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Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill

Supporting young carers is a key priority for this Government. My hon. Friend is a real champion on these issues, and I am very happy to work with him to ensure that the views of young carers are heard in this place.

The Government have tabled amendments to the information sharing and consistent identifier duties in clause 4. The wider picture is that children are too often failed by inadequate or patchy information sharing, which is not good enough. The Bill enables us to make the change that children need, and the amendments will ensure that we get that right from the outset.

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These amendments will ensure that where those in scope engage others to provide services related to safeguarding or promoting the welfare of children, such as primary care providers, the duties will also extend to the providers of those services. This is not intended to cover providers engaged by those in scope for other purposes that may incidentally engage with the relevant functions—for example, IT service providers or interpreters —but do not independently hold information that is not already available to the agencies in scope. This will be clarified in statutory guidance.

The Government have also tabled amendments to clauses 4, 13 and 18 to ensure that the Bill’s information sharing powers and duties contain standard provisions, where appropriate. These amendments are required to make it clear that data protection legislation will and must be complied with, to ensure that appropriate restrictions on the sharing of data—such as a duty of confidence—do not prevent the sharing of data, and to ensure drafting consistency across the Bill.

The Government have also tabled amendments that allow information about a provider’s financial risk to be shared between the Department for Education and the Care Quality Commission. After 14 years of inaction, failing outcomes and soaring costs, it is long past time for the Government to make these changes to secure both higher capacity and more resilience among providers. Again, the amendments before us today will make sure we get those changes right. There are providers that operate both adult and children’s social care services. Some of these are very large and may therefore be subject to both our new children’s social care financial oversight scheme and the Care Quality Commission’s market oversight scheme, which has been operating for many years in the adult social care market.

These amendments allow information to be shared between the Department for Education and the Care Quality Commission about a provider's financial risk, particularly in advance of either oversight scheme issuing advance warning to local authorities. This will help the Department to form an accurate, real-time assessment of financial risk.

The Government have also tabled amendments that will apply the relevant clauses to Wales, following the Welsh Government’s agreement to their application. Members of this House, especially those representing Welsh constituencies, will already know the difference it makes to have Labour Governments in both London and Cardiff, not only putting our children first but working together constructively and at pace to deliver the change that children in every part of the United Kingdom deserve. I pay tribute to Lynne Neagle MS, the Cabinet Secretary for Education in the Welsh Government, for her help in ensuring that children in Wales, as well as in England, will benefit from the new protections in this Bill.

The first group of amendments in this area will extend the application of the ill-treatment and wilful neglect offence in the Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015 to children aged 16 and 17 in regulated establishments in Wales, as well as in England. The current gap in the legal framework means it is not possible to prosecute individuals for low-level abuse of 16 and 17-year-olds in regulated children’s social care establishments or youth detention accommodation. The current offences in sections 20 and 21 apply to both England and Wales, and an amendment seeks to maintain that application in relation to the amended offence.

Secondly, an amendment will extend the application of deprivation of liberty orders to Wales, enabling Welsh local authorities to seek authorisation to deprive children of liberty in relevant accommodation in England. We recognise the importance of keeping children close to home, within their safe and loving communities, where this is possible and in the best interests of the child. However, in some circumstances, where it keeps a child safe from harm, a cross-border placement is the right option.

This amendment will ensure that, where a cross-border placement that deprives liberty is in the best interests of the child, the child can either be placed by Welsh local authorities in a secure children’s home, as at present, or be deprived of their liberty in relevant accommodation in England that may better suit their needs. In both cases, the legislative consent motion process is engaged, as the measure applies to Wales and falls within the legislative competence of the Senedd Cymru. We are working closely with the Welsh Government on this. We continue to have conservations with the Scottish Government on extending the measure to local authorities in Scotland.

To conclude, the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill is a landmark piece of legislation, through which we are delivering the biggest overhaul to children’s social care in a generation. Our actions will transform children’s lives, keeping children safe and ensuring opportunity and better life chances for all children. I am grateful to all right hon. and hon. Members who have made efforts to improve the Bill for their scrutiny and for the debate so far.

I would also like to extend my thanks to all the individuals and organisations who contributed to the development of the Bill and submitted evidence, including the witnesses at the Bill Committee’s oral evidence sessions. We will continue to work closely with those organisations throughout the passage of the Bill. I look forward to hearing further contributions and debate from Members this afternoon on the Bill, as we continue to work across the House and beyond to break down the barriers to opportunity and give every child the best start in life.