Member

The Committee is aware of the concerns I expressed when we were debating Clause 3 of the Bill, about the risk that this approach could create confusion for families between situations where they are being advised to take a particular action and those where a child has a child in need plan and the family is required to take a particular action. Having looked again at the legislation as currently written in Section 17 of the Children Act, I think it brings both clarity and discretion to local authorities and strikes the right balance. The question then is, where that is not delivered in practice, how do we deal with that and create the right kind of accountability to make sure that children are kept safe? I look forward very much to the Minister’s response.