Member

Amendment 160, in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Mohammed, seeks to address the inconsistency of support received by children who are subject to a child in need plan. The noble Lord gave the Committee some very useful examples of variability and the impact that has on the social work workforce that we were discussing earlier today. The noble Lord set out some of the areas where there are material and, as he argues, unacceptable differences in the support offered to these children and I have a lot of sympathy with his concerns. However, I do not believe that a greater level of central direction and prescription is the answer. We need to trust and support directors of children’s services and their teams to deliver these services in a way that works in their local context and for their local communities. It would arguably be even more the case when the proposed changes to local safeguarding set out in the Families First approach come in, which will bring together a much wider range of services, together with the Section 17 child in need teams.