Children and Young Persons Bill [HL]

With great respect to the noble Earl, we will be running a competition for engagement in the pilots, so we are dealing only with willing local authorities. This is not the Government piloting a course of action which local authorities do not want pursued. On the contrary, we will be dealing with local authorities that want to engage in the pilot because they believe that it could be a beneficial way to improve social work provision in their area. If they see social work pilots as one way to improve it, they may see other measures with which they wish to compare it as a good way of proceeding. The Government are not obliging local authorities to engage in the pilots. They will be willing partners who have chosen to engage. If they wish to engage in other measures against which they can compare the pilots, we would be happy for them to do so.