Member

Amendment 117A, tabled by the noble Baroness, Lady Barran, would require Ofsted to include regional care co-operatives within local authority inspections. It is important to be clear, as I have already said at least twice, that local authorities already have legal responsibility for strategic accommodation functions for looked-after children. Regional care co-operatives will be there to bring those local authorities with their legal functions together for the purpose of providing a more strategic and strong potentially countervailing power to enable the current market dysfunction to be addressed, for the benefit of children and the sufficiency of the placements that are available to them.