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Children and Young Persons Bill [HL]

Perhaps I may press the Minister further. It is not the local authorities who seek to pilot this programme to examine the effectiveness of the new social work practices in improving continuity for children in care. It is the Government who are doing so. I cannot see why local authorities would wish to spend extra money just to prove whether the Government’s initiative works or does not work. Surely the onus should be on the Government, if they want to be scrupulous in terms of testing this approach, to inject a similar amount of money into the control local authorities to test whether the approach is making as much difference as the Government hope—and, indeed, we all hope.