Clause 8
Children and Young Persons Bill [Lords]
4:00 pm
Beverley Hughes (Minister of State (Children, Young People and Families; Minister for the North West), Department for Children, Schools and Families; Stretford and Urmston, Labour)
Without embarking on a lengthy examination of various Acts of Parliament relating to children, may I explain to the hon. Gentleman that as we are talking about well-being, the relevant piece of legislation is not the 1989 Act but the 2004 Act? Section 10 of that Act introduced a duty to co-operate to improve well-being. In that measure, “have regard to”, which we debated earlier, does not appear, so I am not quite sure what the hon. Member for East Worthing and Shoreham was referring to when he seemed to remember proposing it during the course of debates on that Act.
The clause will simply put a duty on local authorities to promote well-being. Without going too far into the minutiae and risking your censure, Mr. Pope, I understand entirely what the hon. Member for Crewe and Nantwich said. I simply say again to him that in terms of a duty in respect of well-being, subsection (1) puts that duty unequivocally on the Secretary of State, not a local authority or local agency. Subsection (5) simply says that in executing that duty, the Secretary of State must have regard to the five elements of Every Child Matters, as listed in section 10(2) of the Children Act 2004. It is like a double lock; the Secretary of State has a unequivocal duty, and that duty must reflect the legislation as it applies to local authorities and other agencies with regard to the whole child—not merely their safeguarding, important thought that is, but also the other four aspects of the child’s well-being.