Covid-19: Vaccine Availability

Baroness Tyler of Enfield Excerpts

Tuesday 14th July 2020 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Sugg]

My noble friend is right to highlight that. Of course, we do not know whether a vaccine will be found or, if it is, how effective it will be. We are taking a comprehensive approach, making sure that we invest also in globally accessible treatments and tests. We have provided up to £40 million to the COVID-19 Therapeutics Accelerator and up to £23 million to the Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics to develop and deliver new Covid-19 tests.

[Baroness Tyler of Enfield (LD) [V]]

My Lords, Covid-19 is a global pandemic with no respect for national borders. We know that as long as anyone is at risk from this virus, the entire world is at risk. Is the Minister aware of recent polling conducted by the Wellcome Foundation in the UK, the US, Germany and France that shows strong public support for making sure that any new treatments or vaccines are made available first to those who need them most, wherever in the world they live? Does she agree with the overwhelming view expressed there that national Governments should work together on a global response based on need rather than on ability to pay?

[Baroness Sugg]

My Lords, our best chance of defeating this virus is by working together globally to develop a mass-produced vaccine that is accessible and affordable to all. The UK absolutely supports a global approach to the rapid development and scaled-up manufacture of vaccines, with equitable access to all who need them.

Financial Exclusion

Baroness Tyler of Enfield Excerpts

Wednesday 4th July 2018 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Baroness Tyler of Enfield]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the impact on financial exclusion of (1) bank branch closures, and (2) moves to restrict the use of cash as a means of payment.

[The Minister of State, Department for International Development (Lord Bates) (Con)]

My Lords, the Government are committed to financial inclusion. Along with the FCA, we are taking steps to ensure that everyone has access to useful and affordable financial services, including face-to-face banking services and free access to cash. The Government recognise that banking and ways of making payments are changing rapidly, but we do not make assessments of branch closures or payment methods.

[Baroness Tyler of Enfield (LD)]

My Lords, I thank the Minister for his response. I am sure that he is aware that since 2015, some 2,900 bank branches have closed in the UK, and that only last year, the banks removed some 2,000 ATM machines, despite the fact that cash remains a very popular choice for many consumers. Does he agree that the increasing lack of face-to-face banking services, particularly in rural areas, not only threatens the financial exclusion of particularly vulnerable groups—I am thinking in particular of older people and those with limited mobility—but risks disrupting the entire cash economy in local communities, especially shops and small businesses? Given that, what concrete steps do the Government intend to take to ensure that physical banking facilities and cash payments remain available to all who want and need them?

[Lord Bates]

Perhaps I may first pay tribute to the noble Baroness for her work as chair of the ad hoc Financial Exclusion Committee of this House, which provided important recommendations which the Government are steadily working to implement. The issue she raises is an important one. The way we pay for things is changing, as is how we use banks. Cash used to account for 60% of transactions. That has reduced to 40% of transactions and is predicted to go down to 20% by 2026. As I say, the way that banking is carried out is changing. However, we recognise that there is a particular issue for vulnerable people and vulnerable communities. For that reason, in January 2017 we launched the banking framework agreement between the high street banks and post offices. Some 98.7% of people live within three miles of a post office, even those in rural communities. We have introduced the Payment Systems Regulator, which monitors ATM machines to ensure that they are maintained as a source of free access to large parts of the community. We have a great deal to keep under review, but this is an important issue that the noble Baroness and the Government are very aware of.

Creditworthiness Assessment Bill [HL]

Baroness Tyler of Enfield Excerpts

Committee: 1st sitting (Hansard): House of Lords
Friday 11th May 2018 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Gardner of Parkes (Con)]

My Lords, I listened very carefully to what my noble friend said in introducing the amendment, but I really think it is a very bad amendment. It throws out the whole value of the Bill completely. It would just reinstate the current position. That is not what we are aiming to do. We are aiming to make this possible for people who really have no knowledge or awareness of finance or how to do things. These people would be the very ones to be overlooked with a “may”, because they do not push themselves forward in the same way, yet they need the information and the help, certainly if they have been good payers of rent. I remember when I was looking to get a mortgage for the first house I ever bought—I did not succeed in getting one at the time. The whole house cost £7,500, which in those days was a lot of money. A dental chair-side assistant was paid two pounds 10 shillings a week; a highly skilled receptionist was paid £7. We are talking about a long time ago. Although those were times when I knew nothing whatever about mortgages, these are times when you need help and you want to have your case considered. The more modest you are or willing to be squashed the more you were squashed. It is not a good amendment and I am sorry to say that I cannot support my noble friend on it. I want to retain the status quo in the original wording of the Bill, which would be very much more helpful to those who need help.

[Baroness Tyler of Enfield (LD)]

My Lords, I also support the Bill in its original unamended form. I will explain briefly why. I apologise that I was unable to be present at Secon I fundamentally believe that there should be parity of treatment between tenants and homeowners d Reading. as others have already said.

I had the privilege of chairing the Lords Select Committee on Financial Exclusion last year, which explored the connection between consumer credit and financial exclusion. We heard that for the many low-income households without financial safeguards, credit, including high-cost, short-term loans, was the only way of keeping on top of family finances for regular or emergency expenditure. As we all know, this phenomenon is particularly prevalent owing to increasingly precarious work and the casualised forms of employment around, meaning that both income and expenditure needs for individuals and families can easily spike without warning.

It was clear to us—the committee heard this very strongly indeed from the evidence—that consumer credit is increasingly the de facto safety net for many people on low incomes to meet essential needs. But we also heard that many credit agencies do not take rent into account. Most social and private renters therefore often have thin credit histories and do not have access to the lower-cost mainstream lending options. What we heard most of all—this is why I feel so strongly on the issue—is that those people are too often forced to turn to high-cost and predatory sources of credit, such as payday lenders or rent-to-own companies.

Frankly, I was shocked when I heard some of the eye-wateringly high forms of interest on credit and how much it can cost for someone who goes to somewhere such as BrightHouse to buy white goods or something like them. They are paying so much over the odds. This directly contributes to the poverty premium, established to be at around £1,000 per year per person, which is paid by poorer people for products and services because of a lack of consumer credit or creditworthiness. As my noble friend Lady Grender said, this particularly affects young people. On Tuesday this week we heard excellent work from the Intergenerational Commission of the Resolution Foundation that showed that one-third of millennials can now expect to be renting for their entire lives. We have to make sure that policy is in line with the reality of how people live their lives.

The chief executive of BrightHouse gave evidence to our committee in 2016 and made the point that its customers had very few options. It is time to give those people some other options and to bring them back into the mainstream. This Bill does that. It can help redress some of the damage of exclusion and insecurity that plagues those struggling to make ends meet and prevent an already disadvantaged Generation Rent falling into further cycles of debt and despair. It really is time that we make rent count and it is long overdue that we do.

