Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill

Lord Lemos Excerpts

Thursday 1st May 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Lemos (Lab)]

My Lords, I declare my interest: from 2018 to 2025 I was the lead non-executive director of His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service, which includes the Youth Custody Service.

I welcome the Bill for its important ambitions on children’s social care, in particular to improve the supply and quality of accommodation for children under deprivation of liberty orders. The number of children under these orders has more than doubled in five years. In 2024, 1,280 children were subject to deprivation of liberty orders, either because they are a risk to others or because others are a risk to them—principally the risk of grooming and exploitation. These children are all over the country, they are equally boys and girls, and 90% of them are over 15 years old.

All these children are well known to local authority children’s services, and often to criminal justice and mental health services. Many have moved more than 10 times while in care. They have faced trauma, violence, crime, sexual exploitation, parental neglect, rejection, abandonment and criminal exploitation. There are many other problems: county lines, gang affiliation, substance misuse and, inevitably, long periods out of school. It is a familiar litany but is without a familiar solution. A quarter of them have physical disabilities or neurodiverse needs and, unsurprisingly, many now have severe and lasting mental health problems, including persistent self-harm and attempting suicide. The deprivation, adversity and poor prospects that these children face are a deep scar on our society’s commitment to children’s well-being and opportunities.

As the noble Baroness, Lady Berridge, said, once the court makes an order, the accommodation can be of poor quality, unregulated and privately provided. Children are moved all over the country, and unscrupulous actors are involved in this lucrative business. A shortage of accommodation means they can name their price, creating considerable financial strain for local authority children’s services. They offer little therapy or education, despite the judge’s order and the undertakings they have given to the judge.

Local authority children’s services inevitably struggle to maintain adequate provision with highly trained staff for a small number of children with very complex and multiple needs. The Bill proposes regional collaboration and procurement, but I fear this may not be enough to increase good-quality accommodation along with the education and support that children need. In Clause 10, surely the Bill needs to set out a national commissioning strategy for accommodation for this group. I also urge the Minister to encourage the larger of the children’s charities to do more in the provision of this accommodation to reduce reliance on the dysfunctional and broken private market.

I endorse entirely the comments of the noble Lord, Lord Carlile, about children in the criminal justice system. The 500 or so children in youth offending institutions have very similar histories and problems to the children I have described. The Bill should recognise this overlap. Will my noble friend the Minister consider amendments to Clause 11 to ensure that provision for young offenders is also included in a new national commissioning strategy? Prison is no place for children.