Independent Advocates for Trafficked Children

Richard Arkless Excerpts

Tuesday 28th June 2016 Westminster Hall

[Richard Arkless (Dumfries and Galloway) (SNP)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship again, Mr Streeter. This is clearly an important and emotive issue—I do not think anything rallies the human spirit quite like looking after children, whether they be our own children or trafficked children, and particularly vulnerable children who need our help.

The right hon. Member for Slough (Fiona Mactaggart) made a vivid and skilled contribution. She clearly has a great deal of knowledge of the issue, and I pay tribute to her for securing the debate and for the work that she has done on the all-party group, which I have learned a lot about in the last couple of days having read up on the subject. I commend you for that very good and sincere work. You provided vivid summaries of the experiences of the trial and put into context how it benefited children.

What came out of your speech was that trust is the central plank of why an advocate is so essential. The role of the advocate creates trust in the system by integrating children into society and giving them hope, and it creates trust in the advocates themselves. The alternative is further overburdening an already overburdened social work department with extra responsibilities, which it clearly would not have the resources to meet. I was interested to hear you talk about the positive feedback from the trials that have already taken—

[Mr Gary Streeter (in the Chair)]

Order. I remind the hon. Gentleman that when he says “you” he is referring to the Chair.

[Richard Arkless]

Apologies, Mr Streeter. I was commending the right hon. Member for Slough because I was interested to hear about the positive feedback from the trials that she spoke of. That prompts a question, which I hope the Minister can help us with later: why on earth were they pulled, and why has section 48 not been invoked since that happened? I would be grateful to hear some answers to that. It is telling that, as she said, Barnardo’s has continued its advocacy policy since the conclusion of the trials. That organisation is dedicated solely to looking after vulnerable children, so if it sees the benefits of advocates, we should all sit up and take note.

My hon. Friend the Member for Lanark and Hamilton East (Angela Crawley) made a point that I would like to echo: this is not about politics. This is not about us in Scotland, Northern Ireland, or any jurisdiction telling another jurisdiction that we are doing a better job. We simply care about the kids, wherever they are; whether they are in Scotland, England, the European Union or the wider world, we want vulnerable children to be protected. It is not to score political points that we say that Scotland is perhaps more advanced in what it is doing; it is to provide a constructive comparison so that we can all look after the children in question. My hon. Friend provided an excellent summary of the position in Scotland, which I am sure the Minister has taken note of.

The hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) made a powerful point about the need to invoke section 48 immediately. He made the important point that the criterion upon which we should assess the trials is material benefit to children. From what I have heard today and read in preparation for this debate, it strikes me that the trials did have that benefit. If we keep that principle at the forefront of our mind when assessing what happened in the trials, hopefully it will lead us to invoke section 48 so that, frankly, we can get on with it.

I did not think my speech would be complete without hearing from the children themselves. I have a testimony from a child in Scotland who has been through the system there. She says of her advocate:

“I was happy, she was so nice, so nice about everything, we go to different appointments together.”

She said her guardian really

“calmed me down when I was upset. After the appointment she and I would meet and talk together about what happened, and she advised me. She was more than a worker for me, because she was someone I could talk to.”

She said her social worker was very nice, but she had only met her

“for 3 hours in 9 months. We are like strangers when we talk together. But with my Guardian, I talk to her”.

She says that she trusts her guardian and that

“she puts me at…ease”.

She feels as if she can now live her life.