Women: Sport and Physical Activity
Baroness Northover Excerpts(11 years ago)
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Baroness Northover (LD)
My Lords, I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Grey-Thompson for tabling this important debate and opening it so effectively. The debate has been wide-ranging, as was the previous debate, and I may need to write to cover anything that I do not have time to address.
The noble Baroness, Lady Grey-Thompson, and other noble Lords are right. There is no doubt that sport and physical fitness play a significant role in promoting a positive body image among young women. Similarly, women with good body confidence are far more likely to participate in sport. Participation in sport does not just get women fitter, it improves their resilience, confidence and self-belief, as noble Lords have said. As the noble Baroness, Lady Jones, said, it is physically and mentally beneficial. Noble Lords will be familiar with my honourable friend Jo Swinson’s work on body confidence. I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Jones, for her tribute to it and the noble Baroness, Lady Kidron, for her reference to it.
We know that girls and women, in particular, but also boys, can have low body confidence which affects their very sense of self. Low body image can contribute to poor mental well-being, eating disorders and a number of risky behaviours. As the noble Baroness, Lady Kidron, made clear, the media’s focus on an unrealistic image can be very damaging; my noble friend Lord Addington also took up that point. It is not just girls who are affected. Studies show that one-third of adolescent boys have been on a diet to change their body shape. That is chilling.
We have been working with the media, advertising, retail and fashion industries to encourage a more diverse and realistic representation of human bodies. I note what my noble friend Lord Addington said about what bodies are for, as opposed to what they might look like. Clearly, the way that the media represent bodies affects involvement in sport. Almost a quarter of girls aged seven to 21 do not participate in exercise because they are unhappy with their body image. I was struck by what the noble Baroness, Lady Kidron, said about changing for PE and games.
More than half of the bullying experienced by young people focuses on appearance, so the noble Baroness, Lady Grey-Thompson, and others are right: poor body confidence can block people from involvement in sport; yet involvement in sport can promote better body confidence. Sport has the potential to show young people that they can master new skills and increase their self-esteem, whether individually or in teams. There has been some discussion of that.
Physical activity helps children developmentally and can often promote a sense of well-being. My noble friend Lord Addington is clearly alive and well despite whatever his BMI might be, which is clearly made up of some weighty muscles. I can vouch for that by his effectiveness when it comes to the annual parliamentary tug-of-war. You want to have him on your side.
The point has been made to me that we need to help not just young women but middle-aged and older women to tackle negative messages. We have packs for parents and teachers of primary school children, which have been developed with the Media Smart trust. They have been downloaded 35,000 times, so they are obviously being used. They will include a guide for parents of teenagers during 2014. I hope that the noble Baronesses, Lady Kidron and Lady Jones, will be pleased to hear about that.
Obviously, we recognise that competition is not for everyone—a point made by the noble Baroness, Lady Kidron. Just as people are diverse, sports in schools need to be diverse. We share the goals of noble Lords in trying both to address body image and to encourage children, young people and everyone to keep themselves fit through various physical activities or through involvement in competitive sport.
I assure noble Lords that the Government remain committed to delivering a lasting sports participation legacy from London 2012. The long-term trends show that we are on track; 1.4 million more people are playing sport regularly since we won the bid in 2005. We are committed to building on that and are delighted that there are good underlying trends in the number of young people, women and disabled people playing sport regularly. Recent data show that 6.8 million women do sport at least once a week, every week. This demonstrates an increase of half a million from 2005. However, we are not sanguine about this and realise that it needs to go a great deal further.
There is still a gender gap in sports participation, but it is shrinking and our ambition is to close it by 2022. That is why, through Sport England, we have put in place a strong programme of different approaches designed to get more women playing sport each week. These include investing £2.3 million of lottery funding in the I Will If You Will project, a year-long pilot in Bury that began earlier this year. This project focuses on listening to why women are not attracted to sport and exploring ways to give them the fitness opportunities they want. There is scope to roll out the emerging solutions across the country so that others can share in the programme’s insights. There are now 100 girl-only satellite clubs in secondary schools which offer opportunities to take up a variety of sports, including netball and football.
My noble friend Lord Addington referred to coaching. Some 31% of sports coaches in the UK are women and Sport England is investing £5 million to improve the standard and availability of coaching. That includes a pilot project to recruit and retain 500 new female coaches in the south-east. The aim is to roll this out nationally from 2015 and to recruit up to 5,000 new female coaches. We recognise the importance of what the noble Lord is saying.
In addition to these activities, we recognise that we need to focus on the involvement of women in sport at the highest level. That is why my right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport recently set up a women and sport advisory board. It has some impressive people serving on it and they are already providing new ideas and support to take the programme forward. We are determined to increase women’s participation in sport, to raise the profile of women’s sport in the media and to get more women into senior roles within sports bodies.
One of the challenges this group will examine is how to raise the profile of women’s sports coverage. In many ways it is encouraging to hear the noise that is being made, not least by women journalists, about this and to see it being pushed forward. Having been familiar with this field for many years, it is good to hear different voices coming in and arguing the same case. The Women’s Sport and Fitness Foundation estimates that before the 2012 Games, only 5% of sports coverage was dedicated to women’s sport. While broadcasters, in particular, have improved things recently, we are always looking at ways of boosting the media profile of women’s sport.
We are also working to help make sports boards more balanced and representative bodies, and Sport England and UK Sport are leading by example on this with women in senior management positions within the organisations at board and CEO level. I should tell the noble Baroness, Lady Kidron, that we expect all national governing bodies for sport to have at least 25% of women on their boards by 2017, and 24 out of 57 national governing bodies already meet this target.
The noble Baroness, Lady Jones, asked me about school sports. She will be aware that despite the previous Government’s no doubt admirable efforts to try to improve them in their time in government, and despite a £2.4 billion investment, only two out of five pupils were competing regularly, which did not seem to be the most effective way of moving the issue forward. Schools obviously remain free to work in partnership if they wish, and a £300 million fund has gone into school sports, which is in the hands of head teachers. We are seeking above all to increase participation for everybody right across the age range. I recognise what the previous Government did and hope that we can take forward that further and wider participation.
The noble Baroness, Lady Grey-Thompson, asked about working across departments. Sometimes I think that we Lords Whips are joined-up government. I used to deputise in health and DCMS matters, and I now lead for GEO and various other things. From my time working across all these departments, I know that these issues come up in every department and I assure the noble Baroness that there is discussion between them. GEO is currently housed within the DCMS, so Helen Grant is in both, and Jo Swinson is working across departments from BIS to GEO and the DCMS.
I realise that I am about to run out of time. In conclusion, it is enough to make me weep to hear about Rebecca Adlington. I know, tangentially, as it were, how much she has put in to reach this point. My kids trained at the same swimming club as her fiancé, Harry Needs, and I know about the early mornings, the late nights, the galas and the falling into bed absolutely exhausted. That is what she has done, and much more, to get to where she is. She should be proud of what she has achieved, and we should be proud of what she has achieved. As we celebrate people’s diversity and encourage girls, as well as boys, to have the confidence to participate in sport, keep themselves fit and find satisfaction in doing so, we will help to address this linkage between how people view themselves and their body and the way they participate in society and, through that, in sport.
Human Rights
Baroness Northover Excerpts(11 years ago)
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Lord Parekh (Lab)
My Lords, I congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Alton of Liverpool, on securing this debate and thank him for introducing it with such passion and wisdom. We are right to concentrate on the promotion of human rights rather than on the promotion of democracy, which has been in the air for quite some time. The rights are easy to identify and monitor, and there is greater international agreement on what rights are worth preserving and what rights are human rights. There is also greater international pressure for implementing those rights as opposed to the promotion of democracy, because democracy can mean many different things in many different contexts. Therefore, I particularly welcome our discussion of violation of human rights rather than violation of democratic norms.
It is also right to point out that we cannot deal with violations of human rights in the whole world; we have to be selective. In that context, it is important for us to concentrate on those countries with which we have close ties, and where we can make an impact. In that context I particularly thank the Prime Minister for the stand he took at CHOGM in Sri Lanka. He was right to go. I think that the Prime Minister of India was not right not to go. Our Prime Minister was right to visit Jaffna, commiserate with the Tamils, condemn the army operations which killed thousands of Tamils, demand an investigation into what actually happened during the war and afterwards, and meet the representatives of the Tamil group.
An equally sensible attitude is increasingly being taken with reference to Gujarat, the Indian state from which I come, where genocide took place in February 2002, when a large number of Muslims were killed with the complicity of the state. The American Government denied a visa to the Chief Minister but the British Government took a very sensible view and said nothing. Increasingly, the British Government began to recognise that we had no conclusive evidence that the Chief Minister had been directly and actively involved in what had gone on; after all, he had been in power for only four months. Nor did we ignore the fact that this sort of thing had happened in other parts of India, and therefore we could not single out one state alone. About 18 months ago, or perhaps a little less, the British Government asked the British high commissioner to India, Sir James Bevan, to visit Mr Modi, the Chief Minister of Gujarat. More recently, the Foreign Office Minister, Mr Hugo Swire, visited the place. In Kolkata recently, the Prime Minister said that he would be more than happy to meet any elected leader. This is not to exonerate the leader of his responsibility but simply to indicate that not talking to people is not the answer.
I wish to make three general points. First, as we cannot promote all kinds of human rights we obviously have to prioritise. Of the six priorities listed by the Government there is not much reference to the rights of trade unions, which in my view have played, and continue to play, an extremely important role. Business rights are fine but they are not supposed to include trade union rights. During the Arab spring, trade unions were the vehicle through which important radical change was achieved. Minority rights are also important. Generally, the standard definition of human rights concentrates on individual rights and tends to ignore minority rights.
Secondly, while we are right to condemn violations of human rights, we sometimes tend to ignore our own complicity in these violations. Large corporations based in our country sometimes engage in practices abroad that violate human rights or lead indirectly to violations of human rights. We ought to tighten up the monitoring of our corporations. Many violations take place during civil wars. We are sometimes complicit in instigating or tolerating civil wars in other countries, which can result in gross violations of human rights.
Thirdly, we tend to be selective about where we condemn violations of human rights and where we do not. Violations of human rights in Pakistan or Saudi Arabia are by and large ignored, whereas we tend to concentrate on them in countries such as China. This sometimes gives the impression that we are unprincipled and that we are using human rights discourse or issues to promote a particular political agenda. We need to ensure that we are principled when we condemn violations of human rights.
Baroness Northover (LD)
My Lords, I gently remind noble Lords that this is a time-limited debate. When the Clock hits five, speakers have had their five minutes. We want to ensure that we have enough time for our maiden speeches, the Minister’s winding-up speech and for the noble Lord, Lord Alton, to respond at the end.
Syria
Baroness Northover Excerpts(11 years ago)
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Baroness Boothroyd
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what representations they have received relating to the creation of a humanitarian aid corridor in Syria.
Baroness Northover (LD)
My Lords, humanitarian corridors are temporarily demilitarised zones intended to allow the safe passage of humanitarian aid and the evacuation of vulnerable civilians. DfID supports many humanitarian agencies operating inside Syria. To date, DfID has received no requests or representations for a humanitarian corridor from these partners or other humanitarian agencies. We welcome any option that complies with international law that might save lives in Syria.
Baroness Boothroyd (CB)
I have it on the authority of Dr David Nott, the distinguished London surgeon who recently returned from delivering front-line medicine in rebel-held Syria, that aid is not getting where it is most needed. Dr Nott made representations to HMG, to which he has not received even an acknowledgement as yet. Will the Government work with the international community to insist that a humanitarian corridor be opened to deliver life-saving medical aid and bring the severely wounded to safety? Safe passages have been achieved in other conflict zones. If chemical weapons inspectors can be given protection, surely protection is possible for humanitarian aid.
Baroness Northover
I have a great deal of sympathy for what the noble Baroness has said and for what the surgeon David Nott has said. I heard the appeal that he made and obviously pressed very hard within DfID to elucidate this, because it is obviously extremely appealing. The problem is of course, as the noble Baroness will know, that the situation in Syria is immensely complex. One needs only to look at the map of where various groups are, and how that changes from day to day, to see how complex this is and the number of humanitarian corridors that would be required. In order for those to be created, all groups in the relevant area would need to buy in. Alternatively, it would need to be enforced in a military fashion, which would require a UN Security Council resolution. I think the noble Baroness can see some of the challenges in my answer.
Lord Chidgey (LD)
My Lords, some 18 months ago, Turkey was considering intervening in Syria to create a humanitarian buffer. At the same time, US State Department officials were mooting a similar no-kill zone. The massacre at Srebrenica tells us, with a very good example, why a humanitarian corridor would require a protective military presence. Who would provide it in Syria, and with whose collective agreement?
Baroness Northover
My noble friend is absolutely right, and that bears out the answer I just gave to the noble Baroness. We would require the buy-in of all the parties or that kind of military enforcement. That is why the major organisations working in the area—for example, the United Nations, MSF and the ICRC—have reservations about the proposal for a humanitarian corridor for the very reason that my noble friend referred to. Sometimes, these result in civilians being less safe. He pointed to the Bosnian example, but more recently, of course, there has been the Sri Lankan example. There are examples where not only civilians, who are supposed to be protected, are in greater danger, but the humanitarian workers who may appear to be shielded by particular military groups are also under greater threat.
Baroness Kinnock of Holyhead (Lab)
My Lords, will the Minister clarify whether discussions are taking place in response to the view expressed by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, that Syria should be referred to the ICC? Would an ICC referral not send an unequivocal message that such is the seriousness of the crimes—including denying the right to humanitarian aid—that strong measures to tackle impunity are essential and that criminal indictments of senior leaders, as was the case in the Balkans, can strengthen peace efforts?
Baroness Northover
It is clear that referring leaders in these situations to the ICC has, we hope, a chilling effect for other leaders thereafter. One can see that building in terms of leaders’ responses, and one has to hope that in the situation in Syria some of the rebel groups as well as the government groups will recognise the challenge there. However, at the moment, the most important thing is to try to bring about a political resolution to this problem so that the killing on all sides can stop.
The Lord Bishop of London
My Lords, I think that everybody recognises the complexity of the situation, but just over a month ago, the UN Security Council itself called unanimously for humanitarian pauses. What contribution have Her Majesty’s Government been able to make diplomatically pursuing the possibility of more humanitarian pauses to bring relief to some of the civilians caught up in the fight?
Baroness Northover
Again, that is a case in point. The right reverend Prelate makes a good point in referring to those humanitarian pauses which were politically agreed but not delivered. That is the challenge. This is a very complex situation with many groups fighting each other, and enormous efforts are being put in—not least by UN special envoy Brahimi at the moment—to try to push forward some kind of agreement, but it is immensely difficult.
The Earl of Listowel (CB)
My Lords, does the Minister agree that as welcome as the statement recently produced on humanitarian access was, the perception on the ground is that access to Syria is not being permitted as it needs to be? Will the Minister seek to encourage her colleagues that, no matter how frustrating it may be to deal with the authorities in Syria, in order to move further forward with greater humanitarian access, one needs to persevere in communicating with the senior Syrian leadership?
Baroness Northover
The noble Earl is right. The presidential statement called for unhindered humanitarian access, including the granting of visas and permits, which is something that the Syrian Government can do, and pressure is being put on them to do that.
Lord Cormack (Con)
My Lords, in response to the noble Earl’s question, is it not made rather difficult because we do not recognise the legitimacy, or even the existence, of the Syrian Government?
Children and Families Bill
Baroness Northover Excerpts(11 years ago)
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The Deputy Chairman of Committees (Lord Brougham and Vaux) (Con)
My Lords, welcome to the 11th day of Committee on the Children and Families Bill. The noble Baroness, Lady Northover, wishes to say a word.
