Clause 8 - Commencement, short title and extent
Children's Commissioner for Wales Bill
12:00 pm
Mr Robert Walter (North Dorset, Conservative)
The amendment is interesting. It challenges the title of Children's Commissioner. Proposed new subsection (1A) of section 78 of the Care Standards Act 2000 states:
Regulations may provide that, for the purposes of this Part of this Act, ``child'' includes a person aged 18 or over who falls within subsection (1B).
That brings into question whether we are dealing with a Children's Commissioner or with somebody who deals with young people as well. From the definitions on page 1 it is clear that there is a wider remit.
The Care Standards Act 2000 and its interpretations suggest that the provision applies to a child. We have previously debated ``ordinarily resident in Wales.'' New subsection (1) states:
``This Part applies to a child . . . to or in respect of whom services are provided in Wales by, or on behalf of or under arrangements with, a person mentioned in Schedule 2B; or . . . to or in respect of whom regulated children's services . . . are provided''.
Under the Bill, a Children's Commissioner will be responsible for services for children and young people. Our contention is that we should amend the Bill by agreeing to new clause 2 to change the title of the commissioner to the Children's and Youth Commissioner for Wales.
That may seem pedantic, but we want young people to have confidence in the commissioner, and for the commissioner to feel that his remit extends, if not to all the bodies mentioned in earlier amendments, to institutions of further and higher education. I remind the Committee of paragraphs 5,6,7 and 8 of proposed new schedule 2A to the Care Standards Act 2000. Those bodies deal not with children under any usual definition, but with young people who come within the remit of public bodies involved in education. The proposed new schedule includes the Agricultural Wages Board for England and Wales, which is examining 16, 17 and 18-year-olds' pay. The Qualifications, Curriculum and Assessment Authority for Wales, the Sports Council for Wales, the Wales Tourist Board and the Welsh Development Agency as well as the Welsh National Board for Nursing, Midwifery and Health Visiting deal not only with children, but with youths. That wider definition should be reflected in the title of the Bill and the title of the Children's Commissioner. I lay before the Committee the proposition that we should add the words ``and Youth'' to make the title of the office that we are creating under the Bill the Children's and Youth Commissioner for Wales.