Tackling Financial Exclusion (Financial Exclusion Report)

Baroness Tyler of Enfield Excerpts

Monday 18th December 2017 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Tyler of Enfield]

My Lords, I am very grateful to the Minister for his response and I will briefly pick up a couple of points. First, I thank everyone who has spoken in this excellent debate—both those who served on the committee and those who did not. As befits the subject matter, the debate has been wide ranging and extremely well informed. I am very grateful to those who raised issues that we did not address in the report. I was going to summarise a few of the issues raised but the noble Lord, Lord Bates, did it so well that I do not need to do so.

I feel somewhat more reassured by the Minister’s response than I was by the formal written response. Perhaps it is a matter of tone, but the Minister managed, as ever, to convey an appropriate sense of urgency and seriousness regarding the report—something that, frankly, seemed lacking in the written response. He said one thing that I shall hang on to. I think I am right that he said that the Government are taking the report seriously and that it will be an important part of their thinking in preparing their own strategy. I am pleased about that. I very much look forward to seeing the strategy when it is published, as I hope it will be. I hope that it will give the Government another opportunity to go around the block and to look again at the 14 other recommendations that they have not been able to accept so far. I hope that there will be an annual report to Parliament after the strategy is published and that that will give us in this Chamber another opportunity to look at this very important issue.

I intend to follow up assiduously in this area. Meeting Ministers, whether in this Chamber or in the other place, will always be very welcome. I look forward to further debates on this vital issue, which, as the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Birmingham said, is inextricably linked with the poverty and breath-taking inequalities that currently blight the lives of many of our fellow citizens.

Motion agreed.

Children: Affordable Childcare

Baroness Tyler of Enfield Excerpts

Thursday 9th January 2014 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Tyler of Enfield (LD)]

My Lords, I, too, congratulate the noble Baroness, Lady Massey, on securing this very welcome and timely debate. The issue of affordable childcare is so important that it is high time we addressed it directly in your Lordships’ House.

Affordable childcare is central to the current cost of living debate and concern about living standards. According to a Joseph Rowntree Foundation report, the cost of childcare has risen by 37% since 2008, more than double the rate of inflation, and at a time when real wages have been stagnant or falling. In short, any attempt to alleviate the pressure on family budgets will be incomplete if it fails to offer credible solutions to the current lack of affordable childcare.

Last year I had the privilege of chairing a Liberal Democrat policy working group that looked at the problems of people on low to middle incomes who try to juggle work and family responsibilities. The report we produced, A Balanced Working Life, looked in particular at childcare and benefited hugely from the experience of my noble friend Lady Walmsley. We sought to emphasise in our report not just the financial burden of expensive childcare and its impact on household budgets but its implications for the participation of women in the jobs market, child development and social mobility. I want to emphasise today the importance of looking at childcare in the round.

The loss of female employment after childbirth due to the current lack of flexible and affordable childcare is a serious loss of skills to the economy. Of course, some mothers choose to stay at home and look after their children, and that must always be a matter of individual choice based on their own circumstances. However, some people are denied that choice because the childcare simply is not there.

It is worth noting that the Institute for Fiscal Studies has shown female employment to be the key driver for increased income among low to middle-income families in the past 50 years. Not only is the lack of affordable childcare a limit on women’s job prospects and professional development, it can also leave some women in a more vulnerable situation if they find that they are unable to support themselves; for example, if a relationship breaks down or a partner dies. It does not have to be this way. Findings from the OECD show that employment among women with children is eight percentage points lower in the UK than in the top five performers in the OECD. If our competitors can establish policies that enable women to return to work, surely we can, too.

From a social mobility perspective, the importance of early years is unequivocal. We have heard many times in debates in this Chamber that, by the age of three, large disparities in child development have already become apparent between children from low-income backgrounds and their relatively wealthier peers, with these gaps widening further over time. If we are serious about ensuring that children from disadvantaged backgrounds reach their potential, guaranteeing access to high-quality and affordable childcare from a young age is the place to start.

The A Balanced Working Life report, to which I referred earlier, set four criteria against which we should judge the childcare market and how effectively it is working: affordability; quality; convenience and flexibility; and the adequacy of provision. Looking at the evidence, the childcare market does not stand up particularly well on any of these counts.

Let us take affordability, which is our prime concern today, and imagine that we are the parent of a one year-old child who has returned to work, five days a week, from 8 am to 6 pm, from financial necessity, just to help make ends meet. The 50 hours of childcare you require per week will set you back on average £11,000 per year, or £14,000 if you live in London. The burden is not eased once you child reaches school age. If your job requires working longer hours and your child attends a daily after-school club, you could be faced with a weekly bill of almost £50.

It is no surprise that two-thirds of parents say that the cost and inflexible nature of childcare has meant that they have been unable either to take up a job or to work longer hours. Once again, as we heard from the noble Baroness, Lady Jenkin, the comparisons with the rest of the OECD are unfavourable. The average British family spends 27% of their earnings on childcare, which is higher than every OECD nation, bar Switzerland.

I mention briefly a point made eloquently by the noble Baroness, Lady Massey: the position facing parents of disabled children who look for affordable, high-quality childcare. Even when that childcare is available, and in many places it is not, it is often available only at a substantial premium. A survey by Working Families found that around 13% of respondents were paying more than £10 per hour for childcare for their disabled child. With the huge personal toll that providing such intensive care takes on individuals and family life, the need for affordable, reliable care is acute.

On convenience and flexibility, it is clear that, for many parents, the availability of childcare is simply not compatible with their working hours. This is particularly pronounced for parents working atypical hours. Just 9% of local authorities in England reported having sufficient places for these children. More generally, with the typical school day finishing at 3 pm, the question of who will care for school-age children becomes particularly pronounced.

I have spent some time describing the challenges that we face, because I think it is important to be clear about the nature of the issue, but I want to finish by focusing on some of the good things that are already happening and what I would like to see happen in the future. I should like to highlight the community childcare hub model developed by the charity 4Children and currently being piloted in nine locations, with very welcome funding from government. The purpose of these hubs is to integrate local childcare services, increasing their accessibility. Whereas formerly parents have had to plan and co-ordinate their own childcare, working around fixed opening times and making independent arrangements with childminders to cover irregular working patterns, hubs bring together the full range of childcare options, including nurseries, childminders and after-school clubs. Working with the hub, parents are able to establish a complete, co-ordinated pattern of care for their children, and change that when their family or working hours change. Early feedback from these pilots is encouraging; they provide a promising model for shaping and co-ordinating the local childcare market.

I am proud that Liberal Democrats have given the issue of childcare real priority in difficult economic times. Thanks to Liberal Democrat policies, implemented through the coalition Government, three and four year-olds are now entitled to 15 free hours at Ofsted-inspected early-years settings which offer the early years foundation stage. Moreover, that entitlement has already been extended to 20% of two year-olds from the most deprived backgrounds, rising to 40% as of September.

