Children and Families Bill

Lord McColl of Dulwich Excerpts

Wednesday 16th October 2013 Grand Committee

Moved by

[Lord McColl of Dulwich]

42: After Clause 9, insert the following new Clause—
“Child trafficking guardians for children who may have been victims of human trafficking
(1) The Children Act 1989 is amended as follows.
(2) After section 26A insert—
“26B Child trafficking guardians for children who may have been victims of human trafficking
(1) A child trafficking guardian shall be appointed to represent the best interests of each child who might be a victim of trafficking in human beings if the person who has parental responsibility for the child fulfils any of the conditions set out in subsection (3).
(2) The child trafficking guardian shall have the following responsibilities to—
(a) advocate that all decisions taken are in the child’s best interest;(b) advocate for the child to receive appropriate care, accommodation, medical treatment, including psychological assistance, education, translation and interpretation services;(c) advocate for the child’s access to legal and other representation where necessary;(d) consult with, advise and keep the child victim informed of legal rights;(e) where appropriate instruct the solicitor representing the child on all matters relevant to the interests of the child arising in the course of proceedings including possibilities for appeal; (f) contribute to identification of a plan to safeguard and promote the long-term welfare of the child based on an individual assessment of that child’s best interests;(g) keep the child informed of all relevant immigration, criminal or compensation proceedings;(h) provide a link between the child and various organisations who may provide services to the child;(i) assist in establishing contact with the child’s family, where the child so wishes and it is in the child’s best interests;(j) liaise with the UK Border Agency where appropriate;(k) attend all police interviews with the child; and(l) accompany the child whenever the child moves to new accommodation.(3) Subsection (1) shall apply if the person who has parental responsibility for the child—
(a) is suspected of taking part in the trafficking of human beings;(b) has another conflict of interest with the child;(c) is not in contact with the child;(d) is in a country outside the United Kingdom; or(e) is a local authority.(4) In subsection (1), a child trafficking guardian may be—
(a) an employee of a statutory body;(b) an employee of a recognised charitable organisation; or(c) a volunteer for a recognised charitable organisation.(5) Where a child trafficking guardian is appointed under subsection (1), the authority of the child trafficking guardian in relation to the child shall be recognised by any relevant body.
(6) In subsection (5), a “relevant body” means a person or organisation—
(a) which provides services to the child; or(b) to which the child needs access in relation to being a victim.(7) The appropriate national authority—
(a) shall by order set out the arrangements for the appointment of a child trafficking guardian as soon as possible after a child is identified as a potential victim of trafficking in human beings;(b) may make rules about the training courses to be completed before a person may discharge duties as a child trafficking guardian;(c) shall by order set out the arrangements for the provision of support services for persons discharging duties as a child trafficking guardian; and(d) shall by order designate organisations as a “recognised charitable organisation” for the purposes of this section.(8) In this section a child is considered to be a “potential victim of trafficking in human beings” when—
(a) there has been a conclusive determination that the individual is a victim of trafficking in human beings, or(b) there are reasonable grounds to believe that the individual is such a victim and there has not been a conclusive determination that the individual is not such a victim.(9) For the purposes of subsection (8)(b) there are reasonable grounds to believe that an individual is a victim of trafficking in human beings if a competent authority has determined for the purposes of Article 10 of the Trafficking Convention (identification of victims) that there are such grounds.
(10) For the purposes of subsection (8) there is a conclusive determination that an individual is or is not a victim of trafficking in human beings when, on completion of the identification process required by Article 10 of the Trafficking Convention, a competent authority concludes that the individual is or is not such a victim.
(11) In this section—
“parental responsibility” has the same meaning as section 3 of this Act;
“competent authority” means a person who is a competent authority of the United Kingdom for the purposes of the Trafficking Convention;
“the Trafficking Convention” means the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings (done at Warsaw on 16 May 2005);
“trafficking in human beings” has the same meaning as in the Trafficking Convention.””

[Lord McColl of Dulwich (Con)]

My Lords, human trafficking is a brutal and shocking business. Trafficked people are modern-day slaves and are among the most vulnerable people in our society. They are deprived of their liberty and brought to a foreign country where they do not speak the language. They have no friends or family, and they do not know whom they can trust or where they can go for help. They have their passports taken away and are then imprisoned, sometimes behind locked doors but more effectively through physical and psychological threats, often to the safety of their families at home, even abroad. This desperate vulnerability is massively compounded when we are dealing with children, for obvious reasons.

It is with these children in view that I move Amendment 42, which recalls our deliberations on a similar amendment, Amendment 57A, which I moved during our debate on the Protection of Freedoms Bill in February 2012. In discussing that amendment on 15 February 2012, a number of noble Lords spoke passionately about the plight of trafficked children and the care they receive after they have been rescued. They emphasised the large number of trafficked children who had been lost from local authority care. The figures may have improved a little since 2010, when, over the preceding five years, 301 of the 942 trafficked children who were rescued then went missing from care. However, the Centre for Social Justice report in March of this year reported that many children are still going missing, with one local authority recording 25 trafficked children going missing in just five months in 2011.

