inspection visits. In theory this should not have been necessary, but it was a huge distraction. The future of a school could depend on an inspection report. As such, we moved to the current system of inspections every five years, with exemptions for outstanding schools, unless there were concerns about a particular school.

Today’s amendment regulations remove the exemptions and require these outstanding schools to be inspected routinely every five years. What are the arguments for this? First, schools can change rapidly due to factors such as a change of head teacher, substantial turnover of key staff or change of intake. Secondly, Ofsted’s frameworks for inspection have expanded in relation to, for example, greater emphasis on the importance of pupils’ emotional and social development and relationships within schools. In June 2019, Ofsted’s chief inspector called for the exemption for outstanding schools to go, with Ofsted stating, in relation to the 2018-19 academic year, that:

“Only 16% of outstanding primary and secondary schools inspected this academic year retained their top Ofsted rating”.


I have recently spoken to educationalists who believe that schools should not be inspected in the midst of Covid-19 until all pupils have attended school for at least a full year because schools should be focused on providing a safe environment for pupils and staff. Managing schools at the moment requires constant vigilance and adaptation in accordance with circumstances. They should not be distracted from this by Ofsted inspections, and Ofsted should not be expected to carry out its usual duties. The focus should rather be on providing safety and a productive educational experience for pupils in school and those in remote learning.

However, Ofsted could make visits to schools when they return, identifying good practice in some aspects of a school’s offering, such as the use of pupil premium funding and a broad and balanced curriculum, including the arts, humanities and foreign languages for all. Such inspectoral reports could be turned around quickly and serve as models of good practice for sharing with other schools. Ofsted inspectors could also visit parents who are home-schooling during Covid-19. They could assess the needs of such households: computer availability and online lessons, for example. Home-schooling is not, generally, well regulated. Good practice and limitations during a difficult time could provide valuable experience for sharing. I look forward to the Minister’s comments on these concerns.