Children and Social Work Bill [HL]

Baroness Evans of Bowes Park Excerpts

Monday 11th July 2016 Grand Committee

Moved by

[Baroness Evans of Bowes Park]

121: After Clause 14, insert the following new Clause—
“Child death reviews
After section 16L of the Children Act 2004 (inserted by section (Interpretation) of this Act) insert—“Child death review partners for local authority areas16M Child death reviews(1) The child death review partners for a local authority area in England must make arrangements—(a) for the review of each death of a child normally resident in the area;(b) for the analysis of information about such deaths generally.(2) The purposes of a review or analysis under subsection (1) are—(a) to identify any matters relating to the death, or the deaths generally, that are relevant to the welfare of children in the area or to public health and safety, and(b) to consider whether it would be appropriate for anyone to take action in relation to any matters identified.(3) Where the child death review partners consider that it would be appropriate for a person to take action as mentioned in subsection (2)(b), they must inform that person.(4) The child death review partners for a local authority area in England must, at such intervals as they consider appropriate, prepare and publish a report on—(a) what they have done as a result of the arrangements under this section, and(b) how effective the arrangements have been in practice.””

[Baroness Evans of Bowes Park (Con)]

My Lords, I shall speak to Amendments 121 to 125, regarding child death reviews in the multiagency local safeguarding arrangements. These proposed new clauses require the child death review partners—the local authority and clinical commissioning groups in a local authority area—to carry out a review of each death of a child normally resident in the area. They will be required to analyse the information obtained from child death reviews to identify issues that are relevant to the welfare of children in the area or to public health and safety and, in doing so, to consider whether it would be appropriate for anyone to take action in relation to any matters identified.

Amendment 122 will enable the child death review partners to request information and enforce compliance from any person or body in pursuance of their functions. Amendment 123 will allow child death review partners to agree to make payments to support the joint working arrangements which they are establishing for the reviews. Amendment 124 will allow the child death review partner areas to be made up of more than one local authority area, where there is more than one local authority or clinical commissioning group. This proposed new clause will allow the relevant child death review partner to delegate the review functions to one local authority or one clinical commissioning group. This is a practical provision, which enables the child death review partners to utilise more streamlined arrangements in a manner which they consider would work best for their area. These proposed new clauses do not change the individual existing responsibilities of each partner to exercise their functions with regard to child death reviews.

Amendment 125 will require child death review partners to have regard to any statutory guidance issued by the Secretary of State in regard to their functions. I believe that the partners will find guidance of this sort helpful in aiding their decision-making.

The death of any child is a tragedy, whether it is as a result of a health condition, an accident or abuse and neglect. Parents and the professionals who support them through this extremely difficult time will want full details of what happened in their case and to know whether anything could have been done to prevent this death happening. England was the first country in the world to put in place arrangements that provide comprehensive understanding of the causes of child deaths, and we need to build on the knowledge that we have gained so far. Collating and analysing information locally and sharing between areas are vital steps to help us to understand why children die.

In May this year the Government published the Wood review into the role and functions of local safeguarding children boards and child death overview panels. The review found that over 80% of child deaths have medical or public health causations, but the gathering of data on child deaths and the analysis of them is incomplete and inconsistent. As a result there is a gap in our knowledge, and professions are not sufficiently extracting learning from the data that are available in order to reduce the number of child deaths each year.

These new clauses bring the two key child death review partners together and place upon them equal responsibility to work together. They will enable health partners to continue to support the analysis of information on health-related child deaths at local and national level. Hospitals of course routinely analyse the data on child deaths. Local authorities need to be partners to ensure that factors relating to public health and safeguarding are similarly identified. This will also allow local authorities to promote learning and dissemination within their local area. For these reasons, the Government believe it is imperative that child death reviews remain on a statutory footing to secure the best outcomes for all children. I beg to move.

[Baroness Hughes of Stretford (Lab)]

My Lords, I have a question about these clauses, which are generally welcome. The more information we have about child death comprehensively, the easier it will be to take any necessary action. As I read the clauses, however, although I may have missed something, I cannot see what the review partners will be required to publish. Subsection (4) in new Clause 16M of the Children Act 2004 in Amendment 121 says they must,

“prepare and publish a report on … what”,

the partners,

“have done as a result of the arrangements … and how effective the arrangements”—

which I take to be partnership—“have been”. However, I can see nothing in here about the kind of analysis that the Minister was just referring to—the kinds of deaths that have occurred, for what purposes, the demographic and other characteristics of the children and so on. Could she enlighten us about what will be required in terms of general access to the information that has been collected here?

