Education: Nursery and Early Years

Debate between Lord Nash and Baroness Howe of Idlicote

Thursday 23rd March 2017 Lords Chamber

[Lord Nash]

We are investing heavily in improving the quality of the status of nursery teachers, and increasing the funding rate will help with recruiting more high-quality staff. A lot of details on that are set out in our workforce strategy.

[Baroness Howe of Idlicote (CB)]

Will the resources that the Government make available cover the particular requirements and needs of those with special needs?

[Lord Nash]

Yes. Our recently published workforce strategy sets out how we will support staff to offer good-quality provision for children with SEND. We are funding a range of training and development opportunities in this regard, working with organisations that specialise in SEND. We have a new targeted £12.5 million disability access fund and a requirement for local authorities to set up a local inclusion fund to support providers for better outcomes for children with SEND.

Child Health: Physical Education

Debate between Lord Nash and Baroness Howe of Idlicote

Monday 5th December 2016 Lords Chamber

[Lord Nash]

We have substantially improved the funding for school sport, which has had a dramatic effect on the number of pupils participating in primary schools and on the number of qualified specialist PE teachers in primary schools, which has gone up by 50%. We regard this as very important in all aspects.

[Baroness Howe of Idlicote (CB)]

My Lords, yes, of course physical education is hugely important, but should we not also be thinking of parity of esteem for mental health? If that is to be achieved, how do the Government plan to ensure that schools treat mental well-being on an equal footing with physical well-being?

[Lord Nash]

The noble Baroness raises a very important issue. We know that mental health is an increasing issue in schools. Last year we funded the PSHE Association’s guidance on how to teach about mental health across all four key stages. A range of training on specific issues is also available through the MindEd website to all professionals who work with young people. We have been testing in a number of places the concept of a single point of contact in schools and CAMHS to improve collaborative working across schools and mental health services.

Sex and Relationships Education

Debate between Lord Nash and Baroness Howe of Idlicote

Thursday 24th November 2016 Lords Chamber

[Lord Nash]

I agree entirely with the right reverend Prelate. I know that the Church of England has a very good record on these matters. Of course, self-identity is very important. Public Health England has a Rise Above campaign that is intended to build the resilience of young people by providing online information and tackling issues, including the forming of body image.

[Baroness Howe of Idlicote (CB)]

My Lords, given the clear importance of this issue, is the Minister satisfied that school governors play a strong enough role in overseeing this whole situation?

[Lord Nash]

As the noble Baroness will know, in the past few years we have tried to strengthen the role of school governors to make sure that they have the right skills. It is certainly true to say that many governors coming through now are fully aware of the role that schools should play in providing a much wider education and being aware of the issues facing young people being brought up in modern Britain.

Children and Social Work Bill [HL]

Debate between Lord Nash and Baroness Howe of Idlicote

Wednesday 6th July 2016 Grand Committee

[Baroness Howe of Idlicote (CB)]

My Lords, I very much support this amendment. We have already heard in previous debates about the danger of the repeat performance—women who have been in care becoming mothers and having a problem with children being taken away. It is a vitally important matter. My noble friend Lady Howarth mentioned Pause as one of the organisations offering practical help in this respect. It certainly could be called on. I hope that in this instance we will be able to get support from the Minister so that this can be looked at rather more seriously than, perhaps, in the past.

[Lord Nash]

I thank the noble Lord, Lord Hunt, for moving the noble Baroness’s amendment. This is an important issue, and I am pleased that she has raised it. I also thank the noble Lord, Lord Storey, and the noble Baronesses, Lady Howarth and Lady Howe, for their comments. The Government believe that children are best looked after within their families, with their parents playing a full part in their lives, unless intervention in that family’s life is truly necessary and in the child’s best interests. Legislation reflects this, and local authorities have statutory functions to provide services that support children in need and their families. They also have a duty to return a looked-after child to their family unless this is against their best interests.

