Member

Through the Bill we will establish multi-agency child protection teams in every local authority area, which is a plan that responds directly to recommendations made by the national Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel. These teams will help to ensure that a lack of join-up between services is not one of the reasons why a child dies or is seriously harmed. Once again today, some noble Lords have called for us to delay this. Arguably, too much time has passed during which people understood the problem, but the necessary change was not made. That is not to say that I do not believe there will be challenges, but the sooner we start, the sooner we will be able to overcome those challenges and put in place a system that is better for and safer for children.