Baroness Northover (LD)
My Lords, with the Chairman’s leave, I would like to remind everyone taking part in Committee proceedings today and on Wednesday that these are our last two days in Committee. The usual channels and all those involved are committed to that objective. To that end, we have agreed to sit to target this evening and on Wednesday, if necessary sitting later than our usual rising time by half an hour or so. Today’s target is to complete Amendment 266AZZZA.
Baroness Hughes of Stretford (Lab)
Could I just clarify that? I think what has been agreed by the usual channels is that we will sit until 8 pm—that is, an extra half an hour, not thereabouts and not to target.
Baroness Northover
I hear what the noble Baroness says and I am sure that the usual channels will also have heard what she says. I will send an e-mail and clarify if need be.
Clause 76: Repeal of local authority’s duty to assess sufficiency of childcare provision
Baroness Howarth of Breckland (CB)
My Lords, although I had not intended to speak on this section, I would like to raise one particular concern. Before I do that, I will add my concerns to those of the noble Baronesses raising the issue of repeal under Clause 76. Earlier, before we began the Committee, the noble Lord, Lord McColl, talked to me about whether a particular group of children should be given priority and whether we could find a way of doing that. I said that, if you try that, you will find that almost every group of children that local authorities currently deal with are a priority, because those are the only groups that they deal with at the moment. It is very difficult for local authorities at the moment to move into preventive work or into other areas.
If we have one piece of legislation for adults, which has the duty, and another piece of legislation for children, which does not have it, my great concern is that children will slip down the priority list in this particular area. I am not saying that they will not be protected—that will be followed up—but proper assessment for under-five provision will slip down the priority level. It has to, because that is the only way that local authorities can manage their finances and priority ratings. I hope that the Minister and the Government will look again at this repeal. I think that the way forward is to look at the regulation and the framework and to get that into an accurate package, which would take us forward.
The other area that concerns me—this is a probing question—is those children who have additional needs and who need to be placed in under-five daycare so that their parents can work or develop skills. I am thinking in particular of children with, say, autism or similar developmental issues and am really trying to probe how this fits with the government amendment. At the moment, a local authority may provide funding for a place, but if the parent wishes to make additional payments for an extra quality of service, the local authority will not pay because that would be a mixture of private and statutory funding—even if the organisation providing that service is a voluntary, not-for-profit organisation.
I take some responsibility because I suspect that, in the past, I was one of the people who pressed for the principle of not mixing private and statutory funding, but I do not think I ever saw it coming to a position where, as a parent, you could not give added quality to children in need. The difficulty has arisen because some parents have objected to having to pay—one organisation I know in particular may have to close its doors because it cannot manage the quality of care that they need to provide for these difficult children. This is really a probing question: are the Government prepared to look at mixing or is it an absolutely sacred principle that private and public funding should not be put together? I also support the other the noble Baronesses who put the other arguments so clearly.
Baroness Northover
My Lords, this is an important debate about the role of English local authorities in securing early-years provision free of charge for young children and about sufficient childcare. In responding, I will also speak to government Amendment 240R.
The Government are as determined as other noble Lords that parents should have a wide choice of early education and childcare places, and that places are of the highest quality possible. Clause 76 will remove the requirement on local authorities to assess the sufficiency of childcare provision every three years. We recognise the concerns raised by my noble friend Lady Tyler and the noble Baroness, Lady Hughes, and I hope that I can provide some reassurance.
There are two duties on local authorities relating to the sufficiency of childcare: the duty to secure sufficient childcare under Section 6 of the Childcare Act 2006; and the duty to make an assessment of sufficiency of childcare every three years under Section 11 of the same Act, which is what we have just been addressing. The first of these duties is paramount. The duty of the local authority to secure sufficiency of childcare remains in place; it is the other element that we are talking about here. We are clear that local authorities should take steps to ensure that parents can access the childcare they need.
To satisfy themselves that there is sufficient childcare in their area—my noble friend Lady Tyler is right—local authorities do indeed need to collect information on the availability of, and demand for, childcare. Our statutory guidance makes it clear that local authorities should report to elected members annually on the steps they are taking to address any gaps in childcare provision. The annual report should also be made available to parents, allowing them to hold local authorities to account for ensuring that there is high-quality, affordable childcare in their area. The noble Baroness, Lady Hughes, mentioned a simpler annual report. We are more in agreement here than perhaps it may have appeared from our initial discussions. There will need to be an assessment because those kinds of data are required, and there will need to be an annual report.
The decision to repeal the sufficiency assessment—that three-yearly, very lengthy document—was taken after public consultation. The majority of respondents supported the repeal and the proposals that local authorities should prepare and publish an annual report on the sufficiency of childcare. The noble Baroness, Lady Hughes, referred to that consultation and suggested that perhaps we did not ask whether the duty should be repealed. Perhaps I misunderstood her—it looks as if I did not—but the department did indeed ask this. The question was: “Do you support the repeal of Section 11 and the revocation of the supporting regulations?”. That was directly asked of people, and 62% supported it; only 10% said they did not.
The consultation took place between November 2010 and February 2012, and the Government published their response in May 2011; it is available on the Department for Education website. The feeling came through that what was needed was to ensure that there were sufficient places and that too much focus was perhaps going on this rather lengthy document, produced every three years, which required a lot of effort to put together and was not easy for parents to access, and so on.
No doubt in the first place the provision was made for the best possible reasons and I fully understand why it should be there, but the purpose is to try to secure sufficient childcare and to have a mechanism of putting pressure on local authorities to ensure that that happens. That is why the department is in favour of moving to an annual assessment and giving that annual report to the councillors who are accountable. I hope that noble Lords will be reassured.
The Countess of Mar (CB)
Perhaps I might ask the noble Baroness to check the dates she gave us for the consultation. It sounds as though the Government’s response came a year before the consultation was complete, if I heard her right.
Baroness Northover
The noble Countess is right. As I read that out, I was thinking, “My goodness, that is a long consultation—a very, very thorough consultation”. No doubt I may find that it was not quite like that and, if so, I will inform the noble Countess in a moment. I hope that the substance of what I am saying provides some reassurance.
Baroness Howarth of Breckland
It may be my lack of understanding, but I think that the concern is not that the assessment is being changed from the lengthy three-year bureaucratic document, with which I am familiar, but that the statutory responsibility has been changed to regulation. Is that correct?
Baroness Northover
Perhaps I may answer the noble Countess, Lady Mar. The consultation went from November 2010 to February 2011—which, I agree, is a much more normal length of time for a consultation.
Baroness Northover
I am very flattered. I will come back to the noble Countess in a moment very precisely on her point, because obviously it is very important.
Baroness Hughes of Stretford
Perhaps the noble Baroness will give way on a point of detail about the consultation. I understood that the Government did not test views on repealing the Section 11 duty. I understand that there were two questions: first, whether to move to an annual sufficiency assessment and, secondly, whether to remove the current Section 11 duty and the associated regulations altogether in one question. An analysis of the qualitative responses that people made showed that many people were very concerned about the current regulations, but they did not express a view about Section 11 as a duty in itself; they were more concerned about the onerous regulations.
Baroness Northover
I hear what the noble Baroness says. I have seen some of the responses and she rightly puts her finger on the concern about the document that was produced. Perhaps at the very least we can agree that the three-year assessment that was put in place—no doubt for extremely sound reasons—was not doing what was intended. What we seek to do here is to make sure that we have something that delivers what is required, which is the pressure on local authorities to make sure that they know what the provision is and that it is sufficient. Therefore, moving from three years to an annual assessment is important, as the noble Baroness agrees. We need something which is not so lengthy and dense that by the time it is produced three years later, many of those children will already be in school. The assessment needs to be a little more up to date than once every three years.
Baroness Hughes of Stretford
I am grateful to the Minister for her clarification. I think there is agreement on that particular proposal. Perhaps she could address the point that the noble Baroness, Lady Tyler, I and others made: namely, why do the Government want to repeal the Section 11 duty, which we think would send a very negative message to local authorities, rather than simply amend the regulations in the way in which she is describing?
Baroness Northover
I am happy to go through some other comments, which may help address those matters. If I do not adequately address them, I will be very happy to write a letter on all the points.
I have now got my papers in the right order. My noble friend Lady Tyler asked about good practice. The department would be happy to publicise any examples of good practice and local authority annual reports. Through the Children’s Partnership, the department runs a foundation years website which provides a range of guidance and good practice material to support early-years professionals. I also point out to my noble friend Lady Walmsley that the department collects and publishes a suite of data on local authority performance in the early years benchmarking tool. So information is held centrally as well, which helps inform both the Government and local authorities. Local authorities will still need to assess local sufficiency, and these proposals will make it less bureaucratic to do so. I hope that noble Lords will be willing to withdraw their opposition and will be reassured that local authorities will still need to assess the sufficiency of childcare provision and to account for it to elected members.
Government Amendment 240R allows new regulations to be made that affect the way local authorities meet their duty to secure early-years provision for young children. The amendment will allow the Government to impose a requirement on local authorities to meet this duty by funding early-years provision at any provider that meets the quality standards set out in regulations.
The department previously set out an expectation that local authorities should undertake their own assessment of a provider’s quality before funding it to deliver places. It seems to us that it does not make sense for the Government to require local authorities to make quality judgments about providers when Ofsted is undertaking a similar role. The noble Baroness, Lady Hughes, acknowledged that we have duplication here, but she was concerned that Ofsted’s assessments might take a while to take place, would therefore be out of date, and so on. Where local authorities have got concerns about a decline in quality since an inspection, they can make representations to Ofsted, which may inspect earlier than scheduled. Given that Ofsted is in place, however, it seems to us that the duplication did not make sense.
The intention is that in future, where a provider has received a “good” or “outstanding” inspection judgment from Ofsted, it should automatically receive funding from the local authority if a parent wants to send their child there. Currently, local authorities can also require providers to meet a variety of additional local conditions in order to receive funding. Some providers report that local authority improvement recommendations have conflicted with the views of Ofsted and that inconsistent requirements have presented challenges for providers operating in more than one area and looking to expand. This clause also allows regulations to be made that limit the nature of the conditions that can be imposed whenever a local authority funds an early-education place.
The noble Baroness, Lady Howarth, asked about top-up fees for children with SEN. As she pointed out, local authorities have a statutory duty to secure early education free of charge for young children, but she raised an important point. I will write to her on whether fees could be mixed in the way she talked about.
We intend to make regulations that ensure that local authorities will be able to place conditions on providers to ensure that they meet their responsibilities to meet the needs of disabled children, or children with SEN, to keep children safe and use government funding properly. Under the regulations, local authorities will also be able to set conditions that ensure funded places are completely free, so that no parent is denied access to their child’s funded place by having to pay a fee, and places will be delivered flexibly to meet parents’ needs. Of course, the noble Baroness will have noted that they have a particular responsibility to look after children with special needs. One would hope that the provision made would be appropriate and that the parents would not need to be topping up with extra fees. Nevertheless, I will write to the noble Baroness on that.
Local authorities will continue to have an important role to play in helping providers improve the quality of their provision. They will still be able to place conditions on providers judged less than “good”, requiring them to take the necessary steps to address issues raised by Ofsted at inspection. I hope that aspect will also reassure noble Lords.
Taken together, these changes will create a level playing field for all providers across the country. Nationally consistent criteria will make it easier for good providers to expand outside their local authority area and for new providers to enter the market. In particular, it will enable more childminders to deliver places, giving parents greater choice over their childcare options so that they can do what is best for their family. I urge noble Lords to support the government amendment.
I turn to Amendment 240S in the name of the noble Baroness, Lady Hughes. We absolutely share her aim that we should fund early-education places at the highest-quality providers—there is no doubt about that. The research evidence is clear that high-quality provision has the biggest impact on children’s development. Therefore, we are working very hard to drive up the quality of provision, following on from what the noble Baroness did in her role. She will also be aware of the challenges that government encounters in trying to do that, but we are taking that forward very vigorously. We are reforming the regulatory regime, including planning more rigorous and frequent inspections and a greater role for Her Majesty’s inspectors in quality-assuring those inspections.
To improve the skills and knowledge of those caring for and educating young children, we are introducing early-years teachers at graduate level and early-years educators at A-level standard. However, we do not think that enshrining in the Bill a quality threshold for funded places is the best way to achieve this. Placing a quality threshold in primary legislation would reduce the Government’s flexibility to raise the quality bar as the quality of available provision improves. It would also prevent the Government from easily adjusting the standard to reflect changes to the inspection framework; for example, if Ofsted decided to no longer have an inspection category labelled “good”. That kind of judgment is not usually put in primary legislation, as noble Lords will be aware.
I may not have addressed all the issues. I will just see if there are any other things I need to pick up. In answer to the question asked by the noble Baroness, Lady Hughes, about keeping the regulations, the Government’s view is that the statutory guidance is a more proportionate way of supporting local authorities in their sufficiency duty than the regulations, which could be bureaucratic. The guidance is in force and is available on the department’s website. I am happy to write to noble Lords to provide greater detail on that.
The noble Baroness, Lady Hughes, and my noble friend Lady Walmsley asked about funding inadequate providers. Local authorities retain the discretion in extraordinary circumstances to fund inadequate providers. For example, this would allow an authority to fund a provider judged inadequate because of a technicality, such as out-of-date policies that will be speedily rectified. Our guidance is clear, however, that authorities should withdraw funding from inadequate providers as soon as is reasonably practical if they fail for reasons of greater substance than the kind of instance to which I have just referred. I hope that that reassures the noble Baronesses.
I hope that noble Lords will be happy to support the government amendment in this group and will not press their own amendments, and will agree that this clause should stand part of the Bill.
Baroness Tyler of Enfield
My Lords, I am very grateful to my noble friend the Minister for her very helpful responses and the very constructive tone in which she gave them. I am also very grateful to other noble Lords who participated in this debate.
I think that there is a large measure of agreement on this issue. We all agree that no one wants unnecessary bureaucratic burdens on local authorities. We all agree that the Section 6 duty to secure the provision is of paramount importance. I think we can all see that having a report once a year rather than every three years is helpful. No one wants lengthy reports. Some of us have seen reports almost like telephone directories that do not seem to help very much. Those are the things on which we are all agreed.
Baroness Northover
“Discharge of authority’s duty to secure free early years provision
(1) Part 1 of the Childcare Act 2006 (general functions of local authorities in England in relation to childcare) is amended as follows.
(2) After section 7 (duty to secure early years provision free of charge in accordance with regulations) insert—
“7A Discharge of duty under section 7
(1) Regulations may require an English local authority to discharge its duty to a young child under section 7 by making arrangements which secure that an early years provider chosen by a parent of the child provides the early years provision to which the child is entitled in cases where—
(a) the early years provider is willing to provide it, and(b) the early years provider is also willing to accept—(i) any terms as to the payments which would be made to him or her in respect of the provision, and(ii) any requirements which would be imposed in respect of it.(2) Arrangements made by an authority to satisfy any requirement imposed under subsection (1) may be made with an early years provider or with an early years childminder agency or any other person who is able to arrange for an early years provider to provide early years provision.
(3) The regulations may provide that such a requirement—
(a) applies only if the early years provider is of a prescribed description;(b) applies only if the early years provision provided by the early years provider is of a prescribed description;(c) does not apply in prescribed circumstances.(4) The regulations may provide that arrangements made by an authority for the purpose of complying with such a requirement must include provision allowing the local authority to terminate the arrangements in prescribed circumstances.
(5) In this section—
“early years childminder agency” and “early years provider” have the same meanings as in Part 3;
“parent” has the same meaning as in section 2.”
(3) After section 9 (arrangements between local authority and childcare providers) insert—
“9A Arrangements made by local authorities for the purposes of section 7
Regulations may provide that arrangements made by an English local authority for the purpose of discharging its duty under section 7—(a) may impose requirements on the person with whom the arrangements are made only if the requirements are of a prescribed description;(b) may not impose requirements of a prescribed description on the person with whom the arrangements are made.””