The noble Baroness is right to emphasise how important it is to support parents who have had children taken into care. They need the right support to allow them to be effective parents to any other children in their care and to any children they may have in the future. We share this commitment. Our statutory guidance Working Together to Safeguard Children is clear that every assessment of need must be child-centred. The statutory guidance acknowledges that many of the services provided as part of the child in need or child protection plan need to support the parents to make sustained change. The plan that arises from this assessment should set out the expectations required of parents, detailing clear measurable actions and indicating the services they should engage with in order for their child to remain at home. If a child is removed, their parents should continue to receive help and support. If the parents go on to have further children Working Together to Safeguard Children is clear that the level and nature of any risk to the child needs to be identified at a prebirth assessment and appropriate help and support should be given to these parents to help them make a sustained change.

I am sure noble Lords will be interested in the Department for Education’s innovation programme’s support to the tune of £3 million for Pause’s project to support women who have experienced or are at risk of repeat removals of children from their care. The project aims to break this cycle and give women the opportunity to develop new skills and responses to help them create a more positive future. Changing practice like this provides a more effective means of ensuring that we attempt to break the cycle. We want to extend approaches such as Pause’s into new areas to break this intergenerational cycle of care. This is of particular importance to care leavers who go on to have children in their late teens that are at risk of being taken into care. Mandating local authorities to provide counselling or therapy may help some, but it will not be the answer to all the complex problems in this context. Given what I have said, I hope the noble Lord will feel able to withdraw the amendment.

Schools: Local Oversight

Debate between Lord Nash and Baroness Howe of Idlicote

Monday 28th July 2014 Lords Chamber

[Lord Nash]

The noble Baroness raises a very good point. We are doing all that we can to ensure that that does not happen. Indeed, there are some teachers we are particularly concerned about who had themselves been causing harassment and who have now been suspended from their jobs. We are talking to Ofsted about expanding its whistleblowing arrangements to cover exactly this kind of situation.

[Baroness Howe of Idlicote (CB)]

My Lords, will the Government ensure that mandatory training is introduced to reduce the risks associated with school governance? I declare an interest as president of the National Governors’ Association.

[Lord Nash]

We have not yet gone as far as mandatory training. We have a high expectation that all governors will be trained where necessary and that they should be chosen for their skills. We brought in this big focus on skills rather than representation: governors may come from all walks of life, but they must have the expectation that they will be trained. We have also brought in tightening regulations so that where governing bodies feel that one of their governors needs training and they refuse to take that training, they can be suspended.

Education: Citizenship Studies

Debate between Lord Nash and Baroness Howe of Idlicote

Monday 30th June 2014 Lords Chamber

[Lord Nash]

My noble friend makes a very good point. I believe that all schools should teach about all religions and about respect for all religions. However, I will take his point back.

[Baroness Howe of Idlicote (CB)]

My Lords, does the Minister agree that one area that could be encouraged is parenting? I do not just mean good relationships with your own parents but what your future children are going to need, by way of skills, to be good parents themselves.

[Lord Nash]

I agree entirely with the noble Baroness. Parenting skills in this country are, in many cases, sadly lacking but it is not easy to dictate to parents, even young parents, how to do that. However, all good schools certainly seek to engage with their parents not just about their children’s education but, bluntly, to improve the education of the parents themselves.

Schools: British Values

Debate between Lord Nash and Baroness Howe of Idlicote

Thursday 12th June 2014 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Howe of Idlicote (CB)]

My Lords, whilst I would have thought that we should all agree with and welcome the fact that there is to be added emphasis on respecting British values, will the Minister also undertake to ensure that the opposite side to values—bullying—is something which all schools should aim to abolish?

[Lord Nash]

I agree entirely with the noble Baroness. All schools have to have an anti-bullying policy. Ofsted inspects on that. We have reduced the guidance on bullying behaviour from nearly 500 pages to a much more focused list.

Schools: Bad Behaviour

Debate between Lord Nash and Baroness Howe of Idlicote

Tuesday 25th March 2014 Lords Chamber

[Lord Nash]

I know that my noble friend is very experienced in this area from his role as a primary school head in Liverpool for 20 years. Counselling is very important and there are some excellent counselling organisations, such as Place2Be. Our advice is clear that schools should be aware that when counselling is needed or mental health services need to be involved, they should involve other agencies. Counselling of course links with mentoring, for instance, when pupils at risk of being involved in gangs are mentored and counselled by particular types of people.