[Lord Hunt of Kings Heath]

My Lords, I would like to add another point. Here we are talking about child death review partners, and in the previous debate we were talking about safeguarding partners. I wonder if this is a concept that might be used with regard to the earlier part of the Bill relating to corporate parenting. The Minister will know that we had amendments to Clauses 1 and 2 around corporate parenting, the argument being that in order to discharge corporate parenting roles properly the local authority needs the support of core partners in the local area, including the health service and other agencies. I think we have all agreed that nothing should be done to dissipate the role of the corporate parent by, if you like, detracting from the local authority’s responsibility. However, I wonder if the concept of safeguarding partners and death review partners is an approach that we might consider. I realise that this is not the point to discuss corporate parenting, but it is an interesting concept that we might think about when we return to the subject.

[Baroness Evans of Bowes Park]

I thank noble Lords for their interventions. Perhaps I can take away the comments from the noble Lord, Lord Hunt. In answer to the noble Baroness, Lady Hughes, the child death review partners will be required to publish information on what more local authorities and CCGs can do to prevent deaths, including analysis and data. I am happy to come back to her with some further information following this discussion.

Amendment 121 agreed.

--- Later in debate ---

[Baroness Pinnock]

My Lords, I shall not repeat what many other noble Lords have said about whistleblowing, but confirm that we on this side totally support what has been said and the amendments that have been tabled.

[Baroness Evans of Bowes Park]

I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Wills, for these amendments and to noble Lords for their contributions. I assure noble Lords that whistleblowing is an important issue and one that we are taking very seriously. Every child deserves to be safe, and those organisations entrusted to protect our children must work as effectively as possible to achieve that.

Registered social workers work with some of the most vulnerable people in our society, supporting children, adults and their families, often at the most difficult times in their lives. It is important that registered social workers and other employees work in a culture of openness, where they feel confident to speak out when they are concerned about the practices of their employing organisation. They should be able to raise concerns free from fear and victimisation, as the noble Baroness said, with processes and procedures that encourage, support and protect employees when they do so. Disclosures can help to improve the services provided to children, adults and families and safeguard the vulnerable from abuse and neglect.

With regard to Amendments 127 and 137, I agree with the principle that there are clear expectations on local authorities and other public bodies on whistleblowing issues related to child protection and social work. We have a framework of employment protections for whistleblowers and I agree that it is important that employers should act in accordance with that. The coalition Government reviewed the statutory framework in relation to whistleblowing in 2014, following the report of the whistleblowing commission, as the noble Lord said, and the Government’s call for evidence on the matter. The Government concluded that the right balance was to be struck by guidance and a non-statutory code of practice, rather than a statutory code of practice recommended by the commission. The Government published that guidance and statutory code in March 2015.

I am afraid to say to the noble Lord that we are not persuaded of the need to reopen this question in the context of the Bill. If the noble Lord has concerns about the practices specifically of local authorities and public bodies that provide children’s services and employ social workers, we would be happy to consider them. There may be more that we can do, for example, to draw our guidance to the attention of those bodies and ensure their compliance with it.

In relation to the question asked by the noble Earl, Lord Listowel, we confirm that whistleblowing protections in the Employment Rights Act apply to all employers, both private and public.

On Amendments 128 and 138, I share the noble Lord’s concern that those who make a protected disclosure under the Employment Rights Act should not suffer adverse treatment in their current employment or their future career. I understand that some workers have been concerned that whistleblowing may lead to them being placed on some form of informal blacklist that will prevent them getting other employment in the sector. We would be extremely interested in any evidence of that happening and would be very concerned if it was found to be the case.

As the noble Lord and the noble Baroness, Lady Wheeler, mentioned, provision has already been made to protect job seekers in the National Health Service from such discrimination, following the report into whistleblowing in the NHS undertaken by Sir Robert Francis QC, Freedom to Speak Up.

