Young People in Care

Edward Timpson Excerpts

Tuesday 27th January 2015 Commons Chamber

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education (Mr Edward Timpson)]

I thank the Chairman of the Education Committee, my hon. Friend the Member for Beverley and Holderness (Mr Stuart), who secured this important debate. I also reiterate my gratitude to his Committee and its members for their continued interest in our collective efforts to improve the lives of children in and leaving care—a group of young people who are among the most vulnerable in our society and who have not always received the support that they need to overcome the difficulties they often face in making a successful transition to adulthood.

Before dealing with the specific points that have been raised by hon. Members in the Select Committee report and in the thoughtful contributions today, I will take a few moments to set out the wider work of the Government on our commitment to improve the lives of care leavers. As the Chairman of the Select Committee fairly set out, since 2010, we have put in place a series of measures that mean that young people who leave care receive more help than ever before. In 2013, we published the first cross-Government care leavers strategy, which illustrates the priority that the Government give to improving the lives of care leavers. It includes measures to improve care leavers’ access to education, training and employment; help to access appropriate benefits and health support; and extra support for care leavers who have unfortunately ended up in the criminal justice system. Many of those measures cut across departmental budgets.

The strategy was preceded by a number of important changes that were designed to improve the level of support that care leavers receive from their local council. We have made it clear in statutory guidance that all care leavers should receive support from a personal adviser up to the age of 21, or 25 if they are in education or returning to education, or if they have a desire to do so. We have introduced bursaries for those who are participating in further or higher education. We have pushed all local authorities to provide a setting up home allowance of at least £2,000. We have been responsible for the introduction of more than 54,000 junior individual savings accounts for children in care. We have made it easier for care leavers to access their social care records. I am pleased to report that the vast majority of local authorities have signed up to delivering the care leavers charter.

Since launching the care leavers strategy, we have continued to look at further ways to support care leavers. Most notably, we have introduced the “Staying Put” duty, which will allow thousands of children in foster placements to remain with their foster carers until the age of 21. We are providing local councils with more than £40 million over three years to implement the new duty. I will return to that later.

We have strengthened the Ofsted inspection framework so that it includes a specific judgment on the quality of care leavers’ services. As Ofsted told the Education Committee:

“The quality and suitability of accommodation for care leavers contributes significantly to the judgement that inspectors make on the experiences and outcomes of care leavers.”

As the hon. Member for Sefton Central (Bill Esterson) and my hon. Friend the Member for Calder Valley (Craig Whittaker) said, care leavers often have difficulties accessing mental health support when they need it. We are determined to address that problem and have announced the creation of the children and young people’s mental health and well-being taskforce to consider what changes are needed to improve outcomes for children and young people with mental health difficulties. Crucially, that work will include a focus on the needs of vulnerable groups, including those who have been in the care system.

[Bill Esterson]

I know that the Minister is aware of the shortage of CAMHS workers. He will appreciate that unless that is addressed, it will be difficult for him to live up to what he has just pledged. What work is he doing with colleagues at the Department of Health to ensure that there is an increase in the number of staff who are available to deliver what he has promised?

[Mr Timpson]

As is often the case, the strange dissection of responsibilities across Government means that ministerial responsibility for CAMHS resides elsewhere in the Department, but the Under-Secretary of State for Education, my hon. Friend the Member for East Surrey (Mr Gyimah) works directly with the Department of Health, through the taskforce, to look at what resources are required. In recent weeks, it has been announced that further money has been made available to improve the services that are available to children who have mental health problems.

Every party in the House recognises that the mental health services that are on offer to children, particularly those who are in care, on the edge of care or leaving care, are simply not good enough. That is why we need a fundamental review of how we commission, deliver and review the progress of children and young people who should have access to those services. We have made some significant changes to how we approach special educational needs—there is joint commissioning, and we are looking at a system that can be used from birth to 25—and we can learn a lot of lessons from that in how we deal with mental health services, particularly for children in care and care leavers.

As part of our commitment to improving services for care leavers, we have funded a number of projects designed to stimulate new and innovative approaches. For example, we have given funding to the Care Leavers Foundation to run the New Belongings project, in which care leavers play a central role by helping to identify barriers and find solutions to improve services in nine local authorities. I am pleased to tell the House that we will provide further funding to extend the New Belongings project. The second phase will be rolled out shortly and will involve embedding progress in those nine councils. It will also extend the project to more local authorities. We will also continue to fund the From Care2Work programme, which helps care leavers to get a foot in the door with some of our major employers, providing work experience, apprenticeships and employment opportunities. It is only right that we record the progress that has been made in recent years, but as the debate has shown, we clearly still have some way to go before every care leaver will be getting the support they need.

