Children and Young Persons Bill [HL]

The noble Baroness made several references; one of them was to the proposal for social work practices and I accept that others were to arrangements for piloting them. To take legislative powers to pilot anything is of course a big step for a Government to take. Why have we taken that step? Precisely because of the definition of the problem set out on page 5 of the report of the group chaired by Professor Le Grand, which sets out in stark terms the nature of the challenge that we face—I know that this has been strongly supported by Members of the Committee. It states: "““A key problem for looked after children is the lack of continuity in their relationship with the local authority social worker. Whilst some children have a strong relationship the majority have little or none. They have had too many social workers and have seen too little of those they have had””." That is within the existing local authority system, a system that is funded by the Government to the tune of £5 billion a year, so the resources are there for local authorities that want to pilot new arrangements. There is very little that the Government are doing to stop local authorities taking forward innovative approaches if they want to do so. The question on social work practices is whether we give them powers to take still more innovative pilots forward. I think that Members of the Committee accept the definition of the challenge facing us. I accept in turn that the overwhelmingly important response that we should make is within the existing local authority system, because we are talking about 69 pilots. That will be a very small part of overall provision. That is the whole emphasis of the Care Matters paper, in which we set out our priorities for the social care workforce, addressing many of the concerns that the noble Earl raised in his remarks on Second Reading. In the Children's Plan, we set out specific proposals for piloting a newly qualified social work status, developing a professional framework for social workers, including a much stronger professional development provision, a wider ranging recruitment campaign and a fast-track programme to attract mature graduates into social work. I will certainly seriously consider the remarks of the noble Baroness, Lady Meacher, in respect of the bureaucratic burdens on local authorities. I will study her remarks carefully to see whether we should make some response to the concerns that she raised. Shortly in the New Year, we will be publishing our workforce action plan, which will say more about our proposals for improving training and accelerating the pace of remodelling. So we will have a great deal more to say and are taking forward reforms that meet the issues at large. I direct the Committee to the question of whether, on the basis of the work that has been done by Professor Le Grand and his group, it is a sensible course to pilot social work practices. Our judgment is that it is, for the reasons set out. I should stress that Professor Le Grand’s group includes many eminent leaders within the social work profession. It included Lynne Berry, the former chief executive of the General Social Care Council, Paul Fallon, the former head of children's services and the director of social services in Barnet, Moira Gibb, the chief executive of Camden Council, and Alistair Pettigrew, the director of children’s services in Lewisham. Alistair Pettigrew is also part of the Social Work Practices Expert Group, which is taking forward the work on the design of the pilots, which also includes Jane Haywood of the Local Government Association and Alan Wood, the director of children's services in the London Borough of Hackney, who is on the group as a representative of the Association of Directors of Children’s Services. So these are not ideas that are being foisted from outside on the profession and on local government, they are being developed in very close collaboration with the leaders of local authorities and the directors of children’s services and rely on advice given by eminent figures in both the local authority and the social work world.