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Lord Clement-Jones: My Lords, I have been provoked by the Minister. Should not the essence of the system be that, having made an assessment, the local authority has a duty to provide the services that it has decided are necessary?
Lord Hunt of Kings Heath: My Lords, I can never understand Liberal Democrat policy on such matters. Time after time, they accuse me of over-centralising and seeking to dictate to local government, but, time after time, the noble Lord wishes to dictate to local government exactly what it should do.
We have got the balance right. There is a strong framework for ensuring, first, that the local authority has made arrangements to provide adoption support services. It must carry out the assessment, and it is right that it should be given the discretion to decide how and to what extent it will provide services in the light of that assessment. The noble Lord is saying, in effect, that adoption support services should have priority over almost every other service provided by a local authority social services department. I accept that we must get the balance right, and I accept that we must ensure that effective support services are available. We want to give couples and single people who are adopting young people as much support as we can, and we have got the balance right.
Baroness Masham of Ilton: My Lords, before the Minister leaves that point, perhaps I could add as a non-Liberal Democrat that, unless the Bill specifies "shall" if there is a need, local authorities—as they do in so many ways—will say that they do not have the money.
Lord Hunt of Kings Heath: My Lords, I would never accuse the noble Baroness of being a Liberal Democrat. Indeed, I am looking forward to the time when she supports me in the Lobby on a health Bill.
If we were to leave the matter completely at the discretion of local authorities, I would understand the noble Baroness's concern. But the Bill contains the requirement to ensure that services are available. The performance assessment framework for local authorities, the inspections by the social services inspectorate—all those mechanisms—will pick up such issues of concern. Some discretion must be left to local authorities. But I accept that we shall probably have a debate on the matter in Committee and later on in the Bill.
My noble friend Lady Gibson spoke most movingly about the human aspects of potential adoptive parents. It is my hope that, notwithstanding the need for vigorous assessment, we shall look to adoption agencies to relate to potential adopters in a sensitive and professional way. I am confident that in legislation we have the framework to ensure that.
Of course I accept that funding will be important. We are pleased about the funding settlement for personal social services announced for the next period following the spending review. There is no doubt that a substantial amount of the extra £66 million for adoption announced in the White Paper and made available over the past three years is being used by councils to improve their adoption support services. That is being delivered through the Quality Protects grant.
Of course we shall keep funding under review. My noble friend Lady Gould asked about the implications for the tax and benefits system of the review of adoption allowances. We promised in the White Paper to develop a new framework for adoption support services and financial support which is properly
integrated with the tax and benefits system. We are developing that framework with support from a small group of stakeholders and we shall shortly be launching a public consultation on adoption support.The noble Earl, Lord Howe, and a number of other noble Lords suggested that the current intent on independent review is too narrow. We shall be consulting on how the independent review mechanism will work and on the regulations to underpin it. The powers in the Bill are flexible enough to enable the independent review mechanism to be extended to any determination made by an adoption agency. We shall consult stakeholders when drawing up the regulations. The agencies are also subject to regulation through the National Care Standards Commission and complaints systems. It is not as if the sole external scrutiny comes from the independent review process.
My noble friend Lady Gould raised a number of important points on placement orders. She asked whether orders should be for specific placements rather than general authorisations to place. If a specific placement order broke down, the authority would have to go back to court for another order before the child could be placed again, even if another suitable set of adopters were available. That could lead to undesirable delay. General placement orders were backed strongly in consultation in 1999. A number of important matters on placement will need to be considered in Committee.
My noble friend Lady David spoke of the duty to inform the adopted person of the adoption. Retrospection, which was raised in a number of letters we have all received, was also mentioned by my noble friend. I understand fully the arguments in favour. Noble Lords will know that it was carefully considered by my honourable friend Jacqui Smith. Her concern was wanting to concentrate the focus of the agency on the essential work of finding loving families for children in care and that applying Clause 58 to adoptions made before the Bill was enacted would focus attention and resources away from that primary aim.
It is worth noting that requiring adoption agencies to apply the steps set out in Clause 58 to past adoptions would include adoptions which go back as far as the Adoption of Children Act 1926. Since then 875,000 people have been adopted in this country and there is also a question of raising the hopes and expectations of so many people and the practical difficulties which agencies would have to face in meeting those raised expectations. Therefore, while understanding the issue of retrospection, I believe that a number of difficult practical matters are involved.
I disagree with the noble Baroness, Lady Barker, who said that it was not currently possible for adopted adults and their relatives to seek to make contact through intermediary services. My understanding is that adopted adults and their birth relatives are not barred by existing law or by the Bill from making contact. They may apply for registration on the adoption contact register, if the other party registers, and apply to the relevant adoption agency for
identifying information about the other person. The agency may exercise its discretion under existing regulations to disclose information.As regards the contact issue, I clearly understand that no child should be put at risk or made to see people he or she does not want to see. Equally, in some cases it will be in the child's best interests to maintain contact with his or her birth family. My noble friend Lady Thornton raised a number of important issues in that regard and I believe that the amendment passed in the other place was a significant advance. My noble and learned friend the Lord Chancellor is closely examining the findings of the survey of good practice on parental contact in cases where there is domestic violence to see what further lessons should be learnt.
I am also aware of the number of organisations which have stated the details of cases in which it appears that contact has been ordered where there has been a history of violence and a child has subsequently been harmed or even killed. The Government are working with those agencies to identify the cases concerned and investigate whether the allegations are substantiated and, if so, what lessons we need to learn for the future.
Inter-country adoption is another very important matter. I understand the point raised by my noble friend Lord Brennan about the importance of the legal process. We hope to ratify the Hague convention at the beginning of next year. Part of the delay was the need to ensure that England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales were all able to ratify at the same time.
As regards a permanent secretariat, a team of case workers is currently at my department to process the papers of adopters who want to adopt from overseas, provide information about the procedures in other countries and act as a centre point of contact for queries about inter-country adoption. They also provide advice to our embassies in dealing with overseas governments.
There are many other issues to which I have been unable to respond but this has been a good debate. It is clear that in Committee we shall discuss matters of great importance. I agree with noble Lords who suggested that the Bill is complex and that we shall need to unpick it as we proceed through the Committee stage.
Ultimately, the critical issue here is the lasting significance of the Bill. It has been nearly a generation since this House last debated and passed a major Bill on adoption; it could well be another generation before it does so again. Over that time, tens of thousands of children, adoptive parents and birth families will have their lives touched for ever by the measures detailed in the Bill. For their sakes, we must get it right. We owe it to them to pass a Bill that will fulfil and support their aspirations and that will help to provide the chance of a new start and a loving family life for many thousands of children. I commend the Bill to the House.
Baroness Seccombe: My Lords, before the noble Lord sits down, would he consider copying the letter
that he is to write to his noble friend Lord Brennan to those noble Lords who have taken part in the debate on Second Reading?
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