Welfare Reform Bill

I support the amendment in the name of the noble Baroness, Lady Thomas. For four years, I had the privilege of being the chair of the Social Care Institute for Excellence and, while reading the amendment and listening to the noble Baroness, I thought, "These are the kinds of duties that we spend three years training social workers in: understanding and being empathetic to, but also having phenomenal knowledge of, the complexities that a whole range of disabilities bring, let alone all the social problems that attend those situations". I take my hat off to any Jobcentre Plus worker who enters into this knowing that they might have to lay conditions on someone when they cannot quite understand where they are coming from or what they are doing because they do not have a degree in social work. I therefore absolutely support the noble Baroness on this one. Actually, I had already thought about it. After hearing noble Lords’ interventions, it struck me that I felt I was back at the Social Care Institute for Excellence, where we provided detailed guidance and practice to the very people whom we are talking about in this debate.