Baroness Northover
“Young carers
(1) In Part 3 of the Children Act 1989, after section 17 insert—
“17ZA Young carers’ needs assessments: England
(1) A local authority in England must assess whether a young carer within their area has needs for support and, if so, what those needs are, if—
(a) it appears to the authority that the young carer may have needs for support, or(b) the authority receive a request from the young carer or a parent of the young carer to assess the young carer’s needs for support.(2) An assessment under subsection (1) is referred to in this Part as a “young carer’s needs assessment”.
(3) In this Part “young carer” means a person under 18 who provides or intends to provide care for another person (but this is qualified by section 17ZB(3)).
(4) Subsection (1) does not apply in relation to a young carer if the local authority have previously carried out a care-related assessment of the young carer in relation to the same person cared for.
(5) But subsection (1) does apply (and so a young carer’s needs assessment must be carried out) if it appears to the authority that the needs or circumstances of the young carer or the person cared for have changed since the last care-related assessment.
(6) “Care-related assessment” means—
(a) a young carer’s needs assessment;(b) an assessment under any of the following—(i) section 1 of the Carers (Recognition and Services) Act 1995;(ii) section 1 of the Carers and Disabled Children Act 2000;(iii) section 4(3) of the Community Care (Delayed Discharges) Act 2003.(7) A young carer’s needs assessment must include an assessment of whether it is appropriate for the young carer to provide, or continue to provide, care for the person in question, in the light of the young carer’s needs for support, other needs and wishes.
(8) A local authority, in carrying out a young carer’s needs assessment, must have regard to—
(a) the extent to which the young carer is participating in or wishes to participate in education, training or recreation, and(b) the extent to which the young carer works or wishes to work.(9) A local authority, in carrying out a young carer’s needs assessment, must involve—
(a) the young carer,(b) the young carer’s parents, and(c) any person whom the young carer or a parent of the young carer requests the authority to involve.(10) A local authority that have carried out a young carer’s needs assessment must give a written record of the assessment to—
(a) the young carer,(b) the young carer’s parents, and(c) any person to whom the young carer or a parent of the young carer requests the authority to give a copy.(11) Where the person cared for is under 18, the written record must state whether the local authority consider him or her to be a child in need.
(12) A local authority in England must take reasonable steps to identify the extent to which there are young carers within their area who have needs for support.
17ZB Young carers’ needs assessments: supplementary
(1) This section applies for the purposes of section 17ZA.
(2) “Parent”, in relation to a young carer, includes—
(a) a parent of the young carer who does not have parental responsibility for the young carer, and(b) a person who is not a parent of the young carer but who has parental responsibility for the young carer.(3) A person is not a young carer if the person provides or intends to provide care—
(a) under or by virtue of a contract, or(b) as voluntary work.(4) But in a case where the local authority consider that the relationship between the person cared for and the person under 18 providing or intending to provide care is such that it would be appropriate for the person under 18 to be regarded as a young carer, that person is to be regarded as such (and subsection (3) is therefore to be ignored in that case).
(5) The references in section 17ZA and this section to providing care include a reference to providing practical or emotional support.
(6) Where a local authority—
(a) are required to carry out a young carer’s needs assessment, and(b) are required or have decided to carry out some other assessment of the young carer or of the person cared for;the local authority may, subject to subsection (7), combine the assessments.(7) A young carer’s needs assessment may be combined with an assessment of the person cared for only if the young carer and the person cared for agree.
(8) The Secretary of State may by regulations make further provision about carrying out a young carer’s needs assessment; the regulations may, in particular—
(a) specify matters to which a local authority is to have regard in carrying out a young carer’s needs assessment;(b) specify matters which a local authority is to determine in carrying out a young carer’s needs assessment;(c) make provision about the manner in which a young carer’s needs assessment is to be carried out;(d) make provision about the form a young carer’s needs assessment is to take.(9) The Secretary of State may by regulations amend the list in section 17ZA(6)(b) so as to—
(a) add an entry,(b) remove an entry, or(c) vary an entry.17ZC Consideration of young carers’ needs assessments
A local authority that carry out a young carer’s needs assessment must consider the assessment and decide—(a) whether the young carer has needs for support in relation to the care which he or she provides or intends to provide;(b) if so, whether those needs could be satisfied (wholly or partly) by services which the authority may provide under section 17; and(c) if they could be so satisfied, whether or not to provide any such services in relation to the young carer.”(2) In section 104 of the Children Act 1989 (regulations and orders)—
(a) in subsections (2) and (3A) (regulations within subsection (3B) or (3C) not subject to annulment but to be approved in draft) before “(3B)” insert “(3AA),”, and(b) after subsection (3A) insert— “(3AA) Regulations fall within this subsection if they are regulations made in the exercise of the power conferred by section 17ZB(9).””
Baroness Hughes of Stretford
I would be grateful if the Minister could clarify the scope and impact of Amendments 241B, in particular, and 273A. This is a genuine question. I have read the note the Minister put out saying that the amendments provide clarification. I am talking about the right amendments, am I not? I beg your pardon; I misheard.
Baroness Northover
“Duty to support pupils with medical conditions
(1) The appropriate authority for a school to which this section applies must make arrangements for supporting pupils at the school with medical conditions.
(2) In meeting the duty in subsection (1) the appropriate authority must have regard to guidance issued by the Secretary of State.
(3) The duty in subsection (1) does not apply in relation to a pupil who is a young child for the purposes of Part 3 of the Childcare Act 2006 (regulation of provision of childcare in England).
(4) This section applies to the following schools in England—
(a) a maintained school;(b) an Academy school;(c) an alternative provision Academy;(d) a pupil referral unit.(5) In this section—
“the appropriate authority for a school” means—
(a) in the case of a maintained school, the governing body,(b) in the case of an Academy, the proprietor, and (c) in the case of a pupil referral unit, the managing committee;“maintained school” means—
(a) a community, foundation or voluntary school, within the meaning of the School Standards and Framework Act 1998, or(b) a community or foundation special school, within the meaning of that Act.(6) The Education Act 1996 and this section are to be read as if this section were included in that Act.”
Baroness Northover
“Local authority functions relating to children etc: intervention
(1) Section 497A of the Education Act 1996 (which confers power on the Secretary of State to secure the proper performance of local authority education functions, and is applied to social services functions relating to children by section 50 of the Children Act 2004 and to functions relating to childcare by section 15 of the Childcare Act 2006) is amended in accordance with subsection (2).
(2) After subsection (4A) insert—
“(4AA) So far as is appropriate in consequence of a direction given under subsection (4A), a reference (however expressed) in an enactment, instrument or other document to a local authority is to be read as a reference to the person by whom the function is exercisable.
(4AB) Subsection (4AC) applies if a direction given under subsection (4A) expires or is revoked without being replaced.
(4AC) So far as is appropriate in consequence of the expiry or revocation, a reference (however expressed) in an instrument or other document to the person by whom the function was exercisable is to be read as a reference to the local authority to which the direction was given.”
(3) In section 15 of the Local Government Act 1999 (Secretary of State’s power to secure compliance with requirements of Part 1 of that Act) after subsection (6) insert—
“(6A) So far as is appropriate in consequence of a direction given under subsection (6)(a), a reference (however expressed) in an enactment, instrument or other document to a best value authority is to be read as a reference to the person by whom the function is exercisable.
(6B) Subsection (6C) applies if a direction given under subsection (6)(a) expires or is revoked without being replaced.
(6C) So far as is appropriate in consequence of the expiry or revocation, a reference (however expressed) in an instrument or other document to the person by whom the function was exercisable is to be read as a reference to the best value authority to which the direction was given.””
Baroness Northover
I think that this is the amendment the noble Baroness was thinking about. I shall speak also to Amendment 273A, which is a technical amendment to bring the substantive amendment into force two months after Royal Assent. These amendments clarify the law in relation to the Secretary of State’s power to intervene in failing local authorities under the 1996 Education Act and the Children Act 2004.
In most cases, as noble Lords will know, government intervention in local authorities rests on the use of non-statutory improvement notices or, less often, on statutory directions to ensure that locally led improvement is effective. There are currently five local authorities in England under statutory direction, and 20 subject to improvement notices. The Secretary of State’s ability to remove functions entirely from a local authority is essential only in exceptional cases of persistent underperformance that put at risk the welfare of vulnerable children over an extended period.
Parliament agreed that those powers were necessary when it passed important provisions in the Education Act 1996 and the Children Act 2004. That legislation allows the Secretary of State to direct that where a local authority fails to perform its children’s services functions to an adequate standard or at all, those functions can be exercised directly by the Secretary of State or by a third-party nominee. For these powers to be exercised effectively, it is essential that the Secretary of State or the third-party nominee can fulfil all the functions required to keep vulnerable children safe and intervene to improve their life chances.
However, although this legislation is in place and its intention is clear, it leaves room for potential legal argument over how the courts would view a direction under subsection (4A). This is because, in introducing the provisions in the 1996 Act and the 2004 Act, Parliament did not clarify in legislation all the powers that are consequential upon those provisions. It is not clear beyond doubt, for instance, whether the family court would feel able to recognise a third-party nominee as if it were a local authority in care or adoption proceedings. There might also be some doubt as to whether the chief inspector had the powers necessary to inspect and report on a nominee’s performance of the local authority’s functions.
We propose, therefore, to clarify the relevant legislation to put these questions beyond doubt. This is important to enable the Secretary of State to intervene not just where the most serious social care failures occur but in the interests of certainty for children who may be taken into care or placed for adoption. In order that these powers can be exercised effectively, the new clause makes it clear that where functions are being exercised directly by the Secretary of State himself or by a third -party nominee, the Secretary of State or his or her nominee would, for example, be able to apply for or be named in care orders under Section 31 of the Children Act 1989; exercise the functions set out in Section 92(2) of the Adoption and Children Act 2002; and exercise certain other court-related functions in the same way that the local authority can. This is clearly the intention and purpose behind the provisions in the Education Act 1996 and the Children Act 2004, but in such an important area that is critical to the safety of children it is essential that there is no room for uncertainty. This new clause therefore clarifies existing powers. It does not seek to expand them.
The amendment also makes it clear that, following a direction that local authority functions be exercised by the Secretary of State or a third-party nominee, other relevant references in legislation to a “local authority” should be read as references also to the Secretary of State or a nominee. For example, in relation to the chief inspector’s inspection functions and powers, such as under Sections 136 to 141 of the Education and Inspections Act 2006, the amendment will ensure that the performance of these functions by the Secretary of State or his nominee should also be subject and open to inspection in the same way as when those functions are performed by a local authority. We do not want to leave any uncertainty over Ofsted’s power to inspect children’s services in whatever form they might be delivered. I beg to move.
Baroness Hughes of Stretford
Will the Minister clarify a couple of points about the potential scope and impact of the amendment? I can readily understand what she is saying about the need for any third-party nominee that the Secretary of State appoints to take over the administration of children’s services to be recognised by the courts in any orders for which it needs to apply to protect the safety of particular children. Because these powers have been around for some time and have been exercised in relation to a number of local authorities by this and previous Governments, can the Minister provide an example of any problem that has led to the amendment being necessary?
Secondly and more fundamentally, and because in the reference back to parent legislation it is hard to discern scope and impact, will she clarify what proposed new subsections (6A), (6B) and (6C), mean in practice? I am not clear about why the reference here is to “a best value authority” and whether that means that the powers in the amendment under which the Secretary of State can intervene in a local authority go far beyond applying to a local authority that is failing in the performance of its duty. May it, in fact, be some reference to a local authority that is not achieving best value, according to someone’s criteria?
I know I am not explaining that terribly clearly myself, but it seems that the wording here potentially widens the scope of these powers beyond their use in relation to what the Minister described at the outset as authorities that have failed and have persistently failed. This seems to be a much more generalised category of authority. I wonder whether she could put on record the department’s understanding of this issue in relation to proposed new subsections (6A), (6B) and (6C).
Baroness Northover
As the noble Baroness noted, these powers have been there but have not been used. I want to be extremely clear that this amendment speaks only to the very few cases where the capacity of local authorities to improve the quality of their children’s services is so seriously in doubt as to require them to be delivered by the Secretary of State or a third-party nominee. As she notes, we have never had to use this power.
Some examples may help to clarify the point. In the Isle of Wight, we asked Hampshire County Council to take over the delivery of services. In Doncaster, where there were huge problems, we considered using the power, but the council is now working with us to establish a trust that is clearly separate from the local authority. Therefore, the Secretary of State has decided not to remove the council’s statutory children’s services functions, and that will remain the position as long as good and constructive progress continues to be made. In both those cases, the decision was made that it was not necessary to use the powers that we are clarifying here. Nevertheless, given that those powers are there, and that it was envisaged in the 1996 and 2004 Acts that there could be instances where they needed to be used, we feel that there needs to be absolute legal clarity about the full range of powers that Parliament intended.
I re-emphasise that the powers we are talking about here in relation to children’s services would be used only in cases of extreme failure. As I say, not even in the two cases that I have cited, where things were extremely problematic, as the noble Baroness will know, were the powers used.
Baroness Hughes of Stretford
Can the Minister possibly write to me about this? I am particularly interested in proposed new subsections (6A), (6B) and (6C). She said that the powers would be used only in cases of extreme failure. Is that extreme failure in the delivery of services or is it failure, on somebody’s definition, to achieve “best value”? In other words, it is not clear whether the reference here to the Local Government Act 1999 and the references to “best value” authorities go beyond failure in service delivery and performance and could actually be a wider and more general definition of a local authority failing to deliver best value.
Baroness Northover
Perhaps the best thing would be for me to reiterate that the Secretary of State’s ability to remove functions entirely from a local authority is essential only in exceptional cases of persistent underperformance that puts at risk the welfare of vulnerable children over an extended period. I hope that that reassures her.
Baroness Massey of Darwen
I apologise for addressing my noble friend Lady Jones as my noble friend Lady Hughes throughout my speech. They are not the same person.
Baroness Northover
My Lords, we all merge into one after a while. I start by emphasising to noble Lords that the Government believe that children’s centres provide a very important service and have a vital role to play in supporting outcomes for children and families.
I turn, first, to the issue of data sharing. We agree on the importance of information sharing. Clearly, professionals should work together to identify families who are in need of support and offer them that support. Indeed, the Department for Education’s statutory guidance for children’s centres is clear that health services and local authorities should share information, such as live birth data, with children’s centres on a regular basis where doing so enables professionals to work better with one another to provide services for families. Moreover, current legislation makes it clear that information can already be shared where there are local agreements and processes in place that meet the legal requirements about confidentiality, consent and security of information. Naturally, we wish to support information sharing between professionals. In order to encourage this, my colleagues at the Department of Health have undertaken to liaise with NHS England and other partners to promote the sharing of live birth data and to explore the practical issues.
Baroness Jones of Whitchurch
Will the Minister say a little more about the Jo Swinson task-and-finish group? I understand that culture and professional practice were barriers to data sharing, but did any positive recommendations come out of that group that the Government are intending to take forward, or just a list of barriers that make these things more difficult?
Baroness Northover
I think it would be best if I wrote to the noble Baroness with further details and copied the letter to other noble Lords, who will clearly be very interested in what the group reported.
The Earl of Listowel
My Lords, I thank all noble Lords who took part in this debate. I particularly thank the Minister for her careful, sympathetic and encouraging response. It is good to hear that Councillor Simmonds has been meeting her department with regard to this matter and about the work that has been undertaken through 4Children to circulate information about this. I know that the Children’s Minister occasionally writes to local authorities on important matters. Perhaps this could be kept in mind, especially if we do not make the progress that we hope we will make in this area.
I omitted to pay tribute to Andrea Leadsom MP in my opening remarks. She is chair of the All-Party Group for Sure Start Children’s Centres which produced this report, and she tabled an amendment very similar, perhaps identical, to this in the other place, so she started the ball rolling on this.
