Coram CEO Dr Carol Homden has today (21st January) been giving evidence to the House of Commons Public Bill Committee, the MPs charged with scrutinising the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill currently progressing through Parliament.
Appearing alongside Anne Longfield CBE, Executive Chair, Centre for Young Lives, Dr Homden set out that Coram broadly supports the provisions of the Bill, while calling for specific amendments, notably to increase the focus on timescales that meet children’s needs and enhanced focus on the needs of younger children. She also called for improved wellbeing support and highlighted the importance of advocacy. “Overall, outcomes for children should be our central purpose, not outcomes for the system.”
Dr Homden set out concerns that many of the provisions of the Bill were not extended to infants and the early years, for instance the free breakfast clubs introduced. She also highlighted that there were no provisions for automatic access to advocacy for children, notably 16- and 17-year olds, for instance those facing school exclusion or issues arising from being housed in unregulated accommodation.
She also set out that Coram supports the proposed legal duty on local authorities to offer family group decision making (FGDM) to parents of children at pre-proceedings stage as this would help to ensure greater consistency of practice, while noting that this will not necessarily divert children from care. In addition, the new duty should not remove earlier opportunities to bring the family network together. Carol also noted the impact of the family group conference model, drawing on evidence of the randomised control trial conducted by Coram.
Dr Homden confirmed Coram’s support of the Bill’s proposal for a register for home educated pupils as a critical additional protection to children’s rights to education and safeguarding. She also called for reintroduction of the national adoption register, to ensure all children waiting receive a proactive matching service. She also argued that the Bill represented an important opportunity to remove the defence of ‘reasonable chastisement’ for children – ‘”in our view this opportunity should not be missed.”
You can watch the Committee session in full here (starting at 9.25)