COMMONS AMENDMENT (Hansard, 8 November 1989)

§ The Lord Chancellor

My Lords, I beg to move that the House do agree with the Commons in their Amendment No. 290. This amendment is connected with the question of exclusion of the suspected abuser that I spoke of earlier in connection with ousters. This amendment picks up a point made by Lord Justice Butler-Sloss in the Cleveland Inquiry report. She encouraged social services departments to consider the appropriateness of using their existing powers under Section 1 of the Child Care Act 1980 to prevent the reception of a child into care. Under these powers they may be able to defray for a limited period additional costs incurred by the suspected abuser in leaving home on a temporary basis while initial assessment of the child is completed.

That is valuable advice; the lack of any specific provisions on undertakings in the law need not prevent local authorities which obtain an emergency protection order agreeing to arrangements for vacating the home on a voluntary basis. Some do it already. The power in the 1980 Act is being replaced by a similar broad power in Schedule 2, paragraph 6. Amendment No. 290 would add a much more specific provision to the detailed powers and duties in Schedule 2 on local authority services to families. When the authority consider that a child is suffering, or is likely to suffer, ill treatment at the hands of another person and that other person is willing to move from the premises, the authority may assist the other person to obtain alternative accommodation. Assistance may be in cash and, by virtue of subsection (3), the assistance may be unconditional or subject to conditions.

I hope that this will be regarded as a useful start and that the House will consider that the amendment is useful.