Children: Gangs
Lord Nash Excerpts(6 years, 6 months ago)
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Baroness Williams of Trafford
The noble Earl is right to point out that youth work is a crucial part of tackling this area. The Government continue to back the growth of the National Citizen Service, which is delivered through a network of 300 local partners, more than 80% of which are in the public or voluntary community and social enterprise sectors. The Government recently published guidance for local authorities on how they can maximise the benefits of the NCS within local strategies. In addition, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, the Department for Education, the Department for Work and Pensions and the Big Lottery Fund will make available £90 million of dormant accounts money to support disadvantaged and disengaged young people with their transition to work.
Lord Nash (Con)
Central government is clearly not in control of the gang issue in this country. Ten years ago, the Centre for Social Justice produced an outstanding piece of work analysing in great detail the gang issue in this country, Dying to Belong, which I strongly recommend to any noble Lord interested in this field. It pointed up successful strategies such as call-ins, which are used in places such as Strathclyde. Why are we not rolling out these strategies across the country? The Centre for Social Justice is updating that work. It is probably the most comprehensive work ever done on gangs in this country. Will the Minister meet me and representatives of the CSJ to discuss this matter?
Baroness Williams of Trafford
I pay tribute to my noble friend’s work over the years involving young people. I am certainly happy to meet him to learn from his expertise in this area. I think it is true to say that the true scale of exploitation, including the number of victims, remains an intelligence gap. The National Crime Agency pointed this out. I would be happy to meet my noble friend to discuss it.
Education: Foreign Language Teaching
Lord Nash Excerpts(10 years, 10 months ago)
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The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Schools (Lord Nash) (Con)
I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Coussins, for securing this important debate and for her insightful speech. I know how passionate she is on the subject, as she was today, and I thank all noble Lords for their valuable contributions. The noble Baroness is quite right to say that I will not be able to answer all her questions, but I will have a jolly good try. My noble friend Lord Lyell referred to an essay crisis. I have to say that I have been in this job for a year, and I have had more essay crises in the last year than I had in three years at Oxford. I have that distinct feeling right now.
This Government are determined to put languages back at the heart of our education system, and to make sure that every young person in the country enjoys a rich and rewarding language education. The earlier children become comfortable and confident speaking another language, the more quickly they become fluent and the more likely they are to do well as they move into secondary education and continue with languages at GCSE and, we hope, beyond. That is why, from next September, children will start to learn languages much earlier in their school career, from the age of seven.
As the 2012 Language Trends survey indicated, 97% of primary schools already teach at least one modern foreign language, and 83% are confident that they will be able to meet the statutory requirement from September 2014. I understand that the 2013 survey results will be available in the spring, and I hope that they will show further progress in this regard. Schools are not alone; there are many classroom resources freely available to support the delivery of high-quality languages teaching in several languages, as well as many highly qualified teachers and languages experts who are willing to support primary schools with the introduction of the new curriculum. This is where the support should come from, not from additional guidance or prescription from central government.
We want primary schools to concentrate substantially on teaching a single language from the age of seven right through to 11. This will give pupils four years of study in which to develop their listening, speaking, reading and writing skills to a high level. It will give them time and space to reach a decent level of fluency early on, giving them confidence that they are good at languages and encouraging them to continue with the subject for longer. It will also increase their confidence and capability, if and when they start to learn a new language at secondary level. We are not prescribing details of assessment outside English and maths. Schools should decide these for themselves, although they will need to demonstrate them to Ofsted, and I will come to that in a minute.
The noble Baroness, Lady Coussins, raised the issue of the amount of time spent on teaching languages at primary level. The Languages Trends survey showed that slightly over half of primary schools offered between 30 and 45 minutes a week, with around a quarter offering an hour. That is a good basis on which to build, although decisions about timetabling are, of course, for schools. We also strongly encourage primary and secondary schools in a local area to work together to offer the same languages, helping pupils to move smoothly between schools. Obviously this can help pupils greatly, and I shall say a bit more about that in a moment.
I turn to training and resources. Schools are already starting to prepare for the change of course, and there is a lot of support out there for them. Last year, the National College for Teaching and Leadership facilitated an expert group, now working independently, chaired by a leading primary head teacher. The group has been meeting to develop signposting of high-quality teaching resources to support initial teacher trainers as schools prepare for the introduction of key stage 2 languages. They are providing links to resources, courses, qualifications and people that the primary sector can use to support the introduction at key stage 2 from 2014, to be hosted on the website of the Association for Language Learning. We are considering the group’s recommendations carefully as we prepare for the implementation of the new national curriculum from September this year.
Organisations such as the Association for Language Learning and the Network for Languages are offering training to support the new languages curriculum. Another source of support comes from embassies and cultural institutions from many countries. My noble friend Lady Garden asked about the involvement of embassies. We have been enlisting their collaboration in promoting their native languages within the curriculum. The cultural section of the French Embassy, the Goethe Institut, the Spanish Consejeria and the Japan Foundation are already offering schools specialist support to help them teach these languages effectively. The Institute of Education’s Confucius Institute is working in partnership with HSBC to expand the teaching of Mandarin Chinese in primary schools. This is the kind of innovation and collaboration that we want to encourage in schools, and I hope that those resources will become more widely used by teachers in future.
Our approach to continuing professional development for teachers focuses on empowering schools to take the lead in the training and development of teachers and creating more opportunities for peer-to-peer training. The national network of teaching school alliances that we are creating will further build the capacity of schools to follow this approach, including in languages. Many schools are already doing this successfully. For example, Penrice Community College in Cornwall is working with primary school teachers in the Peninsula Teaching School Partnership to improve their confidence in using the spoken language in the classroom through French improvement sessions incorporating phonics. St Cuthbert’s Roman Catholic Primary School in Durham, part of the Together to Succeed teaching school alliance, has used different teaching models with different groups of pupils to identify how best to teach reading and writing in French. Such arrangements are not something that we can dictate from Whitehall and Westminster; they need to be sorted out at a local level. In our view, decisions relating to teachers’ professional development rightly rest with schools, individual teachers and head teachers, as they are in the best position to make judgments about relative spending priorities and requirements.
My noble friend Lady Garden asked about language assistants. The DfE provides just over £500,000 a year to the British Council to fund the language assistants scheme. As she mentioned, this covers places for UK undergraduates and recent graduates to teach English in schools and universities overseas, but also supports placements for foreign undergraduates and graduates in UK schools teaching their native language. Approximately 660,000 pupils in English schools are taught by about 1,400 foreign language assistants each year. The noble Baroness also asked about imaginative materials that were developed under the key stage 2 framework. We are aware of these materials. They are very popular, and there is nothing to stop schools using them.
Ofsted inspections, which the noble Baroness, Lady Coussins, referred to, are not subject-specific but ensure that the school curriculum is broad and balanced and that it meets the needs of all pupils. When foreign languages become compulsory from September, Ofsted inspections will consider them within this overall context, and guidance will be amended to reflect this.
On assessment, the chief inspector made a speech yesterday in which he dwelt at some length on the point that in future, Ofsted will be looking to schools to demonstrate that they have in place effective assessment methodology in relation to pupils’ progress annually. This is a very significant step in enhancing the accountability of schools, and we look forward to them using this in relation to languages.
The noble Lady, Baroness Warnock, raised the issue of the range of languages taught at primary level and the predominance of French. She will be pleased to hear that under this Government, Spanish has increased 41% at GCSE and we have substantial moves in place to expand Mandarin teaching. The Institute of Education’s Confucius Institute is leading the way. The British Council is also working with Hanban to increase the demand for Mandarin teaching in schools and to address supply—for example, by increasing the provision of Chinese language assistants.
I turn to home languages, in response to the point made by the noble Baroness, Lady Coussins. Teaching home languages can be included, although we would not want this to be at the expense of providing those pupils with an opening to languages and cultures other than their own. The noble Baroness, Lady Sharp, asked about classroom assistants. She had the fantastic idea of bringing in native speakers to support language teaching and learning in the classroom. In our view, it is important to be able to draw on a wide range of people to do this, even if they do not have qualified teacher status.
The noble Lord, Lord Aberdare, raised the issue of classics, which I know is very dear to his heart. I reassure him that from 2014-15 we have more than doubled the level of bursary that teacher trainees in classical languages will receive to match the amount that trainees in modern foreign languages get—up to £20,000 for a trainee with a first-class degree. As he mentioned, Classics for All is receiving £250,000 from the London Schools Excellence Fund. He also asked about a meeting to discuss the creation of more language teachers and training. I will suggest this to my honourable friend Liz Truss, who has responsibility for that area, to see whether she would like to meet.
A number of noble Lords spoke about pupils learning languages earlier, the importance of co-operation between primary and secondary schools, and working together in partnership. There is a bigger issue here. We have a big focus on GCSE results but, as we all know, in all subjects, not just languages, the grounding that pupils get in primary school is so important to enable them to go on to get those GCSEs. We are very keen on teaching school alliances, which I have mentioned—primaries and secondaries working in collaboration, and primaries working together. We are seeing a number of primary schools, which are often at a sub-critical mass, coming together and working in groups of academies—we have incentives to encourage them to do this—or secondary academies working with their feeder primaries. We believe that this development will be very productive.
