Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Edward Timpson and Kevin Brennan

Monday 4th July 2016 Commons Chamber

[Edward Timpson]

I refer my hon. Friend to the earlier answer on this subject. At the core of this issue is ensuring that we have the highest quality PSHE possible. We continue to keep the matter under review, and will return to it shortly.

[Kevin Brennan (Cardiff West) (Lab)]

Does the Minister agree that mindfulness can be helpful not only with the social and emotional aspects of learning but in improving the attentiveness of pupils in schools, and therefore their academic achievement as well as their personal wellbeing?

[Edward Timpson]

There is a small but increasing amount of evidence that backs the hon. Gentleman’s claim. That is why we want to look at this area more carefully, hence the national survey that is under way to enrich the evidence and knowledge to see what really works so that we can improve all the aspects of a child’s life to which he refers.

Education and Adoption Bill (Fourth sitting)

Debate between Edward Timpson and Kevin Brennan

Thursday 2nd July 2015 Public Bill Committees

[Edward Timpson]

The hon. Lady is right to highlight the role that mental health plays in the lives of many children, not only those who are adopted but in the care system. I was struck when growing up by how many children, sometimes very young, were displaying what I now know to be the impact of mental health problems. The role of mental health in the therapeutic support that the adoptive families will need through the fund is very much part of what is on offer. We have a list of different therapies that are available through the fund, and that is kept under review to ensure that we have the right mix of therapies to meet the demand from applications to the fund. The greatest need and the main source of applications has been post-adoption therapeutic support.

We are struggling to see each other through the hon. Gentleman’s head.

[Kevin Brennan (Cardiff West) (Lab)]

Which way do you want me to lean?

[Edward Timpson]

Perhaps the hon. Gentleman could lean to the right. If he leant to the right, he could come and join us.

--- Later in debate ---

[Kevin Brennan]

I do not want to detain the Committee for long, but it is important to note briefly, in view of what was said earlier, that these amendments are very much in the spirit of the Adoption and Children Act 2002, which I mentioned. The hon. Member for Kingston and Surbiton should realise that these vehicles do not come along very often and that it is important, when legislating, to look at an issue comprehensively, rather than pick out one part of a problem. The problem that we are addressing is that of permanency for children in this situation.

The 2002 Act was groundbreaking in many ways, because it attempted to widen the number of prospective adopters. For example, my hon. Friends and I introduced amendments that, on a free vote on the Labour side, granted for the first time the right for unmarried couples, including same-sex couples, to apply to adopt. There is a small but interesting piece of history: the then Leader of the Opposition—now the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions—whipped his troops to vote against that proposal, and it ended with the resignation from the Front Bench of the right hon. Member for Buckingham (John Bercow). That was the start of his pathway into the speakership, so these things sometimes have a strange impact.

The other thing that that Bill did was not just to look at adoption, but to try to look at alternative permanency arrangements, in recognition of the fact that the popular perception of adoption, even back then, was very different from the reality. The popular perception is that it is always about young babies being given up for adoption. Although that was very much the case in decades past, things have changed significantly. That is not really the picture that we see when we look at what kinds of children are adopted and at their ages. That is why the introduction in that Bill, through the amendment to the Children Act 1989, of special guardianship orders was a groundbreaking step. It is unfortunate that we have not taken the trouble to revisit that—I would be grateful to the Minister if he explained why when he winds up—and looked at how we can strengthen other kinds of arrangements for permanency, given how important they are within the system.

[Edward Timpson]

I should like to speak to amendments 11, 25 and 26, which have been tabled by Opposition Members. I will come on to some of the matters raised towards the end of the debate, such as other routes to permanence. It is important to remember that clause 13 deals with the point at which the court has already made a decision to place a child for adoption, so we are not looking at whether that decision is right; we are accepting the fact that that decision has been made, but looking at what we need to do to improve the prospects of that adoptive placement being successful.

The amendments raise the important question how regional adoption agencies link to, impact on and work with other parts of the children’s social care system, including other types of permanent placement such as long-term foster care, special guardianship and kinship care, as well as the provision of mental health services. Amendment 26 would require the Secretary of State to commission and publish an independent evaluation on, in effect, alternative options to a regional adoption agency that capture all permanency options and approaches to prevent children from having to be taken into care in the first place.

