Inclusive Society

Baroness D'Souza Excerpts

Wednesday 14th April 2021 Grand Committee

[Baroness D'Souza (CB) [V]]

My Lords, my thanks go to the noble Baroness, Lady Lister, for raising such an important issue and indeed provoking such important questions. Of course, we all want to have a more unified and more equal society, but where should we begin? Well, how about starting by working towards a more joined-up government and more strategic policies to build back better?

For some months now, many of us in this House, in the other place and from among a concerned public more generally have argued for a strategic plan to ensure the welfare of children. We know that children have suffered disproportionately during the last year, and there is now, given the Government’s reassessment of budget distribution and their wish to build back better, a chance to contribute to a new settlement for children and the integrity of the family.

I do not apologise for yet again going back to the issue of a Cabinet-level Minister for children to oversee, protect, direct and promote all aspects of child welfare—one of the central pillars being family life. There are at least four different departments that assume responsibility for children, ranging from free school meals though early education to eating and obesity issues and budget support for families in need. If we are at all serious about a unified and more equal society, surely it must begin with detailed and focused polices for children who are, after all, this country’s future. I feel strongly, too, that we must allow children of many different ages, who we all know hold trenchant and forward-looking ideas, to participate in decision-making that will affect their lives and livelihoods via a dedicated senior-level Minister.

To my mind, the excellent Vicky Ford does not as a junior Minister have the necessary resources to do the task before her. Indeed, the UK’s fifth periodic report on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which is due in January 2022, will have to address the clear recommendation, among many others, that the UK Government appoint a high-level Minister for children and children’s affairs and

“Allocate sufficient human, technical and financial resources”


to co-ordinate and evaluate implementation of the convention at national level.

Finally, will the Minister commit to letting the House have an exact breakdown of all the additional resources now available for all aspects of children’s welfare, to which ministries these funds have been allocated, and for what programmes?