The noble Baroness, Lady Massey, talked about information sharing. I remember working in a play scheme five or six years ago. I worked with a boy who was just about to be adopted. We did not know he was going to be adopted. He behaved appallingly, and it would have been so easy for us to come down hard on him because we did not know that he had just come out of care and was moving into an adoptive family. It is so important that people on the front line know what is going on with a family or with a child. How can they react sensibly otherwise?
I take what the noble Baroness says about the culture, the people and things like what is being done for social work. One hopes that the appointment of the Chief Social Worker will give front-line professionals the confidence to share information. Occasionally there are inhibitions about sharing information for legal reasons, and that may apply to some of this information; I am not too sure. I will look into that, and if it is an issue, I will come back to the Minister. I am grateful to the Minister for what she said. I will take it away and think about it. I beg leave to withdraw the amendment.
Baroness Benjamin (LD)
My Lords, I, too, strongly support the amendments of my noble friend Lady Walmsley.
I will speak first to Amendment 243. For many years I was a school governor. One of my roles was that of child protection officer, for which I had to undergo training provided by the local council. These training sessions were attended by people across the borough, with responsibilities not just in schools but in community centres, Saturday schools and churches. At one such session I realised the worrying extent of superstition in these latter environments, involving children who, it was believed, were possessed by evil spirits.
The protection officers who also attended the training asked for better policies and advice to be put in place in establishments other than schools. They highlighted the need for training to protect children from what they believed was serious physical and mental abuse, driven by traditional superstition and sometimes religious beliefs. This abuse punished children who showed strong will or who misbehaved, perhaps because of learning difficulties, or because of conditions such as autism or dyslexia, or undiagnosed conditions which parents and families might not have been aware of or familiar with.
I also support Amendment 246. It has been brought to my attention, for some years now and from people across the country, that many children have had to endure corporal punishment and beatings in part-time educational institutions if they do not remember or learn work set for them, or achieve what is expected of them. This cruelty has to stop. We must not ignore any plea to safeguard all children, no matter where they are, what communities they live in, or where they come from. I therefore wholeheartedly support these amendments and hope that the Minister will put in place measures to protect these unfortunate children who have had to endure such awful and highly illegal abuse and cruelty.
Baroness Northover
My Lords, these amendments both relate to safeguarding specific groups of children. I will turn first to Amendment 243. While of course we believe that people should be free to express their views, I assure my noble friend Lady Walmsley and others that what is absolutely not acceptable is where expression of belief is intended to or causes harm to a child. My noble friends have made very powerful cases. Sometimes children are harmed by their parents or others. As a society we must be satisfied that we have the criminal offences to prosecute those who commit such behaviour. The Government have a key role to play, as do voluntary and other organisations working in the sector. We commend them for their work in shining a spotlight on this problem.
It is essential to raise awareness among the relevant communities and faith groups, and also among social workers and other practitioners—as the noble Baroness, Lady Howarth, said—who may come into contact with families where such accusations have been made. It is only through awareness of the potential threat posed to a child’s well-being by such accusations that families, communities and practitioners can be empowered to prevent harm from taking place and, failing that, to act with confidence in reporting concerns to the relevant authorities.
At this point I would like to look at the criminal law. My noble friend made a powerful case that she thought that these kinds of witchcraft cases were excluded. The noble Baroness, Lady Howarth, said the opposite. We have considered the amendment carefully and we do not believe that it is necessary. We agree with the noble Baroness, Lady Howarth, in this regard. This is quite simply about child protection and human rights. If we cannot include these kinds of cases, what does our child protection mean? Although existing legislation does not specifically mention communication of a belief that a child is possessed by spirits, the current offence of child neglect already includes conduct likely to cause a child unnecessary suffering or injury to health. In addition, conduct not caught by the Section 1 offence could be caught by other offences, depending on the circumstances of the case.
For example, any person, not just a child’s parents or carers, who caused physical or psychiatric harm to a child—which I think is what my noble friends Lady Walmsley and Lady Brinton are talking about—could be prosecuted for the offence of assault. Similarly, any person whose words or behaviour cause serious alarm or distress to a child, or made the child fear that violence could be used against them, could be prosecuted under Sections 4 or 4A of the Public Order Act 1986 —or, if the behaviour formed part of a course of conduct, it could constitute an offence under the Protection from Harassment Act 1997.
In addition, any person who encourages or assists such conduct could be prosecuted as a secondary participant, or on the basis of an offence under Part 2 of the Serious Crime Act 2007. For example, a religious leader who encourages or assists parents or others to abuse or neglect a child, in the belief that the child is possessed by evil spirits, could be guilty of an offence. We must ensure that our child protection policy is overarching, and includes cases such as these and all other manifestations of child abuse.
Lord Storey
I understand the point my noble friend makes about the reluctance of parents to report abuses. Does that not indicate that the law needs to be changed so that corporal punishment is not allowed in any setting? What will happen if certain settings refuse to sign the code of conduct? What sanctions have we got?
Baroness Northover
As I mentioned, this is a voluntary code. We are developing it and taking it forward. I am well aware that my noble friends may feel that that may not immediately go as far as they might wish, but I hope that they will welcome a move in the right direction. Let us see how we can take this forward. We need to make sure that a number of these organisations begin to sign up to this, because that is what will make a difference as they change the way they do things in relation to children in their care. We need to move things forward in a number of different ways. We will keep this under review and see how it is working. No doubt noble Lords will wish to probe to see how it is working out.
Baroness Walmsley
I thank the Minister for her comprehensive reply to all noble Lords who have spoken in the debate. I think we have succeeded in highlighting the issue. On Amendment 243, I particularly thank the noble Baroness, Lady Howarth, and pay tribute to all her work on this subject.
It is quite clear that within the communities that are affected by witch branding, there are differences of opinion about what would and would not be helpful. None of us is saying that working with the communities and making them aware that this is child abuse is a bad thing. Of course it is a good thing. I just do not think it is quite enough for some people.
The noble Baroness, Lady Howarth, talked about the existing law, as did the Minister. She said it is quite enough to catch people who abuse children in this way. What I am talking about is early intervention, if you like. Although once a child is physically abused, all kinds of laws have been broken and people can be charged on that basis, what I would like to get absolutely clear from the Minister is an acceptance that telling a child that they are possessed by evil spirits is child abuse. It causes the child enormous mental trauma, and you just do not know how that will affect them over many years. The Minister said a great deal about that amendment, so I will go away and read Hansard very carefully to try to find out whether there was an acceptance that simply telling a child before you lay a hand on them that they are possessed is child abuse.
The Minister mentioned a number of laws under which somebody might be charged with child abuse for doing that sort of thing, but I wonder how many cases there have been. How many people have actually been charged and imprisoned for that? Do communities and parents really understand that simply telling a child that is enough to qualify as child abuse, and that it should be reported and the child should be given special protection? Will my noble friend write and tell me what sort of guidance there is for social workers on this particular issue?
I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Lister, and my noble friend Lord Storey and others who supported Amendment 246. My difficulty with what the Minister said is that you can charge and imprison somebody only when the case is reported. One of the major problems is the reluctance of parents to come forward and tell the authorities that the child is being abused, perhaps particularly if the abuse is happening in a place of faith instruction. The Under-Secretary of State for Children and Families, Edward Timpson, has been very open to discussions with me, as the Minister said. I am quite sure that he, like me, would like to iron out this sort of practice once and for all.
However, a voluntary code of conduct just will not do. Would a code of conduct do in the comprehensive school down the road? Would it do in the primary school round the corner? No, it would not. Parliament said a long time ago that a code of conduct for teachers was not good enough in those settings. I am afraid that it is not good enough in a place of part-time education, either. I shall undoubtedly keep on badgering Ministers about this until the law is implemented. A piece of legislation was passed, but it is no use if it is not implemented. It needs implementing in order to stop this. It is not going to be a magic bullet—I know that. Neither of my amendments would be a magic bullet, but they would contribute towards moving us to a completely different situation.
I will go back to Amendment 243. The noble Baroness, Lady Howarth, talked about Africa. I am not suggesting that, just because a number of African countries have changed the law, things are all wonderful. They absolutely are not; they are horrendous. The fact is that it is very early days in those countries for the laws that have been put in place. When you have a situation where these beliefs and activities are as entrenched as they are in some of these countries—much worse than they are here—it will take years for the change in the law to have any effect. I do not accept that point.
Baroness Northover
My Lords, we have been given permission to go on until 8 pm, as I announced at the beginning of this Sitting, because we are running behind in the consideration of this Bill. I am acutely aware that the staff of Hansard need to work beyond their normal hours to do that. Therefore, we will need to finish at 8 pm. I realise that a number of noble Lords are here specifically for the next two groups and that they have helpfully combined them so that the subject matter can be addressed. My initial feeling was that if everybody was very brief, we might be able to get through. My sense now is that we may have to break in the middle of the debate. We will see how we get on.
Lord Ribeiro (Con)
My Lords, I hear my name mentioned and I think I ought to say something very briefly. Your Lordships are influenced only by evidence. The evidence following the legislation in 2006 in Scotland and 2007 in England has already shown measurable effects in improving healthcare, particularly among non-smoking bar workers, in whom one study found an 89% reduction in cotinine concentration, which is a specific marker for tobacco smoke exposure.
That benefit should not be restricted to bar workers but should be the right of children who find themselves confined in cars where adults are smoking. I support this amendment very strongly. I hope that my noble friend the Minister will be minded to consider it. I realise that the Government have a programme for behavioural change and education and may wish to pursue that. The research, however, points to the fact that there is an improvement if we reduce second-hand smoke.
Baroness Northover
My words in front of me say that this may be a convenient moment for the Committee to adjourn. I know it is not. I am very grateful to noble Lords for abbreviating what they had to say. I am extremely grateful to our Hansard colleagues for staying on beyond their allotted time. I am sure that we will come back to this on Wednesday, but I am afraid that I will have to adjourn the Committee.
Philippines: Emergency Aid
Baroness Northover Excerpts(11 years ago)
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Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what action they are taking to get emergency aid to the people of the Philippines.
Baroness Northover (LD)
My Lords, Her Majesty’s Government have so far committed £10 million to support relief efforts in the Philippines. This includes rapid funding for non-governmental organisations, emergency shelter and household items and the deployment of public health experts. HMS “Daring” will also redeploy to the affected region in order to support relief efforts. A UK team in Manila is guiding the UK’s response.
Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean (Lab)
My Lords, I thank the Minister for that response. This natural disaster looks like being one of the worst to have been experienced worldwide in the past decade. Does the Minister really believe that £10 million is sufficient, given that there are 800,000 people in immediate and dire need of water, medical supplies and food? Can she give us an assurance that this figure will be kept under constant review? I understand that HMS “Daring” is on the way and I think that a C17 is being deployed, but there will be a need for vehicles on the ground to get to the isolated communities that those big transport carriers cannot reach. Will the noble Baroness also tell us what advice the Foreign Office is giving to UK nationals who may be in difficulty in the Philippines? What advice are they able to give people in this country who have family members or loved ones in the Philippines about whom they have very understandable anxieties?
Baroness Northover
I thank the noble Baroness for asking this extremely important Question. There is a dedicated team at the moment working continuously on this in Whitehall and things are constantly under review. The noble Baroness mentioned a number of things that we are doing. I shall expand on the points about vehicles. She is quite right that we need to get to some of the affected areas and there are flights going to the Philippines. Two flights are going in at the moment and three more cargo flights will go from Dubai shortly. We are delivering 4x4 vehicles to get to these areas and the noble Baroness mentioned the C17s. Noble Lords will probably be aware that the United Nations has just launched an appeal for $301 million. All the numbers are under review. We have published a Written Ministerial Statement today, but I should point out that it mentions that 4.3 million people have been affected by what is the strongest ever tropical cyclone on record. The figure is now 6.9 million people, and no doubt it will increase.
Baroness Falkner of Margravine (LD)
My Lords, given that the Prime Minister is leading our delegation to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Sri Lanka imminently, what discussions will he have with other heads, particularly those from countries in the region such as India, Singapore and Malaysia, which could provide timely logistical support? Of course, Brunei Darussalam could help with financial aid. Will the Commonwealth get behind the relief effort as well?
Baroness Northover
I am sure that all countries, and certainly those that are close by, will wish to help. Our colleague, the noble Baroness, Lady Amos, who is the head of UN OCHA, has just arrived in Manila. The Government of the Philippines are in overall control of what is happening, although of course they are working closely with the United Nations. Our NGOs are being co-ordinated by the Disasters Emergency Committee. It is extremely important that everyone works well together, and for that to extend internationally as well as nationally.
Lord Collins of Highbury (Lab)
My Lords, anyone who has seen the distressing pictures on the TV and in the newspapers today will understand the need for urgent relief, and I certainly welcome the Government’s action. I also share the concern of my noble friend Lady Symons that the amount of money needs to be kept under constant review. However, I have another point that I want to focus on. Will the Government combine their efforts with the international community to commit to longer-term aid and support? While there are short-term concerns, it will be a tough job for the country to recover fully and ensure that people can get back their livelihoods.
Baroness Northover
The noble Lord of course knows that the United Kingdom has a long-term commitment, which is why we have committed 0.7% of our GNI to aid. He is quite right to emphasise the need for long-term reconstruction. One of the lessons that came out of the report penned by my noble friend Lord Ashdown was that when bringing in aid in this sort of circumstance, one needs also to look at long-term reconstruction. However, right now we need to deliver immediate assistance to people in the form of shelters, water supplies and so on. I note that we are also bringing in solar lanterns with built-in mobile phone chargers because the need for communication is absolutely essential in these circumstances. However, we are well aware of the need to ensure that reconstruction looks to the long term.
Lord Cormack (Con)
My Lords, after Haiti, the tsunami and now this appallingly tragic and devastating catastrophe, is there not a case for the Government to have a larger contingency fund within the aid budget? Some of us are a little concerned that nations which have space programmes are helped, as are nations whose regimes are not beyond the accusation of corruption. We need a much larger contingency fund so that not only can we go in quickly with large sums, we can also deal with what the noble Lord, Lord Collins, talked about—the aftermath.
Baroness Northover
It was in the light of the Humanitarian Emergency Response Review by the noble Lord, Lord Ashdown, that we set up the Rapid Response Facility, which has been brought into operation here. Money is set aside for just this kind of situation because clearly that is important.
Perhaps I may come back to a question asked by the noble Baroness, Lady Symons, about FCO advice, which I do not think I answered at that point. The FCO is advising against all travel to the Philippines, and the embassy in Manila is working to support UK nationals in the country.
Lord Judd (Lab)
My Lords, in the context of absolutely indispensable international co-ordination, does the Minister accept that what has been demonstrated over and over again in situations of this kind is the vital importance of local knowledge to the reconstruction effort as well as for short-term relief? A number of distinguished and effective NGOs in this country have been working in the Philippines for a long time. Have they already been consulted and how can we make the most effective use of their assistance?
Baroness Northover
That is why it is important that the Government of the Philippines are in overall charge of this. The noble Lord will be aware that in some circumstances the Government of a particular country are knocked out by whatever disaster occurs, but the Government of the Philippines ordered mass evacuation. They took all sorts of measures to try to reduce the impact of the disaster, but it was an unprecedented typhoon. They have the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, which has been co-ordinating aid. Internationally, and certainly within the United Kingdom, we are well aware of the great importance of making sure that what happens now and thereafter is something that makes sense within the country and that can be best determined within the country.