Our A Balanced Working Life report focuses on ways of reducing the cost of childcare by building on that free entitlement, which I think is at the very heart of the matter. I am pleased to say that its recommendations were adopted as party policy at our party conference last September. Therefore, as a party we are committed, as resources allow, to increasing the free childcare entitlement on a stepped basis to: 10 hours per week for all babies between the ages of one and two; 15 hours for all two year-olds; 20 hours for children between three and four; and 25 hours for four to five year-olds.

I believe that those additional hours should be targeted at those families whose joint household income is below £100,000 per year. It is worth noting that that very small provision of 10 hours of free childcare for one to two year-olds will not only help mothers to keep in touch with the jobs market, which is crucial, but provide a bridge, which does not currently exist, between parental leave and the current free entitlement for two year-olds.

Speaking in a personal capacity, I hope that such policies will feature prominently in all party manifestos, including my own, as we move to the next election, but of course mine will not be the final voice on the issue. I simply end by saying that I observe, and note with much interest, the parallels between the Liberal Democrat party policies that I have just described and those that the Labour Party announced in late September, which also aim to extend free childcare for three to four year-olds from 15 hours to 25 hours. Perhaps a cross-party consensus is about to emerge—who knows?

Children: Development

Baroness Tyler of Enfield Excerpts

Tuesday 26th November 2013 Grand Committee

[Baroness Tyler of Enfield (LD)]

My Lords, the inclusion of an early childhood development target in the post-2015 UN millennium development goals would be a hugely important action on behalf of children around the world. I agree with my noble friend Lady Walmsley—I congratulate her on securing this debate—that a global focus on early childhood development is essential as we move into a post-2015 global agenda. I also agree that the UK should be playing a leadership role in this crucial issue. However, if we are to take the lead on early childhood development we need to look long and hard at our own domestic policies to ensure that we truly are a world leader in our policies on early childhood. We must be seen to practise what we preach. That will be part of my focus today.

There is no escaping the unfortunate fact that of the children born around the UK today each will be born with different life chances. Sadly these chances will depend not on innate ability but, in large measure, upon the economic and social conditions into which these children are born. Of course, this inequality is magnified many times over for children living in countries with high levels of absolute poverty.

As policymakers, the natural question to ask ourselves is this: what can be done to improve the life chances of children, both in this country and around the world? To draw an analogy, last year the All-Party Group on Social Mobility, of which I am vice-chair, published a report entitled Seven Key Truths about Social Mobility. The first of those key truths—the one highlighted by my noble friend Lady Walmsley in her speech—is that the point of greatest leverage is what happens to a person between birth and the age of three. Basic cost-effective interventions in the first few years of life can pay big dividends later on in a person’s overall chances of a healthy and fulfilling life.

In the light of these conclusions, early childhood development emerges as one of the key issues for any policymaker or legislator who is seriously concerned about a fair chance in life for all our children. It is my hope that in the coming years the UK will lead the push, both internationally and at home, to put a strong emphasis on ensuring that all young children have that fair chance for a fulfilling life.

In addition to the benefits of early years intervention, the Seven Key Truths about Social Mobility report identified another key causal factor in improving life chances, and that is developing what is called character and resilience among children and young people. By that term “character and resilience”, I mean those habits of mind such as perseverance in the face of setbacks, sticking with it when the going gets really tough, high expectations, confidence, self-esteem and belief that your life is heading in a positive direction and that you can improve things by your own efforts. These habits of mind are even more crucial for children from far less privileged nations than our own. The inclusion of specific targets for early childhood development in the UN’s post-2015 millennium development goals should help to ensure that young children across the world are in an environment that will promote the development of these crucial characteristics that can make such a difference to their later life.

So what concrete interventions can Governments make in those early years that might lead to the development of the resilience that I was talking about? Given that most early-years development takes place in the home, the most important thing that Governments can do is to put policies in place that support parents during the first few years of their child’s life. Clearly a secure and nurturing home life during those early years is crucial for a child’s development. Of course, sadly, as we have already heard in the debate, in too many countries that simply is not possible because of the social and economic conditions, as well as war and conflict.

Many reports, in this country and abroad, have pointed to the fact that one of the most unhelpful assumptions is that people know instinctively how to parent. Of course, all parents want to provide a nurturing environment for their young children, but those from more privileged backgrounds tend to take for granted both the resources and the strong support networks that allow them to parent effectively. For those without those networks, the prospect of parenting on a low income can be extremely daunting. These challenges begin in the prenatal period and continue throughout early childhood and, of course, the quality of parenting varies hugely in both rich and poor households and rich and poor nations. However, clearly, having less time, fewer money worries and fewer resources makes the job of consistent and attentive parenting far harder. While what goes on in the home is, first and foremost, a matter for families, Governments can do more to provide the resources to ensure that mothers and fathers have the degree of physical and mental health, financial security and overall preparedness necessary for raising a child.

As the United Nations develops a plan for global action on early childhood development, we need to look around the world for examples of successful policies that really help parents. I believe that one model for these efforts can be found in Sweden, where expectant mothers and fathers are invited to join local groups run by a trained midwife to prepare them for the birthing process. These groups do not disband at birth but continue to meet throughout the first few years of the child’s life to offer advice and support throughout the parenting process. The data available so far suggest that parents find these programmes helpful, as more than half the parents who join prior to birth are still involved at the time of their child’s third birthday.

In addition to positive parenting, we know that education plays such a large role in enabling young children to develop into capable learners. Although the UK is above the average for OECD countries in overall participation in early-years education, a gap still exists between the more affluent and the less affluent in terms of both participation in and effectiveness of early-years education, particularly in preparing children to be ready to enter primary school. In its report entitled Greater Expectations: Raising Aspirations for our Children, the National Children’s Bureau—of which I am president—notes that, while two-thirds of children overall experience good development during early-years education, only half of children on free school meals in the UK experience that good development.

So what can be done? I suggest that there are three key components. First, we need a strategy for ensuring that success in early-years education, both in this country and elsewhere, is not tied to income. The first step must be to ensure that parents of underprivileged children have easy access to early-years education that is of good quality and promotes good child development, both intellectual and emotional.

Secondly, we need good practice guidance for early-years educators, which can be shared internationally, in order to ensure that early-years education is preparing young children to succeed when they enter school. This also means ensuring that early-years education facilities are staffed with qualified educational professionals, regardless of the affluence of the communities they serve. We need to think critically about the nature of the curriculum in the early years. In my view, early-years education should have a distinct emphasis on educating the whole person.