I am extremely grateful to all noble Lords, including the noble Baroness, Lady Morris, for her comments about what we are doing, and the noble Baroness, Lady Jones, for her support. In conclusion, by starting languages earlier, concentrating on fluency and confidence, raising standards at secondary level and encouraging greater take-up at GCSE and beyond—as our EBacc policy is already achieving—we aim to end England’s disastrous language drought, and to prepare the next generation to go out into the world with confidence and to reach their full potential.
Children and Families Bill
Lord Nash Excerpts(11 years ago)
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“Disqualification from carrying on, or being employed in, a children’s home
(1) Section 65 of the Children Act 1989 (person disqualified from fostering a child privately to be disqualified from carrying on etc children’s home) is amended as follows.
(2) Before subsection (1) insert—
“(A1) A person (“P”) who is disqualified (under section 68) from fostering a child privately must not carry on, or be otherwise concerned in the management of, or have any financial interest in, a children’s home in England unless—
(a) P has, within the period of 28 days beginning with the day on which P became aware of P’s disqualification, disclosed to the appropriate authority the fact that P is so disqualified, and(b) P has obtained the appropriate authority’s written consent.(A2) A person (“E”) must not employ a person (“P”) who is so disqualified in a children’s home in England unless—
(a) E has, within the period of 28 days beginning with the day on which E became aware of P’s disqualification, disclosed to the appropriate authority the fact that P is so disqualified, and(b) E has obtained the appropriate authority’s written consent.”(3) In subsection (1), after “children’s home” insert “in Wales”.
(4) In subsection (2), after “children’s home” insert “in Wales”.
(5) In subsection (4), after “subsection” insert “(A1), (A2),”.
(6) In subsection (5) after “subsection” insert “(A2) or”.”
Lord Nash (Con)
My Lords, I will speak to all the amendments in this group: Amendments 241BA, 241C, 241D, 273B and 273C.
Four of these amendments will make small changes to the Care Standards Act 2000. My intention in proposing the amendments is to pave the way for the introduction of a reformed framework for regulating and inspecting children’s homes. Amendment 241BA amends Section 65 of the Children Act 1989, which concerns the disqualification of persons from carrying on working, or being employed in, a children’s home.
In March 2013 there were 4,930 children living in children’s homes, representing just over 7% of all looked-after children. The majority of children living in homes will have been placed there by local authorities because they cannot be cared for in a family setting. They will usually be older; children in homes have an average age of over 14. A recent research study found that 62% of children in children’s homes had clinically significant mental health difficulties, and 74% were reported to have been violent or aggressive in the preceding six months. Few children stay in one children’s home for more than a year; 30% live outside the local authority responsible for their care, often at some considerable distance.
Given these children’s vulnerability, it is particularly worrying that there are significant concerns about the quality of care in some homes. While by 31 March 2013 the majority of homes were judged by Ofsted to be good or outstanding, a significant minority, 28%, were judged only adequate or poor against current minimum standards.
My department has been pushing forward for some time with a programme for reforming the pattern of care in children’s homes. We have recently consulted on some immediate changes to regulations designed to more effectively safeguard children living in children’s homes, especially those in distant, or out-of-authority, places. We have also published a comprehensive data pack, with details of children’s homes’ locations, quality and costs, and of the needs of the children in their care. We are considering ways to enhance the training and skills of the children’s homes workforce, and how to support improved commissioning of homes by local authorities.
As my department worked with Ofsted and others on plans for improving care in children’s homes, we reached a view that the current regulatory framework, established by the Care Standards Act 2000, is having a limiting effect on our ambitions to drive improvements in the quality of care provided by homes. In our view, it should only be acceptable for any children’s home to offer care that is “good”, with all homes having a clear remit to strive for excellence in respect of the children they care for. These amendments put beyond doubt the fact that the Secretary of State can make regulations that are able to define high standards for all children’s homes. Every home must have the capacity to enable all the children it cares for to achieve their full potential. These amendments pave the way for my right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Education to develop new, more stretching, quality objectives and standards for children’s homes.
We intend to support innovation by creating regulations which specify high objectives and standards. Homes should be free to decide how they achieve these standards. We intend to set high standards for homes in a number of areas, such as requirements for effective leadership and management; for the provision of excellent education; and for access to healthcare that meets recognised clinical standards. We will, of course, have to be confident that homes respond effectively to the risks and vulnerabilities faced by the children they care for. We have worked very closely with Ofsted to develop the proposal that I am outlining. As the inspectorate for children’s homes, Ofsted welcomes our aim of taking a decisive step away from a regulatory system based on minimum standards.
Our work with Ofsted also identified a small but potentially significant problem with the process involved when Ofsted has reason to consider whether a person should be disqualified from carrying on working, or being employed, in a children’s home. This power is set out in Section 65 of the Children Act 1989. I am tabling a small amendment to this section to improve the practical workability of this process. The amendment introduces a time limit of 28 days for a person to inform Ofsted that he or she has become disqualified, perhaps as a result of a past offence, in order to seek Ofsted’s consent to be involved in a children’s home. Without this explicit waiver from Ofsted, the person would be committing an offence.
Officials from my department have had the opportunity to share our thinking on all these amendments with representatives of local authorities, of children’s homes providers and of the voluntary sector campaigning for children. These services are united in their broad support for the direction of travel I am signalling today, which marks a decisive step in driving forward our ambitions for reforming the children’s homes sector. We are determined to improve the quality of all children’s homes, so that the only acceptable standard for children’s homes is good care, with all homes having a clear remit to strive for excellence. I hope I have explained the important objectives that these amendments will enable us to achieve, and that noble Lords will support them.
The Earl of Listowel (CB)
Perhaps the best way I can thank the Minister is by speaking as briefly as possible. Having worked in residential settings with young people and spent a week in a children’s home, and having been deeply concerned about the quality of the experience for children in children’s homes since I first entered this House, my perception is that the Government have taken a very careful and thoughtful approach to meeting the needs of these very needy young people—albeit that they are few in number. In the past two years or so we have realised that a number of young girls have been sexually exploited, often in children’s homes.
The Government have responded admirably to this challenge. Tim Loughton MP, the former Children’s Minister, has children’s homes in his Hove constituency, so he is aware of the problem. He addressed it carefully by setting up three working groups to look at the issue, which resulted in regulations being laid. The current Children’s Minister, Edward Timpson MP, has pursued that direction of travel with the attention to detail that is familiar to those who have worked with him. I am deeply grateful for that. The Minister is absolutely correct to emphasise the importance of staff training. It is extremely encouraging that the Government are taking this issue so seriously.
“Objectives and standards for establishments and agencies in England
(1) In section 22 of the Care Standards Act 2000 (regulation of establishments and agencies), in subsection (1), for the words from “may in particular” to the end substitute “—
(a) regulations made by the Secretary of State may in particular make any provision such as is mentioned in subsection (1A), (2), (7) or (8), and(b) regulations made by the Welsh Ministers may in particular make any provision such as is mentioned in subsection (2), (7) or (8).”(2) In that section, after subsection (1) insert—
“(1A) Regulations made by the Secretary of State may prescribe objectives and standards which must be met in relation to an establishment or agency for which the CIECSS is the registration authority.””
Viscount Eccles (Con)
My Lords, I will be leading on another group of amendments and will try not to duplicate anything, but it is very urgent that the Government clarify what they believe the position of the Children’s Commissioner to have been and what they believe it is going to be. In principle, nothing is changed by the Bill in front of us—there is an extension of words but nothing is changed. The Children’s Commissioner is a corporation sole, which is quite a strange type of institution and not necessarily much beloved by the Treasury, but there you are, that is what the Children’s Commissioner is. The Children’s Commissioner has, I think, 27 staff and a budget of just over £2 million, or under £2.5 million. The office is one-tenth the size of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, which has just been reduced in size by quite a large amount but remains 10 times the size of the Office of the Children’s Commissioner. That is a nationally accredited human rights institution. There is a question as to whether we want two, which I will raise in more detail in the next group of amendments.
The fact of the matter is that the Children’s Commissioner has been really rather successful. It is a thorn in the flesh, to quote the noble and learned Baroness, Lady Butler-Sloss. It has freewheeled pretty well on a very small platform and produced some very interesting work. It can produce only recommendations: it has no power to make anybody do anything except write back to it under the 2004 Act to tell it, “Thank you for telling us what you told us and this is what we are going to do about it”. It has no executive authority at all. Do the Government intend that it should have any executive authority? I cannot see any in the Bill. It seems to me that some of the comment on what might or might not happen has got rather ahead of the Government’s game, and we are looking for clarity from the Government as to what they intend and what they expect.
The noble Baroness, Lady Lister, raised a very interesting point about raising expectations and then disappointing them. That is one of the reasons why the electorate are being turned off election after election: the Westminster system has a brilliant way of raising expectations and then disappointing them. I hope that this will not be another example, because it is not a good idea that it should be. There are some very serious questions here about resources, about what the role is and about what the Government expect of the Children’s Commissioner. I do not think that we have had answers as yet to those questions. I hope to hear them from my noble friend on the Front Bench.