I believe that the Department of Health will shortly be consulting on the necessary secondary legislation. We will be interested to see the issues raised during that consultation. Together with any examples of whistleblowers who have suffered in this way in children’s services, this will inform our consideration of any case for future change. I have asked Department for Education officials to work with colleagues from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and the Department of Health, and to contact the noble Lord to discuss further the issues arising from these four amendments.

Although I understand that some of my response will not be welcomed by the noble Lord, Lord Wills, I hope he sees that we are taking action and will take further action, and therefore feels able to withdraw his amendment.

--- Later in debate ---

[Lord Watson of Invergowrie]

My Lords, I will speak to Amendment 133ZA in this group, in my name and that of my noble friend Lord Hunt of Kings Heath. Clause 17 outlines the consultation process that local authorities and the Secretary of State must undertake before an authority makes an application to exempt or modify legislation in order to test a different way of working. This is a probing amendment to explore how a requirement could be placed on a local authority to consider how such an application could affect the needs of children with special educational needs and disabilities, in addition to consulting local safeguarding boards.

There are concerns that legislation meeting the definition of children’s social care legislation in Clause 19 which can be subject to exemption or modification includes any legislation specified in Schedule 1 to the Local Authority Social Services Act 1970 that relates to those under 18. As drafted, this covers more than 40 pieces of legislation mentioned in that schedule. The Bill could therefore allow exemption or modification of a wide range of social care support that children with SEND currently rely on. Indeed, those with SEND constitute the vast majority of children in need as defined under Section 17 of the Children Act. This group is disproportionately likely to be impacted by exemptions or modifications to children’s social care legislation. However, there is no mechanism explicitly to consider the impact on this group of changes to legislation.

Section 3 of the Children and Families Act 2014 will also be impacted by the Bill, with implications for those receiving social care and health provision as part of an education, health and care plan. Much of this impact could be unintended or unforeseen without specific measures being taken to identify them proactively. There is also the issue of a postcode lottery and creating parallel systems by granting some areas exemptions from the general law. So there is a real need for local authorities to conduct a review of the potential effect of different ways of working on the authority’s ability to meet the needs of children with SEND. It would be helpful if the Minister could give an assurance that some groups will not be prioritised over others if a local authority were to be exempted from some elements of the current provision.

[Baroness Evans of Bowes Park]

My Lords, Amendments 132A, 133A, 133B and 133ZA would amend the consultation, application and reporting requirements that already support the proposed power to test new ways of working. I should say from the outset that our response to the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee, which was mentioned earlier and which evidently noble Lords have not seen, proposed putting forward a government amendment which provides for the laying of a statement every time the power is used in Parliament, with any regulations made, explaining how any change is expected to meet the purpose of the power—better outcomes for children and young people—and the protection that a local authority making an application to use the power intends to put in place. I hope that this move will address many of the concerns raised by noble Lords. We certainly believe that such statements will help the House if and when it comes to scrutinise any orders under Clause 15. None the less, I will say a few further words on consultation and reporting.

Clause 17 sets out proportionate expectations of consultation for both the local authority and the Secretary of State. For the local authority, this would mean consultation with health agencies, the police and others; for the Secretary of State, it would mean the Children’s Commissioner and Ofsted. The Secretary of State may also consult such others as she considers appropriate in each individual case. I am confident that, according to the freedom requested, the appropriate persons or bodies will be consulted to ensure that the right decision is made and that, where appropriate, the needs of children with special educational needs will of course be taken into account. But each decision needs to be made on a case-by-case basis; we are not persuaded that standardised, formal consultation would be appropriate. However, we would expect the statements that I have already described to deal with the outcomes of consultation. Of course, the reports would be made available to the public, as would the orders made—which I feel addresses the question of making public any changes made under Clause 15.

Finally I will say something about the annual report that is proposed. We entirely agree that tracking and capturing the progress of exemptions should take place. This will be crucial in coming to a view on whether lasting changes should be made to children’s social care legislation. We will be evaluating the use of the power, and noble Lords will note the requirement to report on how far changes have achieved their purpose if the initial testing period is to be extended. If it is not extended then of course things will revert to the previous position. This seems to be a way to achieve the same objectives in a more proportionate way than an annual review.

I also make the point, as highlighted by the noble Baroness, Lady Howe, that Ofsted will inspect and report in the normal way, providing another valuable source of public information. I hope that on the basis of our proposal to bring forward amendments, noble Lords will not press theirs.