Finally, we need to understand and organise the way that we address the interests of children and young people at the level of public policy. This is what is so important about the specific inclusion of early childhood development in the UN’s post-2015 goals. Currently, in far too many countries the interests of children and young people are addressed in a decidedly fractured way. Some issues fall under the umbrella of education and others of health—physical, mental and so on. As Dr Nurper Ulkuer, formerly a senior adviser at UNICEF, remarked at a reception in Parliament on early childhood development earlier this month, a unified, holistic approach is needed in order to ensure that our children are physically healthy, mentally healthy, socially engaged, and ready to learn.

The importance of this holistic approach is at the core of the push to include specific benchmarks for early childhood development in the UN’s post-2015 development goals. However, this shift in how children’s issues are addressed can also happen at the national level. In the UK, the National Children’s Bureau makes two key recommendations in its report on how to organise policy-making, which I think are equally applicable in other countries. The first is the creation of a government children and young people’s board with full ministerial representation. This board can help set the agenda on policy that affects children across all levels and dimensions of government.

The second recommendation is to look—in this country it could be through the independent Office for Budget Responsibility—at the impact of each Budget on child poverty and inequality among children. Both these recommendations could help ensure that children’s issues are placed at the centre of all policy decisions and could be used as a model in other countries. Of course, that is ultimately the heart of the matter. Every Government around the world has to be held accountable for the way in which their actions promote the well-being and development of the youngest children. That is why I believe that the UK should use its international profile to push strongly for the inclusion of an early childhood development target in the post-2015 development goals to promote the interests of young children around the world.

Children and Families Bill

Baroness Tyler of Enfield Excerpts

Monday 18th November 2013 Grand Committee

Debate on whether Clause 76 should stand part of the Bill.

[Baroness Tyler of Enfield (LD)]

My Lords, I rise to propose that Clause 76 should not stand part of the Bill. I have considerable concerns about the clause as it stands and wish to probe the Government’s thinking. In technical terms, Clause 76 removes Section 11 of the Childcare Act 2006, which places a statutory duty on local authorities in England to assess the sufficiency of childcare. Section 11 supports the Section 6 Childcare Act duty on local authorities to provide sufficient childcare for working parents as far as is reasonably practical.

I am aware that the Government’s view of this is that the childcare sufficiency assessment is simply a bureaucratic burden which can be removed with no drawbacks and, indeed, that this would allow local authorities to spend more time on securing sufficient childcare provision. I do not think it is that straightforward. The assessment was not introduced simply as a bureaucratic process designed to divert time and resources; it had a clear purpose. In practice, Section 11 sufficiency assessments are the mechanism through which local authorities meet, and are held accountable for, the Section 6 sufficiency duty. My key concern is that repealing Section 11 and the associated regulations without an effective replacement will effectively revoke the Childcare Act sufficiency duty altogether in many areas.

Would not a better solution to concerns about excessive prescription in the Section 11 regulations be to maintain the Section 11 duty itself but to simplify or revise the regulations? Evidence suggests that statutory guidance is not likely to be an effective alternative to a duty in primary legislation if it leads to a duty having a lower financial priority or not happening at all. On top of this, the Government have reduced statutory guidance on the sufficiency duty from 70 pages to a single page—you could say that is going from the sublime to the ridiculous—which removes important guidance on what is meant by sufficient childcare. There are concerns that this will lead to lower-quality assessments.

We all know that there are substantial gaps in access to high-quality affordable childcare. For example, just one-fifth of local authorities believe that there is sufficient childcare in their area for the under-twos. In particular, there is a chronic shortage of high-quality places in disadvantaged areas, for parents working atypical hours, often on low incomes, and for children with additional needs. We all know how this undermines what I think we all want to do in terms of promoting social mobility and reducing education inequalities. Therefore, it remains my contention that an effective Childcare Act sufficiency duty remains an important tool in social policy. Of course, I accept that some assessments do not assess sufficiency robustly or reliably, not least because every local authority ends up having to reinvent the wheel. Tellingly, the consultation on removing the Section 11 duty did not show support for removing Section 11 itself as distinct from the outdated regulations. This is where the nub of the problem, and my concerns, lie. Crucially, in their responses, 60 local authorities explicitly requested more detailed guidance on sufficiency assessments than the Government had provided. Surely some publication of good-practice guidance to support local authorities in developing their assessments and their action plans would be helpful.

If this clause remains in the Bill, local authorities will be obliged to provide only an annual report on levels of local childcare to elected members. I am not convinced that this more light-touch approach will provide the same level of incentive for local authority investment in ongoing support, and indeed challenge, from early-years teams, which currently work to ensure that childcare provision is not only sufficient but of high quality. I think we all consider that to be very important, and it is also vital to meeting the needs of young children with special educational needs and disabilities.

In March 2013 the National Children’s Bureau—of which I am president and therefore declare an interest—surveyed local authorities’ early-years teams and parents to gauge views on the removal of the duty to carry out childcare sufficiency assessments. Only 20% of respondents were confident that their local authority would be able to secure sufficient childcare if the local authority duty to carry out the sufficiency assessment were removed. Given such low levels of confidence, on what does the Minister base her confidence that removing the duty to assess sufficiency is the right way forward?

In conclusion, looking at the big picture, local authorities in England receive £3 billion to £4 billion of early-years funding annually. Public investment on this scale should be matched by a legislative framework to guide effective investment and ensure accountability. Like other noble Lords present, I was actively involved in the Care Bill currently before Parliament. The Care Bill was introduced with a new sufficiency duty for adult social care, modelled on the Childcare Act, including a duty in primary legislation to understand the supply and demand of services. It is difficult—even a little odd—to explain the removal the same duty in early-years provision at exactly the same time. I beg to move.

[Baroness Hughes of Stretford]

My Lords, on behalf of my noble friend Lady Jones and myself I oppose the proposition that Clause 76 should stand part of the Bill. I will also speak to Amendment 240S in our names, which is an amendment to government Amendment 240R.

As the noble Baroness, Lady Tyler, said, Clause 76 would repeal the duty of local authorities, under Section 11 of the Childcare Act, to undertake and publish regular assessments of the sufficiency of childcare in their area. In so doing—I entirely agree with the noble Baroness —it would effectively neutralise the general duty, under Section 6, to ensure sufficient childcare for working parents.

The Government carried out a very inadequate consultation on this proposal, and produced findings which can be described, at best, as one-sided. Contrary to the Government’s claim, the consultation did not show support for removing the Section 11 duty, but rather for the need for revised guidance and a real effort by the Government to help all local authorities implement that duty as well as the best authorities are already doing. I agree that some action is necessary: where practice is variable; where there are shortages of childcare, as in many areas; and in relation to specific needs, for example parents who work unsocial hours or have disabled children,

This nurturing of the role of local authorities in driving up supply and continuous improvement in childcare is important. While some local authorities are doing it very well, they use different definitions and different methodologies, and many have poor action plans. As the noble Baroness said, this could and should be addressed, not by repealing the duty to assess sufficiency, but by providing guidance, developing a consistent measure of childcare demand, and a framework model for the action plans that need to come through—something the five-year review of the Childcare Act in 2009 showed was necessary. The Government may say they have revised the guidance, but they have not changed it in a way that addresses any of those issues. They have reduced 70 pages of guidance—and there is an argument that that is far too long, and practice shows it is the case—to less than two pages of sketchy, top-level, vague requirements, sending a clear message to local authorities that this duty does not matter to the Government any more.