Lord Nash
My Lords, Amendments 245, 255A and 257 through to 262 deal with issues related to the Children’s Commissioner’s independence. The independence of the commissioner is an important point of principle—and it is helpful to have this discussion, so that I may provide noble Lords with some assurances. I am grateful to all noble Lords involved in raising these issues, especially the noble Baroness, Lady Massey, my noble friend Lord Lester and the noble Baroness, Lady Lister, for speaking on his behalf—all of whom I know have long been passionate champions in relation to children’s rights.
John Dunford identified that a “perceived” lack of independence from government had affected the Children’s Commissioner’s credibility and, following his review, he made various recommendations to counter those perceptions. The Government have acted on his recommendations in full. We have removed the provisions that allowed the Secretary of State to direct the commissioner and the requirement for the commissioner to consult the Secretary of State. We are changing the terms of appointment to a single, six-year term, to remove the potential for political influence through the reappointment process. We have also made provision for direct contact between the commissioner and Parliament, including the laying of the annual report directly before Parliament and the ability of the commissioner to raise matters directly with Parliament.
I thank noble Lords who have spoken to Amendment 245 and give assurances that the Bill already provides that the commissioner has complete freedom in deciding his or her activities, timetables and priorities; under the primary function, it is made explicit that the commissioner has a free hand to investigate any matter relating to the rights or interests of children. Having carried out an investigation, the commissioner is free to make any recommendation that he or she deems appropriate.
It is true that as a non-departmental public body, the OCC is subject to some controls in relation to its spending. These controls apply to all NDPBs and are designed to ensure value for money for the taxpayer and to avoid unnecessary public spending at a time when the Government are seeking to reduce the budget deficit. Extremely important though the role of Children’s Commissioner is, I do not think that she should be completely exempt from these controls. However, where the commissioner has sought an exemption or relaxation from these arrangements and has demonstrated that they could compromise his or her independence, those requests have been granted. This arrangement seems to be working well and we see no need to change it.
The Government agree that the Children’s Commissioner should be accountable to Parliament through his or her annual report and are therefore grateful that the Joint Committee on Human Rights has made a commitment to hold an annual evidence session to scrutinise the commissioner’s work. I share the noble Lord’s concerns about overburdening the commissioner with reports to parliamentary committees but it is important for his or her independence that the commissioner is not accountable to the Secretary of State or another Minister. That is why we have welcomed the offer from the JCHR to hold an annual debate. This will be an opportunity for Parliament to ask questions and raise issues with the commissioner and, in turn, the committee will be able to raise matters with all the relevant Secretaries of State.
Amendments 257, 258, 259, 260 and 261 in this group concern the appointment of the commissioner, any dismissal of the commissioner and the involvement of Parliament in these processes. The role of the Children’s Commissioner is an important one and I fully accept that the appointment and dismissal procedures need to be fair and transparent. However, I do not think that it is necessary or appropriate to define the conditions for either process further than is already done in the legislation.
We have provided a note in the other place on how the appointment process is expected to work. That note explains that the appointment of the commissioner would be in accordance with the Office of the Commissioner for Public Appointments’ code of practice. This ensures that candidates are appointed on merit, following a fair and open recruitment process.
The note also clarifies that children will be involved in the recruitment process and that we would expect Parliament, through one of its committees, to have a role in agreeing the job description and carrying out a pre-appointment hearing. However, the OCPA code of practice is clear that the parliamentary committee undertaking the pre-appointment hearing should not have a right of veto on the appointment. To pick up the point made by the noble Baroness, Lady Jones, about the Secretary of State explaining publicly if he disagrees with the Select Committee, I do not think it appropriate for such a public debate to take place about the suitability of candidates.
In addition, I do not consider that legislation is the right place to set out the personal qualities needed for the role. These will be determined by the panel that is established to lead the appointment process, which is chaired by an independent assessor appointed by OCPA, and subject to quality assurance by Parliament. I hope that this provides the necessary assurances.
On dismissal, the existing provisions represent a high threshold. A dismissal could potentially be subject to judicial review and overturned if it was found to have been made inappropriately. The courts provide ample protection against the commissioner being dismissed on arbitrary grounds. I would expect the Secretary of State to want to consult the chair of a relevant parliamentary committee before taking such a drastic action. However, there may well be reasons why such matters would need to be treated in confidence. I hope that noble Lords are reassured that both the appointments and dismissal processes currently in place are fair and transparent without the need for further prescription in legislation.
Baroness Lister of Burtersett
I am sorry to interrupt but perhaps the Minister can say what he considers to be the appropriate time. I suggest that it is before Report.
Baroness Lister of Burtersett
I am sorry but the point is that the devil is in the detail, as I said, and Report, or possibly Third Reading, would be the last opportunity for parliamentarians to comment in a way that might affect the outcome. After Royal Assent seems rather late.
Lord Nash
We will take this away and consider it further. As regards the point made by the noble Baroness, Lady Hughes, on accountability and to whom it should be, our view is that the commissioner should be wholly independent as regards his or her views and priorities from both government and Parliament. However, I accept that Parliament should be able to scrutinise what the commissioner does and have an opportunity to debate issues that he has raised.
I hope that my responses on these important points provide assurances to noble Lords and I urge the noble Baroness to withdraw her amendment.
Baroness Massey of Darwen
My Lords, I thank the Minister for that response. This has been an incredibly perceptive debate and noble Lords have provided a lot of expertise. My noble friend Lady Hughes said at the beginning of her speech that it is the right time to review the role of the Office of the Children’s Commissioner. I agree with that. We have experience of two commissioners, both of whom have put the voice of the child at the centre of activity and have done significant work with vulnerable children. The Minister listed some things that the Children’s Commissioner could do. However, as many noble Lords have pointed out, funding is an issue, and we need to look at that again.
Others have mentioned the scope of the commissioner’s remit, accountability, quality assurance and the JCHR. For me two key issues have come out of our discussions today to which I certainly want answers before Report. One is that we absolutely need the framework agreement before we get to Report. In fact, we need it some time in advance of getting to Report; otherwise, how can we debate this seriously? How can we put down sensible amendments if we do not have the detail of that framework agreement? Stemming from that, I need to think about—as I am sure others do—what should go in this legislation; obviously not in too much detail but issues have come up today that certainly need more consideration when we think about what goes in the legislation.
I hope that the issue of the framework agreement will be resolved long before Report. That will influence what we think should go in the legislation. In the mean time, I beg leave to withdraw the amendment.
Viscount Eccles
My Lords, I have a third amendment in this group, to Schedule 6 and on a very different subject. It is proposed that the Children’s Rights Director, who is part of Ofsted, is to be transferred to the Office of the Children’s Commissioner, taking the duties and powers of the office with him. Is that already happening? If it is, will the resources that are transferred balance with the duties and the costs of carrying out those duties in such a way as to make no material difference to the Office of the Children’s Commissioner in respect of resources?
Lord Nash
My Lords, I shall speak to Amendments 249A to 256, 266A and 266AZZA.
Amendment 249A was tabled by my noble friend Lord Eccles, who asked how we are strengthening the commissioner’s function. We believe that amending the commissioner’s primary function to one of promoting and protecting children’s rights is, as my noble friend Lady Walmsley and the noble Baroness, Lady Lister, said, an important step forward in establishing the OCC as a credible organisation that meets the key requirements expected of human rights institutions. There is much support for our proposals. For example, in its report following pre-legislative scrutiny, the Joint Committee on Human Rights described the proposed new remit of the commissioner as,
“a significant strengthening of the Commissioner’s mandate, and is an important step in the transformation of the office into a fully fledged human rights institution for children”.
The way in which the primary function is described matters. The lack of a statutory rights-based remit is the main reason why the Children’s Commissioner has, to date, only been accepted as an associate, rather than full, member of the European Network of Commissioners.
I turn now to Amendment 250, which was tabled by my noble friend Lady Walmsley, to whom I pay tribute for her effective and long-standing work on children’s rights. I agree with her that part of the commissioner’s role should be to raise awareness of children’s rights. However, in determining what activities to set out in the Bill, our approach has been to avoid including activities that are already implicit within the commissioner’s primary function, and we believe that raising public awareness of children’s rights is an inherent part of the commissioner’s new primary function of promoting and protecting children’s rights.
The commissioner can intervene in legal cases where he or she has a sufficient interest in the matter before the courts. Indeed, the commissioner has used her current powers to intervene in a number of legal cases in the past. However, the effect of the proposed amendment could be to create an expectation that the commissioner would respond to every request to intervene in legal matters that he or she receives. I do not believe that this would be helpful. In his review, John Dunford gave an example of another commissioner who had instigated legal proceedings to take a particular children’s rights issue to the courts which were unsuccessful and costly. This is not something we would want to encourage.
Turning to Amendment 251, I assure noble Lords that there is nothing in the Bill that prevents the commissioner talking to individual children or using evidence drawn from the cases of individual children to inform the primary function. In fact, it is hard to imagine that the commissioner could investigate a matter strategically without using evidence from individual cases to support his or her findings.
