Asked by Lord Lexden To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether
they have plans to enable more children in care to obtain places in
state and independent boarding schools. The Parliamentary
Under-Secretary of State, Department for Education (Lord Nash)
(Con) My Lords, I am extremely grateful to my noble friend
for this Question, as it is a subject...Request free trial
Asked by
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To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they have plans to
enable more children in care to obtain places in state and
independent boarding schools.
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The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for
Education (Lord Nash) (Con)
My Lords, I am extremely grateful to my noble friend for
this Question, as it is a subject close to my heart. We are
very keen to encourage more local authorities to consider
boarding for vulnerable children. This summer we launched
the Boarding School Partnerships service, very ably chaired
by Colin Morrison, the former chair of the Royal National
Children’s Foundation, and this service operates jointly
with the boarding schools sector and charities to help
local authorities collaborate with charities to place
vulnerable children in state and independent boarding
schools.
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(Con)
Does my noble friend agree that children in care can
benefit greatly from a boarding education where they are
suited to it? Is it not the case that many local councils
once recognised this, with some 10,000 placements being
arranged in the late 1960s?
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I agree entirely with my noble friend that boarding can
have great benefits for the right children, and we want to
see more vulnerable children able to access it. My noble
friend is quite right that boarding was more common at one
time. Boarding school, with its 24/7 level of pastoral
care, can be particularly suitable for vulnerable children,
and that is why we are encouraging its use more widely and
why we have set up the Boarding School Partnerships.
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(Lab)
My Lords, has this scheme been evaluated, and, if so, how?
Have children been asked about the success of the scheme?
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That is a very good question from the noble Baroness. The
scheme was launched only a few months ago and we will be
concentrating initially on promoting it with local
authorities. The department recently had a very successful
event with local authorities to launch it with a number of
people who had been care and at boarding school speaking
passionately about it. Our first step is to promote it with
local authorities, but we will, when appropriate, evaluate
it.
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(CB)
My Lords, does the noble Lord agree that it is easy to say
that this facility should be for children when it is
appropriate for them? But please let us not gloss over what
happened in the 1960s. Many children were sent to boarding
schools where, frankly, they were out of sight, out of mind
and they had some terrible experiences. Let us go for a
wide range, but make sure the placement is appropriate to
the child’s needs.
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I agree entirely with the noble Lord. It is essential that
the placement is appropriate and, as I have said, this is
appropriate only for some children. We have moved a long
way from the 1960s, but I entirely agree with everything
that he says.
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The Lord Bishop of Southwark
My Lords, as the Minister is aware, those who live in tied
accommodation as part of their employment or the holding of
an office have an unintentional structural disadvantage
when it comes to their children’s schooling. This is
ameliorated in the case of military families but not in the
case of others, such as clergy and their children. Will Her
Majesty’s Government now act to address this disadvantage
by amending the code?
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I will look at this and I am happy to discuss it with the
right reverend Prelate in more detail. I am not briefed on
it, but I am fully aware of the situation with military
families and I will look at the point he makes.
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(LD)
My Lords, the appropriate word is “appropriate”, and we
must do what is right for the individual child in care. It
might be that boarding school provision is correct, but
would the Minister agree that, where boarding school
provision is provided, we must have the most vigorous
safeguarding assessment of that provision?
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I agree with the noble Lord that that is essential, but we
have moved a long way from the 1960s. It may have been, as
a reaction to some of the points the noble Lord, , made, that we have
moved too far in the other direction and there is a certain
overreluctance by some local authorities. We have
definitely seen that local authorities are now better
informed and visit schools. If noble Lords visit the
Boarding School Partnerships website—at
boardingschoolpartnerships.org.uk—they will be impressed,
as there is a lot of information there to help local
authorities on which schools are providing this and how
they might assess whether it is appropriate for a
particular child.
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(Con)
My Lords, will local authorities retain their duty of care
during term time, and what arrangements will be made during
holidays to see that the children’s educational interests are
not neglected during that time?
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My noble friend makes a very good point, as local authorities
do remain responsible. In holidays there are some facilities
that may be able to keep children and we have initiatives to
try to extend such arrangements, but it is certainly the case
that local authorities continue to be responsible.
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(Lab)
My Lords, is it true that this whole programme is being
driven by the need to save money, as against placing children
in foster care? In so far as we know that only 100 children
nationally are now in such placements, surely we should fully
evaluate the effect on those children before we proceed
further down this route.
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It is not driven by money at all; it is driven by a
passionate belief by a number of people, including the noble
Lord, , and others who have been
to boarding school that it can help and that we had lurched
into a certain prejudice against boarding schools. We are
just inviting local authorities to look more widely at the
options and making much more information available to allow
them to evaluate those options.
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(Lab)
My Lords, while acknowledging the potential benefits of the
Boarding School Partnerships, the noble Lord will be aware
that most children in care will have experienced some kind of
trauma and a high proportion have unmet mental health needs.
Extending the point made by the noble Lord, , I think that it is
questionable whether boarding schools are equipped to provide
the sort of wraparound support that these children may need.
Indeed, such a placement does not necessarily address the
reasons a child was taken into care in the first place. For
many of the children being placed at a state or independent
boarding school, that will be outside their local authority.
Research by the Children’s Society demonstrates that the
further children are placed from home, the more likely they
are to go missing from care. Will the Minister give an
assurance that, when children in care are placed in boarding
schools outside their home local authorities, the placing
local authority will share appropriate information with the
host authority to ensure that these children are
appropriately safeguarded and have their particular needs
met?
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The noble Lord raises a very good point. I think that that is
the situation, but I will check and write to him.
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