[Baroness Howe of Idlicote (CB)]

My Lords, can the Minister tell the House what role school governors and councils should play in promoting high standards of behaviour in schools? Equally, do the Government believe that pupils themselves should have a role? In one group of schools, as I understand it, a slightly older pupil is given responsibility for settling in a new student and afterwards given “brownie” points on how effective the result has been. Can the Minister expand on other ideas for pupil involvement that the Government might be advocating?

[Lord Nash]

I agree entirely with the noble Baroness. A governor’s main role is to set the ethos and vision of the school. We would expect all governing bodies to accept such an ethos that had very high expectations for behaviour and to be very interested in the school’s behaviour-management policy. School councils and pupil feedback are essential. I recently visited Wickersley Academy in Rotherham, where every year-group elects two pupils to a school council. I said to one of the boys that that seemed to generate a certain amount of change every year. He said, “Not a bit of it. I make sure that I’m elected every year”. I look forward to seeing him in the other place shortly. Older pupils mentoring younger pupils, or acting as guardians in their early days, is very important both for the younger pupils and often for the older pupils for taking responsibility.

Children and Families Bill

Debate between Lord Nash and Baroness Howe of Idlicote

Wednesday 5th February 2014 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Howe of Idlicote]

My Lords, I support everything that my noble friend has said. I very much hope that the Minister will find a way to make this a possibility.

[Lord Nash]

I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Ramsbotham, for tabling the amendment, and congratulate him on the speed with which he grasped the moment to do so. This offers an opportunity to provide further clarity on the matter.

In a nutshell, the amendment would mean that, when seeking to bring a case under the Human Rights Act, the commissioner would be exempt from the requirement that he or she must be the victim in the case. This would replicate a provision in the legislative framework of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, and would in effect put the Children’s Commissioner on the same footing as the EHRC. I have several reservations in respect of the proposed amendment. I am happy to discuss the point further with the noble Lord, but I must state those reservations now.

First, I do not accept that the Children’s Commissioner and the equality and human rights commissioner have the same role. As I have indicated at various stages during the passage of the Bill, we see the role of the Children’s Commissioner as being largely strategic, whereas the EHRC has oversight of both strategic human rights issues and individual casework. The amendment would give the commissioner a power to pursue individual cases under the Human Rights Act, which would increase the risk that the OCC loses its strategic focus. Noble Lords will appreciate that we have tried to avoid that.

Children and Families Bill

Debate between Lord Nash and Baroness Howe of Idlicote

Wednesday 29th January 2014 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Howe of Idlicote]

My Lords, I support Amendment 59A and I also strongly support Amendments 59B and 59F. I address this from the viewpoint of the children themselves. Children and young people care about the independence of the Children’s Commissioner and support the proposal to prevent any interference by government as set out in Amendment 59A.

In a briefing put together by young people in partnership with Save the Children, they say quite rightly that the commissioner is for them and that it is important that the Government listen to their views on the issue of independence. The young people understand the importance of the commissioner being free to do his job properly. In particular, they are worried about future Governments interfering in the commissioner’s work. Mohamed, aged 16, said:

“If the Commissioner’s full independence is not clearly set in stone then a new Government would be able to change its mind … If it’s not [written down in law] it could change in a few years-time. Even if the Children’s Commissioner has the freedom now to do what they think is right, there’s no guarantee it wouldn’t change”.

So young people are concerned that without this amendment, children may think that the commissioner is not a proper champion of their views and rights, and they may not put their trust in the commissioner.

Young people say that without a fully independent champion, children could grow up to feel disengaged from their community and local and national politics. Najib, aged 12, said:

“If the children’s commissioner isn’t completely independent then young people will feel like they don’t have a voice. When they grow up they may not have the confidence to speak out and join in as they’ve felt that no one has listened to them when they were growing up”.

I hope very much that the Minister will consider young people’s views on this issue and I very much support the proposal brought forward on this by the noble Baroness, Lady Massey.

[Lord Nash]

I thank the noble Baronesses, Lady Massey, Lady Lister and Lady Howe, and the noble Lord, Lord Ramsbotham, for their contributions. I will speak to the government amendments in more detail shortly, but I would first like to respond to Amendment 59A tabled by the noble Baroness, Lady Massey, and Amendments 59B and 59F tabled by the noble Lord, Lord Ramsbotham.