As noble Lords will be aware, where the commissioner makes recommendations under the primary function, he or she can require a written response setting out how those recommendations will be addressed. Amendment 253, tabled by the noble Lord, Lord Touhig, seeks to make similar provision in respect of the separate advice and assistance function. This role is currently provided by the Children’s Rights Director to the children within his remit and is intended to be an informal, light-touch service. It may involve as little as a telephone call to the DCS in a local authority, and the amendment therefore runs the risk of overformalising what is working well as an informal process.
I fully recognise that other groups of children are vulnerable and in need of extra support, including those mentioned in Amendment 256. However, I do not believe that this means that we should include them in the definition set out in Clause 86—the purpose of which is to provide a definition of the children who currently fall within the Children’s Rights Director’s remit—so that other provisions in the Bill can be applied specifically to that group of children. Clause 86 is not an attempt to define vulnerable children for the purposes of the commissioner’s primary function and there is therefore no reason to include other groups of vulnerable children within it, as the Bill makes clear through the provision in Clause 79. When determining how best to discharge the primary function, the commissioner must have particular regard to,
“other groups of children who the Commissioner considers to be at particular risk of having their rights infringed”.
I am grateful to the noble Baroness, Lady Lister, for highlighting in Amendment 252 the importance of the UNCRC to the commissioner’s primary function. Our view is that, in exercising his or her primary function, the commissioner would be expected to take account of all children’s rights that are relevant. This would include the UNCRC and its optional protocols that the UK has ratified, rights set out in other international treaties and rights within domestic law. However, we also recognise that the UNCRC is central to the children’s rights arena and so make an explicit reference to the UNCRC in the Bill. We believe that this represents the best formulation.
Turning to Amendment 252A, it is our clear intention that the commissioner’s work should be informed by the views and interests of children. As well as the overarching requirement to involve children as set out in new Section 2B(1) of the Children Act, the Bill includes requirements on the commissioner to: make children aware of his or her role and how they can contact him or her; consult children on the commissioner’s forward plans, before finalising his or her business plan for the year ahead; and to report on the action he or she has taken to involve children in his or her annual report.
In meeting all these requirements, the commissioner will be required to take particular steps to involve children whom he or she considers have fewer opportunities to make their views known. I am sure that noble Lords will therefore agree that the Bill includes ample provision for children to be involved in the commissioner’s activities and to influence his or her agenda. We agree that this should include a wide range of children’s views but we do not think it is feasible to include a requirement to involve all children, which Amendment 252A seeks to do.
With respect to reporting on the extent to which children enjoy the rights set out in the UNCRC, I note that in response to a recommendation by the Joint Committee on Human Rights, we have made it clear that monitoring implementation of the UNCRC is within the scope of the commissioner’s remit. Amendment 254 goes further than this, however, and creates an expectation that the commissioner would conduct an annual review of UNCRC implementation. This would be a significant undertaking and place a burden on the commissioner’s office that would inevitably divert resources away from other priorities. We have no objection to the commissioner carrying out an annual review but do not think that he or she should be required to do so.
I agree it is important that the Children’s Commissioner should not just consult children but take their views into consideration, but I am not persuaded that Amendment 255 is necessary. The commissioner’s primary function includes promoting awareness of the views and interests of children, and it is difficult to imagine how a commissioner could carry out that function without taking account of those views. Reporting on how he or she has done so is a matter of good practice and therefore it is expected that this would happen without having the requirement to that effect in the Bill.
Amendment 266AZZZA relates to provision in the Bill that enables the Secretary of State to make a staff transfer scheme. This will allow staff working for the Office of the Children’s Rights Director, currently located in Ofsted, to transfer to the Office of the Children’s Commissioner and will ensure that those staff are protected in terms of, for example, their continuity of employment and pension entitlements.
I would like to assure my noble friend Lord Eccles that these arrangements are already well in hand and that Roger Morgan, the current Children’s Rights Director, has been closely involved in the design and development of these provisions and continues to be part of the working group which is overseeing the transition to the new arrangements.
Lord Mawson (CB)
My Lords, I have not been able to sit through the passage of this Bill, so I am not in a position to comment on it. However, over the past few months I have been sitting on the draft deregulation Bill which is concerned to reduce red tape and bureaucracy. I have come to the conclusion that the Government have a serious intent to get a grip on red tape and bureaucracy.
Can the Minister help me understand where this Bill and this discussion sit within this wider agenda? Will this Bill increase red tape and bureaucracy? What are its unintended consequences and where does it sit in the one-in-and-two-out agenda? It would be helpful to understand the scale of the red tape that will be generated by this Bill and this discussion. I would find it helpful to have the Minister respond to this further point briefly, if that is possible.
Viscount Eccles
My Lords, I am grateful to all those who took part and to the Minister for his reply. At the risk of repeating myself, you can strengthen a mandate, but that is not the same as strengthening the organisation which has to carry the mandate out. If I remember rightly, John Dunford joined in the disappointment with the way that the Children’s Commissioner operated until 2010. I think that disappointment, if it is shared, will continue because the Government’s answers are that business will continue as usual. I make no negative or positive comment on that. I just wish I knew whether that was the correct interpretation in the view of the Government. In particular, the relationship of the Children’s Commissioner with the Equality and Human Rights Commission is very important. If they are going to co-operate, work together and do things jointly, there is a strong case for leaving the Children’s Commissioner pretty open, pretty freewheeling and able to look at whatever the commissioner thinks should be looked at and to make recommendations as a result of that work, which is what has been happening and, in my view, has happened rather successfully. I do not want to stand in criticism; I just wish I knew what the Government really expect so that we could understand what they expect and out there the public could understand what they could really expect. I beg leave to withdraw the amendment.
Children and Families Bill
Lord Nash Excerpts(11 years ago)
Grand CommitteeRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Schools (Lord Nash) (Con)
My Lords, before I respond to the amendments in this group, I should like to say a few words about the intention of the local offer. The Lamb inquiry into special educational needs and parental confidence highlighted how,
“good, honest and open communication … underpinned by written, publicly available information”,
was key to the development of positive working relationships. It emphasised the need for parents to be able to access the information they need, when they need it and in ways that are convenient to them. The Bill responds to that need. The local offer, introduced by Clause 30, has two fundamental purposes: first, to provide clear, comprehensive and accessible information on provision available to support children and young people with SEN and their parents; and, secondly, to help make provision more responsive to local needs. Paragraph 5.1 of the draft SEN code of practice makes this crystal clear.
To be effective, the local offer must be a collaborative venture. We are requiring local authorities and schools, colleges and others providing services to work together in developing it through the duty in Clause 28. Crucially, we are requiring local authorities to involve local parents of children with SEN, and children and young people with SEN, in developing and reviewing the local offer. The local offer should enable local people to see what services are available, how they can be accessed, who provides them and where to go if things do not work out. It will also improve local accountability by making services more transparent and more responsive. I have to say that my discussions with pathfinders have been encouraging in this regard.
The noble Lord, Lord Low, raised the question of disabled children in the local offer. We had a full and helpful debate on disabled children without special educational needs and I gave an undertaking to consider the issue with help from noble Lords. I would be delighted to discuss this further with the noble Lord before Report.
Many noble Lords have spoken to the amendment and Amendment 102, both of which are in the names of the noble Lord, Lord Low, the noble Baronesses, Lady Hughes and Lady Jones, and my noble friend Lady Sharp. I would like to address both amendments together. I can assure noble Lords that the local offer will not be a speculative document or wish list—or, as the noble Lord, Lord Low, said, an opportunity to be “slippery”. It will not be about what the local authority would like to be available. It will be what the local authority expects will actually be available.
The local authority does not have control of all the services set out in the local offer and can therefore set out only what it expects to be available from these services. This will be based on consultation and collaboration with providers, including schools, post-16 institutions and health providers. If the local offer includes only the support that is currently available, families will not be informed about what provision the local authority expects to become available in the near future, possibly from new innovative practices. We want parents and young people to have confidence in the information in the local offer. We intend the local offer to be robust and effective, and I am extremely grateful to my noble friend Lord Storey for his positive remarks in this regard.
My noble friend Lady Brinton made a passionate case for a strong national framework for the local offer in order to provide constancy. The local offer regulations set out in chapter 5 of the draft code of practice provide that framework in some detail, and we will return to this point.
The noble Baroness, Lady Jones, talked about minimum standards and setting out duties for the provision of services in the local offer. We will return to these issues later and I will not speak about them now.
The noble Lord, Lord Low, made the point about provision outside a local authority’s area. I agree with him that the local offer should include details on such provision. Clause 30(1)(b) delivers this by requiring a local offer to include provision outside the local authority’s area for children for whom it is responsible.
I am not clear why the noble Baroness, Lady Jones, thinks that the detail being in the code and regulations makes it harder for parents to challenge it. The code is recognised as the Bible for the system—as my noble friend Lord Storey said—and having the information and guidance clearly explained in there will be more accessible to parents than the legal language of the Bill.
