Clause 2 - General function
Children Bill [Lords]
4:00 pm
Mrs Margaret Hodge (Minister of State (Children), Department for Education and Skills; Barking, Labour)
I do not agree, because the report is the account that the commissioner will give Parliament of the work that he has done, although it will be more widely read. It is a report of his work, which, one hopes, reflects the views of children. Later amendments, which hon. Members have welcomed, talk about the way in which he phrases the report to make it comprehensible to children. The more I think about it, the more I believe that it would be inappropriate to involve children in drafting a report that is the basis of the commissioner's accountability to Parliament and, beyond, to the Secretary of State and others. To conclude, the proposal is unnecessary for clauses 4 and 5 and inappropriate for clause 3.
Let me now turn to the general issues that have been raised in relation to parents. I shall start by saying something that I consider very important: parents are the most important people in a child's life. Anyone who is concerned about children recognises that. Indeed, I often say, and have probably done so in the House, that all the research evidence we have shows that parenting in the home has a greater impact on outcomes for children than any other intervention, including the most wonderful school and the most talented teachers. That is why it is our view, interestingly enough, that for far too long the state has not felt it appropriate to play a role in supporting parents in the most difficult task of rearing their children, and has always left it to the private concern of the family, intervening only when things go wrong—for example, if a child is subject to abuse. I genuinely believe that there is a wider role for the state in providing—not forcing—a framework of support for parents in that difficult task.
If that is common ground with us all, I hope that we can make progress. Several parents' organisations and others approached me at an early stage to say that parents were not incorporated or represented anywhere in the Bill. The reason for that was to avoid our inserting in legislation elements that we do not
need there. We try to keep legislation as narrow and focused as we can. We all recognise the importance of the family, and the crucial importance of parenting to children's outcomes and development, but that does not mean that we need to insert in the Bill a little clause or phrase to pursue that policy objective. However, because of our shared recognition of it, we did insert a phrase on the importance of parenting to children's outcomes at one point in the Bill. I cannot quite recall which clause it is in, but it was an amendment to which we agreed in the House of Lords.