Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill
Josh MacAlister Excerpts(1 week, 3 days ago)
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Jake Richards (Rother Valley) (Lab)
This Bill provides us with an important moment. For many decades, children’s social care has been overlooked—an afterthought for Government. Over the past 30 years, politicians of all colours have too often failed the most vulnerable children in this country—the children who are unable to be looked after by their own family. I am delighted that this Education Secretary and her team have put those children at the heart of this legislation. It is testament to her personal commitment to social justice and fairness.
The statistics on outcomes for children in care and the risks of exploitation are well known. They represent 1% of the child population, but 37% of those in youth justice. Just 15% of those looked-after children receive GCSEs from C to A*, compared with the national average of 55%.
However, I wish to focus on the child placement estate. It is a drier topic, but if we do not provide sufficient and safe accommodation for these children, then the rest is broadly redundant. I have personal experience of this area. Before being elected as an MP, I was a barrister often working in child protection law. Many Friday afternoons would be spent in court, seeking orders on an urgent basis for removal of children from their primary carer before the weekend. My work would be done once judgment had been given and I had drafted the order, but for my social work team, their work had only just begun. They would have to collect the children, often relying on the police to assist, and then, often late in the evening, the arduous task of attempting to find suitable accommodation for these children would begin. They would make calls late into the night, pleading with reluctant foster carers, or residential units, to take in these young people, who would often sit obediently at the local authority offices waiting for their fate to be decided. I have known of times when children slept on the floors of such offices while searches were being undertaken. The lack of sufficient accommodation in this country is a complete disgrace.
The previous Government cannot say that they were not warned about this. In 2020, the High Court took the unusual step of sending a judgment to the relevant Ministers, raising the issue of the lack of appropriate accommodation for such children—I am just trying to find the right place in my speech.
Josh MacAlister
Does he agree that provisions in the Bill for measures such as regional care co-operatives, which would agglomerate services—bring them together—across local authorities, to do some of the work of commissioning, recruiting and building up children’s homes would help with the problems that he describes?
Jake Richards
My hon. Friend’s review, which he drew up before being elected to this place, contained some of the provisions that are now in this legislation, so he should be praised for that work.
As I was saying, the High Court raised this issue in 2020. It took the unusual step of sending a judgment to the relevant Minister setting out the “nationwide problem” of demand outstripping supply in accommodation for children in care. The facts of that case show the human cost of a lack of investment and strategy. A 15-year-old girl, from a family unable to care for her, had had 14 different placements in 12 months. None was suitable. She had repeatedly fled unregulated accommodation units and was deemed to be at serious risk of self-harm and sexual exploitation. Those who have raised the important issue of child sexual exploitation but have shown no interest in children’s care services should hang their head in shame for trying to make political capital out of this very, very important issue. This Bill takes important steps in this regard. My hon. Friend the Member for Whitehaven and Workington (Josh MacAlister) has already raised the important matter of regional co-operation, which will certainly add capacity.
As has been mentioned, there is also the financial backdrop. I have no doubt that Ministers will be making representations to the Chancellor about the estimated £6.2 billion funding gap for local authorities in social care, but this is not just about money. Although capacity is undoubtedly required, the system also needs national and local leadership, and a national and local strategy. There remains, despite this very welcome Bill, a lack of a comprehensive and national plan for care placements. There is a lack of an overarching assessment of how this market will fulfil the functions necessary in the years and decades ahead. Bluntly, we will still not know what is needed and where across the nation. And we know from experience that the market will not do it for us; we have learned that lesson already. We must have an accurate assessment of the need in the sector—the types of placement, and the number and location of care settings across the country. There also needs to be a funding strategy.
My private Member’s Bill, the Looked After Children (Distance Placements) Bill, provides for a modest change in this area, simply requiring all local authorities to think ahead, to have a plan for the types of placement that they are able to offer, and a strategy for where they will need based on an assessment of the demand. Although there is a requirement in the guidance, there now needs to be a statutory responsibility for local authorities to think ahead in this area. At the moment, the issue is about not merely capacity, but where the accommodation is.
