New Clause 25
Children and Young Persons Bill [Lords]
3:00 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)
I will not list for the hon. Lady the various current regulations, because I want to focus on the steps we are taking, which I think will achieve what she wants to achieve in a different but equally effective way. She will be aware of the duty to co-operate in sections 10 and 11 of the Children Act 2004, which applies to a range of health bodies and other agencies. The guidance that flowed from that and the power to issue statutory guidance were not implemented in relation to primary care trusts and health bodies. Guidance was issued to health bodies but it was not statutory—that power was not switched on.
I give the hon. Lady an assurance that we intend to issue new statutory guidance in relation to the powers in sections 10 and 11. The revised guidance will be statutory for primary care trusts, strategic health authorities, NHS foundation trusts and local authorities. It will cover assessments of the physical, emotional and mental health of looked-after children, health plans, the involvement of qualified medical practitioners in assessments and reviews, the time scales for completion of assessments and reviews, health promotion, the provision of child and adolescent mental health services for looked-after children—which the hon. Lady rightly says is important—and the roles and responsibilities of health bodies and local authorities in improving the health of looked-after children. For the first time, the guidance will have the statutory bite that has applied to other agencies under sections 10 and 11 of the 2004 Act.
In addition, we are using some of the architecture of the national health service to build in a focus on looked-after children. The statutory guidance will be complemented by the new joint strategic needs assessment, the new NHS operating framework for 2008-09, and the national indicator set for local government. For the first time, the NHS operating framework includes keeping children well, improving overall health and reducing health inequalities as one of the top five priorities for the NHS. That marks the beginning of a new chapter in the journey of the NHS to a focus on more preventive services for children and young people.
Let me explain how we will monitor that. In addition to our existing data collection, there is a new indicator on the emotional health of looked-after children. That will be particularly important in driving up the supply of CAMH services. Under the children’s plan, we asked Jo Davidson, the director of children’s services for Gloucester, to undertake a review of CAMH services. The call for evidence closes tomorrow, I think, and Jo Davidson will report in the autumn on what more needs to be done in that regard.