James Cunningham

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SUPPORTING CHILDREN IN CARE

SUPPORTING carers and those in care should be a priority in Gordon Brown’s new Government, says Jim Cunningham.

The Coventry South MP welcomed the Government’s new White Paper setting out an ambitious agenda for improving the lives of children in care, with an additional investment of more than £305 million.

Proposals include improving the education of children in care through a £500 educational allowance for each child in care falling behind at school, putting the designated teacher on a statutory footing to improve provision in schools, appointing virtual school heads to oversee the children’s education, and a £2,000 university bursary.

Speaking in the Commons, Mr Cunningham said: “It is important that we support carers, especially those who look after children in care. If a child has an unsettled home life, it does not exactly encourage them to study and they feel abandoned.”

Alan Johnson, responding to Mr Cunningham on his final day as Education Secretary, said children are currently allowed to slip into care too easily when there are often friends and family who could look after them.

“Once children slip into care, they are moved around too much,” he said.

“None of these problems is the fault of the fabulous people on the front line who foster children.

“It is key that the first placement is the right placement so that children are not moved around too often.

“If they move around too often, they move school too often, which means, especially if they move during their GCSE years, that they fail at education.

“My hon. Friend is absolutely right to raise that point. I hope that he accepts that the White Paper includes a way forward.”