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Safeguarding Children

My hon. Friend is right. We must do more to support the training and recruitment of social workers—particularly children's social workers, for whom the issues are often most acute and the publicity most intense. In my judgment, more cases will be coming through in the weeks to come because of the publicity that has rightly surrounded this tragedy. That will only add to the pressure. We have the best generation of teachers that we have ever had. It is important that we ensure that we also have the best ever generation of social workers. That means ensuring that we bring that about through pay, support and training. We are considering the issue as part of the children's work force review. At the same time, as I said, when mistakes are made, there has to be proper accountability.