I will speak about this in a bit more detail later, but I agree with much of what the hon. Member for South Shields said about the early interaction of children and families with children’s services and about making sure that from the earliest opportunity, the work that is done with them enables the child, if at all possible, to continue living with their birth family. That is clear not only in legislation—it was reiterated in the Children and Families Act 2014, which is underpinned by the Children Act 1989—but in the approach that we have taken through the innovation programme, which I will talk about in a little more detail later. In that programme, we seek to encourage much more work with families through family group conferences, the expansion of the family drug and alcohol court and other innovative programmes, to increase the prospect of children being able to stay with their birth family.

I thank hon. Members for raising the important issue of how we are reforming the care system and improving outcomes for all children. We share a determination to ensure that all children in or on the edge of care get the right support and decisions for them and their families and that, when children need to come into care, they are placed in strong, stable placements as quickly as possible, with the support that they need to thrive. It would be hard to argue against that approach.

I understand the desire for all permanency placements to be captured by the new regional agencies. The new agencies will have to work with other parts of the system to be successful. I assure hon. Members that our intention with this legislation is to bring down barriers to effective working, not to create new ones. However, there are clear reasons why we are proposing the power to direct regionalisation for adoption services specifically and why that is not necessarily the best approach or the priority for other parts of the system when the decision has been made on where the child’s future lies.

It is often noted that the number of children in the care system who go forward for adoption is small—a point that was made by the hon. Member for Sefton Central—relative to the number of looked-after children, which is why regionalisation is particularly appropriate for adoption services. The fact is that the adoption system remains highly fragmented relative to the number of children and adopters involved. As I said earlier, we have about 180 different agencies recruiting and matching adopters for approximately 5,000 adoptions a year, so the agencies are not benefiting from economies of scale; but worse, the localised nature of the system acts as a barrier to effective recruitment, matching and support. That is starkly illustrated by the fact that 3,000 children are still waiting for forever families.

Education and Adoption Bill (Third sitting)

Debate between Edward Timpson and Kevin Brennan

Thursday 2nd July 2015 Public Bill Committees

[Edward Timpson]

This is not the forum for naming individual local authorities that wish to co-operate or otherwise. To do so would damage the negotiations that are taking place. It is clear that where arrangements have been made to bring together local authorities’ adoption services and voluntary adoption agencies, there have been different levels of interest, intent and commitment. That is why we cannot be totally sure, despite the strong, positive signals from the sector and the work of the Adoption Leadership Board, that every one of the 152 local authorities will be involved in some way, shape or form within our timeframe for regional adoption agencies to be up and running across the country.

I can see what Opposition Members are driving at with their amendments, and I sympathise with their desire to ensure that decisions, particularly ones of this importance, are transparent and scrutinised properly. However, I am concerned about the suggestion that all proposals for joint arrangements should be approved by both Houses of Parliament. Before I explain why, I assure hon. Members that our decision making on this matter will be open, the process will be fair and we will involve all interested parties in the right way. The hon. Members for Birmingham, Selly Oak and for Cardiff West both made a challenge about transparency and scrutiny.

The Secretary of State’s decision to use the power will be made following extensive discussions with all the agencies involved, and it will be proportionate and reasonable. Agencies will have ample opportunity to design their own arrangements before any directions are considered. That is one of the reasons why we made it clear in the clause that local authorities could, through a direction, determine the shape of their regional adoption agency.

The Secretary of State does not need the permission of Parliament when she exercises her powers of intervention in respect of failure in local authorities’ children’s social care services. When the Doncaster trust and the Slough trust were created recently, the whole of those authorities’ children’s services were moved to a trust model without the permission of Parliament being sought in the way that the amendments set out. Those powers would sit legally uncomfortably with the group of amendments, should they be accepted.

A more appropriate and proportionate approach than returning to Parliament is to work closely with all those involved—the individual local authority and voluntary agencies, the Adoption Leadership Board and the regional adoption boards. This collaborative way of doing things is crucial, and it is a core tenet of our approach. The sector has the expertise and the local knowledge required to inform the decision.

I will reflect on the suggestion made by the hon. Member for Birmingham, Selly Oak that we should be required to send a letter to any local authorities we are minded to direct with an invitation to respond. I will come back to him on Report with my decision.

[Kevin Brennan]

I am grateful for the Minister’s remarks, and I am sure that my hon. Friend the Member for Birmingham, Selly Oak is, too. A letter would be a useful addition to what is on offer. The Minister said that our proposal would sit legally uncomfortably, but is it not different to the Secretary of State’s other powers, to which the Minister referred? Those powers are used where children are genuinely at risk. Does he envisage that he will introduce such arrangements because children are at risk, and therefore, in an emergency situation, or because it would be a better administrative arrangement? That would make a difference to the way in which the power could be exercised by the Secretary of State.

