§ 2. Mr. Juddasked the Secretary of State for Social Services whether he will make a statement on the Government's policy towards children in care as the result of homelessness.
§ The Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Security (Mr. Michael Alison)The Government's view is that families should not be split up and the children taken into care solely because of homelessness. Where, exceptionally, children have to be taken into care, the aim should be to reunite the family as soon as possible.
§ Mr. JuddI accept that the Minister is a compassionate man. Does he not agree that in Britain in the 1970s it is a very grave reflection on our standards that any family should be faced with the agony of separation simply because of inadequate housing? Does he not agree that, even from the figures he recently gave me, there are far too many families—indeed, many hundreds—in precisely that predicament throughout the country? Cannot drastic action be taken by Government co-ordination to overcome this problem?
§ Mr. AlisonIt is literally a catastrophe whenever a family has to be split up in this way, but the hon. Gentleman knows that some very difficult individual cases are involved. The local authorities, whether through their housing or their social services committees, have powers to keep a family together and housing facilities at their disposal. They endeavour to do so as frequently as possible. I am happy to say that the number of families still split up is falling, although it is still very much too high.
§ Mr. Clinton DavisWhile the hon. Gentleman rightly describes the situation as a catastrophe when a family has to be split up, is he not aware that this is a growing problem, particularly in the inner London area, including my constituency of Hackney? What special aid is he proposing to give to the inner London areas particularly hit by this problem?
§ Mr. AlisonI cannot be specific about the hon. Gentleman's constituency without notice, but the figures generally show a downward trend in the number of families split up in this way. The Greve Report and subsequent reports went carefully into the problem and made a number of recommendations which we have sought to implement, and we passed on the consequential advice to the London boroughs concerned. There are, nevertheless, some intractable factors and no Government have been able fully and finally to dispose of them.