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Lord Laming's Progress Report

I can assure my hon. Friend, whose Committee has great responsibilities in these matters, that Sir Roger Singleton, the new chief adviser, will report directly or give evidence to his Committee. We will ensure that Sir Roger gives evidence on his annual report. There must be proper scrutiny of that report and that must happen in the House. That is our commitment. It is also right, as my hon. Friend has said, that we need to raise the training, morale and effectiveness of the management of and support for social workers across our country. Often without public recognition, they do difficult, dangerous and sometimes brave jobs each day to keep children safe. We will ensure that the proper resources are there to support the expansion not only in the numbers, but in the training and support for social workers. We announced in November a £73 million investment in the next three years and we will add to that to ensure the proper training in the first year after qualification, plus the return of social workers to the profession, plus advanced social worker status, plus the new masters qualification. For the long term, there will be a reform and revamp of the whole of social worker training—all that has been done and is properly resourced. It is important not only that we challenge social workers and their managers, but that we support them in doing that difficult job. That is what we will do, and we will ensure that it is properly resourced.