Children and Young Persons Bill [HL]

I declare some sort of interest. Up to a few weeks ago, I was president of the University of Wales at Aberystwyth and had been so for about 10 years. It is laudable that a great deal of thought should be given to the tremendous role that university education plays in the context of the training and education of social workers. Clearly, that is something that will grow and should be encouraged at every stage. On the other hand, it might well be impractical for a local authority to seek a form of partnership with a university, if only because few universities could at the drop of a hat say, ““Yes, we shall be very glad to extend our envelope in this way. We are perfectly prepared to provide the necessary funding for this””. A few can do that, but most cannot. In most cases, universities are underfunded year by year, so that there is effectively a cut in the finances that they have at their disposal. The annual funding is normally about half actual academic inflation—this is inevitable inflation, mainly brought about by increased salaries—so that one has the problem that unless the Higher Education Funding Council for England and the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales take a decision in principle in relation to this, it might be difficult for many institutions to be able to do exactly what they wish in this context.