Education and Adoption Bill (Second sitting)

Debate between Edward Timpson and Kevin Brennan

Tuesday 30th June 2015 Public Bill Committees

[Kevin Brennan (Cardiff West) (Lab)]

Q 29 Thank you, Sir Alan. There is only one clause in the Bill about adoption. In theory, what should happen after this session is that we look at your evidence and then think of any further amendment or improvements that might be made to the Bill. Unfortunately, because clause 13 is being debated on Thursday, we are out of time for that, but the Chairs have indicated that they will look favourably on any amendments that we might submit, even at this late stage, before Thursday. Is there anything that you think should be added to the Bill to improve it by way of an amendment or new clause?

Hugh Thornbery: The two things that I have mentioned: the duty to provide adoption support on the basis of an assessment of need and the extension of virtual schools to cover children adopted from care as well as looked-after children.

Andy Leary-May: For me, it would be an extension of what the Bill focuses on to cover other forms of permanence. Also, is there any way to inject some degree of required caution about how the power might be used? Rather than having a blanket movement and assuming that it will create improvement in all areas, maybe it could start a little more cautiously and take it step by step.

[Edward Timpson]

Q 30 In the Children and Families Act 2014, we took a backstop power in relation to the recruitment of adopters, so we could ensure that enough came forward who could be assessed and approved for the children still waiting to be placed for adoption. We have not had to use that power, and we have been successful in increasing recruitment by, I think, more than 27% in the past 18 months to two years.

This power widens it out to include matching and support, which we have discussed in this session. Based on the fact that there are already good working relationships between local authorities and consortia, which often include voluntary adoption agencies, and based on our statement on page 12 that, as we articulate in our paper “Regionalising adoption”, we need to harness the important role of voluntary adoption agencies in forming regional adoption agencies, how confident are you that in the next few years, through the work of the Department, yourselves and others with an interest in getting it right, we can ensure that we scale up services in all those areas so that we do not need to use the power on recruitment, as we have not yet had to do?

Hugh Thornbery: I am confident in the sector’s ability to improve. The examples that you have given have demonstrated that with the right degree of encouragement, and sometimes financial support, the system has been able to transform itself in terms of reducing delay, increasing the supply of adopters, improving adoption support and so on.

I think that there are systemic and cultural barriers to moving from those single entities working in partnership with each other to entities coming together to form a new entity. There are issues of governance and accountability. I think that we have seen some progress toward consortia working well. The progress that has been made toward a more formal consolidation has, in most cases, got quite close to achieving it and then stepped back. We need to understand why that is happening. I think it has to do with some of those issues that I have just mentioned.

Andy Leary-May: Within matching, in some ways we are already there, in that a local authority’s ability to have visibility of available adopters is already there. That was why we built our system, and it is there. It is about the decisions made as to which placements they go for. I do not think that those problems will be solved by regionalising agencies and it is important that they are addressed. If there were regions that for whatever reason do not come together as a regional agency, those other problems would still need to be addressed. But in either case I think there will be problems.

I think it is important to remember that a local authority may be willing to look widely when it is looking for a match for children, but local authorities do often hold on to their adopters. They need to be making adopters available from the earliest point, because otherwise the pool of adopters will never be big. I think that could be changed in other ways.

Free Schools

Debate between Edward Timpson and Kevin Brennan

Tuesday 19th November 2013 Westminster Hall

[Mr Timpson]

I have just explained that we can establish the success or otherwise of a school’s educational achievements by its results, as well as the fact that every free school and academy has a full Ofsted inspection within two years. That remains the case. We also believe that when a school is outstanding, accountability is clear and that should be reflected in the level of inspection.

Free schools and academies are free to spend their money as they choose. We do not bind them to purchase services such as payroll or human resources from their local authority; they can broker better-value deals elsewhere, leaving them with more money to spend on pupils. They can use their judgment and budgetary freedom to pay teachers appropriately to attract the best practitioners, even if they do not hold formal teaching qualifications.

Recently, we have had some interesting and lively debates about the importance or otherwise of having qualified teachers in schools. We can all cite the names of unqualified teachers who have made a huge contribution to children and schools. We heard an example this morning from my hon. Friend the Member for Southport (John Pugh) about his contribution over a long period.

