Offender Management Bill

My Lords, I speak rather tentatively. I have been quiet this afternoon because I felt that life was moving on but I feel the need to say two things. First, as far as I understand it, this Bill continues to deal with the margins of the service. Surely the Probation Service has developed enough skills in contracting. Therefore, it will not cost huge amounts to take those contracts forward. Secondly, I absolutely agree with my noble friend Lord Ramsbotham and the noble Baroness, Lady Anelay, that not enough money is spent on any of the social care services. I have been a director of social services, set up the National Care Standards Commission and struggled away at the children and families courts service. None of those services is funded to the degree that we would like. That is why the people who run those services are expected to find alternative ways of innovative working that move forward. That is the whole point of this Bill. I have stood rather separate from some of my colleagues in my views on it. It is about giving probation officers opportunities to work in a different way to develop services that will help offenders change their lives, live better lives and thereby protect the public. I agree that we need more sophisticated ways of measuring these services. Members of another place have tried to achieve that. At least I now know the relevant costs for my service. The Probation Service could do more of that work. However, I still believe that we are tampering at the edges. This is not major reform; it is trying to develop alternatives. Like the noble Baroness, Lady Anelay, I hope that we can get on with it because people in the voluntary sector and the Probation Service would like to move forward.