I am grateful to the noble Baroness for focusing our attention on the key issue of the independence of the Children’s Commissioner. As I stressed during the debate in Committee, in order for the Children’s Commissioner to have credibility with children and children’s organisations, and to meet international standards, we fully recognise that the commissioner needs to be—and be seen to be—acting independently from government. That is why we are removing a number of provisions in the existing legislation that call into question the commissioner’s independence, as recommended by John Dunford following his review. As a result, there is nothing in the legislation that allows the Government to determine what the commissioner’s priorities are, what activities he or she will undertake, or what timescales he or she will work to—these are all matters for the commissioner.

During the debates in Committee, both here and in the other place, the Minister for Children and Families and I provided reassurances on the process for appointing the commissioner, and on providing the commissioner with a sufficient budget. I am happy to repeat them again today. The Government fully recognise the need for the commissioner to be free from any political interference in carrying out his or her functions, and the arrangements in place to appoint the commissioner and provide him or her with a sufficient budget will ensure that this is the case.

I would like to reassure noble Lords that the commissioner’s appointment will be governed by the code of practice published by the Office of the Commissioner for Public Appointments, which ensures that such appointments are made on the basis of merit, following a fair and open recruitment process. This ensures that only those candidates judged by the OCPA recruitment panel to be “appointable” can be put forward for Ministers’ consideration. Further, we have given commitments that Parliament will be provided with an opportunity to comment on the job description and person specification before the post is advertised, and an opportunity to hold a pre-appointment hearing before the appointment is confirmed.

On the framework agreement, as requested by noble Lords in Committee, I have made available a draft of the revised framework agreement that sets out the relationship between the commissioner and the Department for Education. As noble Lords will note, the revised framework agreement includes clear statements about the commissioner’s independence from government.

Noble Lords will also note that, as requested by the Joint Committee on Human Rights, the draft framework agreement includes changes that mirror those made to the framework agreement between the Equality and Human Rights Commission and its sponsor department—changes that seek to ensure that the impact of public sector efficiency controls do not unreasonably constrain the commissioner’s independence.

I now turn to Amendment 59B, tabled by the noble Lord, Lord Ramsbotham, which seeks to add, “initiating and intervening in legal proceedings”, to the non-exhaustive list of activities that the commissioner may undertake in the exercise of his or her primary function, as set out in proposed new Section 2(3) of the Children Act 2004, inserted by Clause 86. During the debates in Committee, I said that initiating or intervening in legal proceedings was, in the Government’s view, implicit within the commissioner’s primary function. The commissioner has intervened in legal proceedings on a number of occasions under the current legislation, and there is nothing in this Bill that changes that position.

As now, if the Office of the Children’s Commissioner wanted to bring legal proceedings, it would fall to the judge in the individual case to determine whether the commissioner had “sufficient interest” in the matter. However, the fact that the Children’s Commissioner will have a statutory role to promote and protect children’s rights, suggests that the commissioner would have a sufficient interest in any matter before the courts where children’s rights were involved. The question is not, therefore, whether it is possible for the commissioner to initiate or intervene in legal proceedings, but whether it is desirable to emphasise this aspect of the commissioner’s remit explicitly on the face of the Bill.

There are a number of reasons why I do not wish to do that. First, we have avoided adding to the list, in proposed new Section 2(3), of activities that are already implicit within the commissioner’s primary function. Secondly, while I agree that the commissioner should, in certain circumstances, be able to bring matters before the courts, I share John Dunford’s view that a decision by the Children’s Commissioner to initiate legal proceedings should not be taken lightly. We would expect any commissioner to use this power sparingly, given the range of functions and issues in which the commissioner is likely to take an interest, and in the light of his or her responsibility to make effective use of public funding.

Children and Families Bill

Debate between Lord Nash and Baroness Howe of Idlicote

Tuesday 7th January 2014 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Howe of Idlicote (CB)]

My Lords, rather like my noble friend who has just spoken, from listening to the arguments, I feel it is clear that something pretty sharp has to happen. I am assuming that one can have both the amendments. If we can, I am in favour of both of them.

[Lord Nash]

My Lords, I thank the noble Lords, Lord Rix and Lord Low, and the noble Baronesses, Lady Hughes, Lady Hollins and Lady Jones, for tabling the amendments, for their contributions and for bringing their experience to this debate.