Why am I revisiting this issue today? On the occasion of moving Amendment 57A at the Report stage of the Protection of Freedoms Bill, I was supported by three eminent co-signatories: the noble Baroness, Lady Royall, the shadow Leader of the House in the Labour Party; the noble Lord, Lord Carlile of Berriew, from the Liberal Democrats; and the noble and learned Baroness, Lady Butler-Sloss, from the Cross Benches. There was considerable momentum behind the amendment but I was pressed by the Government not to divide and, instead, to allow the commissioning of research into the arrangements for the care of trafficked children, and on that basis I agreed not to divide.

--- Later in debate ---

[Baroness Northover]

I heard what noble Lords said about feeling that the guardian would cut through those layers; my noble friend Lord McColl put that case extremely cogently. I should like to reassure noble Lords that we are seeking to tackle this problem as effectively as possible. In some ways, it is perhaps slightly dispiriting to hear that it has not been cracked by the Scottish model. It looks to me as though we need to look further into why this is not working. That is why it is important that we meet up for a discussion, and it is vital that the organisations that the noble Baroness referred to feed in their expertise so that we can best take this forward.

[Lord McColl of Dulwich]

I thank the Minister very much for her very careful speech, and I am reassured that she is going to have a lot of discussions. I hope that we can all get together to talk about this issue in some detail. She mentioned that the social worker should be the key. If it was one social worker who was responsible for one child and stayed with that child, that would be fine, but the problem is that the children have umpteen social workers. They never know who is coming next and they then have to repeat their story over and over again.

I certainly do not accept that this proposal will add another layer of bureaucracy to the organisation. We have already had an 18-month delay over this and I can see that, with the existing bureaucracy, it will be another 18 months before something effective is done. Meanwhile, hundreds of children are going to be in jeopardy. Therefore, I welcome what the Minister says and look forward to meeting her and all those who have been speaking on this issue and who have done so much work in this field. I thank everyone for their contributions today. I beg leave to withdraw the amendment.

Amendment 42 withdrawn.

--- Later in debate ---

[Baroness Howarth of Breckland]

My Lords, my name is attached to a number of these amendments. I would like to raise some issues that I came across in eight years’ involvement in CAFCASS and many years before that as a social worker. I hope that the Government will look at these issues between now and Report. I would like mediation to be replaced by meetings where information is given. At these meetings, people can find out what they should be doing next; they are often highly successful in helping the parties talk to each other in a different way. If you use mediation, it has a special nature.

Mediators often say that they will not intervene to give direct information and advice, certainly not as regards helping parties to think directly about the implications of their behaviour. Mediation is often about sitting back and thinking things through. When you are using the court arena simply to fight your battles, as the noble and learned Baroness, Lady Butler-Sloss, so eloquently described, that type of mediation is totally unhelpful. I have been allowed to sit in and watch CAFCASS officers intervene on parties in an extremely direct way. That has had much more impact than the kind of therapeutic situation which is often delivered through the mediation association—I chaired a government working party on this many years ago—in which people, particularly those in conflict, find it very difficult to sit and reflect on their behaviour.

It is certainly important that we have recognised mediators but I hope that mediation will be looked at in a much broader sense than simply reflective mediation. That was one of the issues which came forward in the pre-legislative scrutiny to the 2006 Act. I think it was that Act although it could have been another—I have been here too long. A number of people from mediation groups came to talk about how they could not direct, or be directed themselves, in their work with families. These families often need a much more behavioural approach, rather than a reflective one. We need to think through some of these issues before we come to a conclusion. However, I stand by my name being attached to those amendments which seek to leave out “mediation”.

[Lord McColl of Dulwich]

My Lords, I support this amendment. We need to take notice of what the noble and learned Baroness, Lady Butler-Sloss, has said, given her enormous experience. Let us leave out “mediation”.

[The Minister of State, Ministry of Justice (Lord McNally) (LD)]

My Lords, when Rupert Murdoch appeared before a committee down the corridor, he said it was the humblest day of his life. It is not for quite the same reasons but I approach this Bill with more than a certain humility, given the expertise in this Committee. I have listened to a goodly part of the debates. It is common cause that we are trying to get this important Bill right in terms of what is in it. That is the value of this Committee in this Room. It is less frantic than in the other place, less susceptible to the passing trade and more for those with genuine expertise. I approach Part 2, which is the section I shall be dealing with, with a desire to listen and to try to explain how and why the Government have come to the position they have reached thus far in the process of the Bill.

The Family Justice Review recommended that parents who need additional support to resolve a dispute should first attend a mediation, information and assessment meeting—a MIAM—to receive information about mediation and be assessed for suitability to mediate. It is very important that there should be an early assessment for mediation. That was the intention behind the existing pre-application protocol introduced in April 2011, which we intend to strengthen under this clause.

