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The Earl of Listowel moved Amendment No. 92:
- Page 135, line 11, at end insert—
The noble Earl said: My Lords, the purpose of my amendment is to ensure that children in public care have fair access to our better performing schools. Currently, they are disproportionately placed in less successful schools. Local education authorities would have the power to direct maintained schools to accept looked-after children in exactly the same way as they now have the power to direct schools to accept children with special educational needs.
I hope that a little background may be helpful. That children in public care experience an unacceptable level of instability in their lives is acknowledged. The Government have set a target that fewer than 13 per cent of such children should experience more than three placements a year, but that still allows 15 placements in five years and is in any case uncertain of success.
Looked-after children frequently face changes of social worker. For those in residential care there is again an unacceptably high level of turnover of staff. A good school placement is essential in ensuring that the home placement endures. Once school fails, home is likely to follow. So, stability is crucial. It is crucial that these children have access to schools that are most likely to meet their needs. Often these will be the better performing oversubscribed schools. These schools often provide pastoral care that is second to none as well as academic success.
In Committee the Minister said that local education authorities already have the necessary powers. It is true to say that local education authorities have the power to direct head teachers of many schools to accept children with care orders. Local education authorities can also direct governors of voluntary-aided and foundation schools to accept such children, but only if every other school in the locality has already refused admission. Local education authorities can but rarely apply that power because seldom does a child meet that requirement.
I welcome the news that admission forums may establish protocols to protect the interests of looked-after children and that social services will be involved in discussions affecting looked-after children. I welcome the Minister's decision to strengthen the education code to prioritise admissions of looked after children. I am pleased that the Government's Social Exclusion Unit will report shortly on means to improve the educational achievement of looked-after children.
I apologise as I must be tiring noble Lords. I am speaking at too great length. I take this matter very seriously. I have spent much time today concentrating on preparing the amendment. I am aware that noble Lords have been present for hours going through the Bill thoroughly. I am keeping noble Lords occupied late in the evening. That is most inconsiderate of me. However, I hope that noble Lords will forgive me as this is an extremely important issue and could make a great deal of difference to the most vulnerable children in our society.
However, there is no guarantee that admission forums will be introduced. The education code applies only to normal admission periods at the ages of five and 10. I am advised that at least 50 per cent of looked-after children seek admission outside those times.
The Social Exclusion Unit will probably allude to the increasing number of out-of-county placements for looked-after children. Local authorities are short of foster parents and look abroad for them. Children in public care are given even lower priority by foreign schools or foreign local education authorities because they tend to be seen as alien transients. The Social Exclusion Unit may propose solutions to that problem, but we do not yet know what the solutions are likely to be. This amendment has the potential to make a big difference in that regard.
The Minister expressed sympathy for my concerns in Committee, and I was grateful for her response. Surely, therefore, she is prepared to accept this modest proposal, which has the potential to make such a difference to the lives of looked-after children. The amendment may help the Government to exceed their educational target for children in care. Perhaps the Minister would be good enough to remind the House what that target is. I cannot remember off the top of my head, as she may not. It would also be helpful to know their target in relation to no more than three placements per annum per child. I beg to move.
Baroness Howe of Idlicote: My Lords, I support the amendment tabled by my noble friend Lord Listowel. He has absolutely no need to apologise for again raising such an important matter at the Report stage of the Bill.
We all know that looked-after children have failed dramatically in relation to educational attainment. My noble friend seeks some visible action on the face of the Bill to ensure that positive treatment is given to looked-after children. It has always been one of my
I cannot remember which Bill specifically stated that any child in care should have a friend—I do not mean a legal friend—appointed to be an advocate or to whom he or she could relate. I should like to see that as a first part of the system for prioritising these children and ensuring that their educational attainments, which I am sure are much greater than those shown in the statistics, are maximised. With that in mind, I very much support the amendment.
Lord Lucas: My Lords, there is a step change between lucky and unlucky children in ordinary families and those in care. Ordinary families who are lucky enough to have their own children on board should have no difficulty contemplating the idea of doing something special for children in care, to try to help them when, so early in their lives, they have ended up in such difficult and unhappy circumstances. Putting them in the right school is one of the least and easiest steps we can take.
I do not feel comfortable with the drafting of the amendment. One cannot confer on a local authority an absolute right to put a child into a school. There is more to it than that. One might approach the problem concerning conditions of entrance by saying that children were deemed to have satisfied any requirements relating to their residence or primary schools, so that they would be considered to be within the catchment area—not that that particular phrase works any longer—and therefore could be considered for entrance to the school best suited to their needs. As part of their entry criteria, many schools allow for the possibility of a child demonstrating an overriding medical or other need to be at that school.
Perhaps we might also approach this problem by saying that children in care should, prima facie, be considered to have such a need where it is part of the entry criterion of a school that they should be considered on that basis. However, I should like some effort to be made to see what we can do to move in the direction that the noble Earl suggests.
Baroness Sharp of Guildford: My Lords, I join other noble Lords in saying that the noble Earl has no need to apologise to the House. We have had a number of debates about looked-after children. It is clear that society's record towards such children is appalling. My goodness, we owe them something, do we not? Partly thanks to a very disturbed education, their achievements are currently very low indeed. It is absolutely right that we should consider what we can do best for their education.
In discussion in Committee, the Minister said that she was well aware of the needs and difficulties of children in public care and other vulnerable children. She said that the Government would therefore attempt to assist their admission into popular schools in other ways. If those needs and difficulties are recognised, along with the need for such assistance, then why must
The other ways described by the Minister, such as revising the code of practice to strengthen the position of looked-after and vulnerable children, are welcome and may reduce the need to rely on the duty of governing bodies to admit such children, as the amendment would require. But the creation of a clear duty towards this most disadvantaged and vulnerable group which applies equally to all schools, regardless of category, is surely the only measure that will guarantee an immediate and dramatic improvement in their chances of gaining access to our most popular schools.
It seems to me that there is no case for rejecting the amendment. The strongest reassurance offered would not apply in the majority of cases, and the other ways of meeting this acknowledged need might well be unsuccessful if foundation and voluntary-aided schools sought to get around the measure and resist it. There appears to be no disagreement over the desirability of opening up access to the full range of popular schools, nor over the need to do so. Therefore, why is there reluctance to adopt the one measure that would achieve that outcome?
"(8) After subsection (9) there is inserted—
"(10) Where a care order is in place with respect to a child, and the local authority designated by the order names a maintained school as the school at which it wishes education to be provided for the child in the exercise of the authority's functions, the governing body of the school shall admit the child to the school.""
10 p.m.
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