---

Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Bill

I thank the noble Baroness for what she has said. I quite agree that it has been very important to raise the status of social work by introducing a degree. I also quite agree that it is also very important that we recognise that child and family social workers must have a sound understanding of the law and make sound analytical decisions about children in families. I also hear what the noble Baroness says about certain other circumstances. It has been put to me that it is important to have an apprenticeship route into social work as a starting point from which there is an opportunity to move to a higher academic level—to degree level—so I agree absolutely with what she said. My argument is that at the beginning there might be a foundation stage. One would not be a qualified social worker, but one would take steps towards being one. That would be the apprenticeship aspect of the qualification. The Open University already offers that sort of apprentice first step into social work. There might have been a little absurdity in what I said about local education authorities consulting local authorities about availability, but I simply want to be reassured that they will look inward as well as outward.