Brown Champions Children With New Policies

Gordon Brown today made good on his promise to put the interests of children to the fore as he unveiled his government’s legislative plans. The prime minister unveiled bills to protect children in care and reform the child maintenance system, as well as revealing plans to seize millions of pounds from dormant bank accounts to spend on youth centres and community schemes.

{mosimage}The Children in Care Bill is intended to give looked after children the same life chances as their peers and a greater say in decisions regarding their future. The aim is to boost their achievements, partly by trying to ensure that education is not disrupted by children having to change schools in the run-up to GCSE-year exams. The bill, which covers England and Wales, also states that young people should not be forced out of care before they are ready and that supervision will be strengthened so they are visited regularly.

Some local authorities will take part in a pilot scheme to test a different model of organising social care by commissioning services from social work practices – modelled on GP practices. Mr Brown also announced plans to set up a new child maintenance and enforcement commission, to replace the discredited child support agency.

The child maintenance and other payments bill – which will apply to England, Wales and Scotland – also aims to simplify the process for assessing how much parents should pay, and give parents freedom to come to an arrangement without involving the authorities.

Under the unclaimed assets bill, cash in bank accounts that has been inactive for at least 15 years will be “recycled” for use in communities. However, there will be a “reclaim fund” so that people do not lose out if they were merely not aware an account was still open.

In England, the money – thought to total more than £400m – will be focused on youth services, while devolved administrations in the rest of the UK could set their own spending priorities.

Mr Brown told the Commons: “The children in care bill will do more to protect vulnerable children, and the child maintenance bill will do more to prevent children falling into poverty when parents split up. Behind the unclaimed assets bill is our determination that money in dormant bank accounts will be used to improve our country’s youth and community facilities.”