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Children and Young Persons Bill [HL]

As usual, my noble friend has put the case considerately and has tried to meet the arguments put forward, but does he not agree that there is an issue of public credibility at stake here? Of course we are all wary of the worst sensationalism seen in the tabloid press, but it is not just the tabloid press. In recent years too many indelible pictures have been put in the public mind of the treatment of children where things have gone terribly wrong in one way or another. It is becoming a sort of habit—we all hear comments about it among our friends and family—for a bewildered senior official to face the media and say, ““We got it wrong””, and then try to explain the situation. This illustrates that there are grounds for anxiety about how far it is possible to generate the really incisive and effective action necessary to ensure that these things do not happen. We need someone who is not an enemy of social workers, who understands the demands and difficulties very well, but is freestanding and able to say, ““Look, you people have got to tackle this. Here is where you are falling down””.