Clause 10
Children and Young Persons Bill [Lords]
9:00 am
Tim Loughton (Shadow Minister, Children, Schools and Families; East Worthing and Shoreham, Conservative)
I beg to move amendment No. 10, in clause 10, page 9, line 10, after ‘of’, insert ‘appropriate’.
I shall take my jacket off while introducing my amendment, Mr. Williams. I welcome you to the Committee—your liberal strictures are greatly welcome. We made quite a lot of progress on Tuesday, some of which you witnessed in preparation for today.
We now come to clause 10 and a small probing amendment in my name and those of my hon. Friends. The Government inserted clause 10 in Committee in the Lords to place a duty on local authorities
“to take steps that secure, so far as reasonably practicable,”
accommodation that meets children’s needs within the local authority area. We have debated at length the desirability of children in the care system staying as close as possible to their home environment, friends and family.
Before the hon. Member for Stafford jumps up, let me say that my party very much welcomes the clause, which is good and positive. However, we would like to add to it a requirement that the accommodation be “appropriate”. We go back to the principle behind the phrase “have regard to”. It is slightly woolly to ask local authorities, with all the pressures that they face, merely to fulfil a minimum requirement to
“have regard to the benefit of having...a number of accommodation providers”.
The Under-Secretary might say that everything will be covered in regulations, and it would be good to have that clarity, but we do not have the regulations before us, so we can only speculate as to their contents. It would therefore be helpful to add “appropriate” to new section 22G(4) of the Children Act 1989, which is inserted by the clause.
As we have discussed, continuity and stability of accommodation are important to a child from a traumatic background. If a local authority merely has regard to the benefits of making sure that there are a number of bed and breakfasts available in its area, that will not provide the stability and quality of accommodation that many of these young people need, particularly if they have special needs. A case has been made that children with acute and complex needs require the most appropriate care placements, but the wording of the clause does not suggest that local authorities need to—although obviously they would like to—go beyond simply ensuring that accommodation providers are available in their area.