Children and Young Persons Bill [HL]

This has been an extremely useful debate on social work practices. I hope that I am able to provide the reassurance that the noble Earl seeks. I do so in no small part by addressing the crux of the debate: when the noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley, referred to the proposal for social work practices. I stress that there is no government proposal for social work practices: there are proposals for pilots of social work practices. To get this debate in perspective, I stress that we are talking about six to nine pilots—a small number—within a large social work profession and local authority system. The issue to be addressed by the Committee, to which the Government have applied their mind, is whether, given the scale of the challenges we face in social work—so well set out by the noble Earl and other Members of the Committee—it is sensible for a Government who are seriously undertaking their responsibilities to see that we provide the best possible standards of care, to pilot—and I stress pilot—one possible approach which, alongside others, may have a beneficial role to play as part of the wider system. Almost all the points raised in the debate are addressed in the 75-page Consistent Care Matters report by the committee chaired by Professor Le Grand. His response to them is precisely to bottom out the effects of many of the elements which might be involved in social work practices, and that the sensible way to proceed is to introduce a pilot and evaluate that pilot. Then, of course, it would be for local authorities to decide whether, on the basis of that evaluation and advice which the Government may give at that stage, it would be sensible to take the idea further. If it were to be taken further, local authorities would commission and pay for social work practices—not us. Local authorities would proceed after the pilot only if they were persuaded that it was an advantageous course to follow to provide for some part of their social work obligations. I stress all of that because, on that basis, the onus is on those who are against even looking at what could be a promising idea to allow pilots to proceed. The judgment of the Government is that it would not be sensible to stifle even the possibility of these arrangements being piloted when they could have beneficial effects.