I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Wilkins, for tabling Amendment 104. The Government currently publish information on local authority expenditure on special educational needs services under Section 251 of the Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Act 2009 but, as the local offer will include services from a wide range of public, voluntary and private agencies across education, health and social care, it would mean a substantial additional bureaucratic burden for local authorities to collect this funding information. I hope noble Lords will agree that the focus of the local offer should be on the services provided and whether they are responsive to local need. We want that to be the focus of local authorities’ efforts, rather than gathering funding information from a range of other agencies.
Amendment 107—tabled by the noble Baronesses, Lady Howarth and Lady Massey, and my noble friend Lady Sharp—highlights the importance of ensuring that parents and young people who want support in managing a personal budget know where to find it. I can provide reassurance on the important issue of personal budgets—a key feature of our reforms. Clause 49(7) on personal budgets and Clause 36(9) on assessment would require local authorities to provide information, advice and support in relation to the management of direct payments and the education, health and care assessment plans. Clause 30(1) makes clear that local authorities must include in their local offer sources of information, advice and support for children and young people with SEN and their parents. The code of practice clarifies that this should include information on,
“the option of having a personal budget, who is eligible, how to ask for one and what information, advice and support is available for securing and managing a personal budget”.
The noble Baroness, Lady Howarth, asked about support for families in managing personal budgets. Personal budgets can include provision for support in managing them. This can, where needed, include personal assistance and key worker support. Some families in our pathfinder areas report their satisfaction with this aspect of personal budgets. I have a quote here: through a personal budget someone’s 11 year-old son,
“has been able to swim and have a PA to attend social activities … with his classmates, doing things that ordinary”,
11 year-olds “take for granted”. I had a conversation with a pathfinder on this issue, the help they were getting from a PA and how that had changed substantially the mother’s life.
The noble Lord, Lord Northbourne, made the point about including education for life. Of course, we expect the local offer to include information about educational provision in the broadest sense. The code specifies that this must include information about support in preparing for adulthood and other transitions, as well as the support provided by schools and the universal and specialist services.
I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Touhig, for tabling Amendment 110. The local offer covers a wide range of public, private and voluntary organisations. These will vary from area to area. Subjecting these agencies to a legal duty may inhibit their involvement when we want the local offer to be as comprehensive as possible and include the full range of services that can support children and young people with SEN and their parents. The local offer will improve accountability of local services in three key ways: first, children and young people with SEN and their parents will be directly involved in developing and reviewing it; secondly, it will make clear how and where they complain or appeal where they are unhappy with their support; and thirdly, regulations will require local authorities to publish comments from children and young people with SEN and their parents on the local offer, including comments on the quality of the provision available and its response to them. These requirements will give a strong impetus to local authorities and those providing support to respond to local needs. In view of this, I do not believe further duties are necessary.
I hope I have reassured noble Lords that these amendments are not necessary and that noble Lords feel able to withdraw them.
Lord Low of Dalston
My Lords, I am grateful to all those who have spoken and to the Minister for his comprehensive reply. This is the first of a number of groups of amendments that deal with the local offer. It is clear that the concept of the local offer has given rise to a good deal of concern on the part of parents and professionals. Noble Lords have already had a lot of points to make about it, and clearly there will be a lot more. I do not propose to say much more about it now, because there is a good deal of this debate still to go, and I imagine that we may well want to come back to something more focused on Report.
I just note one observation that the Minister made. I was glad to hear him say that he would be happy to meet us on the question of whether local offers could extend to disabled children as well as those with special educational needs. That is a welcome sign of movement on the part of the Government and holds out the hope that we may be able to get closer together on that issue. I very much welcome that and appreciate the Minister’s having said it. He will not find us at all unready to take up that offer.
In order that we get on to the debates which are to ensue on later groups, I beg leave to withdraw the amendment.
Lord Nash
My Lords, I will speak to this group of amendments on home education tabled by my noble friend Lord Lucas. I would like to reassure him that, despite any possible minor imperfections in the drafting, we do know exactly what he is about and we are fully aware of the role that my noble friend plays in the All-Party Group on Home Education. I thank him for raising this important issue.
Noble Lords will be aware that parents have the right to educate their children at home and there is nothing in this Bill that infringes that right in any way. Nor does the Bill increase the responsibility of local authorities for home-educated children or increase their powers to interfere in the way that parents home educate.
Parents of children with special educational needs who home educate do so for different reasons and therefore will look for different levels and types of support from the state, if any. Some home educate because it would always be their choice to do so. Others, however, have begun home education out of desperation, as they have not been able to get the support that they feel that their child needs, or have been let down by the very services which should be supporting them. While I continue to support parents’ right to choose home education, I sincerely hope that our reforms will mean that parents no longer feel that they have to turn to home education as a last resort.
In broad terms, the Bill seeks to keep the same legal position for children with SEN who are home educated as now, but it does so within the important wider context of the Bill including a much greater focus on the views, wishes and feelings of parents as set out in Clause 19 and throughout Part 3 and the code of practice. Where a child or young person has an EHC assessment and the outcome of that assessment is that a plan is needed, the local authority is under a duty to prepare such a plan. If the local authority considers that home education is the right provision for the child or young person, that will be specified in the plan. It will then be under a duty to secure the special educational provision specified in the plan, with the home educator providing the core education provision. Likewise health commissioners will be under a duty to provide the health provision specified.
Amendments 152ZA and 157ZA seek to strengthen parents’ right to request that a plan specifies home education. They would mean that local authorities would have to treat such a request in the same way as a request for a particular school or institution. I think that there is a delicate balance to be struck here. Parents can already make representations for home education and will continue to be able to do so under Clause 38(2(b)(i). Moreover, the principles set out in Clause 19 mean that local authorities must give more weight to parents’ wishes, and as a result we may see local authorities naming home education more often. However, the choice to home educate is a choice to opt out of the state-supported system and is therefore not the same as the choice of a particular school or institution. Therefore these amendments would shift the balance too far.
Where a local authority makes a plan that does not specify home education, this does not prevent parents from home educating. In such circumstances the local authority can only absolve itself of its duty to secure SEN provision in the plan and ensure that the child’s SEN needs are met if it is satisfied that the parents’ provision is suitable for the child’s SEN. I know from the debate on Report in the other place that there are differences of view on this legal point, and these amendments aim to shift the balance of responsibilities between local authorities and parents. However, our view is that not only do local authorities have this duty but it is right that they do.
I should emphasise here that local authorities do not have draconian powers available to them to make this check. For instance, they have no right to enter the parental home to check the provision that is being made. They can enter the home only at the parents’ invitation. The check on the suitability of the parents’ provision could be made through the parents providing a description of that provision or by the parents passing on examples of the child’s work. Neither should they define “suitable” as necessarily being the same as the provisions specified in the plan.
Once a local authority has assured itself that the provision being made is suitable, it is no longer under a duty to make any provision. However, it retains the power to make provision in the home where this will help parents make suitable provision for their children and where parents are willing to receive this help. We encourage local authorities to make such provision and we have made this clear in the code. The same applies to the provisions to support home-educated children who have special educational needs but do not have a plan.
As to Amendment 101A, I can assure my noble friend that the local authority will include provision that would be available to home-educated children.
I hope that what I have said will reassure my noble friend that we continue to support parents’ right to home educate. There is nothing in the Bill that will threaten that right and the greater focus on parental wishes in the new system will mean a better deal for home educators. The code of practice includes a specific section on home education. Following a recent meeting with my noble friend, officials have undertaken to work with representatives of home educators to develop it further during the consultation period. On that basis I ask my noble friend to withdraw his amendments.
The Earl of Listowel
My Lords, I listened to the Minister’s response with particular interest as my sister home educated her children for some time.
Perhaps I may raise a tenuously related but important question. It arises from previous debates and is relevant to this clause: how will the local offer help parents to help children in their learning? It is good to see in the code the great pains that the Government are taking to ensure that parents and young people are consulted about what is on offer to them, but we know from all the evidence that family learning is tremendously important to children’s outcomes. In my experience of fostering, helping foster parents to gain the confidence to sit with their children on a regular basis over a period of time, and teaching them the techniques of paired reading with their children, is immensely beneficial for the literacy of those children. Anecdotally at least, it strengthens the relationships of the foster carers and the children.
I have been a follower and supporter of the charity Volunteer Reading Help—now Beanstalk—which works in more than 1,000 primary schools using a paired-reading technique. It works with vulnerable children, particularly; volunteers make a commitment of at least one year and turn up regularly to support the children, with the result that the children make great strides in their literacy.
My question to the Minister is whether it is quite clear how local authorities will offer help to parents to help their children in their learning. Might it be helpful to have guidance somewhere that this is a good approach to take? I am talking particularly about paired reading but it could help with numeracy. I confess to ignorance about the specifics of special educational needs but I appeal to those with expertise in the area to consider the models of good practice there already are of paired reading and parents being assisted to help their children with their numeracy.
In her recent report, Family Learning Works, my noble friend Lady Howarth highlighted that family learning can improve children’s educational outcomes by between 10% and 15%. Therefore, I should like to see this approach adopted as widely as possible in supporting families who have children with special educational needs.
Lord Nash
I think I can assure the noble Earl, Lord Listowel, that local authorities will be able to include provision such as paired-reading schemes in their local offers. We want to see extensive and helpful local offers that include the full range of provisions to support children and young people with SEN, including support for parents and carers. We are happy to look at the guidance and the code in more detail to ensure that that is absolutely clarified.