More than a fifth of children in care live more than 20 miles from their home. There is one account of a child being placed over 500 miles from her community. These are young lives being separated from their community, their brothers, sisters, friends and teachers, with all the associated damage to their relationships and education. And this problem has increased by over 50% since 2019. I hope the Government will properly consider the modest suggestion that local authorities should simply have a sufficiency plan for where to place these children.
I will briefly touch on one final aspect, which is the identifier of children. This is a useful and important step to safeguard children. I hope Ministers will have discussions on a cross-departmental basis with the Home Office as well as the Department of Health and Social Care about the development of digital identification and patient passports in those areas as well.
Josh MacAlister (Whitehaven and Workington) (Lab)
I welcome this Bill because it is a chance to make progress on resetting the children’s social care system in England, and that is where I will focus my remarks. Children’s social care is a special endeavour. It is a collection of kin, professionals and volunteers who seek to provide safe, stable and loving homes for children right across our country. They are the most important foundations for any child growing up—the foundations of family, of a tribe and of a sense of identity.
Having chaired the independent review of children’s social care commissioned by the last Government, I have had the opportunity to spend time listening to thousands of people with direct experience of the system, and to make a number of recommendations on which I believe the legislation put forward today will deliver. One is about shifting away from late-stage crisis intervention, and another is about creating a sharper focus on a more expert-led child protection system. My other recommendations include unlocking the potential of family networks as an alternative to the care system, and moving away from a care system that breaks, rather than builds lifelong, loving relationships.
As somebody who has led an independent review for the Government that looked at a serious matter, which included engaging with and speaking to victims of sexual abuse and criminal abuse, I find it extraordinary that people who are sent to Parliament to be problem solvers are using this debate to be problem exploiters instead. We have stacks of evidence. We have had thousands of victims of sexual abuse provide heartbreaking and very painful evidence and testimony over many years, and it is our job to listen and to act, not to exploit at moments when the politics may be in our favour.
Perran Moon (Camborne and Redruth) (Lab)
In my constituency of Camborne, Redruth and Hayle, 32% of secondary school children are persistently absent from school. Some are home-schooled, but some are lost to the system without support. These are vulnerable children. This Bill is about protecting vulnerable children. Does my hon. Friend agree that voting against this Bill is playing politics with the protection of vulnerable children?
Josh MacAlister
I completely agree. I have a huge amount of respect for the hon. Member for Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner (David Simmonds), who shared his comments a while ago, but if he and other Members were serious about this matter, they would table amendments to deliver on IICSA’s recommendation not to go through the process again.
I will speak briefly about three particular measures in the Bill. First, it is welcome that we have proposals for family group decision making to be made compulsory at pre-proceedings stage, because there is very sound evidence that it works. A randomised control trial undertaken a few years ago shows that if family group decision making, in the form of a family group conference, was provided at pre-proceedings stage across England, 2,000 fewer children would enter care each year, and it would free up £150 million for earlier support for families. As local authorities start to deliver on the new requirement, it is extremely important that we do not just make it a tick-box exercise, and that we ensure that the evidence and practice guidance is there to support local authorities to deliver in a way that will be most effective.
Secondly, the Bill will create multi-agency child protection teams. These teams will fuse together—at an operational level, rather than just a strategic level—the relevant agencies needed to share information and then act on it to protect children from significant harm. It is important that, as well as getting the structure right, we focus on the professional expertise required to do the task of child protection, which is often so challenging.
We too often leave newbie social workers with the most challenging task of assessing significant harm by themselves. We do not ask the police to do that—we often send police officers out in pairs—and it is important that we support social workers on their route to expertise through the early-career framework, so that the most expert are making these challenging judgments on significant harm. I know Ministers are looking at that.
A unique child identifier is long overdue. I called for this in my review, as have a number of other reviewers. Again, I welcome the leadership that this Government have shown in acting on this in their first six months. It may sound like a modest technical change, but if it is delivered well, it will blow away the fog of confused and partial information sharing. I encourage Ministers to look at the Think family database in Bristol, which is a great example of what can be done when child-level data is shared by the police, education, children’s services and health.
