Children and Young Persons Bill [HL]

My Lords, the Minister knows that I am not an enthusiast of the new pilot projects, which probably puts it mildly, and which was epitomised by a moment in the meeting that he kindly held. I pay credit to him for his constant attempts to make transparent and clear what is happening on the ground. I am grateful for that. It was that moment when the person running the scheme said, ““No, we don’t have all the answers. That is why we are running the pilots””. Experimenting with children’s lives is too dangerous. I support some of the words of my noble friend Lord Listowel. If the pilots go forward I hope that they will take a holistic approach to these issues as they do not divide into pieces. You do not have a bit of time to deal with prevention; a bit of time when children get into danger when you have to deal with child protection; and a bit of time for rehabilitation. These problems with children run in and out of those professional areas of work during their lives in care. Therefore, I hope that the pilots will evaluate how social workers can deal with problems holistically so that we do not divide the work and lose our best social workers because the easier part is creamed off and the difficult problems that end up before the court or in a child abuse inquiry—I have been through three so I know the toll they can take—are left to those slogging away in the local authority.