Lord Lucas
My Lords, I am very grateful to my noble friend for that reply. I will read it with care but I cannot, at first listening, think of anything else that I could possibly ask him for. As he is right to say, Clause 19 is a great advance in terms of responsiveness to parents. He is also right to say how immensely helpful his department has been. The all-party parliamentary group has been extraordinarily successful and most productive. It is the parliamentary group that I have attended that has made the most difference to the way that things work in the world. That has been largely due to the help that my noble friend’s department has given it and the interest it has taken in it. As he correctly said, we had a very productive meeting with officials. In particular, I thank Stephen Kingdom, who has been helpful before, but he is by no means alone in that. It has been a very rewarding experience to work with his department on this over the past few years. As I said, I am grateful for what my noble friend has said and I have pleasure in begging leave to withdraw my amendment.
Baroness Sharp of Guildford
I am sorry about that, too. While I am on my feet, I should say that I have a great deal of sympathy with the other amendments in this group. In particular, I sympathise with the arguments put forward by the noble Lord, Lord Low. In some ways, my preference would be for Amendment 124 because it seems to me that there are occasions when perhaps a special school is appropriate. The wording of Amendment 124 makes it absolutely clear that, when it is in the interests of,
“the specific needs of the child or young person”,
this might be the case. That is why I think that that amendment has some merit. I also very much support the amendments put forward by the noble Baroness, Lady Howe, concerning the Equality Act. I think that it is very important that we make it quite clear that this Bill in no sense overrides the responsibilities of local authorities under the Equality Act.
Lord Nash
I thank noble Lords for their amendments on inclusive provision. This is the second debate that we have had on the principle of inclusion. Today’s debate has focused on how decisions are made about where individual children and young people with EHC plans are taught. As I said in responding to our earlier debate, our aim with this Bill is to build on what has gone before and to create a new framework that improves both support for children and young people so that they achieve better outcomes and choice for parents and young people.
I will take Amendments 123A and 124, from the noble Lord, Lord Low, and the noble Baronesses, Lady Hughes and Lady Jones, together, as they both relate to the factors that local authorities should take into account when naming an education setting in a child or young person’s EHC plan, where no request has been made for a particular institution or the parent or young person’s request for one has not been met. The statutory provisions in the Bill are designed to ensure that a mainstream place is considered thoroughly and properly, recognising that, with the right support, children and young people with special educational needs are successfully supported in mainstream settings. They also recognise that there will be occasions where a child’s inclusion in a mainstream setting would significantly impact on the education of others, whose interests should also be safeguarded. This could occur, for example, when the extremely challenging and disruptive behaviour of a child or young person could not be managed. The provision for local authorities to consider the efficient education of others is important in this respect.
I understand concerns about this condition being used indiscriminately. Clause 33(3) and (4) guard against this. A local authority can only rely on it if there are no reasonable steps that could be taken to prevent the placement of the child or young person being incompatible with the efficient education of others. In section 7.11 of the draft SEN code of practice, we set out a number of examples of reasonable steps that can be taken to support inclusion. I believe that provision on meeting the specific needs of the child should not be the preserve of a single clause. It is at the heart of Part 3 and is reflected in Clause 19 on general principles, Clause 36 on assessments and EHC plans, Clause 42 on duties to secure provision in EHC plans and Clause 62 on the duty on schools to use their best endeavours to meet children’s needs.
Regarding the concern of the noble Lord, Lord Low, that the Bill gives FE colleges a get-out clause by allowing them to refuse entry to disabled students that they previously would have accepted in line with their duties under the Equality Act, I can assure noble Lords that the Equality Act 2010 will continue to apply in full to colleges, and that they must continue to make reasonable adjustments to support the participation of disabled young people. Nothing in this Bill overrides these very important duties imposed by the Equality Act.
We believe that the principle behind Clause 33 is the right one. Young people with EHC plans should have the right to be educated in a mainstream setting if that is what they want. This Bill, for the first time, gives young people the right to say where they want to study, by requesting that a particular school or college is named in their EHC plan.
I understand the motivation for Amendments 124A and 126A from the noble Baroness, Lady Howe. During our helpful debate on disabled children and young people last Wednesday, I made it clear that we had drawn attention to the Equality Act duties in the SEN code of practice, in Chapters 1 and 6, and referred to other relevant guidance on those duties. We recognise the importance of making appropriate links between SEN and the Equality Act duties in the code of practice, and in last Wednesday’s debate I undertook to look again at the scope for improving the draft code of practice on this. I hope that that reassures the noble Baroness, Lady Howe.
Children and Families Bill
Lord Nash Excerpts(11 years ago)
Grand CommitteeRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Lord Addington (LD)
My Lords, can my noble friend give us some idea about how the Government will remove those things that are not for educational purposes in the case of a young person with complex needs or a problem that prevents them accessing the process of education? That seems to be what the noble Lord, Lord Ramsbotham, started with. Getting some clarification now about how that process will take place will be of help. If we have a system in place that gives some degree of confidence, I think that we can probably move on from this. If not, it will be a real problem.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Schools (Lord Nash) (Con)
My Lords, I shall be brief, as we are keen to clarify this point. I shall speak to Amendments 71, 72 and 73 about the circumstances in which provision that would otherwise be health or social care provision should be treated as special educational provision. In doing so, I would like to comment on a couple of the points that the noble Lord, Lord Ramsbotham, made. If I understood him correctly, he said that we needed a child development strategy for every child. I would say that we have such a strategy in the massive reform programme that this Government have put in place for schools.
I will try to get my facts right because I know that the noble Baroness, Lady Jones, will write to me if I do not. We have just been told by the OECD that we came bottom—joint 21st with Italy and Spain, out of 24 countries—for our school leavers, and we have just been told by Alan Milburn that we are the most socially immobile country in Europe. That is why we have a schools strategy and a massive reform programme in place. However, this Bill is about SEN. I will write to the noble Lord, Lord Ramsbotham, about the four pathways that he mentioned. On training, which he also mentioned, I just signed a letter to him today on this point about initial teacher training and other professional development for teachers, which is founded on the teacher standards that were introduced in September 2012. Child development is an important part of those standards.
I turn to the amendments. During the pre-legislative scrutiny of the SEN provisions of the Bill, the Minister for Children and Families gave an undertaking to maintain the existing protections for parents in the new system. Clause 21(5) was added to the Bill before introduction in the other place as part of that undertaking. It seeks to replicate as far as possible the case law established under the present SEN legislation, which, in our view, makes clear that health provision such as therapies can be educational, non-educational or both, depending on the individual child and the nature of the provision. Case law has established in particular that since communication is so fundamental in education and in addressing speech and language impairment, it should normally be treated as educational provision unless there are exceptional reasons for doing otherwise. We have reflected this in section 7.9 on page 109 of the draft SEN code of practice.
I think we all share the aim of carrying the current established position through into the new system. I understand the concerns that have been expressed in this debate that the current drafting does not get this quite right. This is complicated legal territory and it has not been straightforward to find the right formulation, as evidenced by the different approaches taken by each of these three amendments. I know that various parts of the sector have sought legal advice on this issue; I understand that the amendment of the noble Lord, Lord Ramsbotham, follows the advice that the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists received, and we are currently looking at that advice. The noble Baroness, Lady Jones, said that she also had received advice, and we would be delighted to look at that as well. I would welcome the opportunity to discuss this further and see what progress can be made with noble Lords outside the Committee. With that reassurance, therefore, I hope that the noble Lord will feel able to withdraw his amendment.
The Earl of Listowel (CB)
My Lords, before my noble friend does that, as I imagine that he may well do, I very much hesitate to speak in this debate. I have just been chairing a discussion on child development in schools. Attending it were head teachers, the former head of the TDA and a number of other experienced practitioners in the area that we have just been discussing. Unfortunately, I was four or five minutes late to this discussion so I hesitate to make any contribution to it. However, since the Minister referred to what is being done about the standards to ensure a better understanding of child development, which is very welcome, I should like to make two points.
First, in welcoming the effort by both the previous Government and this one in raising the status of teaching, and particularly in welcoming the advent of Teach First, we heard from the man responsible for Teach First in London. He said how successful the scheme is and that 30% of graduates were getting into the schools that needed their help most, so that really tough inner-city schools were getting these excellent graduates, particularly in science and maths. However, although he could speak only anecdotally, he said that he had met many of these teachers and they said they felt hopeless. They did not know how to manage the challenges presented by the young people they were working with. We need to get this right because otherwise we might lose the wonderful new crop of young teachers we are recruiting into the profession, who will make a huge difference to outcomes for young people.
The other point to arise from this meeting is that a generation of teachers has not learnt anything significant about child development. That means that head teachers and lead teachers today will not have learnt much about child development in their training. So, while I welcome what the Minister has said about the changes in the standards, the challenge presented by this issue should not be underestimated. I hope there will be ongoing discussions about what we can do in this area, which is vital for the educational outcomes that we want to see for our young people. We need to retain our new, young, enthusiastic teachers on the front line, help them to understand why children sometimes behave so challengingly and enable them to engage with them effectively. I apologise to the Grand Committee for intervening but I hope that it has been helpful.
