Clause 8 - Arrangements to safeguard and promote welfare
Children Bill [Lords]
10:00 am
Mr Tim Loughton (Shadow Minister for Children, Family; East Worthing and Shoreham, Conservative)
I am alarmed that the Minister appears to be prejudging the foolishness of what I am about to say. That is unjust and uncharitable of him.
Our amendments are probing; their aim is to achieve greater clarity in the Bill. As it stands, the set of bodies for which the duty to safeguard and promote welfare exists is very general. Amendments Nos. 27 to 29 would add the word ''practitioners'' after the various health bodies that are mentioned: a primary care trust in subsection 1(d), an NHS trust in subsection 1(e) and an NHS foundation trust in subsection 1(f).
How do the provisions of the Bill include private practitioners? Do they include a private physiotherapist or any other allied professionals who may be working part-time privately or part-time contracted to a primary care trust? How does it affect people who are working entirely in the independent sector?
Health care in this country is becoming increasingly fragmented. I make no criticism of that—it is the way it is going—but as the clause stands, we are talking only about a primary care trust. By its narrowest definition, one might take it to mean purely the directors of a primary care trust, the NHS trust to which it may be responsible and the NHS foundation trusts. Would a single-handed physiotherapist who did some contracted work for a hospital department but had a private practice, or an osteopath with a mainly private practice, be included under the Bill as having a duty to safeguard and promote the welfare of children?
I make no disparaging comments about privately practising osteopaths or physiotherapists, but they are just as likely to come into contact with young people, and cases of child abuse or neglect may come to light as a result of contact with those professionals. Amendments Nos. 27 to 29 are designed to ensure that all practitioners are involved, regardless of whether they are directly part of a hospital trust, directly employed by a primary care trust, occasionally work for it, or look after patients who come under a primary care trust but do so on an entirely private basis.
Amendment No. 32 would delete subsection (2)(b). We wanted to replace it with another subsection that we discussed earlier. We will not push that amendment but we seek clarification on amendments Nos. 27 to 29 which are probing amendments to ensure that everyone is included in the scope of the Bill, as we all intend.