Several noble Lords have been kind enough to discuss with me their questions and concerns about the complaints process for children and young people with SEN, including the noble Lords, Lord Rix and Lord Low, and my noble friend Lord Storey. I have been listening carefully to these points and have discussed them at length with my honourable friend the Minister for Children and Families.

Noble Lords have been right to press the Government hard to deliver an integrated complaints procedure to respond to the needs of a more integrated system. First, I reassure noble Lords that work is already in hand to improve the situation. The new code of practice will require that impartial information, advice and support is commissioned through joint arrangements and available through a single point of access with the capacity to handle initial phone, electronic, or face-to-face inquiries. It will also encourage clinical commissioning groups to ensure that relevant information is available at this single point of access, as well as including information on their local health offer on their website. A one-stop shop will be simpler and much more parent and young person-friendly than having to go to more than one place for advice on a range of issues, including how to complain.

Today, my honourable friend the Minister for Children and Families, who has vast direct personal experience in this area, announced a £30 million package to provide children and young people with SEN and disabilities and their parents with independent support to help them through the new SEN assessment and education, health and care planning process. This funding will be available between April 2014 and March 2016. The aim is to have around 1,800 trained independent supporters from the private, voluntary and community sectors in place by autumn 2014. That equates to about 12 individuals, on average, in each local authority area in England.

This will ensure that many families have access to informed advice and support at a time when the system is changing and new processes are bedding in. These independent supporters will be independent of the local authority, but they will need to work with local authorities and other statutory agencies to help families get the support they need. Where there is disagreement, independent supporters will make sure councils understand what families want, and help families to challenge decision-making. This will mean that children and young people with SEN get the help they really need across education, health and care. This is a major step forward.

On the health side, noble Lords will also be glad to hear that work is under way on how NHS complaints are handled, in the light of the Francis report and the review undertaken by the right honourable Ann Clwyd MP and Professor Tricia Hart into the NHS hospitals complaints system. The Government want to ensure that when things go wrong, the complaints system is clear, fair and open, and that at every level, the NHS scrutinises and learns from mistakes to improve care for patients.

The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman, Healthwatch England and the Department of Health will work with the Patients Association, patients, regulators, commissioners and providers to develop universal expectations for the handling of complaints. These will be used across the NHS to drive improvements in patient satisfaction with complaint-handling. This will benefit children and young people with SEN, so we should be wary of establishing a new set of arrangements for this one group without allowing the wider suite of reforms on NHS complaints to establish itself.

Turning to why extending the remit of the tribunal is difficult, the issues here are extremely complicated. It is tempting to extend the tribunal’s remit across health and social care, but there are legitimate reasons why we cannot do so at this point. Local authorities’ duty to arrange provision that will meet the special educational needs of a child currently with a statement, or, in future, a child or young person with a plan, is absolute. The local authority has to arrange that provision no matter what the cost. This means that when the tribunal makes a decision that will increase the special educational provision for one child, that will have no effect on other children with statements because the local authority has the same absolute duty to arrange provision that meets their needs as well.

The position is different with health and social care. The authority is making decisions having regard to the health and social care needs of the whole population. We have already discussed the issues around social care in some detail. This means that, if the tribunal were to be given powers to make decisions in those areas, any decision the tribunal made to increase provision for one child or young person could mean that other children or young people with similar or even greater health or social care needs could be deprived of provision they require. It would therefore be wrong to give the tribunal the powers implied by the amendment.

The issues are significant. None the less, we should consider what more we should do now better to integrate complaints across services. This is a matter of concern to Ministers in both the Department of Health and the Department for Education. Building on our commitment to funding for key workers to help parents who need to navigate the system, we agree that there is more to be done to ensure that redress works well and feels joined up, where it needs to, and that we will need to keep that under review as the reforms are implemented.

We would therefore be grateful for the opportunity to discuss these issues further with noble Lords before Third Reading to ensure that we can confirm a strong package by that point. The things that we particularly would like to look at include: the role of mediation, including the scope to extend the arrangements in the Bill to cover health and social care as well as special education; notwithstanding the concerns I have set out, whether there could be a role for the tribunal in joining up redress across education, health and care; and what arrangements we should put in place to review how redress works once the new system is bedded in and in the light of wider reforms to complaints in the health service.

