Children and Social Work Bill [HL]

Lord O'Shaughnessy Excerpts

Tuesday 14th June 2016 Lords Chamber

[Lord O'Shaughnessy (Con)]

My Lords, I am grateful for the opportunity to speak—eventually—in this debate, and I do so and engage with the Bill in a spirit of great humility. There is much I do not know about this subject. It is said that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but I hope that I am a little less dangerous having had the opportunity to benefit from your Lordships’ wisdom this afternoon—which is at least one upside of speaking last. Before I continue, I draw noble Lords’ attention to my register of interests: my involvement in a multi-academy trust as chair of two governing bodies of primary schools, and various other education interests. The education elements of the Bill are what interest and concern me and are the areas where I hope I will be able to contribute.

Like other noble Lords, I welcome the clear and unambiguous ambitions for educational achievement that have been set out by the Government—everyone from the Prime Minister downwards—for looked-after children and for this new category of previously looked-after children. This latter group has perhaps been too often overlooked, yet its outcomes are nearly as bad as those for looked-after children. It is extremely welcome that the focus has widened. Now that the Government have widened the net and raised the bar, if you will forgive the mixed metaphor, it is important that we understand the scale of the challenge, particularly as regards educational achievement. There are around 70,000 looked-after children in the school system at the moment, and perhaps 80,000 previously looked-after children—so 150,000 in total. For an average secondary school, that might mean around 20 pupils, or four pupils for an average primary school. It is not a huge proportion—perhaps 2% of the pupil population—but it is significant.

Helping such children to achieve what they should achieve is not a bolt-on; it needs a concerted effort by everyone at school level. The underperformance of these children is truly shocking. At key stage 2, just 52% of looked-after children achieve level 4 in reading, writing and maths, compared to 80% for other children. Girls who are looked after do significantly better than boys; the gap is closing at primary level, but it is still far too large.

The picture at key stage 4 is even less encouraging, something the noble Lord, Lord Bichard, raised. Outcomes for looked-after children have plateaued: only 14% get five good GCSEs including English and Maths. I think the figure is 53% for other children. There are fewer data for previously looked-after children, but DfE officials seem to suggest that the gap is about 30% at GCSE; that is better than looked-after children, but only just.

The reason for talking about these data is obviously to exemplify the problem, as other noble Lords have done in a variety of ways in terms of outcomes. I also want to show that schools—as I said, I am deeply involved—need much more information about how we can close the education gap, because, in truth, it is not happening fast enough. This Bill, and all the other bits of government policy around it, must address this problem. If we are aiming to close the gap, as of course we must, and if schools are to fulfil their moral, and, increasingly, legal, obligations, we need much better research to rely on about what works. We do not yet have that knowledge base, and this is one of the areas on which I would like the Government to focus.

I turn now to the key sections in the Bill. On Clause 1 on corporate parenting, I support the proposals in general. From listening to noble Lords, I get the sense that they are clear and well-intentioned proposals, even if, perhaps, not perfect. It strikes me that being a corporate parent is an awesome responsibility. I have huge admiration for those who do it, including the noble Baronesses, Lady Pinnock and Lady Howarth, and, of course, thousands of people around the country. It is clearly incumbent on us as lawmakers to make sure that there is total clarity for them, so that they can act in accordance with the spirit as well as the letter of those principles.

Given the Government’s focus on educational achievement, it seems odd to me that education is not explicitly mentioned in the fifth principle, which talks about outcomes. Health is mentioned in the first principle, but education is not mentioned, which is something that could be corrected simply. The final principle deals with preparing young people for adulthood and independence; the noble Baroness, Lady Massey, has talked about the importance to that aim of developing mental health and character strengths. This should also be reflected in the principles, or, if not in the principles, perhaps in the care leavers’ covenant, which has been discussed. We look forward to seeing the details.

