Children and Families Bill

Lord Northbourne Excerpts

Monday 4th November 2013 Grand Committee

My noble friend has been very generous in the time spent on the Bill—on briefings, on visits, on follow-up letters and on meetings. I know that he is determined, as are the rest of us, to get all this right. I therefore ask him to consider our concerns, our fears and our arguments and to rethink these parts of the Bill, and to return with amendments that meet our needs and, much more importantly, the needs of the young people for whom we all share a commitment to a better future.

[Lord Northbourne (CB)]

My Lords, I support Amendment 146, tabled by the noble Baroness, Lady Sharp of Guildford. For many years, I had the privilege to be a member of the governing body of the Caldecott Community, where we looked after very damaged children. Reintegration into adult life was always the problem. The noble Baroness is absolutely right that the potential to make a successful transfer into adulthood must be the ultimate criterion. It is obviously true that educational achievement and, indeed, age may be factors in the judgment, but what about the ability to succeed? It is important that that context should be established, because institutions must have as their objective not necessarily educational attainment but enabling their pupils to develop to a point where they can live independently.

[Baroness Howe of Idlicote (CB)]

My Lords, I also say what an absolutely splendid debate we have had so far, particularly the input from the noble Baroness, Lady Sharp, with which I agree entirely. Also, the noble Baroness, Lady Cumberlege, has given quite a new dimension to our thinking.

I have tabled a small and modest amendment in the group, Amendment 172. It is based on the fact that Clause 45 allows a local authority to cease an education, health and care plan if the outcomes set within it have been achieved. The amendment would require a local authority to continue the plan if ongoing support were needed to maintain those outcomes, so it is pretty similar to others. In effect, my amendment seeks to prevent the Bill from giving local authorities a green light to end plans prematurely, when children may still need specialist support. That issue greatly concerns the National Deaf Children’s Society, RNIB and Sense.

We must recognise that sensory impairment in itself is not a learning disability. There is no reason why most children with a sensory impairment cannot achieve as well as other children, providing that they receive the right support. What concerns me is that, without this amendment, the Bill seems to allow local authorities to remove that support just as a child is starting to make progress. It would also seemingly allow local authorities to remove that support, even if ongoing support is needed to maintain and consolidate the progress that the child has already made.

Parents have told the National Deaf Children’s Society of their frustration that their child often had to fall behind before they could get the support they needed. One parent told the NDCS that:

“Although our son made extremely good progress in his first year in his new school, this seemed to be a trigger to reduce the levels of assistance from all other departments. His speech and language therapy stopped, everything stopped. It was as if he no longer needed it and he just dropped, his development went completely backwards”.

It is that kind of scenario that the amendment is intended to prevent. Although it echoes much of what has been said already, I hope that the Minister, when he replies, can give the assurance needed for all those children.