I turn to the specific issues that have been raised in the Education Committee report and by hon. Members today, beginning with the difficult but important issue of bed-and-breakfast accommodation. I agree with all Members, led by the Chair of the Education Committee, who have said that bed-and-breakfast accommodation is not suitable for care leavers. That is, of course, what the law says. However, as I said in our response to the Committee’s report, we do not think an outright ban is the right approach. We are not a lone voice—the chief social worker for children and families has said:

“A total ban on bed and breakfast restricts the ability of professionals to exercise their judgement in making best interest decisions about young people’s safety and welfare.”

The charity Catch22 has said:

“The reality is that there is a need for emergency, crash-pad accommodation for a very distressed young person who is in an urgent situation and needs accommodation. An outright ban could deny them access to much needed support in an emergency.”

That position is supported by the Association of Directors of Children’s Services and by the Local Government Association. The Care Leavers Foundation has said that it

“reluctantly concedes that permitting use of B&B in emergency situations is probably a necessary caveat, as there may be circumstances where in the absence of a B&B option a care leaver could potentially be at risk of street homelessness or being warehoused in a hostel.”

As I indicated to the Education Committee, in light of those concerns we want to test further the practical implications for local authorities if a total ban were introduced. We have started that process and are continuing to talk to relevant parties such as the independent reviewing officers group, Barnardo’s, Catch22, the Care Leavers Foundation, homelessness charities and others to better understand the issue. I know that the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) raised that point.

We know that there are some excellent examples, which hon. Members have noted today. The hon. Member for Stockton North (Alex Cunningham) mentioned Hartlepool and other parts of the north-east, and Wiltshire has also managed to find ways to provide suitable accommodation without needing to resort to bed and breakfast, so it can be done. I should add that the Department for Communities and Local Government has provided £1.9 million to support local authorities in developing sustainable solutions to stop the unlawful use of bed and breakfast for families and children. The seven funded councils have achieved and sustained a 96% reduction in the number of households with children in bed and breakfast for longer than six weeks.

[Alex Cunningham]

I do not want to tease the Minister, but if a large number of authorities across the country can achieve a 100% reduction, the best practice is out there and authorities know how it can be done. Is it not time just to say, “Do it”?

[Mr Timpson]

Of course we want every local authority to do it, and the more that we can help them achieve that the better, but we have to consider the practicalities of a ban, bearing in mind the mixed views about how it could be implemented and the emergency situations in which bed and breakfast might be required. We must also ensure that local authorities that are falling short understand how ending the use of bed and breakfast can be achieved, and that is one purpose of the innovation programme—to spread good practice so that places such as Wiltshire and Hartlepool do not hold a secret but can impart their knowledge successfully across the country.

I can confirm that, following the Committee’s report, we have further strengthened our statutory guidance to make it clear that for 16 and 17-year-olds emergency placements in B and B should be used only in exceptional circumstances and be limited to no more than two working days. I will write to all directors of children’s services shortly on a range of matters relating to children in care and care leavers, and I will bring to their attention in that correspondence the amended guidance on bed and breakfast. It may be a good opportunity to let them know about the good practice in other parts of the country.

On 31 March, we will receive data collected on the accommodation of 19, 20 and 21-year-olds and whether it was deemed suitable, including a breakdown on bed and breakfast. For the first time next year we will collect data on 17 and 18-year-olds too, and that will help us to establish the impact of the strengthened statutory guidance on bed and breakfast. I return to the arguments made by the chief social worker and the central premise that if we have a high-quality professional body making sound decisions and backed by tailored support, no care leaver need be put in unsuitable accommodation.

[Mr Graham Stuart]

The Minister said that data are collected on 19 and 20-year-olds and next year they will be collected on 17 and 18-year-olds. What is the situation for 16-year-olds?

[Mr Timpson]

I anticipated that I might be asked that question and, in his usual manner, the Chairman of the Committee has established my exact thoughts. I am told that, for technical reasons, we cannot collect data until after the age of 16 as young people are still in care before that point, but we intend to refine the data when we receive them to establish whether any 16-year-olds are in bed and breakfast. The data are collected on the young person’s birthday as opposed to at financial year end. They cannot be collected on their 16th birthday so we have to wait until their 17th birthday. We will look at how we can retrospectively analyse the data and establish how many 16-year-olds have been in bed-and-breakfast accommodation during that year. If we can refine the data in the future, we will look to do so.

Several hon. Members raised the issue of alternative accommodation. It is right that all forms of alternative accommodation—bed and breakfast, supported lodgings, foyers and so on—should provide care leavers with a safe and secure place to live. Clear legal duties require that children are placed only in accommodation that meets their needs. Ofsted, through its new single inspection framework, monitors local authorities’ performance in supporting care leavers in the round, including the quality of accommodation provided. Care leavers have access to a personal adviser who can advocate on their behalf and challenge decisions by the local authority if, for example, they believe that the accommodation provided is unsuitable.