The evidence is clear that that approach is working. Ofsted has rated almost three quarters of the 25 free schools inspected so far as good or outstanding, and that is happening under the tougher new inspection framework that Ofsted introduced. That compares well with maintained schools inspected against the same criteria in the same year, of which only 64% were rated good or outstanding.

The majority of open free schools represent entirely new provision and will not post their key stage 2 or GCSE results for some time, but every free school is an academy with the same freedoms. That is important because we already have clear evidence that academies work and out-perform local authority schools at both primary and secondary level.

The hon. Member for Easington (Grahame M. Morris) referred to the success of Easington academy, which is hugely welcome. When outstanding education is provided, wherever it happens to be, it should be commended. I will, of course, pass his invitation to the Secretary of State to visit him and his constituency in the near future. As a former undergraduate of Durham university, I know what a wonderful part of the country it is, and I always recommend that people visit it.

[Kevin Brennan]

I know that the Minister wants to trumpet achievements, but I am sure he also wants to answer questions. He mentioned HR contracts and that free schools should have the freedom to do what they like about such contracts. Is he aware that Channel 4’s report last night on the Al-Madinah school said that Javid Akhtar was the governor responsible for chairing the school’s HR committee, and was also the managing director of Prestige HR Solutions, which was awarded the contract to run Al-Madinah’s HR services? Does that not illustrate absolutely what is wrong with having no proper oversight of such issues?

[Mr Timpson]

I will come to the quid pro quo of accountability against the freedom given to academies and free schools.

The hon. Gentleman made a particular point about the Al-Madinah free school. As he said, the Minister, my noble Friend Lord Nash, is currently up there talking to the school governors to decide what the next steps will be, so it would be wrong and inappropriate for me to comment specifically on the details of the case. Nevertheless, it is important that although there is clear evidence of success and achievement in free schools by virtue of the freedom provided to them, it is also right that there is tighter accountability as the balancing side of the equation.

For free schools, the need to demonstrate educational and financial rigour starts from the very moment when they submit an application to open a school. Every application is assessed against rigorous, published criteria. Free school proposers need to show how their school will drive up standards for all pupils as well as demonstrating financial resilience. The criteria also cover governance, an issue raised by a number of hon. Members. We need proposers to show that they have the capacity, skills and experience to set up and run an effective academy, as well as showing demand from parents.

Proposers are rigorously tested at interview against all those criteria, and testing continues once they are approved into pre-opening. As proposers refine their plans and are able to gauge with increasing accuracy the number of pupils that they expect to secure in their first year, we test their financial assumptions, challenging them to ensure viability. When we are not happy with the progress made, we can rightly require groups to bring in more expertise or make other changes. However, we are also not afraid to cancel or defer projects when we do not think that the new school will provide the very best for its pupils or provide good value for money for the taxpayer.

The hon. Member for Easington spoke about value for money. He may be aware that under paragraph 2.5 of the academies financial handbook, there is a requirement to complete a value-for-money statement each year explaining how the trust

“has secured value for money”.

That is both sent to the Education Funding Agency and published on the DFE website. The hon. Gentleman can find that information for himself and do with it what he wishes.

Before every free school opens, it is inspected by Ofsted against the independent school standards. Although it is impossible for Ofsted to make a judgment on the educational delivery of a school that has not yet opened, the inspectorate looks closely at all other aspects of the school’s policies and procedures covered by the standards. The quality of the premises of a free school has been mentioned. Hon. Members may be interested to know that under part 5 of the Education (Independent School Standards) (England) Regulations 2010, on premises and accommodation, there are set minimum standards for premises for free schools that are identical to those for maintained schools, so there is no differentiation in the standards required.

Ofsted’s pre-registration inspection also considers how well the school is set up to ensure the spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of its pupils, as well as to secure their welfare, health and safety. The inspectors will check the school’s safeguarding policies as well as health and safety protocols, and ensure that procedures for checking the suitability of staff are appropriate. Ofsted will also make recommendations to the Secretary of State on conditions that it believes free schools should meet before opening their doors, in order to meet the independent school standards that I referred to.

The Secretary of State will not enter into a funding agreement to open any free school unless satisfied that the school will provide a good standard of education and be financially viable. No free school has opened without satisfying the Secretary of State that the school has addressed, or is on track to address, the issues raised by Ofsted. I challenge any hon. Members present to put forward any maintained school, including even recently established provision, that has been subjected to the same breadth and depth of scrutiny as we now apply to every free school before they even open their doors.