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Baroness Buscombe: My Lords, I thank the Minister for that reply. Does he accept that the whole focus of the education White Paper is upon parent power and parent responsibility? That is good as far as it goes, but what about all those thousands of children who do not have parents prepared to engage? What about the children in careor looked-after children, as they are now called? The Minister knows that they receive scant attention in the White Paper, so can he assure the House that during any consultations on this issue in 2006 the Government will seriously consider practical measures that can genuinely improve their life chances?
Lord Adonis: My Lords, we do not accept that looked-after children receive scant attention in the White Papera whole section is devoted to them. However, the noble Baroness makes the important point that looked-after children require the active engagement of local authorities as their corporate parents in all fields of their activity, including education. That is why we will be issuing guidance very shortly to local education authorities on how they should fulfil their duties to looked-after children.
Baroness Walmsley: My Lords, in the light of the greater autonomy to be gained by schools, what leverage do school improvement partners and the local authorities that appoint them have in persuading schools to change their admissions policies where those schools are found not to be admitting the correct number of children in care?
Lord Adonis: My Lords, the code of practice currently requires schools to have regard to the need to give first priority to looked-after children. We will be laying regulations before the House next month that will place on all schools, including foundation schools, voluntary-aided schools and community schools, a requirement that they give first priority in their admissions to looked-after children. I believe that we already have very robust protections in place for looked-after children and that we will have failsafe protections in place after the regulations have been laid.
Lord Howarth of Newport: My Lords, does my noble friend agree that if children are to thrive in their education, they need two thingslove and successand that, sadly, far too many children in care lack both? How will the Government seek to ensure that these children, whether integrated or otherwise, receive care that is real and not just notional?
Lord Adonis: My Lords, my noble friend makes a very important point about the needs of looked-after
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children. In the guidance, we will be requiring local authorities to ensure that they have in place personal education plans for all looked-after children so that they can develop to their fullest potential. We will also ensure that no care placements are made where there are not education placements to go alongside them and that, where an emergency placement is made, an education placement should be arranged within 20 days of that placement. Many of the wider issues to which my noble friend referred relate directly to the quality, status and support of the social work profession, which provides the corporate parenting for so many looked-after children. We are seeking significantly to upgrade the quality of the social work profession.
The Lord Bishop of Manchester: My Lords, in the light of his earlier reply to the noble Baroness, will the Minister confirm the Government's awareness of the Church of England's advice to its Church schools to put looked-after children at the head of the queue when considering admissions?
Lord Adonis: My Lords, I am aware of that advice. We believe that it plays an important role in respect of Church schools.
Lord Elton: My Lords, I think I heard the noble Lord use the phrase "corporate parenting" twice. Is he aware that that is very close to an oxymoron? Corporate care is, I think, an oxymoron. What is being done to give these individual children individual adults who care for them individually?
Lord Adonis: My Lords, we have extensive measures in place to promote foster parenting. That is the most important area in which we are seeking to meet the noble Lord's point.
Lord Bradshaw asked Her Majesty's Government:
What consultation about the future siting of speed cameras has taken place with the local communities involved.
Lord Davies of Oldham: My Lords, the department does not issue prescriptive guidance to local authorities about such consultation. Local authorities are expected to consult with communities and other stakeholders, as they would for any other road safety remedial measure. The majority of cameras operating within the safety camera programme are at sites where there is a history of speeding, accidents and casualties. In addition, there is flexibility within the rules to use cameras at sites of concern raised by the community.
Lord Bradshaw: My Lords, I thank the Minister for his reply. Does he agree that most of the publicity about speed cameras comes from the motoring lobby and motoring press and that the cameras provide
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protection for many people? I wonder whether, in order to get a balanced picture, the Government should not instigate some consultation with local people, to see what they think about cameras.
Lord Davies of Oldham: My Lords, as I have indicated, that is for the local authorities to initiate. But I am grateful to the noble Lord, because his question gives me the opportunity to indicate to the House how successful the camera programme has been. The number of vehicles speeding at new camera sites fell by 32 per cent last year; the number speeding by more than 15 miles per hour fell by 43 per cent; and average speeds at new sites fell by about 7 per cent. The cameras are having their effect and, as the noble Lord indicated, it is easy to dramatize the inevitable profound irritation that drivers experience when they fall foul of the cameras, but it is not so easy to tap into the great public benefit from the fact that we are saving lives.
Viscount Tenby: My Lords, does the Minister accept that there are many people living in villages and other vulnerable areas who despair because, due to the somewhat callous and mechanistic nature of the present formula for installing speed cameras, the chances of getting any in their particular area are pretty well nil? Would he therefore undertake with his colleagues to re-examine this formula and perhaps in doing so take on board the useful suggestion made by the noble Lord, Lord Bradshaw, about local intervention and input?
Lord Davies of Oldham: My Lords, we are awaiting the evaluation of the fourth year of the camera programme and we will take all these matters into consideration. But the noble Lord will recognise that, although there may be frustrations in certain parts of the country about the issue of speed limits, if we are successful in making the general motoring public more aware of the dangers of excessive speed, then that will without a doubt obtain in areas where there are no cameras but where there are speed limits.
Lord Harrison: My Lords, given the Minister's earlier answer, should we not increase the number of road safety cameras used if thereby more lives are saved and we generate income for local authorities and chief constables, to be used for other good road safety purposes?
Lord Davies of Oldham: My Lords, as I have indicated there are strict limitations on the revenue-raising processes from cameras and the way in which the resources can be used. My noble friend will recognise that, important as it is to increase expenditure on road safety, it is also most important that we condition driving behaviour. That is the crucial single factor with regard to accidentsit is well attested through all researchand therefore we need
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to take the confidence of the motoring public with us, that the cameras are fulfilling a proper purpose and are in the right places.
Baroness Knight of Collingtree: My Lords, will the Minister encourage an end to the current practice of putting warnings of speed cameras and speed cameras themselves on long stretches of road where there is no indication of the legal speed limit?
Lord Davies of Oldham: My Lords, it is a statutory requirement that there is an indication of what the speed limit should be close to the camera. I am aware that from time to time it is contended that that does not occur. Sometimes signs can be obscured, and we are concerned about repeater signs for the public so that they are aware of the limits. But I fail to think that there are drivers in this country who see a yellow box very prominently displayed indicating clearly that it is a road camera and do not know that there is a speed limit in force and what that speed limit is.
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