Lord Loomba , a Crossbencher in the House of Lords, spoke during a debate on the Children's Commissioner for England's Report on Thursday. Noting the report's emphasise on the difficulties in collating accurate numbers of vulnerable children effectively Lord Loomba said: " I commend the commissioner for the aim set out in her briefing of focusing on the child—putting the child at the heart of the matter."
Declaring an interest as a Vice Patron of Barnado's Lord Loomba said: "[c]hildren are our future. It is our duty to support them in every possible way." Highlighting Barnardo’s work he said "[it] does a great deal of work with children in the looked-after system and to support them when they leave care, including adoptive and foster placements for harder-to-place children, post-adoption counselling, support for adopters and adoptees and residential care for children and young people who are not able to live in a foster placement or at home."
Describing the difficulties facing many children who are in the "looked-after system," Lord Loomba said: "[t]he number of children in care is at its highest level for three decades, with a 31% increase in the number of children subject to child protection plans and a 108% increase in referrals to children’s social care services since 2010, " as he asked the Minister, Lord Agnew," what is being done to ensure that there is adequate funding in place to help these vulnerable children when they need it the most?"
Lord Loomba underlined the need for adequate funding by saying: "Barnardo’s highlights the complexities surrounding many of these children. A recent analysis of 630 referrals made to Barnardo’s fostering services revealed that 16% of fostering referrals involved a young person who had been involved in child sex exploitation; 17% involved an unaccompanied asylum seeker or a child or young person who had been trafficked; and 6% involved children or young people who were exhibiting harmful sexual behaviour."
Lord Loomba also noted the huge role Barnardo's plays in supporting care leavers saying: "[t]he charity also provides support to care leavers as they make the transition to adult life, including employment, training and skills, accommodation and mental health and emotional well-being." "Last year alone," he informed peers, "11,000 16, 17 and 18 year-olds left local authority care in England," and Bardardo's helped support: "3,200 care leavers to make the transition to independent living."
The difference he pointed out for care leavers is that "[m]ost young people’s parents help them on their transition to becoming independent adults, but often care leavers do not have this support, and for many this is a frightening and uncertain time." The importance of Barnardo's work was emphasised in research by the charity that showed: "one in four care leavers had faced a mental health crisis since leaving care, and that 65% of care leavers with mental health needs were not accessing a statutory service." "There is," Lord Loomba noted, "an increasing number of vulnerable children for whom the state has a responsibility as a corporate parent to help provide a stable, loving environment and to assist them to move on from traumatic childhood experiences."