Lord Howell of Guildford (Con)
My Lords, my noble friend mentioned the noble Baroness, Lady Amos, the former Leader of the House. Will she accept how many of us appreciate the immensely valuable work that she is doing in her post at the United Nations, particularly in this crisis? My noble friend Lady Falkner also mentioned the current Commonwealth meeting in Colombo. Is she aware, as I am sure she is, that the Chinese and the Japanese—not members of the Commonwealth, of course—are sending enormous delegations to the business forum in Colombo? Will that be an opportunity to remind them that, as aspiring world powers and key players in the international landscape, they too have a task—which I am sure they can be encouraged to perform—to bring the maximum help of their enormous economic power to the Philippines, to which they are considerably nearer than we are?
Baroness Northover
My noble friend makes some very important points. We owe a great deal to the noble Baroness, Lady Amos. She is formidable in making sure that she gets assistance from wherever she requires it, as she has sought to do in the case of Syria. I am sure that the points that he has made will be picked up.
Children and Families Bill
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Lord Storey (LD)
We all want the same thing, and on Report I shall be interested to hear what the Minister has to say. I have current examples of young people who have gone to university, a young girl with cerebral palsy being one. My personal experience is that they have been very well supported by the universities, and all credit to them for giving that tremendous support. If we have established an education, health and care plan post-higher education, it just seems sensible to me, in my innocent way, if the requirements in that plan are carried through for the student when they go into higher education. I can appreciate that there might be slight delays because of the timescale of applying and getting to know and getting to grips with the university, but it seems common sense that if a young person has special needs, whatever they are, and they are contained in the plan, then the plan should be carried forward with them and continued into higher education. That seems simple and it would help the student a great deal.
Baroness Northover (LD)
My Lords, I thank noble Lords for this stimulating and important debate, and I thank my noble friend Lord Lingfield for initiating it. We all very much agree on what we are trying to do here, and I am very grateful to him for emphasising that these are probing amendments, testing why we are doing things as we suggest here.
We share his ambition and that of other noble Lords that there should indeed be a seamless transition of support between school and higher education. We share noble Lords’ ambition that young people with SEN and disabilities should reach their full potential, including securing a place at university where that is an agreed goal and is appropriate. However, we do not believe that bringing higher education institutions into the framework of this Bill will help us to further that ambition. My noble friend Lady Brinton very much touched on that when she emphasised that this is about the local offer. Exactly how this would be applied as far as higher education is concerned is slightly different.
Higher education institutions are independent and autonomous organisations, responsible for all decisions on student admissions. When young people take up a place in higher education, they start a new phase of education—one in which they will be expected to develop a different approach to learning. Universities, not local authorities, are therefore best placed to support young people through this transition. However, I shall come back to the transition point in a minute.
Higher education courses will vary greatly in terms of content, delivery and assessment across institutions and subjects. Local authorities have no part in providing or commissioning higher education, and are unlikely to have the skills or experience to write a plan to suit the specific nature of the course being studied or the approach of the university.
As Universities UK says in its briefing on these amendments:
“The level of specialist knowledge required in assessing support needs for students on particular degree courses can be extensive, and is best carried out within the institutions delivering those courses. Universities UK would not want to see this system supplanted or duplicated by a local authority-based system”.
Of course, higher education institutions come under the Equality Act, like everything else. They are responsible for complying with the law in promoting disability equality and for making reasonable adjustments for disabled people. Universities take these duties very seriously. A recent report published by the Equality and Human Rights Commission on the publication of equality objectives by English public authorities shows that higher education institutions are the best performing bodies in the public sector in publishing policy objectives on disability. Institutions are expected to have in place arrangements that can proactively meet the needs of disabled students and can be adapted to individual circumstances.
Baroness Brinton
I was very pleased to hear the Minister’s response about the revised code of practice. I just wondered whether discussions had been taking place between the department and the LGA with Student Finance England, whose website is woefully inadequate on SEN; it is all about applying for finance. There is nothing on the front page that comes up and hits you. The problem is that students who have SEN statements do not know where to go to get into the system early.
Baroness Northover
My noble friend highlights a very important problem that we keep coming back to. It is one thing having arrangements in place; it is another thing making absolutely sure that those who need to benefit from them know about them. I shall carry that back and make sure that my noble friend’s recommendations, suggestions and points are fed in.
The Earl of Listowel
I welcome what the Minister said about the Government’s care-leaver strategy. I have been following it with interest and warmly welcome it. I thank her for the response to the question that I put to her. From what she said in response to the debate, I am reminded that on many occasions when I have spoken with families who have children with disabilities, they have raised an important practical point: the change in adult advocate just before the child reaches majority often undermines the transition into adult services, whether they are education or other services. This may well have already been raised in Committee but I should be interested to hear whether the Minister recognises that as a problem. Can she say whether there is any progress in ensuring more continuity in the professional relationship between social workers and families to minimise this stumbling block in the transition from child to adult services?
Baroness Northover
I thank the noble Earl for his comments—and for his thanks to me. Again, we are all very concerned, in this and other areas, that the transition of a child becoming a young person and into adulthood is supported as effectively as possible, especially for the more vulnerable of our young people. Again, I will make sure that the point the noble Earl made is fed in. It would help if he looked at the draft code of practice to see whether he feels reassured by that.
Lord Touhig
My Lords, I am sorry but I missed a little of what the noble Baroness said in response to me. Was the reference she made to the noble Lord, Lord Wigley, about something in the Care Bill?
Baroness Northover
Yes. As I listened to the noble Lord, it struck me that some of the concerns he had would be addressed by the way that the care of a particular individual moving from one area to another should be looked after. He highlighted cases of students who wished to move from home to study at particular universities—just like all other young people who had those ambitions—but their personal situation stood in their way. We clearly need to ensure that that is not the case. The Care Bill should help in that regard because of the responsibilities there in terms of social care, outside the responsibilities I also mentioned in terms of education support.
Lord Touhig
I am grateful to the noble Baroness. The noble Lord, Lord Wigley, and I work quite closely on these matters.
Lord Lucas
My Lords, what my noble friend said about that is very encouraging but it is not always a pre-existing condition. In particular at university, mental conditions can become apparent that were not before because the environment is that much more challenging. I am sure there are many occasions when it works, but certainly on occasion universities find that getting provision for a student who clearly demonstrates the need for mental-health assistance can be extremely difficult where the local authority and clinical commissioning group feel they have other priorities for their permanent residents. This would not be a transfer. It is getting help within the context of a university for a student, rather than having to send them home—which misses the point of supporting them at university.
Baroness Northover
I am sorry I did not address the points from my noble friend Lord Lucas, who wished to “keep me company” in discussing this Bill. I am very happy to keep his company—and that of any other noble Lords or Baronesses, should they wish. He is absolutely right: supporting students with mental health challenges is a vital area. I hope that he will be reassured that in the National Health Service now there is parity of esteem between mental health and physical health. We know that good mental health underpins better physical health. The challenges that students face when they leave home and are at university under all sorts of pressures are something we are acutely aware of, as are the higher education institutions. If there are instances where students are not being looked after within those institutions and health services locally, that is obviously a cause for concern.
Lord Lingfield
I thank the Minister for her reassurance. As she and my noble friend Lady Brinton will be glad to know, these were simply probing amendments aimed at debating this terribly important subject. As my noble kinsman Lord Addington said, the move from school into higher education is terribly important. Other noble Lords underlined that. Higher education is terribly important for these young people, as the noble Lord, Lord Low, illustrated with the statistics that he brought to us.
One point that my noble friend Lady Brinton made concerned the fact that while, of course, a young person can start early in their application to Student Finance England, most young people know only late in August, when they get their A-level results, which university they will go to. That leaves about a month and a bit to get all this straightened out. As the noble Lord, Lord Touhig, and the report that he commented on have shown, sometimes first-class accommodation that is entirely suitable for young people of this kind is provided. I am afraid that other universities do not have it. Neither I nor any of the young persons or their parents who have spoken to me are concerned as to which silo the funding for this should come from. All one is concerned about is that the provision should be as seamless as possible and that, unlike at the moment, the new plan should at the very least be taken into account when consideration is given to funding a young person who is going into university. Perhaps, along with the noble Lord, Lord Lucas, I should keep the noble Baroness company in order to discuss this further.
Lord Touhig
My Lords, I should like to say a few words about Amendment 109. I welcome Clause 30(3) because it outlines the provision to assist young people in preparation for adulthood. This preparation includes, among other things, assistance in finding employment. This is welcome but I am not sure that it goes far enough, and that is why I think that Amendment 109 would take us that step further.
The amendment would help to prepare young people to stay in work or to access any benefits that they need or are entitled to. The inclusion would also form part of a genuinely supported transition to adulthood. In addition to finding employment, many skills are involved in retaining it. Support in this area would surely aid young people in making the proper transition that the clause commendably strives to achieve. Similarly, in difficult economic times, with high youth unemployment, it is important that young people are aware of the benefits support they can get in order to progress into employment.
In the other place, the Minister referred to the code of practice. He said that,
“the local offer must include information about, for example, job coaches, who can support people who are already in employment, supported internships, apprenticeships, traineeships and support from employment agencies”.
He continued:
“The code also says that local authorities should provide some signposting about where young people can obtain advice and information about the financial support they can have not only when they seek employment, but after they are employed”.—[Official Report, Commons, Children and Families Bill Committee, 21/3/13; col. 435.]
Clearly, Ministers are aware of the vital importance of aiding young people to retain employment and access the benefits support that they need at appropriate times. This is necessary to ensure positive outcomes and real transitions for young people into adulthood.
In the letter that the noble Lord, Lord Nash, sent to noble Lords following the Second Reading, he said:
“Local authorities should ensure that early transition planning is in place for all young people with an Education, Health and Care Plan, focusing on positive outcomes and how to achieve them … When a young person is anticipated to be leaving education within two years, reviews of EHC Plans must plan for phased transition into the key life outcomes listed, with a greater emphasis on pathways to independent living, higher education and paid employment”.
These statements from Ministers are most welcome but remain a little vague. More specific skills training and support could be set out in the Bill, thereby placing within the legislation a real commitment properly to prepare young people for adulthood. That would be making considerable progress.
Baroness Northover
My Lords, the amendments in this group seek in different ways to put more detailed information in the Bill regarding the local offer. Let me deal with the issues that noble Lords have raised.
Amendment 103 of the noble Baroness, Lady Hughes, seeks to ensure that the local offer includes specialist provision made in the independent sector, in particular that made by institutions covered by Clause 41. I thank the noble Baroness for acknowledging that this issue is in fact covered in the draft code of practice. I think she said that.
Baroness Hughes of Stretford
Perhaps I may clarify for the noble Baroness that I acknowledge that there is a reference to the issue in the code of practice. However, as it requires the local offer only to contain information about where to see the list, that is not the same as including the provisions in the local offer. Can she clarify whether the code of practice does include them?
Baroness Northover
Indeed. We agree that such provision plays a valuable role in supporting children and young people with SEN. This is reflected in Clause 30 and the associated regulations. The noble Baroness said she recognised that the provisions were mentioned in the draft code of practice in terms of the information to be published, and she pushed for further details about that.
Schedule 1 of the regulations made under Clause 30 will require local authorities, as the noble Baroness noted, to publish information about the services they expect to be available for children and young people with special educational needs for whom they are responsible. I can assure her that this specifically includes provision by institutions approved under Clause 41 both within and outside its area. This is also made clear in chapter 5 of the draft code of practice. I hope that this provides the necessary clarification that she asked me for. Parents can request that independent and non-maintained schools be included in the list produced under Clause 41, and we make that clear in chapter 7 of the draft code at page 111. I hope that that reassures her on that point.
I turn to Amendment 106 from my noble friend Lady Sharp, which was also spoken to by my noble friend Lady Brinton. Schools play a vital part in making special educational provision and have a clear responsibility for ensuring that children with and without education, health and care plans receive appropriate and effective support. It is right that information relating to training, the sharing of good practice and local authority support is made available. We believe that this detail is best placed in the regulations and the SEN code of practice. We believe that Clause 30, the associated regulations and the guidance in the SEN code of practice provide a common framework for the local offer that is sufficiently robust and clear.
Schedule 1 of the local offer regulations states that local offers must include information on
“the special educational provision secured by the local authority in mainstream schools, mainstream post-16 institutions, pupil referral units and alternative provision Academies”,
and,
“how expertise in supporting children and young people with special educational needs is secured for teaching staff and others working with those children and young people”.
The draft SEN code of practice elaborates on this by making clear that the local offer should include information on,
“local arrangements for collaboration between institutions to support those with SEN (for example, cluster or partnership working between post-16 institutions or shared services between schools)”.
Noble Lords will know that there is a lot more detail in the code of practice, and I hope it will be of assistance to them.
Lord Addington
I thank my noble friend for that offer. However, before we do that, will she consider how the whole chain needs to be put together, including the examining bodies, providers, teachers and so on? This comes from experience of a breakdown in this area.
Baroness Northover
I am very happy for us to look right across the board. We need to focus on the individual child or young person and their experience throughout the system.
Coming to Amendment 109, we can assure the noble Baroness, Lady Hughes, and the noble Lord, Lord Touhig, that the term, “finding employment” in the Bill goes wider than providing support for young people in looking for jobs—important though that obviously is. As the noble Baroness, Lady Hughes, noted, the draft code of practice refers to the local offer including information about support available for job coaches, for example, who can support young people when they are working, and the financial support available, including accessing any benefits from the Department of Work and Pensions, both when looking for work and when employed.
Noble Lords pressed harder about support to stay in employment, which is extremely important. I assure them that we are well aware of that. Preparing for adulthood is an important element in the SEN reforms. Clause 30(2) requires local authorities to include in the local offer,
“provision to assist in preparing children and young people for adulthood and independent living”.
That term is defined in subsection (3) as,
“finding employment … obtaining accommodation … participation in society”.
Support for preparing for adulthood would include the kind of support that young people can expect when they are in employment. I hope that noble Lords find that reassuring as a very important point is being made there.
The noble Lord, Lord Ramsbotham, said that he was pressing the case again, rightly, on speech and language communication, and the provision for children and young people. No doubt we will continue to discuss this as it is a very important area. We recognise the importance of this, and the Government are supporting the work of the Communication Trust—I expect he knows that—including through a grant of £550,000 over two years to pilot an online speech, language and communication qualification for early years practitioners. That shows our commitment. We are also providing £1.5 million to the trust to identify gaps in provision and services, which will no doubt spark more amendments from the noble Lord, to promote and extend the What Works database of evidence-based interventions and to implement the reforms in Part 3. I hope that that is an indication of the seriousness with which we treat this.
Regulation 10 of Schedule 1 to the draft local offer regulations sets out the requirement to include:
“Speech and language and other therapies, including any criteria that must be satisfied before this provision can be provided”.
The noble Lord makes a very important point about how practitioners, from health visitors to those supporting children in school, need to work together. That is one of the reasons for the local offer: to try to bring all this together so that support for these children is delivered in a much more effective way.
The noble Lord, Lord Ramsbotham, asked about child development and is expecting a letter from my noble friend Lord Nash. I think that that is in train, if it has not already come out. If it has not come out, I am sure that it will speed along.
Lord Ramsbotham
Perhaps I should explain to the Minister that there has indeed been a reply from the noble Lord, Lord Nash. I was saying that I am not wholly reassured by what he said. In the letter, he talks about assessments and judgments, but there is no confirmation that child development is on the syllabus of every teacher training course. That is what I want to discover.
Baroness Northover
I will refer that to the department for it to look at further. The department will know, as do I, how determined the noble Lord is, so I am sure that it will look at that very seriously.
I remember the noble Lord, Lord Ramsbotham, dealing with Amendment 117. I assure him that Clause 27 already requires the local authority to keep its education and social care provision under review. I believe that we talked about that in earlier groups, but if I have not addressed the noble Lord’s questions adequately, or he wants more information, I am very happy to add to that. I am sure that we will be coming back to that in due course, by the looks of the groupings.
I hope that I have addressed most of the issues that noble Lords raised and that the noble Baroness will be happy to withdraw her amendment.
