Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Bill

My Lords, I hope that I can respond to the noble Baroness in 338 words, while in no way diminishing the importance of her concerns. We agree with the noble Lord, Lord Laming, that setting statutory safeguarding targets is a necessary step in the drive to improve safeguarding and child protection in all areas, as the noble Baroness has already suggested. We also agree with the spirit of this amendment; it is absolutely necessary that the proposed targets are appropriately considered and consulted on. However, it is not necessary to achieve this through the affirmative procedure, and I hope to persuade her of that. While I understand why the noble Baroness proposes that the regulations should be subject to the affirmative procedure, this provision, as she suggested, follows its equivalent in Section 1 of the Childcare Act 2006, under which the Secretary of State sets early-years targets in accordance with regulations. That regulation-making power is subject to the negative procedure rather than the affirmative procedure. We set this out in our memorandum to the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee, which is content with our approach. We have expressly specified in the Bill the matters which the regulations on safeguarding targets may address. These include the subject matter of targets, the periods to which targets might relate, and the procedure for setting targets. These issues have already been discussed as part of the National Safeguarding Delivery Unit stakeholder consultation workshops that were held over the summer, and I assure the noble Baroness that they have been very comprehensive and inclusive. The next stage will commence shortly when we launch a public consultation on the new package of safeguarding indicators and statutory targets. It is right to consult fully on the details and to listen very carefully. We have listened very carefully in the generation of the documents for consultation. We will outline our proposals in this area, including the indicators against which targets would have to be set, the periods to which the targets would relate, and the procedure for setting them. As I have stressed, we have already consulted stakeholders on the development of our proposals for revised safeguarding national indicators and new statutory targets, and we are committed to continuing public dialogue and consultation on the regulations. Given the extensive programme of consultation that we have embarked on and propose to undertake in the future, I hope that we will be able to proceed without the need for the affirmative procedure. Obviously that is entirely in the gift of this House—the committee will no doubt have a view on this, and I in no way wish to detract from the importance of these indicators—but we are also working closely with local authorities and stakeholders, and we need to have momentum to make this happen.