Children and Young Persons Bill [HL]

The noble Earl, Lord Listowel, knows that this is a matter close to our heart and one that we gave great thought to in our commission on social workers. I have one copy of the report; I do not have a box of them, but I could arrange to get one for our next day in Committee. I am sure that you would all find it fascinating and excellent reading. I pay tribute to the noble Earl, Lord Listowel, who is a tremendous spokesman for social workers. I applaud the intention behind the amendment, but I fear that it is unnecessarily prescriptive and, as the noble Baroness, Lady Howarth, has said, it could be detrimental. I understand how important it is to have provisions and protections in the employment contracts of social workers. It is a difficult job and is often a labour of love. It still requires a lot of labour, often with a small financial reward. To maintain a strong and well trained social work force, attention must be paid to their conditions of employment, but we have some concerns about this amendment, which seems to place a greater requirement for specifications in a contract for social work services than those that exist in local authorities. Social work services must be allowed at least equal flexibility in employment to local authority social workers and must be able to offer a diversity of care arrangements. Secondly, there is a specific problem with having a contractual cap on a social worker’s caseload. If one social worker becomes ill, a colleague might know about the unique situation of a particular child and be able to provide temporary care helpfully and efficiently. If there was a contractual caseload cap, would the care provider be forced to find someone else, perhaps less knowledgeable about the situation, to fill in? Surely mechanisms need to be in place to allow for the flexibility necessary to deal with problems arising. Even if the scenario that I have just sketched is not exhaustively persuasive, central prescription runs the risk of harming care provision more than strengthening it, although I absolutely understand the premise of the amendment.