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Children and Young Persons Bill [HL]

I am still digesting the impact of this proposed new clause, but on the face of it the provision is very welcome. In the past, there has been concern that too much responsibility in this area has been passed down to local government and not enough taken by central government. This is reflected in the failure to improve outcomes sufficiently in past years. In principle, giving the Secretary of State new powers in these circumstances is welcome; in practice, we should think about what will happen when the social work practice pilot report returns. The concern is that, while we hope that this will improve continuity of care for children with a care order in the care system and that it will attract more social workers to work with children in care, thus preventing the high turnover currently so often experienced by these children, it might undermine the work done to support and intervene in families before children become legally subject to the duties of local authorities. Moreover, it might exacerbate the current situation, with which we all familiar, of a high threshold of intervention in families because of the lack of social workers and what are sometimes poor levels of support for social workers. That was strongly reflected in the research recently commissioned by the Government from the University of East Anglia, which highlighted a number of child protection cases where interventions were not adequate and children came to harm as a consequence. To my mind, this new clause is reassuring in that these new responsibilities will put the Minister in a better position to look across the board to ensure that any interventions proposed do not help some children to the detriment of others. I look forward to learning more about these matters from the Minister in his response.