Finally, the introduction of regional co-operative arrangements will allow for bolder action to ensure that we have the foster carers we need in this country. Last year, 132,000 households expressed an interest in becoming foster carers, but we have approved only 1,800 of them.
Josh Fenton-Glynn (Calder Valley) (Lab)
Calderdale council took the innovative step of giving foster carers a council tax break, which has been incredibly effective in recruiting foster carers. Would this and other such ideas be a good way to get more people into the system?
Josh MacAlister
I completely agree that we need to do an awful lot more to support the recruitment and retention of foster carers. Ministers have shown reforming zeal with this measure to provide the Secretary of State with powers to create regional care co-operatives across the country. If the Bill is passed, I urge Ministers to use this new power at pace and with boldness so that we can create the extra foster homes we need. If we follow the example of really effective fostering agencies in the voluntary sector, we could approve 15,000 new foster carers each year, rather than the 1,800 we approve at the moment.
I welcome these transformational changes and commend the Government for introducing the Bill so early. I look forward to supporting its passage.
Children’s Social Care
Josh MacAlister Excerpts(2 months ago)
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Bridget Phillipson
I am grateful to my hon. Friend for sharing her and her constituents’ concerns with the House. We will act to ensure that Ofsted has the powers it needs to tackle unregistered, unsafe and unsuitable placements and accommodation. Our most vulnerable children deserve the best possible support, and right now we are sadly far away from that.
Josh MacAlister (Whitehaven and Workington) (Lab)
The outcomes for children and families involved in the children’s social care system are some of the worst in our country. That is truly a huge social justice issue, so I welcome the leadership shown by the Secretary of State and her team so soon in the new Government’s time in office. So many of the recommendations came from the contributions of those with lived experience, whether on regional care co-operatives, expanding corporate parenting, the importance of a unique child identifier and the changes to Ofsted that have been announced. Does the Secretary of State agree that the contribution made to the review that I led by thousands of people with lived experience, who are often so unheard and unseen in society, is validated by today’s announcement?
Bridget Phillipson
I pay tribute to my hon. Friend for his tremendous work in this area. I am delighted that we have been able to act in many of the areas that he identified as part of his review. He is right to draw our attention to the thousands of people, including those with lived experience, who contributed to his vital work. It is testament to his work and their contributions that the Government are able to take forward work in so many areas that will make a significant difference to the lives and experiences of vulnerable children across our country, from today and over many years to come.
Oral Answers to Questions
Josh MacAlister Excerpts(4 months, 1 week ago)
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Bridget Phillipson
The hon. Gentleman makes an important point about ensuring that people from a range of different backgrounds, including young women, see the opportunities that exist. I have had the opportunity to meet my counterparts in Northern Ireland and I look forward to working with them to ensure that, across the UK, we can drive forward on skills, growth and opportunities for all our young people.
Josh MacAlister (Whitehaven and Workington) (Lab)
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education (Janet Daby)
Reforming children’s social care is critical to delivering our opportunity mission, to ensure that a child or young person’s background does not limit their ambition. The children’s wellbeing Bill will remove barriers to opportunity and deliver the manifesto commitments on children’s social care, so that all children have a chance to thrive in safe, loving homes.
Josh MacAlister
I thank the Minister for her answer. It is just over two years since I published the independent review of children’s social care, which was commissioned by the previous Government. The review called for a radical reset of the whole children’s social care system, which was urgently needed, and the previous Government took some modest steps down that track but failed to realise the potential. Since the election, a number of the children, families and care-experienced adults who were involved in the review have been in touch with me to share their hopes that we will be able to deliver on the ambition of the review. Do the Government intend to prioritise the resources that will be needed to implement the review in the upcoming spending review?
Janet Daby
I thank my hon. Friend for the work he did on the independent review of children’s social care, which this Government are considering as part of our reform programme. Children’s social care is a key priority for this Government, evidenced by our commitment to the children’s wellbeing Bill announced in the King’s Speech in July. A full programme for delivery will be produced in order to support that commitment. We have inherited a challenging set of economic circumstances. However, we are committed to reforming children’s social care, and that will be brought forward, as I have already mentioned, in the children’s wellbeing Bill.