Parenting: Government Help (Hansard, 15 July 1998)

§ The Minister of State, Department of Health (Baroness Jay of Paddington)
My Lords, the Government are undertaking a wide range of interdepartmental programmes to try to help young mothers and their children with the problems they face. The overarching ministerial group on the family, led by the Home Secretary, will soon publish its proposals. The Department of Health and the Department for Education and Employment have recently given a £1 million grant to create 30 so-called Home Start schemes which will support work with parents in some of our most deprived communities. In addition, in yesterday's Statement on the Comprehensive Spending Review, my right honourable friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced a programme to bring together services for children under three and their parents, including nursery and childcare provision, family healthcare, and counselling services for parents.

§ Lord Northbourne
My Lords, I am grateful to the Minister for citing the impressive list of actions which the Government are taking. Is she aware that many people and organisations concerned with the problems of young children caught up in the cycle of multiple deprivation will greatly welcome the Government's initiative in supporting Home Start? Does she agree that the spectacle of two government departments of state co-operating and even sharing the costs of such a project is most encouraging? Can she give me a reason to hope that we can see more of that?

§ Baroness Jay of Paddington
My Lords, I am most grateful to the noble Lord, with his authoritative background in this area, for his congratulations. The programme which my right honourable friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced yesterday will be funded and organised interdepartmentally because, as 253 I described in my short summary of the provisions, it will include areas of policy which fall not only to the Department of Health but also to other departments such as the Department for Education and Employment.

§ Baroness Carnegy of Lour
My Lords, does the Minister agree that one of the best ways to help vulnerable mothers with the upbringing of small children has, over the years, proved to be the involvement of those mothers with their children in the pre-school playgroup movement? Can she tell the House what I believe must be a relevant figure—if she cannot tell me now, perhaps she will write to me—namely, how many pre-school playgroups have closed since the Government ended the voucher system?

§ Baroness Jay of Paddington
My Lords, the noble Baroness is correct. I cannot give her that figure but I shall write to her. My understanding is that many of the provisions in, for example, the Home Start scheme to which the noble Lord, Lord Northbourne, referred, involve parents with the supervision and organisation of their children in group activities. That will be one of the provisions and ideas behind what will be called the Sure Start programme in which the involvement of parents, rather than simply professionals acting from outside, is regarded as of great importance.

§ Lord Hylton
My Lords, will the Minister ask her colleagues to make sure that clear and up-to-date guidance is available to housing managers in the public sector indicating that they should not place in the same neighbourhood and close together large numbers of one-parent families alongside bad rent payers and families with other problems, because that seems a proven recipe for disaster?

§ Baroness Jay of Paddington
My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord for that observation. I believe that that point is probably well understood although, in practice, it may be difficult always to implement. One problem is that isolated single mothers find it difficult to join in activities such as those at playgroups, to which the noble Baroness referred, or the Home Start schemes which depend on there being a community of people with similar interests and problems. However, I accept that areas of multiple deprivation, through whatever cause, are not a very good environment for young children.

§ Lord Wright of Richmond
My Lords, I declare an interest as vice-president of the Home Start Silver Jubilee Appeal. Is the noble Baroness aware that the extraordinary example of voluntary work which Home Start represents is being copied in a number of countries including the Netherlands, Israel and elsewhere?

§ Baroness Jay of Paddington
My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord for his remarks which illustrate the point that I was trying to make in response to the noble Baroness, Lady Carnegy. That organisation is based very much on voluntary effort. Indeed, the 254 voluntary effort of the parents involved is extremely significant in organising those groups. That means that, in some ways, the scheme replicates the best aspects of the playgroup movement.

§ The Lord Bishop of Oxford
My Lords, as the Minister is aware, the front line in the work of supporting inexperienced parents and teaching parenting skills is being borne by voluntary organisations. I am sure that the noble Baroness knows that most of those, not just Home Start, have been living from hand to mouth in recent years. Will the noble Baroness state what steps are being taken to inform that whole range of organisations about more resources being available and how they may apply for grants?

§ Baroness Jay of Paddington
My Lords, I do, indeed, appreciate the role of the voluntary organisations in that important area. At present all I can say is that the new children's fund, which will be established as a result of the provisions announced yesterday by my right honourable friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer which the Minister for Public Health has developed slightly today, will give clear indications about how an extension of those schemes may be best provided. I am sure that that will involve the voluntary organisations and supporting them in their work.

§ Lord Elton
My Lords, does the noble Baroness agree that the most persistent troubles in human behaviour relate to the earliest years of human experience? Therefore, her support for help to young mothers is extremely welcome. However, does she recognise also that an increasing number of children need a responsible male role model which they lack due to broken homes? Will she do something to help the hard-pressed voluntary sector, already referred to, when it tries to find those role models in the shape of mentors for young offenders and potentially offending children?

§ Baroness Jay of Paddington
My Lords, the noble Lord raises an extremely important matter. Obviously, concentration has been exclusively on single or lone mothers because of their primary responsibility for the day-to-day care of the children, but the role of a male person in children's lives is clearly understood. That is something which I shall report to my colleagues who are dealing specifically with the setting up of that children's fund and with the provision for young children in particular because I agree with the noble Lord that it is at that very young stage that such matters are particularly important.