Abolition of Child Trust Fund for looked after children is 'infanticide'

Cathy Jamieson MP writes for ePolitix.com ahead of her Westminster Hall debate on Child Trust Fund for looked after children.

It will be a busy week at Westminster with the statements on the Strategic Defence Review and the Comprehensive Spending Review expected. For that reason, understandably, I don't expect my Westminster Hall debate to feature heavily on the pages of our esteemed press.

Yet, the abolition of Child Trust Funds announced in June will have far reaching effects. One aspect which has managed to remain below the radar is the knock on effect of ending Child Trust Funds for looked after children.

The Child Trust Fund was set up in 2002 by the Labour government and additional payments for looked after children were introduced in 2008. This was welcomed at the time by a significant number of children's groups as a positive step in a neglected area of social policy.

Under the scheme the UK government pays £100 per year to children looked after 'away from home' including those in foster care, residential care and kinship care who spent the full or the majority of the year in care.

Building up a personal fund that will become available when a young person moves into post-school education or employment training is designed to give that young person independence.

Having a personal Child Trust Fund offers useful educational opportunities in learning how to manage money, and there is the discipline of developing savings' habits.

Sadly, the Child Trust Fund for looked after children is being abandoned just as we were beginning to unearth more efficient ways of operating it to the advantage of looked after children.

This is an aspect of the care system which is still not well developed. Having access to individual asset accounts can make an important contribution to the wellbeing of children in care by providing a sense of security and encouraging planning for the future.

Additional financial support is essential for care leavers progressing to further and higher education or to employment training.

I believe that the Scottish government and Scottish local authorities should also give more consideration to future financial planning for looked after children.

This would be consistent with the recommendations of the 2009 National Residential Child Care review for developing corporate parent responsibilities which have attracted widespread support.

At a UK level, the Conservative commitment prior to the election was that they would end government payments to Child Trust Funds, except for children in "poorest third of families" and children with disabilities.

As recently as September Phillip Blond, Director of ResPublica launched a report calling for government to tackle social mobility by adopting a savings policy that builds assets for all children's futures.

I believe there is a case to be made to the Treasury on this issue and would hope the government will revisit this decision and ensure that this programme does not suffer from infanticide.

The consequence of ending the scheme will be to remove an important advantage only relatively recently introduced for looked after children - one which was explicitly linked to efforts to improve outcomes.

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