New Clause 27
Education and Inspections Bill
11:45 am
Annette Brooke (Children & the Family, Cross-Portfolio and Non-Portfolio Responsibilities; Mid Dorset and North Poole, Liberal Democrat)
I welcome my near neighbour to his new position this morning, and hopefully for a long time to come. I welcome the new clauses even though we know that looked-after children grow up and can succeed against all the odds—there are some remarkable stories. But why should this group of young people have to fight the odds all the way through their lives? I hope that this relatively small measure will make a big difference. The statistics on the outcomes and life chances for this group of people which we, collectively, have let down over a long period are well known and do not need to be rehearsed yet again.
I have a specific question for the Minister. I had a constituency case involving adopted children. One cannot time when such children arrive in a household, and because they arrived after the closing date for applications the local school five minutes away was full and they could not get in. They were from a troubled background and needed support. Perhaps a provision is tucked away in the wording of the amendments, but would adopted children arriving in June, way after the January deadline, be able to get into a school that was classified as full with perhaps 30 in the class already? That is an important point and it is sequential to the provisions for looked-after children.
I should also like to place on the record again my special concern for the young carers of disabled parents, who need access to their nearest school. They are not quite in the same category, but they are important none the less. I hope to be able to raise awareness of the particular issues facing young carers throughout the passage of the Bill.