I assure noble Lords that that is something that we are taking seriously and about which we are in active discussions, which will continue, with the Department of Health. In view of what I have said, I urge noble Lords not to press their amendments.

Schools Careers Service: Apprenticeships

Debate between Lord Nash and Baroness Howe of Idlicote

Wednesday 11th December 2013 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Howe of Idlicote (CB)]

My Lords, will the Minister confirm the steps that I am sure the Government must be taking to ensure that as many girls as boys are aware of these apprenticeship schemes, particularly in engineering, where there are certainly very many more young boys than young girls taking up these apprenticeships at the moment?

[Lord Nash]

I entirely agree with the noble Baroness. It is very important that we get a higher participation rate of girls in STEM subjects. We are funding the Stimulating Physics Network and the Further Maths Support Programme to increase the take-up of A-level physics. The STEM Ambassadors programme gives careers advice on more technical qualifications and apprenticeships. However, as my colleague Liz Truss said recently, it is excellent teaching and a culture of equal aspirations for all that will help engage more girls, so all we are doing to improve the quality of teaching helps in this regard.

Children and Families Bill

Debate between Lord Nash and Baroness Howe of Idlicote

Monday 11th November 2013 Grand Committee

[Baroness Howe of Idlicote (CB)]

My Lords, I join in the praise for the Government on taking this issue very seriously indeed. The Minister has brought forward a comprehensive set of proposals to cover this vital area, and it is a source of pleasure to most of us that young carers are to be given some support in the background. It will be good to watch and see what happens.

I want to ask a question about Amendment 225, tabled by the noble Baronesses, Lady Hughes and Lady Jones, which seeks to insert a new clause headed “Duty to secure sufficient support”, particularly so far as schools are concerned. I speak as an officer of the National Governors’ Association. To what extent has the association passed this message on to all governing bodies? Do a sufficient number of schools have an individual governor from a background that reflects the training, knowledge and awareness to recognise the support that will be needed, and will they have specific responsibilities and duties in this respect in order to see that the policy is properly applied? This is particularly important. I go back quite a long way so far as governing bodies are concerned. Even in the context of the education Bills we have seen in recent years, it has taken some time to make it clear that governing bodies are expected to play an important role, yet they had not even been mentioned in the legislation. That, of course, has now changed, but it would be good to know how well this message has got through to governing bodies and to those with responsibilities in this area.

[Lord Nash]

My Lords, I thank my noble friends Lord Storey and Lady Tyler, and the noble Baronesses, Lady Hughes and Lady Jones, for proposing these new clauses. I shall turn first to the amendments tabled by the noble Baronesses, Lady Hughes and Lady Jones. I agree wholeheartedly that the effective identification of young carers and assessment of their support needs is best achieved by social care, health and education services working together and considering the whole family’s needs. We have been promoting this approach with local authorities since 2011 through the Prevention through Partnership programme delivered by the Children’s Society and funded by my department.

Our proposed new clause supports the combining of assessments. This enables the necessary link to be made between a young carer’s assessment and, for example, an assessment of the adult they care for made under provisions in the Care Bill. This will support practitioners to take a whole family approach to considering the effect of the adult’s support needs on the rest of the household and provide appropriate services that address the needs of the whole family. I also agree that it is necessary to have sufficient local services available to meet the needs of young carers. That is why we are building on the existing general duty on local authorities to safeguard and promote the welfare of children in need in their area by requiring them to identify the extent to which there are young carers in their area with needs for support.

I do not agree, however, that a new duty to provide services to young carers, as proposed by my noble friends Lord Storey and Lady Tyler, along with the noble Baronesses, Lady Hughes and Lady Jones, is necessary or appropriate. Our aim is to start by ensuring that the eligible support needs of the person being cared for are met. Most commonly this is an adult, and the provision of services to that adult will prevent young people from having to undertake or continue in a potentially harmful caring role. If the young person still has needs for support, services can be provided under the existing general duty to safeguard and protect the welfare of children in need under the Children Act 1989.

--- Later in debate ---

[Baroness Howe of Idlicote]

My Lords, I will press the Minister on one thing. He has clearly not referred to governing bodies at all in what he said or in his own amendment. What responsibility does he see that governing bodies will have to know what is going on and to be active elements in seeing that it is delivered?