I think it is worth reminding ourselves of why the Childcare Act 2006 substantially strengthened the duties of local authorities to ensure sufficiency of childcare: first, to stimulate the local market to increase the supply of good-quality childcare; secondly, to enable working parents and those aspiring to work to access childcare; and, thirdly, through that to support economic growth in those areas—something that is very much to the fore now. Indeed, there is a very strong business case for seeing childcare not only as important for child development and parental choice but as an increasingly essential part of the infrastructure to support people getting into work, which was never more important than now, when many families are suffering the brunt of the recession.

The Family and Childcare Trust has undertaken detailed analysis of local authority performance under the sufficiency duty. It shows that some have done well, suggesting that the problem is not fundamentally one of legislation but of good practice and the level of capability of individual authorities. Repealing that duty under Clause 76 will drive a coach and horses through the sufficiency duty itself, as the position in Scotland has demonstrated. There, there is no duty—just statutory guidance, similar to what the Government now propose for England. A third of Scottish authorities do not collect adequate data, and Scotland has only half the proportion of private and voluntary providers because local authorities do not do the work to stimulate the market and promote new childcare providers in the way that the best English local authorities have done. A much better alternative would be to replace the three-year assessment with an annual assessment, to simplify the guidance and to include frameworks for consistent supply and demand measures, to require local authorities to produce an action plan and to monitor local authority performance against those plans.

Finally on Clause 76, perhaps the Minister will explain why the Government are effectively neutralising the sufficiency duty in childcare while at the same time bringing in a new sufficiency duty in the Care Bill in respect of local authorities’ duties to ensure that there is sufficient adult care in their area. That seems a contradiction; I wonder why it exists.

Government Amendment 240R is extremely important in its potential ramifications. It introduces, at a very late stage in the passage of the Bill, significant changes to the way local authorities have to secure publicly funded, free early-years provision for three and four year-olds, and potentially has serious implications for the quality of the provision purchased, especially for the most disadvantaged children, including those two year-olds who now qualify. The Government consulted on these proposals, and the overwhelming view of local authorities was that they would have a negative impact on childcare. The proposed regulations will mean that a local authority can no longer apply its own quality assessment when deciding which providers it will commission the free places from. Local authorities will instead have to accept the most recent Ofsted judgment. Furthermore, the local authority will no longer be able to attach any conditions about quality or anything else to any provider that is rated good or outstanding.

On the face of it, I understand that in the interests of reducing duplication, requiring the local authority to accept the Ofsted judgment and not to do its own makes some sense, but I have some very specific concerns. First, the latest Ofsted inspection may be very out of date. It can be up to four years old. There may have been significant changes of leadership which have affected what is happening in a particular nursery. In short, the latest Ofsted judgment may not be a reliable indicator of current quality. If it was given a rating of good or outstanding, even four years ago, the local authority will not be able to look at the quality of that provider.

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[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.

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[Baroness Massey of Darwen (Lab)]

My Lords, I support Amendments 242 and 244 in the name of the noble Earl, Lord Listowel, but ask the Committee’s permission to sit down while I speak. I also support my noble friend Lady Hughes in her forceful speech about early intervention.

During our consideration of the Bill, many concerns have been raised about services working together for the benefit of children. Indeed, an earlier amendment—we discussed it some days ago, or possibly some weeks ago—was specifically about promoting integration, with lead professionals taking a role in ensuring that integration happens. I remember—again, it was some time ago—the noble Baroness, Lady Howarth, in one of her many excellent and wise contributions, saying that without data, strategy is not possible; the noble Baroness, Lady Hughes, also hinted at that. I agree with that and I think that the amendment could support the development of a strategy for children and families at a local level.

The amendments tabled by the noble Earl, Lord Listowel, are an extension of that concept of integration and improving data sharing in children’s centres. The noble Earl has described the need for NHS trusts to share with authorities records of live births to parents resident in their area in order to facilitate the identification of and contact with new families through children’s centres and other early outreach services. To this end, as he said, this should include the format of arrangements, the safeguarding of information, the regularity of data transfer, timescales and safeguards against inappropriate sharing.

All this reminds me of a report that some noble Lords may remember, Every Child Matters, which came out in about 2004—I can see lots of nods. This was a consultation on what matters for children, followed by a government document, in the wake of the horrendous death of Victoria Climbié and the report by the noble Lord, Lord Laming, which concluded that the poor co-ordination of services, including health, police, education and social services, had contributed to that child and other children falling through the net. It was a seminal document. It had influence in involving children and young people in setting priorities and in getting services for children to work together, to look at their functions in working together and to talk to one another. This group of amendments shows that we need to look at all that again; we need to look at the integration of services.

As others have said, poor data sharing can prevent organisations, including children’s centres, from helping vulnerable children and their families. If they had birth data, they could address the needs of such families early. I remember one children’s centre that I visited in the north of England having courses for young mothers. These courses became a group support initiative to talk about breastfeeding, about bringing up babies and toddlers and about which services people could access—for example, classes on a variety of issues. Crèches had been set up at the centre. Sometimes the centre was able to offer intensive support for parents who had difficulties with finances, for example.

The organisation Action for Children has set out reasons for effective data-sharing systems and has listed some difficulties, which I hope the Minister will be able to address. Those difficulties include the fact that children’s centres may be split across district and health services; there may be no data-sharing protocols; and there may be a feeling that such systems are too resource-intensive. However, there are serious impacts in not sharing data. The noble Earl has listed some such impacts of delaying the identification of vulnerable children and their families and delaying help for such families.

When data sharing is effective—according to Action for Children, it is effective in 32% of children’s centres—local arrangements have been set up between health and the local authority. There have been meetings and good relationships between, for example, health visitors and midwives, and there has been early identification of vulnerable families and of children who are likely to have difficulties, such as those with disabilities. As others have said, this help should be offered early in order to be most effective.

One of the key issues is that data sharing forms a basis for people from various disciplines who support families to meet and to talk about the concerns, not just swap bits of paper. It has always seemed to me that people talking about issues to one another, either formally or informally, is a very good way of ensuring integrated support for families. I look forward to hearing the Minister’s reply.

[Baroness Tyler of Enfield]

My Lords, I support Amendment 242, to which my name is attached. The noble Earl, Lord Listowel, has already set out very clearly the arguments in favour of piloting the registration of births at children’s centres, but I will just confirm my personal support for this amendment.

