B

Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab)

Speaking in the House of Lords on 8 June 2026

Debate

Children’s Social Care: Enduring Relationships Strategy

Contribution

The reason why we discussed that in the proceedings on the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill was precisely because we were taking action in that legislation to tackle this problem. We are empowering local authorities to secure the best placements for looked-after children at a price that is fair to the taxpayer. We know that local authorities cannot do this alone, so we are also taking action at national level to reshape the market through our package of measures, including those set out in the Act. We are rebalancing the market and improving competition, regulation and the commissioning of placements through the regional care co-operatives I have already talked about, and we will shine a light on the level of profit being made and bring greater visibility to the prices that local authorities are paying. In that legislation, we also took provision to introduce a profit cap if necessary.

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