Clause 4 deals with the educational achievement of this new category of previously looked-after children. That is, of course, welcome. There is at the moment, within the statutory framework in which schools operate, a group called children who have ceased to be looked after. They are mentioned, for example, in the pupil premium and in the admissions code. I would like clarification from the Minister that this new category of previously looked-after children is the same as the ceased to be looked-after category. We made important advances in the support they got in 2014, for which the Government should be congratulated. We want to make sure, in the transition from one category to another, one piece of jargon to another, that children are not falling through the gaps. I would be grateful for that clarification.

Clause 4 says that local authorities,

“may do anything else that they consider appropriate with a view to promoting the educational achievement of relevant children educated in their area”.

That comes in the new section to be inserted in the Children Act 1989 under the heading:

“Educational achievement of previously looked after children”.

On the surface, that sounds fantastic, although it seems to relate specifically to advice and information. I would be grateful for clarification of its purpose, because it seems to me that, without a qualifying statement that the needs and outcomes of other children will be taken into account, it could be counterproductive. For example, it might mean that a focus on previously looked-after children, as opposed to children with special educational needs or other vulnerable groups, is justified. I suspect that it is just an infelicity in the drafting that can be easily corrected.

I am most concerned with Clauses 5, 6 and 7, which relate to the new responsibilities for schools. It is essential that schools play their part in closing the performance gap and helping these children, and I welcome the intention of putting all schools on the same footing—that is incredibly important. It is an achievement of the most recent Education Act that maintained and academy schools have similar responsibilities. Of course, maintained schools and many academies already have a staff member designated to look out for looked-after children, and I believe it is the intention of these clauses to extend those responsibilities to the new category of previously looked-after children. As I said, there are similar numbers of looked-after and previously looked-after children, so the effect of this provision will be to double the responsibility or workload for the designated teacher.

That brings me to the impact assessment. It assumes a £50,000 cost per local authority to support virtual school heads, but in parallel there is this designated teacher responsibility. Apparently local authorities—I look to colleagues who are involved in local authorities—will be making various savings, which will mean that they do not need any more money from government to help to deal with their responsibilities, although I am sure that they will have their own view on that. However, it is not even mentioned that a teacher in every school will have their workload around looked-after children doubled. What support will they have to make sure that they fulfil their responsibilities and that these children really get the support they need? My fear is that, unless we have knowledge of what works, this could become a tick-box exercise—another thing that the governing body goes through, with people sitting through training and filling in a form—and the outcomes will not really change.

The Minister pointed out that the Bill is only part of a wider strategy. It strikes me as essential at this point to prepare schools for the responsibilities that are coming their way. It is also essential that we have a much better idea of what education interventions work in order to promote achievement among this group. If it has not already done so, will the Department for Education commission the Education Endowment Foundation and the Early Intervention Foundation—two of the What Works centres—to carry out a review of the evidence so that, alongside these new duties, schools are able to fulfil their responsibilities? That applies not only to schools. The noble Baroness, Lady Hughes, the noble Lord, Lord Bichard, and my noble friend Lady Shephard all pointed out that these responsibilities should properly be extended to FE and HE—something that I support.

My final point on the Bill concerns the power to innovate, which seems to have had a bit of a kicking in the last few hours. I encourage the Government to be bold here. My noble friend Lord Lucas proposed an amendment to the Housing and Planning Bill—which was accepted—to provide an unusual opportunity to do something more powerful to produce better outcomes. Of course, I recognise that building houses is one thing and that the outcomes for very vulnerable children is quite another, but surely it is right that as legislators we do not expect to fulfil all moral obligations towards these children and that we encourage innovation in the system. I am sure that that can be designed in such a way as to provide safeguards without dampening the desire to innovate.

Finally, I look forward to working with all noble Lords and Ministers to ensure that the Government’s laudable ambitions for these children are fulfilled. It is critical that schools, teachers and governors play a role in this. They need the training and knowledge that will enable them to close the gap and ensure that these children are able to truly flourish.