Children’s centres do many good things, but one of their absolutely core values lies in their ability to reach out to some of the most vulnerable and disadvantaged groups: people who, for all sorts of reasons, are unlikely to enter into sustained contact with public services without help in doing so, but who are also the most likely to benefit from them. We have already heard the statistics from the recent children’s centre census from 4Children. That is encouraging in showing us that the widening reach is really happening and that more children’s centres are being successful in reaching out to some of the most disadvantaged. The location of birth registration services within children’s centres will really help with early intervention in the lives of disadvantaged children.

I am sure that all noble Lords in this Committee are well aware of the evidence of the huge importance of early intervention and how incredibly important what happens in the first three years of a child’s life is. Indeed, as I know from my work on the All-Party Group on Social Mobility, in some ways those first three years can almost determine life chances for a lifetime. They are absolutely critical. That is why I think that getting parents through the doors of children’s centres, ideally within six weeks of their child’s birth, and exposing them to the range of services, help and support available is critical. It is also vital to help nurture those early relationships between parents and professionals, which, again, can make such a difference. That is why I am absolutely delighted that encouraging parents to register children’s births at a local children and family centre is now part of Liberal Democrat party policy.

My final point is that the proposed birth registration pilot scheme should be seen as part of a wider strategy to provide more integrated and cohesive public services. Children’s centres not only provide childcare, as we talked about earlier, but a range of valuable help, including parenting sessions, health and well-being advice, information on jobs and employability, et cetera. For example, things such as co-locating health visitors within children’s centres enable parents to have the opportunity to speak to a health visitor about any concerns they may have, for example in relation to their child’s sleeping patterns, breastfeeding and their own health and well-being. Co-locating important services in this one-stop-shop way has a whole range of very powerful benefits. It should increase take-up and should also be value for money. It makes terribly good sense and is a real win-win. Can we try it out rather than just talk about it?

[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.

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[Baroness Hughes of Stretford]

My Lords, I know that other noble Lords want to speak, but perhaps because my noble friend and I have amendments in this group it might help if I speak to them first and we can get everything on the table.

I shall speak to Amendments 265 and 266, which would make a small but significant amendment to Amendment 264, which was spoken to by my noble friend Lord Faulkner. I also have a great deal of sympathy with Amendment 263. The arguments in favour of standardised packaging for tobacco are now self-evident and hardly need to be rehearsed. Similarly, there are no credible arguments against implementing standard packages for cigarettes that are not just plain but which, as we have seen in some of the briefings, are such that they may deter take-up of smoking and convey in stark terms the dangers of doing so.

The effects of smoking are well known. It is the largest preventable cause of cancer, causes 100,000 deaths a year and is a big factor in heart disease, cardiovascular illnesses, strokes and so on. Despite progress in reducing smoking, one in five adults still smokes. My noble friend Lord Faulkner has just reminded us of the fact that it is often in childhood and teenage years that people take up smoking; a significant number of youngsters aged between 11 and 15—an estimated 200,000, as he said—take up smoking. It is therefore a significant issue, and the more young people we can deter from taking up smoking in the first place and becoming lifelong addicts the better. We have to take seriously anything that makes smoking less attractive.

Especially since the advertising ban, cigarette packaging is the most important opportunity for tobacco companies to do exactly the opposite: namely, promote smoking as a cool, attractive and grown-up thing to do. That is why they spend millions on developing their packaging by testing its attractiveness to potential new customers and adding novel or gimmicky features that will attract interest. It is patently obvious that the companies believe that packaging is crucial to promoting their products and giving themselves a market edge. Indeed, research among young people by Cancer Research UK and other charities confirms the positive impressions conveyed by packaging in the minds of young people. One view was, for example, “It looks too colourful to be harmful”. We therefore have to use any means possible to protect young people from tobacco and deter them from taking up smoking. That is of course why the industry is resisting standardised packaging.

Like my noble friend, I could say more but I will not do so. This is essentially an issue of child protection. The public support standardised packaging. Children and young people find standardised packaging less attractive, more of a deterrent and more effective in conveying health warnings. Health professionals across the disciplines support standardised packaging. Other Administrations in the UK, and other countries abroad, are moving in this direction. I very much support Amendment 264, which sets out very well the detail that regulations on standard packaging should include, and I congratulate my noble friend and other noble Lords on bringing forward the amendment. However, our Amendments 265 and 266 would strengthen it by requiring the Secretary of State to make regulations rather than simply allowing them to decide whether to do so.

[Baroness Tyler of Enfield]

My Lords, my name is attached to Amendments 263 and 264. I want briefly to say why I feel so strongly that they are extremely important.

Like other noble Lords, I see smoking in cars primarily as a child protection issue. As we have heard, children’s lungs are smaller and they have faster breathing rates. That makes them particularly vulnerable to second-hand smoke, especially within the confines of a car. As we have heard, very often children are not able to stop adults smoking in their presence. Adult members of the public are protected by smoke-free legislation on public transport and in the workplace, but large numbers of children remain exposed to high concentrations of second-hand smoke when confined in family cars. I just do not think that is right.

My second point is that we simply cannot afford to wait any longer. We know that roughly one in five children reports being regularly exposed to second-hand smoke in cars. It has catastrophic health consequences. Finally, we know that there is very strong public support for this. In a recent survey, 80% of the public and 86% of children supported a ban, as do many health organisations.

Turning very briefly to standardised packaging, there is a very clear reason why people in the tobacco industry are always so opposed to amendments such as this. It is very straightforward. They know that the designer cigarette packet is a very effective advertising tool. Most worryingly, it is particularly effective on young people. I had many examples I was going to give; I shall reserve them for Report.

The other argument I would like to address is the one about the nanny state poking its nose into the lives of individuals. We are told that people know the risk and make an informed choice regarding whether or not to smoke. Of course, the problem is that the choices made by young people are not always informed. I am sure that we know from our personal experience how impressionable young people can be. I certainly do.

I remember going into a sweet shop aged about 14 or 15. There was a pack of cigarettes there. I will not give the name because I do not want to advertise it. I thought it was terribly elegant and glamorous and that if I bought that pack—which I did—I would be very elegant and glamorous. I do not think either of those held up, but really strong messages are coming across in that packaging. I have looked at the most up-to-date evidence. It is absolutely clear that standardised packs are less attractive to young people and improve the effectiveness of health warnings.

We have a duty to the children of this country to move on this issue once and for all. The time for talking is over and the time for action has arrived.

[Baroness Massey of Darwen]

My Lords, my name is on Amendment 263 and I shall be very brief indeed. We have just been discussing the Office of the Children’s Commissioner. We have just been talking about child protection. This also is a case of children’s rights. Children have the right to not be sitting in a smoke-filled car.

