§ 2.0 a.m.
§ Mr. LaneI beg to move Amendment No. 98, in page 34, line 12, after 'homes', insert 'and schools'.
The effect of the Amendment would be that the places which the regional planning committees are obliged to provide and maintain will be known not just as community homes but as community homes and schools. We had a long debate on this in the Standing Committee, and we have put down this same point again tonight because we hope that the Government may have second thoughts on this matter.
If I may remind the House of a point made by my hon. Friend the Member for Chelsea (Mr. Worsley) in Standing Committee, it is that today about one-seventh of the total number of children in care are at approved schools. The underlying reason for our wish to keep the word "school" in the description of these places is to stress even more than is done in the Bill the educational aspect of the total care the Bill is providing for the children. There is also the secondary although still important point about the need to attract teachers of the highest quality to serve in these schools within the total system of care.
In Committee, the Under-Secretary of State gave a persuasive answer. He made the point that, under the Bill as it stands, it will still be open to mergers of these homes to include the word "school" in the title. But I doubt whether even so he paid sufficient attention to the feeling among those concerned in running these schools. There is a considerable psychological point here, even granting the weight of his argument in Committee. Although we are at a late stage in the Bill, I still hope that the Government will reconsider their attitude on this matter.
§ Mr. Elystan MorganI am sorry that on this occasion one is not able to show the sweet reasonableness which has characterised so many of our deliberations. I appreciate that the Amendment is promoted by the Approved Schools Association, as explained by the hon. 1166 Member for Cambridge (Mr. Lane) in Committee, and that it wishes to preserve the schools' identity through the Statutory use of the word "school". The Association fears that, unless that word is preserved in statute, ultimately there will be no establishment that will provide for education on these terms. The Association claims that teachers will only work in places which are by statute called "schools". I suggest that these fears are ill-founded.
A term is needed to identify, for statutory purposes, a residential establishment whose purpose is wholly or mainly to accommodate children in the care of the local authority and whose management is carried out wholly or partly by the local authority. Therefore, the chosen term should apply to all such establishments and should be an exclusive term.
The term at present in the Bill is "community home" and this will apply to a variety of establishments ranging from small family group homes providing much the same facilities as the ordinary household to places where children with special needs are provided with education and treatment on the premises, sometimes in conditions of security.
The term "community home" is merely a description of the legal status of the establishments. The actual title of a particular community home will be for the responsible local authority or voluntary organisation to decide. Therefore, although such an establishment's legal status will be that of a community home, there is nothing to prevent it having as its proper name the designation "Green Bank School", for example, or whatever else it wishes to call itself.
There is every reason to assume that some community homes will need to provide educational facilities on the premises and members of the teaching profession will be required to occupy positions of responsibility in such homes. It is argued that teachers will only work in a place which is not only known as a school but is by statute a school. It can be said in refutation that, within the child care service already, there are teachers in reception centres and remand homes, and there is no reason to believe that recruiting of 1167 teachers for particular schools is any easier than it is for these centres and homes.
There are two reasons which make the suggested alteration to the term "community home" very difficult to accept. "School" is defined as a statutory term in the Education Act, 1944, and I am sure that the House will accept that it is important to avoid any confusion with establishments provided under other enactments. Secondly, the majority of the 2,000 community homes will rely on outside school facilities provided for the use of children living at home with their parents, and only a minority, probably not exceeding 10 per cent., are likely to have full-time educational facilities on the premises as an integral part of the care provided at the home.
I hope that I have said sufficient to convince the House that the Amendment should be resisted.
§ Amendment negatived.