Support for Infants and Parents etc (Information) Bill [HL]

Lord Evans of Rainow Excerpts

2nd reading
Friday 6th September 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Evans of Rainow (Con)]

My Lords, I begin by congratulating my noble friend Lord Farmer on securing time for his Private Member’s Bill. I also pay tribute to his work over many years on family policy, preventing family breakdown, and on the welfare of children, and especially to his work on creating and growing the family hubs network, supported by Dr Samantha Callan. I also pay tribute to my right honourable friend Dame Andrea Leadsom, who has worked tirelessly on this subject. There is no doubt that my noble friend’s passion and commitment are behind the Bill today, and his belief, shared by many noble Lords, that we need to give all newborn babies the best possible start in life, no matter what their background.

The importance of the Start for Life approach cannot be underestimated. It ensures that there are welcoming family hubs, usually run by local authorities, through which new parents of newborns can access a wide range of family support services such as parenting support, help for relationships between new parents and between parents and new babies, health visitors, breastfeeding and other infant feeding services and mental health services. These services are provided by local authorities, the voluntary sector and private sector partners.

My noble friend Lord Farmer has highlighted how local authorities that receive Start for Life funding are required to publish their offer. Indeed, it is one of the conditions for local authorities receiving transformation fund money. The Bill is in some ways simple in its aim, which is to ensure that they contribute to offer Start for Life beyond the end of that fund. Of course, this will require additional funding, but in the context of some of the larger sums of billions that we debate in this Chamber, we are speaking about only £500,000 per annum across England. As with any taxpayer spending, my noble friend Lord Farmer proposes that there should be a proper procedure in the Commons to make this relatively small sum available.

It may be argued by some noble Lords that, with £500,000 here and another £500,000 there, pretty soon we are talking serious money. However, against this we need to consider the cost of family breakdown in the UK. Aside from the emotional, social, mental health and societal costs of family breakdown, the Centre for Social Justice think tank estimates that the cost to the Government and ultimately the UK taxpayer is at least £51 billion a year.

In terms of societal costs, the Centre for Social Justice also found that those who experience family breakdown when aged 18 or younger are more than twice as likely to experience homelessness, twice as likely to be in trouble with the police or spend time in prison, almost twice as likely to experience educational underachievement, and almost twice as likely when they themselves become parents to break up with the other parent of their children. They are also more likely to experience alcoholism or teenage pregnancy, suffer from mental health issues, fall into debt or experience being on benefits.

Much has been said by my noble friend Lord Farmer and noble Lords on all Benches about the importance of support for newborns and their families to give our nation’s children the very best start in life. My noble friend has committed his political life to founding and growing the network of family hubs to help parents and children of all backgrounds, and for this reason, I commend him for his equally noble work in this area.

Some noble Lords may say that we should leave this to the decisions of integrated care boards and partnerships or health and well-being boards. However, giving the best start in life to children involves far more than just being health focused. From speaking to my noble friend Lord Farmer, I understand that he believes that it is important to keep Start for Life as integrated as it currently is, with a wider remit than just health.

In preparing for this debate, my noble friend Lord Kamall contacted the office of the Minister, asking for an indication of whether the Government are inclined to support the Bill. The Government were not able to tell him whether they will do so. However, that fateful—but we hope not fatal—day for my noble friend Lord Farmer’s Bill has now arrived.

I have a few questions for the Minister. Do the Government intend to support or reject my noble friend Lord Farmer’s Bill? If the Government are not minded to support it, where do they disagree with it? If the Government are not supportive, are they considering introducing their own Bill for Start for Life? If so, what timeframe can we expect for such a government Bill, and in the meantime what will happen to the funding for the Start for Life programme?

My noble friend Lord Farmer has devoted his life to family hubs. He has made a compelling case for the Start for Life programme. I am sure that he and other noble Lords, including the Opposition Front Bench, are looking forward to the Minister’s answers to these questions.