I was part of a debate on the Private Member’s Bill of the distinguished former surgeon, the noble Lord, Lord Ribeiro, who is here and will speak later on. He made a significant point. He said that awareness and behaviour change need to be coupled with legislation, and that smoking law at the moment does not cover cars.

The noble Lord, Lord Crisp, said that there are four questions to be asked. Is it dangerous? Yes. Are the dangers material and significant? Yes. Is it something that that affects other people? Yes. What are the downsides? They are modest. They are about having the freedom to smoke in a car when your children are present. It should not be allowed.

Children and Families Bill

Baroness Tyler of Enfield Excerpts

Wednesday 16th October 2013 Grand Committee

[Baroness Butler-Sloss]

I assume that I am allowed to speak to Amendment 54. I agree with, particularly, Amendment 55. It is extremely sensible because it cuts out the division of a child’s time, which all too many lay people see as “shared parenting”. Thank goodness the Government have taken those two words out of the draft Bill.

Clause 11 raises a technical legal point of considerable importance. It will affect the way in which all family judges and family magistrates try private law cases where the arrangements in relation to children have to be decided by the court. The noble Lord, Lord Ponsonby, would be affected by it sitting in the family proceedings court. I have discussed this clause with some members of the judiciary, who view it with some concern.

I start with a problem. If the clause becomes law, it will raise two potentially conflicting presumptions for the court to tackle. I regret to say, with the greatest respect, that the Minister will be wrong if he says what the noble Baroness said was in his brief. Under Clause 11 the court, in the various circumstances, is to presume, unless the contrary is shown, that the involvement of each parent in the life of the child concerned will further the child’s welfare. That is a presumption. However, the whole basis of family child law is the presumption of the paramountcy of the welfare of the child, which is in Section 1(1) of the Children Act 1989.

“Where a court determines any question with respect to … of the upbringing of a child … the child’s welfare shall be the court’s paramount consideration”.

That is engraved on the hearts of all family judges and magistrates. In order not to be appealed, they always put it at the beginning of all their judgments. It is extremely important.

The effect of Clause 11 is to bring in a second presumption. You cannot help it because you are presuming in Clause 11 and you are presuming in Section 1 of the Children Act. Those two presumptions potentially clash. Quite simply, a court can have only one presumption at a time.

This is not just me making a legalistic technical point. People might be forgiven for thinking that I am going back to my judicial days, but I promise that this is far broader than a legalistic point. The NSPCC and Coram are very concerned, and I am happy to adopt the points that they make. They make three very important points: this clause could lead to a shift in emphasis away from what is best for the child towards the feelings and desires of parents; it could inadvertently increase risk to children by putting pressure on parents to agree to contact arrangements that are unsuitable or dangerous in the erroneous belief that a court would order that kind of contact; and the proposed change is unnecessary because no evidence of a bias in the court system has been found.

It is not good enough to have two presumptions that the judge has to juggle which could clash. It is particularly difficult for family magistrates who are not lawyers. It is also important to bear in mind that the litigants in the cases to which this clause applies will be unrepresented in the absence of legal aid. As to the increased risk of harm to which the NSPCC and Coram refer, these unrepresented litigants have gone through the traumatic experience of a failed relationship. As I said earlier, 90% will not go to court, or only for an agreed order, 5% can be persuaded by the family information and assessment meeting and the remaining hardcore 5% will be extremely antagonistic towards each other. Some of them actually hate each other. They can hardly bear to be in the same room and the failed relationship has become corrosive. That is not a happy situation in which to make arrangements for their children. I regret to say that I have said from time to time that when parents are in dispute about their children, they are the last people who should ever make arrangements for their future. They are simply unsuitable.

However, one parent or the other may give way and agree to unsuitable access/contact—two failed words—because of the way in which this clause is framed and in the mistaken belief that that is what a court would order. Although the phrase “shared parenting” has been deleted, the public perception is that they will get 50% of the time. When they are not necessarily going to court, that is what one parent will try to impose on the other. Those who cannot agree are likely to hold out for more contact, and this will lead to increased litigation before the courts. The courts are already beginning to be clogged up as a result of the absence of legal aid in private family law cases, particularly at district judge level, where, I am told, district judge first appointments, which used to last half an hour, now go on for at least 45 minutes. The backlog of cases is bound to grow. Of course, the children will suffer while the parents go on fighting and carrying on their dispute about child arrangements because it will take longer for these cases to be heard.

My experience as a family judge and then as head of the family court is that judges look to parents rather than impose gender discrimination in favour of mothers. I made a very large number of decisions in favour of fathers, although Fathers 4 Justice did not believe me. If it had looked at my track record, it might have seen that that was the case. I cannot tell the Committee what Fathers 4 Justice did for me, but its members did lock the gate on one occasion so that I could not get out and I had to get my husband to get the bolt cutters to open it. They also had Batman and Robin on the roof of the law courts. Noble Lords may remember that they stopped Tower Bridge functioning for a week by climbing up to the top, and they also climbed up on to Buckingham Palace.

I know that fathers do not accept that there is no gender discrimination against them and in favour of mothers. However, as the NSPCC said, there is no independent evidence of a bias. The Justice Select Committee accepted that there was no such evidence, as did, I understand, the Children’s Minister in the other place. There is no evidence of bias in the courts in favour of one parent. Therefore, the changes appear to be based on perceived rather than actual bias. I hope that the Minister and those behind him will look at the experience in Australia. At this stage of the evening, I shall not go into that, but it has been unhappy, and it has used similar phraseology. Much of this otherwise admirable Bill is very much based on the Norgrove report, which interestingly does not support a change to the Children Act.

Having said all that, I recognise and support the intention behind the clause that the importance of both parents should be at the forefront of the court’s mind. It is very sad that countless children are losing one parent, generally the father, who leaves home and there is no further relationship between him and his children. That is a very sad situation. Of course, we must encourage the continuing involvement of both parents so that after they separate, both are encouraged to stay in touch. However, to make it a presumption is a step too far, and that is why I have not sought to delete this clause. I have sought to amend it to highlight the importance of both parents, but not to create a second presumption. My amendment leaves out the word “presume” and inserts “pay particular regard” to highlight to the judge that he or she must,

“pay particular regard, unless the contrary is shown, to the importance of the”—

and then the wording of the clause is followed.

This is an important matter that cannot be brushed aside. I am speaking because of the issue of presumption and the effect that it will have on the public who come to court. From my practical experience, I am extremely concerned about the impact on the overriding presumption of welfare not just in the courts—where I think most judges could cope with the provision, although they do not like to have two clashing presumptions—but in the minds of the public who are trying to come to some sort of settlement. That is worrying, and I ask the Government to look at this issue carefully. My amendment would meet the need to emphasise the importance of the relationship between the child and both parents and the continuing involvement of both parents, but would not create the real problem of competing presumptions.