The Countess of Mar (CB)
My Lords, briefly, I want to clear up a misconception that both noble Baronesses, Lady Walmsley and Lady Brinton, seem to have. Online and joined-up learning is available to schools because we have it for children with ME. I shall speak about it more on my amendment, but I want the Committee to know that local authorities can provide it.
Lord Nash
My Lords, I shall speak to Amendments 74, 127 and 217 regarding severely bullied children and the education of children unable to attend a mainstream school. I thank my noble friend Lady Brinton for raising the important issue of bullying and the needs of young people who are bullied. As the noble Baroness, Lady Jones, said, my noble friend has been a great advocate for children and young people whose lives have been blighted by bullying. Bullying in any form and for any reason is totally unacceptable and should never be tolerated in schools. Bullying can instil fear, damage self-esteem and reduce academic attainment. We have a considerable campaign in place to combat cyberbullying, which, as my noble friend Lady Walmsley mentioned, can be particularly unpleasant. As our reforms work their way through the school system, and behaviour management strategies improve—as I believe that they are substantially in schools across the country—that should help in this regard.
The amendments broadly cover three areas: a call for bullying to be defined in law; measures to prevent bullying happening in the first place and to tackle it when it does; and provision for those who are the victims of bullying, particularly those who are severely bullied.
The definition of bullying outlined in Amendment 74 suggests that bullying will involve an “imbalance of power” and is repeated behaviour that causes physical or mental harm. These elements are likely to be involved in many instances of bullying, but not all of them. The definition of severe bullying outlined in the amendment refers to behaviour that affects children so severely that they suffer trauma and psychological damage. There is a risk that that could cause confusion for schools, because the same bullying activity could be treated differently according to the effect that it has on the victims, rather than the act itself. Although we acknowledge that the support should take account of the effect, it is important that there is consistency in how schools manage the behaviour of pupils.
There will always be exceptions to whatever definition is put in place, which is why we consider that these matters are best placed at the discretion of head teachers and teachers. We outline what constitutes bullying in our advice to schools and we consider that that is the best place to do so, rather than through a strict definition in law. A legal definition could, among other things, rule out behaviour that common sense might suggest is bullying but may not be captured by a law.
Turning to my noble friend Lady Brinton’s point about guidance being in one place, it is of course important that guidance is practical and manageable for those using it. We are very happy to look at how the different pieces of guidance fit together and cross-refer, in particular, in the current consultation on the code.
Turning to preventing bullying in the first place and tackling it when it does, as different schools face different issues, we do not want to prescribe specific anti-bullying strategies. Instead, we want to allow schools and local authorities to address bullying in the light of the needs and circumstances of their schools and their pupils. I believe that our current position provides the right balance between requirements in law, flexibility for schools and strict accountability.
All schools must have a behaviour policy with measures to prevent bullying. It is up to them to develop their own strategies, but they are now clearly held to account for their effectiveness in doing so by Ofsted. Since 2012, it has been a requirement for school inspectors to take into account issues relating to bullying, harassment and discrimination. In addition, we provide schools with advice, with links to several anti-bullying organisations for specific advice.
Turning to provision for children who are bullied, the starting point should be the needs and welfare of children and young people and the state of their mental and emotional health. Schools and local authorities should provide support in a proportionate and tailored way to meet their needs. The new draft SEN code of practice considers that developing a graduated response to the varying levels of SEN among children and young people is the best way to offer support, and this can include the needs of bullied children. There is no separate legal status of a temporary statement. However, local authorities and schools are free to use key elements of the statementing process to make local arrangements.
The causes that affect the well-being of children and young people will be relevant to how those needs are best addressed, but are not the best guide to the level of need. A child’s well-being could be severely affected by a variety of things, including bereavement, family upheaval or severe bullying. It could result from a range of factors that taken in isolation a child could cope with, but taken together have a severe impact. It is important, therefore, to avoid creating a hierarchy of causes and prescribe what the response should be.
Schools know their pupils. They are alive to changes in behaviour, character and attendance. They should offer support quickly, based on the need they identify, and there is a wide range of options that they should consider, from asking the pastoral team to keep an eye out to providing formal counselling, engaging with parents, referring to local authority children’s services, completing a common assessment framework and referring to child and adolescent mental health services, including whether to assess for SEN. The circumstances that my noble friend describes will often need swift support. An EHC plan is intended for those with the most challenging, complex and long-term needs. This is reflected in the amount of time that it will take to deliver an EHC plan—a maximum of 20 weeks under the reforms. In many cases, offering a child or young person SEN support in the first instance will be much more appropriate, and faster. Giving a child or young person an EHC plan is a significant step and may not be necessary.
No child should ever be forced out of school because of bullying. In extreme cases, it may be necessary to make other arrangements so that a bullied child can access the good education they deserve.
In response to the concerns raised by Amendment 127, I should reinforce that local authorities already have a duty to arrange suitable education for any child who would not otherwise receive it. Suitable education is defined as,
“efficient … education suitable … to the child’s age, ability and aptitude, and … to any special educational needs the child may have”.
The duty covers all compulsorily school-age children who are not receiving suitable education. This could include pupils who are unable to attend a mainstream school because of bullying, but it is not limited by the reasons for a child being unable to attend school.
The duty is also not limited by the length of time a child will be missing education. For example, statutory guidance on the education of children unable to attend school because of health needs states that alternative arrangements should be put in place for children missing 15 days of school or more, whether consecutive or cumulative.
Separate statutory guidance on alternative provision, issued in January this year, sets out that parents, pupils and other professionals should be involved in decisions about the use of alternative provision. It also states that there should be clear objectives and arrangements for monitoring progress.
My noble friend Lady Brinton made a point about the shortage of alternative provision. I am delighted to tell her that already, under the free schools programme, we have approved 33 new alternative provision providers. So far as Red Balloon is concerned, I have met Carrie Herbert. I have initiated conversations between her, the department and the New Schools Network, and I hope that she has taken on board what they have said about any future applications she may make under the free school proposals. However, I cannot help but wonder whether such a bid, if successful, would be allowed under a Labour Government, as it would be not a parent-led academy but a free school run by professionals, as indeed are most AP schools and special schools.
I should like to consider and investigate further the point about disincentives made by the noble Baroness, Lady Morris, who I know is very experienced in these matters.
I hope that I have been able to reassure the noble Baroness that we are deeply concerned about bullying and bullied children. We have measures in place to prevent and tackle bullying, and the safety net she is seeking for pupils who are unable to attend school is already in place. I therefore urge her to withdraw her amendment.
The Earl of Listowel
My Lords, I am most grateful to the Minister for his reply and for making clear the standards regarding alternative educational provision for those outside mainstream schooling, for whatever reason.
On the guidance, perhaps he can look at the issue of children who are bullied being placed in pupil referral units. It may be helpful to have some clarity in that regard. Maybe as a general principle, something along the lines of guidance that states that if a child is severely bullied a pupil referral unit should not be the first choice of placement would help in these considerations.
Lord Nash
I could not agree more with the noble Baroness’s point: habits formed early or seen in the home life are difficult to break. We must constantly do all we can, particularly in our education system, to break such bad cycles. I take the point and I would be happy to discuss it with her further.
Baroness Brinton
My Lords, I am very grateful to the Minister for his response. Perhaps I could briefly take each of the three areas that he outlined. I would be grateful to talk to him and his civil servants about the definition of bullying because it seems to me, and I am sure to others, that the key is the imbalance of power. Most schools would accept that, although there may be some other issues around the edges, the imbalance of power is absolutely at the core between the aggressors and the victims. I am also grateful to the Minister for saying that he would be happy to look at guidance again. I hope that he would be happy to have a meeting with some of us and to report back to us on progress there.
However, there is a concern. I am pleased that there are 33 alternative provision centres but, for 16,000 children, that is not a very large amount. The Minister also seemed to echo the response that the DfE has given elsewhere about there being a lack of understanding of the importance of virtual or cyberlearning access. That can often be the transition into education, for exactly the reasons that the noble Baroness, Lady Morris, outlined. I hope therefore that it might be possible to continue the discussion outside Committee. For the moment, I am certainly happy to withdraw the amendment but I warn the Committee that I will be bringing something back on Report.
Lord Lucas (Con)
My Lords, I agree with every word that the noble Countess, Lady Mar, has said. There are beginning to be some quality suppliers in online provision. It is probably too early to say, “Let us make this generally available and experiment with children who do not actually need it”, but, goodness, we should start to use these provisions for children who are not getting an education because they cannot access what we currently provide. It is good enough to be sure that we will be doing better by these children. We can perhaps move on to children who are out of school for other reasons, who are very poorly provided for at the moment, and see where we go from there, but let us do what good we know we can now, rather than hanging on until we feel able to do good for everyone.
Lord Nash
My Lords, noble Lords who have spoken on this issue have eloquently highlighted the significant barriers that stand between some children and young people and the good education they deserve. The aim of the Bill is to help to overcome these barriers. I hope that I can reassure noble Lords that these provisions, in conjunction with existing legislation and guidance, are sufficient to achieve this aim.
