Legal Aid

Debate between Baroness Stowell of Beeston and Lord Horam

Thursday 4th December 2014 Lords Chamber

[The Lord Privy Seal (Baroness Stowell of Beeston) (Con)]

My Lords, we still have time. Order—I am standing at the Dispatch Box. We have not heard from the Conservative Benches on this Question. My noble friend Lord Horam is due to speak next, and I know that the House is keen to hear also from the noble and learned Lord, Lord Scott.

[Lord Horam]

My Lords, would it not be better if more lawyers in the legal aid field followed the example of Michael Mansfield QC, who closed his chambers but has reopened a new set of chambers on a lower cost base? Would the lawyers not be better advised to pursue that route, which many others in the public and private sectors have had to do at great cost over the last few years? We could then get a decent service at less cost to the taxpayers within the remit of what the public can afford.

Families: Troubled Families

Debate between Baroness Stowell of Beeston and Lord Horam

Tuesday 7th January 2014 Lords Chamber

[Lord Horam]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what progress is being made with the Troubled Families Programme.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Communities and Local Government (Baroness Stowell of Beeston) (Con)]

My Lords, this Government’s ambition to turn around the lives of 120,000 troubled families is on track. In November, 18 months into the three- year programme, we announced that more than half the families are being worked with and more than 22,000 have been turned around. This means that children are back in school, levels of youth crime and anti-social behaviour have been significantly reduced, and more than 1,400 adults from some of England’s hardest-to-help households are now in continuous work.

[Lord Horam (Con)]

That is very good news from a very important social programme. Can my noble friend tell me whether she is getting enough mentors on this programme? These are one-to-one relationships—that is the programme’s strength—and we need very good-quality mentors to do that. Secondly, is she getting enough co-operation from local authorities, which are in the driving seat on this?

[Baroness Stowell of Beeston]

My Lords, I am grateful to my noble friend for raising this important matter. As noble Lords have just heard me say, we define the term “troubled families” by using specific criteria. Often that does not give the true picture of just how entrenched those families are in terms of their dependency and how some of them have to deal with violence, drugs and crime in intergenerational families. In the past, lots of agencies have worked with them but got nowhere fast. On the point my noble friend raises, many social workers want to come forward and be the key worker in charge of working with those families. There has been no problem whatever with recruiting for that, and the local authorities have been very proactive in moving forward with this programme. As regards turning those families around, this programme is about reducing their dependency on the state and giving them, and especially their children, the chance of a decent life.