[Baroness Tyler of Enfield (LD)]

My Lords, I rise briefly to speak to Amendments 54 and 55. I have a lot of sympathy with both of them. I should declare an interest as chair of CAFCASS. I, too, fully recognise and support the intention of Clause 11. In the vast majority of cases it is always desirable that both parents continue to be involved in the bringing up of their children after separation, but we all know that there are some cases where that is simply not possible, and that is what this clause is all about.

I thank the Minister for his helpful letter setting out how Clause 11 might be put into operation. I will leave it to those far more learned than I am in legal technicalities to consider whether this creates two competing presumptions or whether one presumption is rebuttable and the other is not. Others will be able to set that out very clearly.

My focus is on the practicalities and how this will impact on a child-centred approach. Our experience at CAFCASS is that sometimes these distinctions, these legal technicalities, are harder in practice to observe in the often very feverish atmosphere of a family court case, something that the noble and learned Baroness, Lady Butler-Sloss, set out clearly for us. Our work at CAFCASS shows how hard it can be to help parents in cases in which there are high degrees of hostility and acrimony to focus on the needs of their children rather than on themselves. Anything that distracts from the focus on the child can sometimes be of questionable value.

Of course, our task at CAFCASS, as ever, will be to promote as full an involvement of both parents as possible to reduce the number of caring mothers and fathers who lose contact with their children after separation in a way that does not make things worse for children. The difficulty that we are discussing can be very much compounded by the invisible nature of the emotional harm that many children experience through no fault of their own when parents separate or divorce. A no-fault approach to separation—it was accepted in divorce cases some time ago—needs to be carried through. Courts can help children who often feel that they are at fault and to blame in some way for their parents’ separation. This emotional harm, unless acknowledged and dealt with properly with all necessary support, can cause a concealed social problem and have long-term costs attached to it.

My key concern about the clause is that parental involvement—I very much support the principle of joint involvement—is seen through a child’s eyes. The situation in which a child finds themselves in after separation or divorce can be difficult, affects schooling and friendships and often undermines a child’s healthy development. Decisions about parental involvement need to support a child’s healthy development, schooling and adaptation to the new situation in which they find themselves.

Finally, each child is unique and a formula of any kind about parental involvement has to be subject to the test of relevance to an individual child, and when courts or CAFCASS are asked to intervene, this is the assessment that they have to make. A statement about the importance of parental involvement is absolutely right in general terms but if in practical terms it is to have real meaning and value for the individual child, that child must also receive the support that they need in the very complex adaptation that they are making.

Certainly, recent research has shown us that children want and need different levels of contact with parents and relatives, and particularly with siblings and friends. It is not just about the parents. We need to ensure that we avoid—and I am sure that we will avoid it—this legislation polarising the contact in any way, in terms of one or both parents agreeing on an enforced basis. Children need a range of contacts with siblings and other relatives to be maintained after separation. I think we all recognise that the law can be a fairly blunt tool, both in its current and proposed forms, to deal with a child’s bespoke and individual contact needs. My plea this afternoon is that this should very much be seen in a child-centred way.

Health and Social Care Bill

Baroness Tyler of Enfield Excerpts

Wednesday 16th November 2011 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Tyler of Enfield]

My Lords, I wish to speak to Amendment 79A, to which my name is attached, which is about integration in the broadest sense, including those services delivered by local authorities.

The main purpose of the amendment is to probe whether clinical commissioning groups will be expected to demonstrate a real understanding of the wider social determinants of health and to commission broader support services that improve health and well-being. It is a statement of the obvious that improvements in health are not always achieved by clinical interventions alone; they are dependent on wider determinants of health, such as housing, which is a point that has just been made most powerfully by my noble friend Lord Greaves. Therefore, housing and housing-related support deliver very important health interventions and it is important that that is recognised by the clinical commissioning groups.

I believe that there is a big opportunity here to realise efficiency savings and to improve health outcomes through better use and integration of community support. Therefore, including housing and community support, transport, education, employment support, access to sports and leisure facilities and the like, alongside clinical services, will help CCGs to prioritise early intervention that prevents more serious health problems arising for a wide range of older and vulnerable people.

Noble Lords may wonder why I put the emphasis on education and employment services, but I think that they are particularly important for those with mental health problems. They will help such people to manage their conditions and prevent them from worsening and they will help those people experiencing serious social exclusion, a point that was made very powerfully by the noble Lord, Lord Rooker, earlier. It is undoubtedly the case that truly joined-up commissioning of services can and does happen, but it is also patchy. Therefore, provisions in the Bill should make sure that the best current practice is taken forward everywhere in a way that meets local needs.

Research published by the National Housing Federation has recently shown that only 20 out of 152 primary care trusts scored highly on the previous collaborative working competency. Clearly, there is more to do here. The Marmot review, Fair Society, Healthy Lives, noted:

“This link between social conditions and health is not a footnote to the ‘real’ concerns with health—health care and unhealthy behaviours—it should become the main focus”.

I also mention the very important role that housing associations and support providers deliver in terms of preventive services and intervening early to prevent more serious problems arising. Housing-related support has been shown to be cost effective and good value for money. An independent national evaluation estimated that investing £1.6 billion annually in housing-related support services can generate savings of £3.4 billion to the public purse by avoiding more costly acute services. That included avoiding costs of £315 million in direct health costs.

Housing support services can often effectively reach out to those with little or no access to statutory services. I mention particularly homeless people who are estimated to consume eight times more hospital in-patient services than the general population of similar age and to make five times more accident and emergency visits.

I conclude by giving one short case study of a specialist provider of homes, sheltered housing and services for older people in this area. Willow Housing and Care developed a support service to help older people kept in hospital for too long because they lacked appropriate housing. The service was for patients who were ready to leave hospital, but who were not able to return home because that no longer suited their needs. The scheme diverts people away from residential care placements, saves social services delayed discharge fines and helps to free hospital beds. A support worker works with the patient and their family in hospital for two to three weeks, helping them to make choices about returning home or going to alternative accommodation, including arranging things like aids and adaptations, cleaning and ongoing care and support. The Department of Health’s own evaluation of the service has shown that, for a £40,000 investment, the service has saved £400,000 in health and social care expenditure through reducing admissions to residential care and readmissions to hospital.

I believe that this powerfully underlines the need for clinical commissioning groups to commission broader support services, both to improve health outcomes and to achieve better value for money.

--- Later in debate ---

[Baroness Tyler of Enfield]

Slightly but not tremendously.

[Baroness Northover]

I am reassured that she is slightly clarified. This has been yet another important exploration of how the new arrangements might work. I realise that there will no doubt be further discussion; nevertheless, I hope that in the light of what I have said the noble Lord will be prepared to withdraw his amendment.