Baroness Hughes of Stretford
My Lords, I thank the Minister for her comprehensive response to the various and important points of detail that Members of the Committee raised in relation to Clause 30.
I will make two comments. First, I thank the Minister particularly for the clarification in respect of Amendment 103. That is now written into the record. Although she said that it is made clear on page 111 of the draft code of practice that parents can request a school in that sector, I think that Chapter 5 could be clearer. However, I am glad that she has put that on the record.
Secondly, the Minister said that Amendment 106B, in the name of the noble Baroness, Lady Howe of Idlicote, would be taken back and considered in the round in the context of the longer debate that we had about inclusion of all disabled children. That is welcome. The Equality and Human Rights Commission has raised some important points in the publication that most people will have received in the last day or so on aligning the Children and Families Bill with the reasonable adjustment duty in the Equality Act. I believe that was the main point raised by the noble Baroness, Lady Howe. That is another angle from which to come to this issue about the inclusion of disabled children, and we will consider it. I beg leave to withdraw the amendment.
Baroness Northover
My Lords, this has been a wide-ranging, constructive, informed and thoughtful debate. There has been a focus in these amendments on the accountability of the local offer; they consider the issue of inspection; and some of them seek to place in the Bill requirements for minimum standards in the local offer. The noble Lord, Lord Low, referred to accountability, consistency and quality, and those themes ran through the debate.
On Amendment 111, the noble Lords, Lord Low and Lord Ramsbotham, raised the issue of whether the local offer should be inspected by the Care Quality Commission and Ofsted. The noble Lord, Lord Ramsbotham, indicated that he was thinking widely around this area, as did other noble Lords. We certainly believe that accountability to parents and young people will be improved by the transparency which the local offer will bring, with the direct involvement of children and young people with SEN and their parents in shaping and reviewing it.
We recognise the importance of joint working between clinical commissioning groups and local authorities in developing the services in the local offer. We understand the views that have been expressed about the value of external inspection in relation to accountability, a major theme of the debate. I would point out that the democratic accountability that local authorities must face is one element of the issue. We have heard what noble Lords have said and I hope that they will be pleased that we have asked Ofsted to study and report on how best to identify best practice in preparing for SEN reforms—a fact picked up by the noble Baroness, Lady Morris—and to consider particularly whether there is a need for an inspection framework to drive improvements. Ofsted will link with the CQC in this work and I hope that noble Lords will welcome that. We will flag this debate to those organisations because it will help to focus minds and inform them.
I hope noble Lords will agree that, at this point, we should not place a requirement to inspect on either the CQC or Ofsted until we have the findings of that study. Once the survey is complete, I assure noble Lords that we will reflect upon its implications and on whether an inspection regime is necessary.
The noble Lord, Lord Low, and others are right to say that we would not wish to be over-prescriptive. There was a wide-ranging debate about the pros and cons of that approach. We want the local offer to encourage local authorities to be innovative, develop a sense of partnership with local children, young people and families, and reflect local need. I thank my noble friends Lady Eaton and Lord Storey, and the noble Baroness, Lady Howarth, for their understanding and support on that perspective. I certainly found very encouraging the reports that we heard the other day from the pathfinders on the different, imaginative approaches they take to this area. I hope that noble Lords who were not at that meeting will have an opportunity to hear more about that.
Some noble Lords referred to minimum standards. I can tell the noble Baroness, Lady Hughes, that indeed we feel that minimum standards could weaken parents’ and young people’s ability to influence their local authority and provide local accountability. As other noble Lords indicated, local authorities could simply point to the fact that they have met the minimum standard and that would be that. There could indeed be a race to the bottom, which we must avoid. I agree with the noble Baroness, Lady Morris, that we want a race to the top.
On Amendment 113, I recognise the good intentions of my noble friends Lady Brinton and Lady Walmsley in terms of the format of the local offer in the Bill. Again, I stress that transparency and accessibility are key themes of the local offer and we agree that a level of consistency will help with that. The local offer regulations and chapter 5 of the code of practice, in our view, provide a common framework to secure consistency. I know that noble Lords recognise that and debated whether it was really the case but we feel it provides a common framework so that families have the information they need to make comparisons between local authorities. Noble Lords may wish to look specifically at page 44 of the new code of practice, which lists what a local offer must include. However, we deliberately did not require a specific format for the local offer because we want to see local people shape each one, including the format it should take. We have already seen this happening on the ground, as illustrated in what the pathfinders said.
On the review that my noble friend Lady Brinton referred to, I point her to page 57 of the code of practice, which says:
“Local authorities must publish their response to those comments in the local offer alongside an explanation of what action they are taking to respond”.
That rather puts them on the spot in terms of criticisms made of them and how they deal with those. Bearing in mind that they are locally accountable to the electorate, it will obviously act as a pressure upon them.
There is clearly widespread agreement that the local offer is a major step forward. We welcome that and thank noble Lords for their emphasis of that. We hear what noble Lords said about how this is best delivered and the variation in approach to how it might be done. I hope that I have reassured the noble Lord and that he will be content at this stage to withdraw his amendment, noting the study that I referred to in my opening remarks.
Baroness Morris of Yardley
When does the Minister expect the study to be completed, so that we have a timeframe? For example, I am not sure whether it would be before or after Report.
Baroness Northover
It would be a more in-depth study than delivering it before Report would allow. We expect it to report in the spring. However, I am very happy to write to the noble Baroness with more particulars and to copy that to other noble Lords who participated in that issue. There is always a balance between trying to deliver something in the timetable of a Bill—as she will know only too well—and getting something thorough and right. As I say, I will write to her with further details about that.
Baroness Morris of Yardley
Can the noble Baroness reassure us also that if this legislative opportunity is lost but the report recommended some sort of framework, it would be possible to enact that quickly? I cannot remember or work out whether primary legislation would be needed for that. If it was required, we could end up waiting for years.
Baroness Northover
I understand that primary legislation would not be needed. We seem to be busy legislating all the time, but it could be done through secondary legislation.
Baroness Northover
My Lords, this may be a convenient moment for the Committee to adjourn.
The Deputy Chairman of Committees
My Lords, the Committee stands adjourned.
Children and Families Bill
Baroness Northover Excerpts(11 years, 1 month ago)
Grand CommitteeRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Lord Ramsbotham
I just say to the noble Baroness and the noble Lord, Lord Storey, that I was referring to the assessment required now in the early years foundation stage, which must be carried out by health visitors. I was saying that that is a compulsory healthcare test. I was mentioning that the healthcare visitor to whom we spoke in Northern Ireland mentioned the value that she had had from being trained by the speech and language therapist to identify the particular triggers for speech and language difficulties, which I believe ought to be common practice everywhere.
Baroness Northover (LD)
My Lords, this debate has covered the important issue of SEN in early years settings, and noble Lords have been probing a perceived gap in the legislation in that regard. Clearly, as noble Lords have said, many of the duties in Part 3 apply only to maintained nursery schools, not to other early years providers, which has led to concerns that children in playgroups and independent nurseries or with childminders might not have their special educational needs met. We reassure noble Lords that that is not the case. Duties are in place throughout the Bill and through the Childcare Act 2006 which should ensure that special educational needs are identified and addressed in early years, wherever a child is.
I point the noble Baroness, Lady Jones, who I realise leapt in having not realised that she was about to deal with this amendment, to page 70 of the draft guidance, which is on the role of the SENCO in early years provision, so that she can have a look through that.
Amendments 116 and 108 seek to include early years provision within the local offer. We absolutely agree that this should be the case. Perhaps when I have explained some of these areas the noble Lord, Lord Ramsbotham, will be reassured and will want to see whether that meets most of the concerns of those who were advising him.
Schedule 1 to the draft Special Educational Needs (Local Offer) Regulations 2014 already makes clear that the local offer must include special educational provision from,
“providers of relevant early years education”.
These providers are explicitly referred to in paragraph 1(a) of that schedule. The regulations also require the local offer to include the arrangements that such providers have for “identifying … special educational needs”, in paragraph 4(a), and for,
“securing the services, provision and equipment required by children”,
with SEN, in paragraph 4(c).
Relevant early years education is defined as that childcare which is provided to meet the duties under Section 7 of the Childcare Act 2006. Noble Lords may be reassured that this would include all local authority-funded early education for two, three or four year-olds, whatever the status of the provider. It is not limited to maintained nurseries and 96% of three and four year-olds access such early education through local authority funding, so I hope the noble Lord, Lord Ramsbotham, is reassured that non-maintained early years providers are already included. We share his concern that children are identified as early as possible. This is particularly important in areas of disadvantage, where the current two year-old offer of 15 hours’ free childcare per week is targeted.
Amendment 128 would require the local authority to use its best endeavours to identify children with SEN in early years provision, and then to secure the relevant services for them. In relation to the concerns of my noble friend Lady Perry, I know from the Department of Health that this issue has been picked up there. I assure her that there is cross-government working in this regard. We recognise the importance of health service involvement in identifying very young children who may have SEN as soon as possible. That is why Clause 24, which my noble friend may want to look at, provides for health bodies to tell local authorities about young children under compulsory school age who may have SEN. It is also why we are training an additional 4,200 health visitors by 2015 to help improve early identification. I hope that my noble friend finds that reassuring.
The Government want to reassure noble Lords that local authorities must ensure that all providers that they fund in the maintained, private, voluntary and independent sectors effectively meet the needs of children with SEN and disabilities. Local authorities should remove barriers in access to early education and work with parents to give each child support to fulfil its potential. All early years providers, regardless of how they are funded, must follow the welfare requirements set out in the EYFS framework to have and to implement a policy and procedures for children with SEN and disabilities. This should include how the needs of these children will be met and how reasonable adjustments will be made. Providers are also required to assess children regularly and to keep parents informed. They must consider whether a child has a special educational need or disability which requires specialist support. They should link with families and help them to access relevant services from other agencies as appropriate. These requirements are reflected in the draft SEN code of practice, which also gives practical guidance to early years providers on responding to special educational needs. I hope that the noble Lord, Lord Ramsbotham, will look carefully at that.
Amendment 238, again tabled by the noble Lord, seeks to place requirements on childminder agencies, including a requirement to appoint a SENCO with the prescribed qualifications, and a regulation-making power to set out requirements on how childminders registered with an agency should support children with SEN. I heard the reason he gave for taking that route, and I hope that to some extent what I have already said has reassured him that there is not quite the gap he is seeking to plug here. I also note what my noble friend Lord Storey said about this. The provision to create childminder agencies in Part 4 is an enabling one. We do not think it would be helpful to try to tie these providers into agencies. I am sure we will hear arguments to the contrary when we get to Part 4.
Returning to the key issue of early years childminders, we agree that childminders need also to look out for children in their care. Clearly, they need to be subject to the same duties and expectations whether they are registered with an agency or independently registered with Ofsted. The Government’s intention is that the agency-registered childminders should follow the same guidance on SEN as other types of early years providers, as part of that jigsaw of involvement with young children.
Page 70 of the draft code of practice, which I have just referred to, sets out guidance on the role of the SENCO in early years. It makes clear that the SENCO role may be shared between childminders in the network and suggests a similar approach be applied to agencies. For most early years settings, the SENCO is not required to have a particular qualification. Currently, and in the draft code, only SENCOs in schools and maintained nurseries must hold specific qualifications, including qualified teacher status. We feel that it would not be appropriate to impose additional burdens on childminder agencies over and above those in place for other early years settings. The framework provided by the early years foundation stage and the SEN code of practice makes this unnecessary.
Amendment 75, tabled by the noble Baroness, Lady Jones, seeks to require local authorities to appoint sufficient area SENCOs to support early years providers, drawing attention to an important role. As my noble friend the Minister mentioned in a debate last week, page 70 of the draft SEN code of practice states that,
“local authorities should ensure that there is sufficient expertise and experience amongst local early years providers to support children with SEN”.
It goes on to outline the role of area SENCOs in the early years. By including the role in statutory guidance for the first time, we are recognising its importance and creating a clear expectation about the support that local authorities should provide for children in early education.
Turning to Amendment 79, we fully endorse the importance of early identification of SEN, which this amendment seeks to secure. One of the main aims of the reforms we are debating is to seek to ensure that children and young people have their needs identified earlier—whether through district nurses, as my noble friend Lady Perry indicated, or through others involved with young children—so that the right support is put in place quickly.
The education providers listed in Clause 29(2) have a duty under Clause 62 to use their,
“best endeavours to secure that the special educational provision called for by the pupil’s or student’s special educational needs is made”.
Actively identifying special educational needs is an integral part of this duty. The draft SEN code of practice makes this absolutely clear. Chapter 6 of the code requires schools to assess pupils on entry, make regular assessments of pupils progress and ensure that teachers are equipped to spot potential special educational needs quickly.
I have perhaps been too comprehensive. However, I hope that I have been sufficiently comprehensive to address the questions and needs of all those who are rightly concerned about this area. I hope that my response reassures noble Lords that effective duties are in place because we agree with what noble Lords say they are seeking to achieve. We will continue to work with the Communication Trust and other expert organisations to ensure that the SEN code of practice provides effective guidance on all these issues. I therefore hope that the noble Baroness will be happy to withdraw her amendment.
Baroness Jones of Whitchurch
My Lords, I thank all noble Lords who have spoken in this debate. I think that we all share the common ambition to improve the scope and quality of early years provision and to make sure that special educational needs are identified at the earliest possible time, as we said at the outset. I think that there is common cause there.
In several of the contributions it was asked who should be responsible for some of that identification. We feel that early years area SENCOs in the model that we have proposed could be the people to take on that responsibility, although I understand that everybody else whom noble Lords have mentioned could also play a role in that. That model has already been developed by local authorities as a way of taking on some of that responsibility, and it is important that the people in those posts are properly trained and supported. I was slightly disappointed by what the Minister said about not requiring them to be trained and qualified, because it seems to me that we have already identified a skills lack among some of these people. This is an opportunity to address that lack, and it will be a shame if we do not embrace it when we have the opportunity to do so.
Baroness Northover
I am sorry to interrupt the noble Baroness. Of course, these proposals build on what the previous Government decided to do. As I said in my response, that was the arrangement that existed before. However, we have taken it a step further, in that it is in the draft statutory guidance, and I hope that that will be welcomed by noble Lords.
Baroness Jones of Whitchurch
I was picking up the particular point about qualifications. As the Minister has already identified, I have not yet read page 70 and I was trying to do a bit of speed-reading. I obviously need to reflect on that in a little more detail before we come back to debate this further in the House and, when I have done some more reading, I shall write to the noble Baroness if I have any more questions. In the mean time, I beg leave to withdraw the amendment.
Lord Ramsbotham
My Lords, I shall speak to my Amendments, 89 and 92 to 97, and add my support to Amendment 100, mainly because it becomes very relevant when we come to Clause 70, dealing with people in detention.
My other amendments are to do with something I find odd about Clause 26. Although on the face of it local authorities and partner health bodies are required to make, have regard to and keep under review joint commissioning arrangements, there is no obligation on them to operate any of those arrangements, let alone to reach agreement. That seems very peculiar. Even when they operate the arrangements and reach agreement, the resulting provision is limited to what they agree to be reasonably required.
I go back to my amendment to Clause 21(5), because, as I mentioned then, health bodies may well argue that their position is constrained by what they consider necessary. Given how many such bodies apparently give very low priority to speech, language and communication needs and the provision of speech and language therapists, that might mean that little or no speech language therapy would be provided for children or young people other than those who are on EHC plans. This brings us back to the problem of the vast majority of children with these needs who are not on those plans.
Clause 26 does not allow the assumption that children without plans will get what they require; nor does it mention any requirement to publicise what arrangements and agreements are available for parents or the people affected; and it does nothing to ensure that there is consultation on the joint commissioning arrangements. My amendments are designed to strengthen Clause 26 by making its tone “must” rather than “discuss”.