We are considering whether further external oversight is needed of the decisions that local authorities make. I am not persuaded, having listened carefully to hon. Members, that we need to establish a new inspection regime in order to achieve our aims, and others share that view. The chief social worker, Isabelle Trowler, has said that regulating all alternative accommodation would severely limit placement choice and the ability of professionals to use their discretion. Social workers should be visiting placements on a regular basis to ensure that the accommodation remains suitable for the individual. Most critically, we already have checks and balances in place.

As I have said, Ofsted inspects the quality of support provided to care leavers as part of the single inspection framework, and independent reviewing officers consider the decisions made about a child and would, of course, be expected to raise any concerns about unsuitable accommodation placements. We need to trust and support professionals to make sound judgments in the best interests of the child, rather than creating further bureaucratic processes. Local areas already have a clear duty to ensure that children are placed only in accommodation that meets their needs and, as mentioned, we already have checks and balances in the system to ensure that the best interests of the child are met.

[Alex Cunningham]

The Minister will recollect the story that the Chair and I shared about the young woman in extremely unsuitable accommodation. She was there for some time, with men braying at the door trying to gain entry. If the current inspection regime is not stopping that sort of thing, what will the Minister do to ensure that it does not happen again in future?

[Mr Timpson]

Clearly the situation that the hon. Gentleman describes is totally unacceptable, and we would not wish it on any young person. The statutory guidance makes it clear what checks local authorities have to make before they commission any alternative accommodation place.

The hon. Member for Birmingham, Selly Oak (Steve McCabe) referred to the view of Catch22 that any universal approach to regulation on quality assurance would face considerable challenges. It may also stifle the creativity and support arrangements needed to allow young people to practise their independence skills. Ofsted was not convinced that stronger regulation of a complex and varied sector would address the uneven quality of care and support for young children. I take very seriously the point raised by the hon. Member for Stockport (Ann Coffey) about safety checks and ensuring that those charged with the care and protection of children and young children make every effort to place them where they are safe and secure. The DFE statutory guidance could not be clearer:

“Young people should only be placed in accommodation where they receive high quality support which meets the needs set out in their care plan. Where local authorities use unregulated supported accommodation for young people aged 16 and 17, they should ensure that all providers are vetted and approved to the standards they require.”

That is being achieved by local authorities such as Hertfordshire, which uses a clear framework of quality assurance to assess provision before placement.

I understand the desire of hon. Members to be confident that all possible avenues have been explored fully to help to improve placement decisions on alternative accommodation for care leavers, as well as the accountability and oversight surrounding those decisions. To that end, I intend to commission a piece of work in the Department to look carefully at other arrangements to establish in more detail the veracity and likely consequences of taking a different approach, as proposed by the Committee, together with other potential options.

“Staying Put” was mentioned by a number of hon. Members, particularly my hon. Friend the Member for Calder Valley (Craig Whittaker). The “Staying Put” duty, which we introduced last year, is giving more young people the opportunity to remain in a stable and secure family setting beyond the age of 18. The hon. Member for Birmingham, Selly Oak wanted to know how the implementation was going. I will happily write to him with the details, as time prevents me from going into detail at this stage.

Some Members would like to see the extension of the Staying Put principle to those in residential care settings. As they may be aware, we are continuing to work with the NCB, the Who Cares? Trust and others to explore how that might work, and providing funding from the innovation programme to test a model of “Staying Put” for those in residential care. That is with North Yorkshire county council, to the tune of £2 million, under its No Wrong Door project. That will work with about 700 young people and, importantly, ensure that if young care leavers up to the age of 21 need it, they will be able to use that intensive period of extra support through the hub linked to their independent living.

Early feedback from children in care suggests that, while the majority of young people in residential care would like to have some kind of “Staying Put” arrangement, a single model of “Staying Put” would not be suitable—a view I think endorsed by my hon. Friend the Member for East Worthing and Shoreham (Tim Loughton). I will of course consider carefully the scoping study and its recommendations. I have only just received that advice and cannot comment further at this stage. We commissioned that important work and I look forward to considering it in the next few weeks.

I am aware that my hon. Friend the Member for Beverley and Holderness will want to say a few words at the end of the debate, so in conclusion, I once again thank hon. Members for demonstrating that they, like me, care deeply about what happens to children who have been in the care of the state. It would be good if we could widen the field of Members at these debates beyond those present, so they too could demonstrate their commitment. The Government have worked hard to put children in care and care leavers at the heart of our efforts to improve the lives of some of the most disadvantaged and vulnerable in our society. We have taken a series of important steps to achieve just that, but I accept there is still more to do. I, and the Government, remain fully committed to giving children in and leaving care the support and future they deserve.