Clause 1 - General functions of local authority: England
Childcare Bill
4:00 pm
Tim Loughton (Shadow Minister (Children), Health; East Worthing and Shoreham, Conservative)
May I take this opportunity to welcome you as Chairman, Mr. Benton? I served under your chairmanship on another piece of children’s legislation without too much mishap, so I hope that we can repeat that experience.
The intention of amendment No. 87 is to reflect the terminology of the Children Act 2004. It is a probing amendment that explores the language of co-operation between the local authority and its partners as set out in whichever of the lists the Minister wishes to use, be it the full list in the 2004 Act—as one of our amendments suggests—or the abridged version that appears in the Bill.
We are questioning how “work with” is better than “promote co-operation between”, given that so much falls on the shoulders of local authorities. Clearly, there must be joint responsibilities for the provisions to work That will require the co-operation of all partners. It bestows a greater obligation on the other parties—the police, the health authorities and so on—to play an integral part in the promotion of the well-being and welfare criteria that we discussed. Perhaps the Minister will give the Government’s impression of why “work with” should be included as opposed to the co-operation between partners that we agreed without any great discord during our deliberations on the 2004 Act.
Amendment No. 120 addresses something on which the hon. Member for Mid-Dorset and North Poole (Annette Brooke) touched, and for which she and I pushed in the 2004 Act. This part of the Bill is aboutd¤the responsibilities of local authorities to disadvantaged children and the promotion of children’s welfare requirements generally. Surely it must be sensible for parents to be part of that equation. They do not necessarily have to be on the list of partners required to co-operate, but a local authority should take into account the wishes, circumstances, position and prospects of the parents of a child whom the Bill aims to help.