[Lord Nash]

The noble Baroness, Lady Howe, has raised an important point. As she probably knows, school governance is an area on which we are focusing a lot more. To date we have not involved the National Governors’ Association in this, but I agree that it is important that governing bodies are fully aware of and involved in this in terms of training programmes for school nurses and others. I would be very happy to talk to the NGA about how it can ensure that governors focus on this issue more closely.

Children and Families Bill

Debate between Lord Nash and Baroness Howe of Idlicote

Monday 14th October 2013 Grand Committee

[Lord Nash]

I am grateful for the noble Baroness’s further question. We consulted a number of experts, including Dr Beth Neil, Fran Fonseca, Jack Smith, Linda Jones, Roger Morgan, Julie Selwyn and Alan Rushton. They felt that this was a matter of practice and that more work needed to be done to improve practice. I agree, and I share the noble Baroness’s concern about this. In the light of the feelings expressed today, it is a matter that we need to look at again, but our current thinking is that it is a matter of practice and not a question of changing the law.

When siblings are looked after but are not placed together, their individual care plan must set out the arrangements made to promote contact between them. The care plan must be reviewed regularly, which allows for the arrangements to be revised as the child’s circumstances change. Sibling contact is already provided for in the Children Act 1989, and the court must consider contact arrangements before making a care order. The looked-after siblings can apply to court for contact. We have specifically ensured that the court continues to consider contact arrangements through Clause 15.

As for the question about children in care homes, which was raised by my noble friend Lady Walmsley and the noble Baroness, Lady Howarth, I can give the commitment that we currently have a programme of work to look at how to improve the quality and support of practice in children’s homes. I shall ask my officials to look specifically at the issue of siblings being placed together as part of this work. It is true that Ofsted should look at how siblings are placed in children’s homes.

[Baroness Howe of Idlicote]

I wonder whether I could pursue something that has been said. On the question of whether the children’s officers throughout the UK are in support of this system—and I am thinking particularly of the requirement that the English Children’s Commissioner is clearly going to have much more independence than she currently has—is this an area that needs looking at? Could the Minister clarify that?

[Lord Nash]

It is something that we can ask the Children’s Commissioner to look at. We will talk to her about this. As my noble friend Lady Walmsley said, perhaps this is an area where we should do further research. I shall ask my officials to consider this. I think that the noble Earl raised that point as well. I have noted the strength of feeling on this point today, and we will take it away for further consideration. Nevertheless, I ask the noble Baroness to withdraw the amendment.

Schools: PSHE

Debate between Lord Nash and Baroness Howe of Idlicote

Tuesday 11th June 2013 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Howe of Idlicote]

My Lords, the report says that improvement in the delivery of the sex and relationship side of PSHE is needed in as many of a third of schools; and, worse, that this means that particularly sensitive issues, such as mental health, sexuality, domestic violence and pornography, are either receiving too little attention or are frankly just being omitted completely because of teacher embarrassment. What steps are the Government proposing to ensure that teachers involved will in future have the necessary skills to teach these important subjects?

[Lord Nash]

The noble Baroness is quite right that we need to up our game in this regard, particularly in relation to internet pornography. As noble Lords will know, quite a lot is going on in relation to the internet at the moment. SRE in particular is a vital part of training, and we hope that the Ofsted examples will improve that. The draft science curriculum includes clear requirements for pupils to be taught about their bodies, physical development and reproduction.

Schools: Bullying

Debate between Lord Nash and Baroness Howe of Idlicote

Thursday 16th May 2013 Lords Chamber

[Lord Nash]

I am not aware of that centre’s work but I would be grateful if the noble Baroness could advise me of it. We will definitely look at further such facilities.

[Baroness Howe of Idlicote]

My Lords, bullying is rampant throughout our society—even, it would appear, in areas such as the BBC, as we have heard via the media. Given that prevention is better than cure, as everybody has stressed, what practical steps are being taken to ensure not only that playground or classroom bullying is classified as absolutely unacceptable but that every school is required to eliminate it? Will the Government publish a document giving examples of how this has already been successfully achieved in some areas?

[Lord Nash]

We should consider that. We have tightened teachers’ disciplinary powers, including their powers to search and confiscate, for instance, mobile phones and remove inappropriate material, and, particularly, to search for text bullying. We are continuing to focus on these areas.