The Government’s view is that the majority of pupils are best served by attending a mainstream educational institution. For those with particularly acute needs, a special educational institution may be appropriate. These institutions provide face-to-face teaching and are subject to rigorous accountability arrangements. They also support social, emotional and physical development in a way that more isolated approaches to learning struggle to replicate. Wherever possible, the support provided to children and young people, including through education, health and care plans, should enable them to access the benefits of mainstream or special education. There will be individuals for whom, despite additional support, a mainstream or special institution would be inappropriate.
As has been discussed, local authorities have a duty to make arrangements for pupils of compulsory school age who may not, for any period, receive suitable education. In the context of this duty, suitable education is defined as,
“efficient education suitable to [a child’s] age, ability and aptitude and to any special educational needs he may have”.
New statutory guidance was issued in January on the use of alternative provision and on the education of children unable to attend school because of health needs. Local authorities must have regard to this statutory guidance and the clear expectations it sets out. If a local authority does not follow the guidance, the issue can be taken through the local authority complaints process and, if not resolved, referred to the department. I believe this addresses the concerns raised by the noble Lord, Lord Patel, in Amendment 81 about ensuring the quality of alternative provision.
The guidance sets a clear expectation that alternative provision should deliver a high-quality education that leads to good academic attainment on a par with mainstream schooling. It also reinforces the importance of flexible provision that meets pupils’ wider needs.
In drafting this guidance we have listened carefully to organisations that represent children and young people, such as the cancer charity CLIC Sargent. In response to these views, we recently amended the guidance on children with health needs to give greater emphasis to supporting children’s social and emotional needs. The current arrangements provide an appropriate balance between legal duties and statutory guidance. This ensures that all children unable to attend school are covered by the duty while retaining the flexibility to clarify how the duty should be discharged.
The noble Countess, Lady Mar, in a number of amendments has raised a number of specific points about the use of alternative provision, including in relation to EHC plans and personal budgets. I am pleased to reassure her that the Bill does not prevent a local authority naming an alternative provider in an EHC plan. Where alternative provision is named in a plan as additional specialist provision, it can also be covered by a personal budget, including a direct payment. The Bill, therefore, gives local authorities the flexibility to use alternative provision where it is in the best interests of the child or young person.
However, alternative provision is intended as an exceptional arrangement, and decisions about its use need to be considered carefully. For the majority of children and young people, the aim of alternative provision should be to support their reintegration back into mainstream education. Local authorities would need to consider any requests from a parent or young person to include alternative provision within a plan. The current arrangements allow for local authorities to ensure that the arrangements constitute a “suitable education”, in line with their legal duty. In doing so, they mitigate the risk that alternative provision is used inappropriately or for longer than necessary.
Children and Families Bill
Lord Nash Excerpts(11 years, 1 month ago)
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Baroness Jones of Whitchurch (Lab)
My Lords, Amendment 40 focuses on the impact of the underoccupancy charge on would-be adopters, special guardians and foster parents. We know that there is a widely held concern about the negative impact of the housing underoccupancy charge or, as we call it, the bedroom tax. The plight of those who are unable to move to smaller properties, or who need the extra accommodation for obviously justifiable reasons, is regularly highlighted in the media.
However, I want to concentrate our concerns today on a very specific consequence of the new charge, which is how it impacts on the already chronic shortage of existing and potential foster carers. As noble Lords will know, the bedroom tax restricts housing benefit to one bedroom per person or per couple living as part of a household. Tenants affected will face a 14% cut in housing benefit for the first “excess” bedroom and a 25% cut where two or more bedrooms are underoccupied. The average loss of income is estimated to be around £14 per week. Our concern is that foster children are not counted as part of the household for benefit purposes and therefore that, technically, all foster carers could face cuts in housing benefit.
This matter was raised by our colleagues in the Commons and last-minute changes announced in Committee by the Minister mean that foster carers are allowed one additional room in their homes, as long as they have registered as a foster carer or fostered a child within the past 12 months. This means that around 5,000 foster carers would be exempt from the bedroom tax, and obviously we welcome that concession. However, foster carers with more than one child will still face the bedroom tax. The reforms still apply to foster carers who have two or three bedrooms for fostering children.
Carers in this situation can apply to a discretionary housing fund for support with their housing costs but because of its discretionary nature, this is not guaranteed—and carers will have to reapply for this benefit every six weeks, even if they have fostered a child on a long-term basis. We do not believe that this is satisfactory. It shows a lack of joined-up thinking by the Government, given the current acute shortage of foster carers. We believe that if the rules remain as they are, foster carers will be deterred from providing foster care for more than one child at a time. This means, for example, that children in foster care are more likely to be separated from their siblings. With there already being a shortage of foster carers in the UK, these reforms are likely to mean fewer new recruits coming forward and children’s well-being suffering as a result.
Our amendment is simple and modest. It would require the Secretary of State to review the impact of the bedroom tax on foster carers to see what impact this is having on this group and to report back to Parliament on the conclusions within one year. When this was debated in the Commons, I understand that the Minister agreed to take this proposal away and think about it again.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Schools (Lord Nash) (Con)
I understand that the purpose of this amendment is to ask us to conduct this review. As I know that noble Lords are anxious to move on to the justice provisions, which my noble friend Lord McNally will be covering, it might assist the Committee to know that the Government are committed to conducting an independent assessment of the impact on these particular groups and will be commissioning this shortly. We agree with the noble Baroness that this is very important, and a report on the outcome will be published within the timescale that her amendment calls for—within a year of Royal Assent of the Bill. We will place a copy of the report in the Libraries of both Houses of Parliament. I hope that noble Lords will find that intervention helpful.
Baroness Jones of Whitchurch
I thank the Minister for that clarification. I was coming to that point. The clarification I was seeking was: will there be just one review, the DWP review that the Deputy Prime Minister announced yesterday, or will there be a separate review within the Department for Education? I am grateful for the Minister’s clarification that it will be placed in the Library, but on an important issue such as this we need some assurance that there will be an opportunity for Parliament to debate the conclusions rather than just read them. Perhaps the Minister could clarify those points, which is what I was going to ask him to do anyway. I beg to move.
Lord Wigley (PC)
My Lords, I will intervene very briefly if I may. Whereas Part 1 of the Bill largely did not apply to Wales, Part 2 to a large extent does. I therefore ask the Minister, in the context of the new clauses being proposed, whether any review that he will be undertaking will be in co-operation with the National Assembly of Wales and the Government of Wales, which have responsibility for education and social care but not for some aspects of social security and housing benefit. I would be grateful if he could at least give an indication that he will take that on board.
Lord Nash
My Lords, I should like to reassure noble Lords that the Government are committed to helping people foster, adopt and be special guardians to some of the most vulnerable children. We want to ensure that government policy supports this aim. As has already been pointed out, on 12 March my right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions announced an easement of the treatment of foster carers under the housing benefit policy to remove the spare room subsidy. Foster carers are now allowed one additional room under this policy, as are those who have a child placed with them for adoption. That will ensure that many foster carers will no longer be affected by removal of the spare room subsidy.
Adopted children, those placed for adoption and those being looked after by special guardians are treated as part of the family in the same way as birth children, so these children’s bedrooms are also included in the bedroom assessment for the household. Prospective adopters and prospective special guardians awaiting a child being placed with them are treated differently. This is because these are temporary situations. People in these circumstances will be able to apply to the local authority for short-term assistance from the discretionary housing payment fund. My honourable friends the Minister for Children and Families and the Minister for Welfare Reform have written to local authorities highlighting that these groups should be a priority for discretionary housing payment funding. The measures the Government have taken should ensure that foster carers, prospective adopters and prospective special guardians are not unfairly treated by the removal of the spare room subsidy.
The Government are committed to conducting this review and it will be placed in the Library. It will be a matter for noble Lords as to whether or not they wish to debate it. The Government have commissioned a separate report from Ipsos MORI but, in answer to the noble Baroness’s question, we will be having our own report on this matter.
I shall write to the noble Earl, Lord Listowel, in response to his questions about supported lodging. So far as concerns the comment of the noble Lord, Lord Wigley, we will talk to the Welsh Government regarding our review of foster carers, and I will write to the noble Lord further about this. In those circumstances, I urge the noble Baroness, Lady Jones of Whitchurch, to withdraw her amendment.
Baroness Jones of Whitchurch
My Lords, I thank the Minister for the information that he has given about the fact that there will be two different reviews. I could make the point that, of course, within a year a considerable amount of damage could already have been done not only to the incomes of the lowest paid and the poorest people in our society but potentially to the availability of foster and adopter volunteers. Having said that, I am grateful that a review is taking place. I think that we all need to have the evidence, and we need to have some empirical research that shows us the extent to which this is happening.
I thought that the Minister’s response on whether there would be a debate was thoroughly inadequate. On a matter such as this, given that it has already been acknowledged that there is a potentially serious issue here, I should have thought that he could have taken more steps to determine that we could debate the findings. Nevertheless, at this stage, I beg leave to withdraw the amendment, although I shall no doubt come back to it at a future stage.