Baroness Northover
My Lords, this group of amendments relates to Clauses 25 and 26, which deal with promoting integration and joint commissioning. These provisions are at the centre of our reforms and I am grateful to noble Lords for their careful consideration of these issues. Children and young people with special educational needs need integrated services. Too often they have to tell their story over and again, and too often they or their parents struggle to navigate a system that makes no sense either to them or to the professionals who are supposed to be helping them. In this mini-debate we have had an echo of the discussions we had on both the Health Bill and the Care Bill, where noble Lords were very keen, as were the Government, to take forward better integration and working together across these areas. Noble Lords who have just come from the Care Bill will be extremely well aware of how the Government have sought to take this forward, addressing how people have so often fallen between the cracks. This, too, is part of the attempt to ensure that those with special educational needs are better supported and that the authorities responsible for them work more closely together.
These clauses seek to tackle those issues head on. The integration duty sits alongside duties for a local authority and its local partners to co-operate with each other. I remember extremely clearly, as other noble Lords no doubt will, how integration, as debated in the Health Bill, had to be part of the new arrangements for the health service. This echoes much of that. It links closely to the joint commissioning clause that provides the statutory framework to enable partners to work together effectively to deliver a better experience for the child or young person and their families, and support improved outcomes. Joint commissioning sets out the framework for key elements, such as the local offer, education, health and care plan assessments, and personal budgets. It seeks to improve both the working relationships between local authorities and health bodies, and the provision to children and young people with special educational needs. It requires the local authority and health bodies to establish clear procedures for making decisions and, in particular, to agree what support is needed locally and which agency will deliver it. Crucially, they must agree how they will resolve disputes between partners, as well as how they will deal collectively with complaints concerning education, health and care provision.
The new draft SEN code of practice’s chapter on joint commissioning has developed a great deal, and I hope it may help to reassure noble Lords to know that it puts great store on the importance of making decisions in joint commissioning arrangements—an issue to which the noble Lord, Lord Ramsbotham, has just referred. It specifies that the arrangements should be robust enough to ensure that all partners are clear about who is responsible for what, who the decision-makers are across education, health and care and how partners will hold each other to account where there is a dispute. It recognises the importance of getting elected members and chief executives across education, health and social care on board, and recommends that the arrangements for children and young people with SEN should be specifically accountable to councillors and senior commissioners. It recognises that local accountability can take the form of a programme board, acting as a bridge between the local authority’s education and social care leadership and health partners.
It also reflects that health bodies must work with the local authority in commissioning integrated, personalised services and designing the local offer, including ensuring that relevant contracts with providers reflect the needs of the local population. Local authorities, clinical commissioning groups and NHS England should develop effective ways of harnessing the views of their local communities so that commissioning decisions on services for those with SEN are shaped by people’s experiences and aspirations. The dovetailing of the SEN reform clauses with the NHS reforms is central. The NHS mandate requires clinical commissioning groups to consider the needs of children and young people with SEN and disabilities, so we see immediately the crossover. The Health and Social Care Act reforms require local authorities and clinical commissioning groups to participate in the health and well-being board and to produce a joint strategic needs assessment and a joint health and well-being strategy that sets out how local needs will be met. So the needs are to be identified, and plans have to be put in place as to how they are met.
The health and well-being board has a duty—and I well remember it—to encourage integrated working. For the purpose of advancing the health and well-being of the people in its area, it must encourage people who arrange for the provision of health or social care services in the area to work in an integrated manner. As I said, the Care Bill has been taking that further forward and making it a reality. I hope that that context helps when looking at how we are trying to tackle the needs of these particularly vulnerable children.
I heard what my noble friend Lady Sharp said about the probing nature of her amendment. As ever, she probes extremely effectively. She is seeking to explore how these new arrangements will work in practice, and obviously she is absolutely right to do that.
My noble friend wondered whether SENCOs would have too much on their plate. Since 2009, the Government have funded more than 10,000 new SENCOs to study for the National Award for SEN Coordination. We will support a further 800 places in 2013-14 and this will help them in their important role in linking with other agencies, such as health and social care. I hope that that helps to take this matter forward.
Many of the amendments in this group reflect an apparent desire to puts lots of detail in the Bill. This is an argument with which everyone here will be very familiar—whether it is necessary to specify certain things in the Bill in order to make sure that certain things happen. I am sure that we are all seeking to go in the same direction, which is to achieve what the Bill sets out to do. From noble Lords’ probing as to whether it is going to be delivered by the Bill as it is, I certainly sense that there is agreement on that.
However, noble Lords will also be familiar with the fact that if you specify in great detail in a Bill, you can inadvertently exclude things that you have not included. That is why there is always discussion about what happens in guidance and secondary legislation and so on, and that is why I am so pleased that we have the SEN guidance. It is comprehensive and, I hope, addresses a number of issues that noble Lords are concerned about. From that guidance, your Lordships can see how the Bill translates into what we intend in practice.
As noble Lords will appreciate, we feel that there is a danger that if too much is specified in the Bill, that will then hinder the kind of flexibility that may also be required at a local level. Noble Lords who heard the pathfinder organisations, which came to address us the other day, probably share my feeling that the often very imaginative and creative ways in which they were going about their work and the way they were working with other organisations in their local areas to address the needs of the children were very impressive. One would not wish to do anything that stifled that. One would wish to support them in taking that forward. The aims of what one is seeking to achieve and the details being spelt out in the guidance—
Baroness Howarth of Breckland
I have not spoken in this debate but I should like to ask the noble Baroness a question. The thing that concerns me greatly as a practitioner is the variableness of how co-operation takes place across the country. In some places, certainly where there are special projects such as pathfinders, it works well, but in my experience some authorities do not make timely decisions, which can mean that placements are not agreed, and again I refer to my experience in adult colleges for severely disabled young people. If a local authority cannot agree between its own social services provision and its education provision, how does it then hope to get co-ordination across the piece?
I probe only because of my anxiety that we get this right. I agree that it is not always good to have too much detail in a Bill, but how through the guidance will we ensure consistency across the country so that decisions are made appropriately and young people get properly placed, not left in back rooms in homes with distraught parents when a college place could make the difference?
Baroness Northover
I hear what the noble Baroness says, and she speaks from a great deal of experience. That is the kind of challenge that has led to us trying to move forward across the board on SEN to ensure that what is provided for children is more uniform and more joined up. If need be, I will write with more detail in response to her but, as I said, what the pathfinders were saying was encouraging. They said that they would link up with those who came after to try to spread best practice. As noble Lords have said, it is often what happens in practice on the ground that may be wanting.
That links up with an issue raised by the noble Baroness, Lady Jones, about how families might hold their local authority and CCGs to account for having arrangements for joint commissioning in place. Ultimately, families could take out a judicial review, but we believe that there are other, more effective ways to hold local bodies to account through local complaints procedures and through NHS England, which will review how CCGs are fulfilling their duties under the NHS mandate. I remind noble Lords that the NHS mandate refers specifically to children and young people with SEN. Therefore, there are those novel routes. That is a new lever.
As the services that result from joint commissioning arrangements will be reflected in the local offer through direct involvement in developing and reviewing it, we hope that that will bring about the opportunity to improve things in the way that both noble Baronesses seek.
Returning to my script, as opposed to my thoughts, Clause 26 requires local authorities and CCGs to keep the arrangements under review, so that service provision will evolve over time and continue to meet the needs of the community that it serves. I have spoken about the pluses and minuses of putting duties in the Bill.
I also note that service providers must take responsibility themselves for how they best use their resources to provide services for children and young people with SEN. I was struck by what the pathfinders said about how often that meant finding a cost-effective way to do that. It was not necessarily the case that working together was more costly. That was interesting to hear.
The final paragraph in Amendment 86 highlights the importance of key workers, which is something that we support and have specifically included in the code of practice. Chapter 3 makes clear that the kind of support that local authorities should offer children, their parents and young people should include key work and support, such as individual casework and informal advocacy, support in attending meetings or contributing to assessment and reviews, and participating in decisions about outcomes.
There was reference to how the NHS provides services and how that might mesh. The fundamental principle of the NHS is that provision should meet reasonably required needs. We have to be careful. There is a wide understanding, certainly among noble Lords, as to why that is the case and why, for example, the previous Government set up NICE to assess treatments and to work out what was effective. An NHS that was free at point of need, universal and comprehensive had to make sure that what it was providing to the population made sense and that clinicians would agree as to what was an effective treatment and so on. All of that is built into the way the NHS has always operated. We therefore have to be careful that we do not inadvertently seek to change that fundamental principle of provision to meet the reasonably required need.
The CCG has a statutory duty to provide services to meet the reasonable needs of those for whom it is responsible. We have a good understanding of that. We may challenge it around the edges, but we do have an understanding of it. It must act consistently with the NHS mandate—
Lord Ramsbotham
My Lords, I am sorry to intervene but the point of raising my concern is that, in many areas, speech and language therapy has not traditionally been accorded the impetus that has been required by the NHS. I welcome the talk about health and well-being boards. Indeed, as I mentioned earlier in the debate, because they are the bodies that are in touch with all people from nought to 25, I hope that they will have a role and that it will evolve. Accepting the way in which the NHS operates, I hope that in future it will take account of speech and language therapy needs because of its increasing importance for our children today.
Baroness Northover
The noble Lord made a very cogent case before and my noble friend was sympathetic to what he said. It will always be the case that, at any one time, there will be debate as to what is essential, what ought to be provided and what will best help children or any member of the population, and, therefore, debate about what the NHS or any other provision ought to cover. As I said, the noble Lord made a cogent case and my noble friend responded sympathetically, so it is a matter of let us watch this space. As I have mentioned, the NHS mandate includes a specific objective that children and young people with SEN have access to the services set out in their care plans. I hope that is reassuring.
I have referred to pathfinders and the wording in the clause reflects the fact that the parties involved are expected to follow the arrangements made unless there is good reason to depart from them. Allowing that flexibility will enable partnerships to adapt to accommodate unique circumstances or changing priorities locally which the arrangements may not have anticipated.
Noble Lords may be anxious that this flexibility could mean that partners have to have only some of the arrangements in place before achieving any agreement. I hope I can reassure noble Lords that this is not the case and is certainly not the legal effect of these provisions. Clause 26(4) makes it clear that these partnerships have the clear function of securing the care that children with SEN need. Therefore they must be able to agree a clear course of action in every case. This point is backed up by the new draft SEN code of practice.
There may be other elements that I need to address. I turn to the point that the noble Baroness, Lady Jones, made about transparency. We certainly agree with her point about needing transparency for parents but we do not think that we should replicate other legislation in the Bill. I am sure she will be disappointed about that. The place to bring this together, we feel, is in the code of practice, and that is what we have sought to do. Again, that is something that comes up in legislation all the time: should we make reference to previous Acts or should we include it in the new Bill? We feel that the draft code of practice helps to bring everything together very clearly, and I hope that she will accept that.
Baroness Jones of Whitchurch
Earlier the Minister made the point that we do not want lots of detail in the Bill and I think that we all understand that you cannot spell out everything in a Bill. However, we thought our amendments on this issue were rather neat and not full of detail. Our proposals, about providing any other provision deemed necessary to meet the special educational needs of the child or young person, were intended to include the family context and so on. That was not about too much detail—obviously the detail can be spelt out in the code—but it was to provide a route in for families to feel that they were included in the Bill. I take the Minister’s point about not having too much detail but I do not think that our amendment could be found guilty of that.
Baroness Northover
I was actually thinking more of my noble friend’s amendment. My noble friend Lady Sharp is always clear and to the point, so far be it from me ever to suggest that she might add detail that was best put elsewhere.
The noble Baroness, Lady Howe, spoke about local authorities working across boundaries. I assure her that we agree that, working together, local authorities can secure more cost-effective, high quality provision for children and young people with the most complex needs. Many authorities already have such arrangements in place and we encourage it through the new draft SEN code of practice, which includes, in section 4.4, a specific section on regional collaboration. As the noble Baroness spells out, it is in local authorities’ interest to do so. The provision stipulated in education, health and care plans will reflect individual need and local authorities will have to ensure that it is provided.
The noble Baroness highlighted effectively how there may be just one or two children with particular needs in one area, and it makes a lot of sense to collaborate with those in other areas. That is why Clause 30 sets out that local offers must cover provision outside the local authority area for children and young people for whom the authority is responsible. Making this an explicit part of the local offer will mean that authorities have to take steps to make these arrangements up front, and allow parents to challenge whether the best arrangements are being made. For specific cases, Clause 31 goes further and requires other local authorities to comply with requests for co-operation, as long as doing so does not compromise their own duties. That provides a further spur for local authorities to consider in advance suitable joint arrangements for providing for children and young people with specific needs.
I hope that I have covered most of the points raised by noble Lords. If I have not, then obviously I will write to them. In the mean time, I hope that the noble Baroness will be prepared to withdraw her amendments.
The Countess of Mar
My Lords, I was horrified to be pointed to the report by the Children’s Commissioner, Always Someone Else’s Problem. The executive summary, which I am afraid is all I have had time to read, says:
“We have found evidence of … pupils being excluded without proper procedures being followed; these exclusions are usually for short periods, but may be frequently repeated, meaning that the child misses substantial amounts of education … pupils being placed on extended study leave, on part time timetables, or at inappropriate alternative provision, as a way of removing them from school”.
It goes on to list other examples, which I am sure the Minister is familiar with, but the final one is,
“local authorities failing to deliver their legal responsibility to provide full time alternative education for children from the sixth day of exclusion”.
In the report the Children’s Commissioner says that it is mainly SEN children who are what she calls illegally excluded from school. I am very concerned that local authorities are perhaps not taking due care to ensure that this does not happen in their areas. This is an excellent amendment that would perhaps preclude this sort of thing from happening. From that report, it seems to be happening on a very large scale.
Baroness Northover
My Lords, we appreciate the concerns that have prompted the amendments in this group and noble Lords’ determination to ensure that we move things forward for children with special educational needs, and I welcome the opportunity to respond to the discussion. I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Howe, for saying that the local offer has the potential to be transformative for these children.
We understand the reasons why the noble Lords, Lord Low and Lord Touhig, seek the publication of an action plan if the education and social care is deemed insufficient. I assure them that there is already scope in our provisions for children and young people with SEN and their parents, and local providers, to be involved in improving provision where it is insufficient. Clause 19 clearly sets out the guiding principle of the SEN provisions, which is all about putting children, their parents and young people at the heart of what the local authority does. It sets out the importance of involving children, their parents, and young people as fully as possible, and includes the need to support them to achieve the best possible outcomes.
Children and their parents, and young people, are also central to the local offer. Local authorities will be under a duty to review their local offer in Clause 30(5) —noble Lords have made reference to that—and regulation 4 of the draft local offer regulations sets out who they must consult in such a review. Local authorities will also be under a duty to publish comments on the local offer under Clause 30(6). Noble Lords, again, made reference to that.
The noble Lord, Lord Low, was probing on accountability and how the review would then, as it were, have teeth. We understand the noble Lord’s points about accountability, and we will be discussing this in a later group. Perhaps we can return then to how that will be done. However, I would say that the local offer in Clause 30(6) will require local authorities to publish their response to comments that they get from children, their parents and young people, so there is a major incentive there to act.
That is also made clear in Chapter 5 of the code of practice, which says that local authorities should publish an explanation of the action they are taking to respond to the comments. It is not simply a case of publishing what that response is. This brings transparency—a point that the noble Baroness, Lady Jones, made previously—and potential publicity. We must bear in mind that local authorities are themselves accountable to their electorate. In the debate on the previous group, I mentioned other ways in which people could hold local authorities to account. However, I do not think that it is going to be very comfortable for local authorities to have to publish critical comments and to have to justify why they are doing what they are doing. That is certainly worth bearing in mind. As I mentioned, local authorities must consult widely and involve children and young people with SEN and the parents of children with SEN in shaping local provision.
