Child Poverty Bill

My Lords, I, too, warmly welcome these amendments. My colleagues have far more experience in this area than I have, so I will not go further along those lines. However, may I take this opportunity to ask the Minister for reassurance on the voice of professionals? I commend the Government for their efforts in recent years to ensure that the voice of the child is heard much more clearly than it has been in the past. In this Chamber particularly, one recognises the strength of experience and it has been very gratifying to hear about the need to listen more carefully to parents. However, I have been concerned that the voices of professionals should also be heard—I particularly mean social workers close to front-line practice. They should be one of the most powerful advocates for families in poverty—especially those social workers who still carry a case load and are close to that experience. Although I welcome the movement that the Government have made in the past two or three years to try to ensure that the voice of the professionals is heard better, I regret that, in the past, I have had the sense that they were not listened to closely enough. Policy in this area will be tremendously improved if there are mechanisms and means to include front-line practitioners—especially social workers, but also head teachers and teachers, people who are still working directly with families. If we talk broadly about organisations, that may mean the people who lead those organisations, who may not have had recent experience of working directly with families. The practice that some Ministers have had of having a group of professionals as a sounding board whom they meet periodically to sound out their policies is a good approach. I would appreciate reassurance from the Minister about that.