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Children and Young Persons Bill [HL]

I shall speak only briefly because I said a great deal of what I want to say at Second Reading, but I must at least say something. Social work has been bedevilled by change for change’s sake. Every time one child has died, there has been a review and the suggestion of legislation. If this had happened so often in the health service, it would be even more topsy-turvy than it feels it is at present. But it has happened in social work. I ask the Minister what the real rationale is for these changes. I can see no reason why the present structure, as the noble Earl, Lord Listowel, has so clearly outlined, cannot be reduced in bureaucracy—in fact, that was in the Climbié report—why the kinds of structures required to give social workers the support they need cannot be improved and why some of the services cannot be developed with other groupings, as already happens. That was the point of my intervention: some local authorities already use voluntary organisations to work with some families and children in care on a deferred basis. Why can these not be developed properly to get some stability? Not only children in care need stability, but the workers need some in their work. That could be said to be resisting change for its own sake. I am certainly not resistant to change. If convinced by the Minister that this would really be in the interests of children in care, I will give it all my support. My great anxiety, as clearly outlined by the noble Earl, Lord Listowel, is that it would be yet one more diversion and hitch, which will mean that good professional development will not happen. Good professional development ends up as good social work services for children.