Member

Amendments 17, 250 and 251, also tabled by the noble Baroness, Lady Barran, relate to evidence, funding and accountability of these new multi-agency teams. On Amendment 17, I agree that learning from the families first pathfinders is important, but we must balance that with acting now to improve protection for every child who needs it immediately. Pathfinders are, as the name suggests, about finding the way to the new approach that the Government have set out. They are not pilots as such that we would then need to complete before we carried on with progress. We are already seeing commitment across the country from local areas that are driving forward on implementing these new teams. There are existing proven models and decades of learning about what works in protecting children that these new teams are based on, and I would seriously worry about delaying this great progress.