Children and Young Persons (Hansard, 12 December 1979)

§ Mr. Humphrey Atkins

The report of the Committee on Children and Young Persons, which was set up by the previous Administration in 1976 under the chairmanship of Sir Harold Black to consider legislation and services for children and young persons in Northern Ireland, has been published today.

I am grateful to Sir Harold Black and to the other members of the committee for their wide-ranging inquiries in Northern Ireland and elsewhere, and for the very careful consideration they have given to the important matters remitted to them.

I welcome the general approach of the committee in seeking to help children in their own environment where possible and in building on the strength of the family and the wider community in Northern Ireland. In particular I endorse the committee's call for greater efforts to prevent children getting into trouble and for better co-ordination to this end between the various statutory and voluntary agencies concerned with the welfare of children.

The report contains many important recommendations, which have been formulated after full consultation with a large number of organisations and individuals. 699W It proposes that in Northern Ireland a distinction should continue to be drawn between the treatment of juvenile offenders and of children in need of care; that the juvenile court should be organised in two divisions for this purpose; that the system of police cautioning of minor offenders should be extended and developed; and that the rights of both parents and children should be protected in all proceedings. It recommends that there should be a single custodial establishment for juvenile offenders and separate provision under the social services for the care of other children. It proposes that the future management of the probation service should be entrusted to a committee representative of a wide range of community interests and that this committee should also take responsibility for the management of the custodial establishment for juvenile offenders.

I am pleased to note the importance which the report attaches to the contribution of voluntary bodies in the field of child care in Northern Ireland, and I assure them that the Government envisage a continuing and expanding role for the voluntary sector. Voluntary bodies will be brought into the planning process and will continue to make a substantial contribution to the provision of services. I look forward to growing co-operation between statutory and voluntary bodies to ensure the best use of resources and the most appropriate response to the needs of children, and to seeing local communities play a more active part in helping their own children.

The Government endorse the strategy proposed by the report in Northern Ireland and accept its recommendations in principle. While we wish to make progress as quickly as possible, the successful implementation of the report, and of the amending legislation which I shall put before Parliament in due course, will undoubtedly require the investment of additional resources in preventive measures and in community care. Against the background of severe restraint on public expenditure and the heavy workload of the personal social services, we shall face a rigorous re-ordering of priorities to find the additional resources needed for these purposes. This will largely govern the rate at which implementation can proceed.

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The Government now intend to consult the interests concerned about the many matters involved in the implementation of the Black committee's recommendations. In particular there will be early discussions with the governing bodies and staff of the training schools. It will take some time to complete these consultations and to prepare the necessary amending legislation. I must stress that the proposals refer only to Northern Ireland, where the 1969 Children and Young Persons Act has never applied, and not to the rest of the United Kingdom.

I am glad to be able to announce the publication of the Black committee report during International Year of the Child. It will, I hope, be seen as an important milestone in social policy.