Baroness Howarth of Breckland
May I just ask a question about the funding? Much as local authorities do not like ring-fencing, how will the Government ensure that that funding is properly directed to these services?
Baroness Northover
The issue of exactly how to make this as effective as possible is under discussion at the moment, and I am very happy to write to the noble Baroness to spell that out in more detail.
Baroness Wilkins
To return to the question of funding, the Government have said a number of times that they are protecting funding for vulnerable families, but that protection is not being carried through at local level. The Government seem to be remarkably complacent about this. Surely action must be taken so that the funding reaches the people who need it.
Baroness Northover
I hear what the noble Baroness says. She is a doughty champion in this area. The best thing is if we write explaining what I have just said in further detail. Maybe she would then like to respond so that we can look at that further and get back to her.
Baroness Wilkins
I wonder if the Minister would meet with the organisations concerned, which would be far more helpful.
Baroness Northover
Being a very low-level Minister, I am not sure how useful that would be for her group. However, I will refer it to my far more significant noble friend. I know that the department is very open to discussions with all interested parties. In the light of that, I hope that she will be reassured.
Young People: Democratic Participation
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Lord Storey
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how they will ensure that young people acquire a practical understanding and awareness of how the United Kingdom is governed, its political systems, and how citizens may actively participate in its democratic systems of government.
Baroness Northover (LD)
My Lords, the new national curriculum for teaching from 2014 includes an improved programme of study for citizenship education at key stages 3 and 4. It is organised around core knowledge about democracy, government and how laws are made and upheld. Citizenship education seeks to equip students with the skills and knowledge to explore political and social issues, and to take their place in society as responsible citizens.
Lord Storey (LD)
I am grateful for my noble friend’s response. She may be aware that various youth democracy groups such as the British Youth Council, Operation Black Vote and Bite the Ballot are organising for next year’s National Voter Registration Day. How will the Government support and promote this initiative?
Baroness Northover
I thank my noble friend for his question. We are very supportive of that initiative. Citizenship education, too, should help to underpin students’ interest in how our democracy works.
Lord Kennedy of Southwark (Lab)
My Lords, with individual electoral registration rapidly coming down the tracks, what are the Government going to do today to ensure that people as young as 14 and 15 understand that it will be their responsibility, not their parents’, to register to vote in less than two and a half years’ time?
Baroness Northover
I hope that the noble Lord has had a look at the curriculum for citizenship study. He will, I assume, know that that will be compulsory for the age groups 11 to 14 and 14 to 16. Within that, there will of course be an emphasis on students’ right to register and later to vote in elections.
Lord Geddes (Con)
Is my noble friend aware—I am sure that she is—of the Lord Speaker’s excellent outreach programme, in which I am very pleased to participate, whereby Members of your Lordships’ House go out to schools in order to give them the information pertaining to this question?
Baroness Northover
Yes, I am well aware of that and I know that a number of noble Lords have taken part. They report back that there is great enthusiasm for discussing politics today. It is notable that the number of students who are then voting in elections thereafter seems to increase.
The Earl of Clancarty (CB)
My Lords, would the Minister agree that one of the traditional ways in which young people get actively interested in political matters is through joining campaigning organisations, not necessarily party political ones, and that the Government should actively encourage and not hinder their operation, particularly in the period leading up to an election, when young people’s interest in political issues will be most easily stimulated?
Baroness Northover
Yes, I am well aware of the fact that young people often get involved in all sorts of campaigns. One of the things which comes through in citizenship education is how the links can be made between those sorts of issues and how you effect change through voting. For example, if young people are encouraged by Comic Relief to be concerned about the plight of children of their own age in another country, actually voting and trying to ensure that there is a commitment to international development is part of how they take that forward.
Lord Tomlinson (Lab)
Does the noble Baroness agree that however good the curriculum is on citizenship, most young people will be singularly unimpressed by what they witness as the practice of government in Parliament? Yesterday’s Prime Minister’s questions in the House of Commons was a thorough disgrace, which most people who were watching will disapprove of, in which they saw a Prime Minister personally abusing the leader of the Opposition while trying to change policy half way through PMQs.
Baroness Northover
I am afraid that I did not see PMQs yesterday. However, when I go and listen in the Commons, I find myself grateful that I was never elected there—even though I tried several times—and that your Lordships’ House is a more tolerant place. There are more women in the House of Lords, and I think that also makes a difference.
Lord Tyler (LD)
My Lords, turning perhaps to safer territory, I return to the issue of the syllabus and the role of citizenship in it. Following concerns from all parts of the House, not least from my noble friend Lord Phillips and the noble Lord, Lord Roberts, on Thursday last week, is it not incredibly important to demonstrate to young people that this is not just theoretical, but that it leads on specifically to active citizenship? Is my noble friend aware that in Northern Ireland, where there was real concern about the transfer to individual electoral registration, it has become the habit in secondary schools to go right through the citizenship course with an end result of registration on the electoral register and for eventual voting?
Baroness Northover
Indeed, it has had a very positive effect in that regard. As I answered an earlier question, the link between what students will learn in their citizenship classes and their ability then to take that forward to register to vote and to vote is very important. I also note that within citizenship education students will be debating all sorts of political and social issues, and they will be encouraged to debate and make reasoned arguments and so on. I imagine that they are going to be very lively lessons.
Lord Hannay of Chiswick (CB)
My Lords, will the Minister and Secretary of State for Education accept my thanks for having acceded to the lobbying by a number of us to include the United Nations in the citizenship curriculum? Can she say whether the department and local authorities will welcome a non-governmental organisation like the United Nations Association, which promotes model UN debates up and down the country and can help the curriculum a good deal?
Baroness Northover
I thank the noble Lord and will pass on his tribute to my right honourable friend the Secretary of State. Indeed, looking at the curriculum, I was struck by how international it was. I am sure that the organisations that he referred to will be encouraged to play their part in trying to inform students; that would be extremely welcome. However, the curriculum reaches in all directions. Internationally, it deals with human rights and international law, and it also looks at the diverse national, regional, religious and ethnic identities within the United Kingdom. Therefore, it extends and it is deep.
Lord Campbell-Savours (Lab)
My Lords, when the Minister says to the House that she prefers to be in an unelected House, as against an elected House, does she think that she is sending out the right message to young people?
Baroness Northover
The noble Lord will be well aware that I belong to a party which is committed to election to the House of Lords, as I think is the case for everybody in this House who is a party member. He will also know that there is cross-party agreement that the effect of an electoral system for the House of Lords should be that no party is in overall control—
Baroness Northover
—as is the case at the moment, so that you then have negotiation, discussion and the kind of debate in the Lords to which the noble Lord’s colleague referred. Therefore, yes, there should be election but under a system which is proportional and ensures that all voices are heard: women’s as well as men’s.
Millennium Development Goals
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Lord Dholakia (LD)
My Lords, on behalf of my noble friend Lord Chidgey, and at his request, I beg leave to ask the Question standing in his name on the Order Paper.
Baroness Northover (LD)
My Lords, the MDGs have provided an important framework in helping to reduce poverty, but there is still much more to do. The 12 successor goals recommended by the high-level panel offer practical targets which tackle the root causes as well as the symptoms of poverty. We are particularly pleased to see a proposed stand-alone goal focused on women and girls.
Lord Dholakia
My Lords, I thank the Minister for that reply and look forward to the debate on this matter tomorrow. Does my noble friend accept that poverty reduction must be the top priority for the development agenda as 70% of people who were within the millennium development goals have not benefited from the programme, almost all of them women? What indicators does my noble friend have in mind to measure over time where the discrepancies that discriminate against so many women and girls appear in the development agenda?
Baroness Northover
My noble friend is absolutely right. As he will know, the new goals will focus on eradicating extreme poverty within a generation. Central to this, as we all recognise, is reaching women and girls, many of whom were left behind by the MDGs. That is why we are very pleased that there is a proposed stand-alone gender goal and also that there is a lot of emphasis on disaggregating data—only if you have good data can you move things forwards.
Baroness Kinnock of Holyhead (Lab)
My Lords, will the Minister clarify where things stand on the leave-no-one-behind principle included in the 2015 framework which, of course, focuses on social justice and equity? Is the Minister aware that when asked at a press conference in Liberia whether the UK would prioritise inequality over economic growth the Prime Minister replied no, that economic growth was the priority? Surely we can agree that progress achieved will not be sustained unless there is a strong focus on equity within and between countries.
Baroness Northover
My Lords, the noble Baroness will, of course, know the range of goals. Taken together they include all the areas the noble Baroness is talking about. Obviously we need economic growth to try to pull people out of poverty but, as she also knows, leaving no one behind is included there. The aim of the new MDGs is to eradicate extreme poverty. One will not do that without addressing both social justice and economic growth.
Baroness Jenkin of Kennington (Con)
My Lords, I welcome the focus on the post-2015 agenda, but will my noble friend agree that finishing the job of the existing MDGs is also crucial? Will she also inform the House what progress she hopes will be made in the next two years?
Baroness Northover
My noble friend is right and it is important to take forward the current MDGs. However, one of the most important things now is to make sure that the proposed new MDGs, or something very similar to them, are adopted in 2015 so that the progress made in the past 13 years is built on. As noble Lords know, DfID is committed to 0.7% of GNI going to aid. For example, my right honourable friend the Secretary of State has just announced £1 billion going towards the Global Fund. All this will help to deliver the original MDGs.
The Lord Bishop of Ripon and Leeds
My Lords, will the Minister press for tax justice to be a distinctive international goal in ensuring that major corporations pay appropriate taxes and in channelling taxes to the countries where profits are actually made?
Baroness Northover
The right reverend Prelate is right to highlight that and he will know that the UK Government are emphasising the importance of tax being collected appropriately within the developing countries. This will be transformative. Corporate transparency is one of the aspects required and he will know that my right honourable friend the Secretary of State for BIS, Vince Cable, is working very hard on that. BIS has just consulted and is considering responses, and DfID is trying to ensure that tax regimes in the developing countries are strengthened and built on.
Lord Collins of Highbury (Lab)
My Lords, evidence shows that investing in a child’s earliest years makes the biggest difference to their lives and to the country’s social and economic fortune. Will the Minister support calls to put early childhood development at the heart of the new post-2015 development framework?
Baroness Northover
Again, if the noble Lord looks at the proposed new MDGs, he will see that that kind of approach can be assumed to be there. There is new emphasis on, for example, good nutrition, which is so important in the first 1,000 days of a child’s life, as well as education—not just primary education but covering a wider scope. Therefore, if the noble Lord looks down the list, he will see that concern for young children is built into a number of the goals.
The Earl of Sandwich (CB)
The noble Baroness mentioned our progress towards 0.7% of GDP, but does she agree that our European neighbours are getting nowhere near that target? What are the Government doing to encourage them?
Baroness Northover
As the noble Earl knows, the northern European countries are stronger in that regard than the southern and eastern ones. However, there has been progress among some of the new EU countries, and that is encouraging. We do, and will, continue to argue this case to make sure that that is a high priority.
Syria: Humanitarian Aid
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Lord Kennedy of Southwark (Lab)
My Lords, on behalf of my noble friend Lady Quin, and at her request, I beg leave to ask the Question standing in her name on the Order Paper.
Baroness Northover (LD)
My Lords, the Government are in regular contact with other Governments about increasing humanitarian aid for Syrian refugees and Syrians in need within Syria. The UK led a lobbying effort at the G20 and the UN General Assembly last month, which raised a further $1 billion in pledges from the international community.
Lord Kennedy of Southwark
My Lords, I thank the noble Baroness and welcome the extent of the aid provided so far by the Government. There are some 2 million refugees outside Syria and some 4 million have been displaced by the conflict but there is also a need to get immediate assistance to those trapped in besieged areas and facing starvation. How can we best respond to the UN call today seeking to secure a halt to the fighting to allow desperately needed aid to get through?
Baroness Northover
I thank the noble Lord for his tribute to the Government for what they are doing. It is a dire situation, which noble Lords will see from the figures. A year ago there were 230,000 refugees from Syria. Now there are 2.1 million refugees—an eightfold increase. Clearly we have to work extremely hard to make sure that the pledges to which countries have committed themselves are delivered. We are pleased that the figure has reached the £1 billion mark but it is not sufficient and it is extremely important that humanitarian access is granted within Syria so that aid can get in where it is needed.
Baroness Hollins (CB)
Can the Minister tell the House how Her Majesty’s Government are assisting UK-based charities working in Syria—such as Hand in Hand which featured recently on “Panorama”—either financially or by supporting links with international NGOs? Hand in Hand, which includes senior NHS doctors, is providing medical aid directly into areas outside government control—areas which international NGOs are unable to access. Will the Minister meet Hand in Hand directors with me to explore possible assistance to their work?
Baroness Northover
I am very happy to meet representatives from Hand in Hand, and I note what David Nott said over the weekend about his experiences in Syria—the stories that he was reporting back were absolutely horrendous. The Government work very closely with a number of NGOs in this area and a range of organisations is working to try to get humanitarian aid in.
Lord Avebury (LD)
My Lords, I am sure the whole House will welcome the extra £100 million recently allocated to humanitarian aid to Syria by the Deputy Prime Minister. What additional efforts does the Minister think could be made to persuade our European Union colleagues at the Commission to match the efforts that we are already making? The UK’s £500 million contribution is by far the largest of any European Union nation. Can we not persuade our colleagues to match that?
Baroness Northover
Yes, the Deputy Prime Minister led the UK delegation to the UN General Assembly and I am very pleased indeed that we were able to pledge, as my noble friend has said, a further £100 million at the General Assembly, bringing us up to the level of £500 million and making us the second largest bilateral donor. The European Commission has contributed $1.2 billion since the beginning of the Syria crisis and we have been working across the EU to encourage all countries to contribute.
Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean (Lab)
Can the noble Baroness tell the House what humanitarian aid is being given to the Christian community in Syria? In particular have the Government made representations about the disappearance of Archbishop Yohanna of Aleppo who disappeared earlier this year on 23 April?
Baroness Northover
There are a number of groups suffering in particular in Syria and the noble Baroness is right to highlight the particular plight of Christians. We are emphasising their particular need. I will get her an update on the situation in relation to the Archbishop but she can be assured that the UK Government are well aware of the situation affecting these groups within Syria.
Lord Wright of Richmond (CB)
Can the noble Baroness tell the House what steps we are taking to re-establish direct bilateral contact with the Syrian Government in Damascus, if only to enable us to help persuade President Assad’s Government to provide secure access for much needed humanitarian assistance within Syria itself?
Baroness Northover
The noble Lord will know about the UN Security Council presidential statement issued about three weeks ago seeking better humanitarian access and putting particular responsibility upon the Syrian Government. There are a number of things which the Syrian Government could do to make sure that visas are granted more readily and that travel permits are granted so that humanitarian aid can get in. Efforts are being taken forward to try to bring forward the peace process and I am sure he will know that UN Special Envoy Brahimi is leading an intensive period of preparation to try to ensure that there is a meeting in November for the Geneva II process.
Baroness Kinnock of Holyhead (Lab)
My Lords, does the Minister agree with Medecins Sans Frontières, which says that the Syrian people are now presented with the absurd situation of chemical weapons inspectors freely driving through areas of desperate need while ambulances, food and drug supplies are being blocked? Is it not the case that two weeks after the Security Council agreement on access for humanitarian aid, nothing has actually changed?
Baroness Northover
The noble Baroness highlights a key point. It is obviously encouraging that the chemical weapons inspectors have been able to get into the areas they wished to visit, but it has also been quite striking that humanitarian aid has not necessarily been able to get into those same places. That is one of the reasons why the international community is putting particular stress on trying to encourage the Syrian Government to grant those rights of passage for humanitarian reasons.