With reference to the amendments tabled by the noble and learned Baroness, Lady Butler-Sloss, and my noble friend Lord McColl, we feel that the name of the meeting should convey to those who will attend it something about its purpose. An “assessment and information meeting” would not meet that objective in our view. Indeed, prospective applicants and respondents might be reluctant to attend such a meeting without knowing what they will be assessed for. The Family Mediation Council has published requirements for the conduct of MIAMs which describe clearly the elements to be addressed by the mediator. They include providing,

“information about all appropriate methods of family dispute resolution, including but not limited to mediation … collaborative law, solicitor-led negotiation and litigation”.

We intend to invite the Family Procedure Rule Committee to make rules that include reference to those requirements.

Turning to the amendments tabled by the noble Baronesses, Lady Hughes and Lady Jones, I recognise the concerns about safeguarding access to the courts. The Government do not intend that vulnerable parties should be put at risk or be prevented accessing the court. However, involving the court in every case at the stage before proceedings have started to determine whether it is reasonable for an applicant to attend a MIAM would be unworkable. It would impact on the courts and cause delay, particularly in public law care and supervision cases, and would undermine our efforts to ensure that court involvement is avoided wherever appropriate and safe in private family disputes. We agree that the requirement to attend a MIAM should not apply in circumstances where it is appropriate or necessary for a court to make decisions. That includes where there is evidence of domestic violence, child protection concerns or other reasonable grounds for exemption such as urgency or the significant risk of a miscarriage of justice.

The pre-application protocol in operation since April 2011 already places an expectation on a prospective applicant in relevant family proceedings first to attend a MIAM, but allows for exemptions in the circumstances I just mentioned. A family mediator may also determine, on the basis of their professional judgment, that the nature of the case makes it unsuitable for a MIAM. A mediator might make such a determination on the basis of a telephone discussion with the prospective parties. The current exemptions already reflect our position that adequate safeguards should be in place, and we intend to invite the rule committee broadly to replicate these in making rules under this clause.

A number of noble Lords, including the noble Lord, Lord Wigley, raised the question of the quality and training of mediators. The Government understand the concerns about the need for appropriate training and quality standards for mediators who conduct a MIAM. Family mediators who conduct MIAMs are already required by the Family Mediation Council, or FMC, to meet minimum standards and other detailed requirements, and only certified mediators can conduct a MIAM. Time does not permit me to list these requirements but I am happy to place a copy of them in the House Library and send them to noble Lords.

The existing pre-application protocol specifies that “family mediator” means a family mediator who is subject to the FMC’s code of practice and who is authorised to undertake MIAMs in accordance with the requirements set by the FMC. We propose to invite the Family Procedure Rule Committee to make rules of court under subsection (2)(b), which makes specific reference to those requirements. The rule committee is mandated by statute to make rules about practice and procedure in family proceedings, and we believe it is appropriate that the committee makes these rules about statutory MIAMs.

Clause 10 is intended to strengthen the existing protocol. We are building on a system that has now been in operation for two and a half years. The rule committee has a statutory duty to consider consultation on draft rules, including those to be made under this clause. The detail is, I recognise, important. I am happy to say that the rule committee has decided to consult on the draft rules so that there can be wider scrutiny of them, and it plans to consult shortly. My officials will ensure that the views and concerns expressed by noble Lords are conveyed to the rule committee as part of that consultation process. If any noble Lord would like to receive and consider the draft rules, my officials can ask the rule committee to arrange that.

While checking whether I have covered the other points that were raised, I should just say that we are standing by the point that the MIAM should have mediation in it. It is not helpful for it to be absent. I understand the point that the noble and learned Baroness, Lady Butler-Sloss, made. Even from my limited knowledge, I know of the confusion that there is between mediation and marriage guidance counselling. People who have long decided to get out of a marriage do not want to be guided; they want to be helped through what is a traumatic period. However, I hope that we have this right. The accreditation of mediators is safeguarded. We do not believe that the Government are best placed to undertake a regulatory role in this area, but the guidance is there.

It is interesting that the MoJ has commissioned some independent qualitative research to look at barriers to accessing MIAMs and mediation. This will include looking at the experience of clients who did not attend a MIAM and the reasons for that. We expect to receive a number of emerging findings from that research in early November, and I will certainly make the research available to the House as the Bill progresses.

The rule committee is meeting on 4 November and will seek views in particular from family practitioners who work every day with users of the family justice system. The rule committee itself also has considerable expertise and we believe it is the appropriate body to do this work. My officials will ensure that the views and concerns expressed by noble Lords are conveyed to the committee, and we will make sure that its work is made available to those interested. I hope that with those explanations and rationalisation of our position, the noble Baroness will feel able to withdraw her amendment.