Children and Families Bill

My Lords, I welcome this much needed Bill. It brings together important proposals, making a big a...

My Lords, I welcome the Children and Families Bill and the potential that it presents to provide ...

My Lords, as other noble Lords have said, there is much to welcome in this Bill, especially the i...

My Lords, my comments today are concerned only with those aspects of the Bill, mainly in Part 3, ...

My Lords, the social reformer Gertrude Tuckwell, writing in 1894, said:

“Among the social q...

My Lords, in what my noble friend Lord Storey called a “progressive and promising Bill”, I will l...

My Lords, last Wednesday the Minister discussed the Children and Families Bill at the weekly meet...

My Lords, this Bill is large and comprehensive and, as such, it is a bit like the curate’s egg. I...

My Lords, I wish to speak about Part 3, which is mainly concerned with the reform of special educ...

My Lords, in this debate many noble Lords have already put forward serious issues for the Ministe...

My Lords, I will address Part 3 principally in this debate on Second Reading. However, I acknowle...

My Lords, I, too, welcome the broad thrust of this Bill. It is a wide-ranging Bill with much in i...

My Lords, I say to the noble Lord, Lord Storey, that I hope that this is not the once-in-a-lifeti...

My Lords, with some improvements, which I am sure will be proposed in Committee in your Lordships...

My Lords, this is one of those debates in which you discover that you agree with most if not all ...

My Lords, I too shall concentrate on Part 3 of the Bill. When the DfE published its Support and A...

My Lords, I want to add my voice to the growing volume of Members of this House who are giving a ...

My Lords, I wish to focus my comments on friends and kinship care. As my noble friend Baroness Ma...

My Lords, I shall confine my remarks to Part 3. I have a personal interest in this. Out of my nin...

My Lords, I begin by recording my admiration and appreciation for the work done by Dr Maggie Atki...

My Lords, I shall speak to Parts 6 to 8 of the Bill, which we broadly welcome. These changes will...

My Lords, we all agree that the Children and Families Bill is an important and welcome piece of l...

My Lords, I too thank the Minister for introducing this Bill and welcome much of what it has to o...

My Lords, the Bill has a number of very important measures, many of which are positive. However, ...

My Lords, I welcome the Minister on his legislative debut, and say how much those of us who hope ...

My Lords, we have a lot of legislation and I am sure that much that is in the Bill is welcome, bu...

My Lords, I welcome the Government’s intention to reform the special educational needs system in ...

My Lords, I would like to add my strong support for the Bill. This piece of legislation represent...

My Lords, I shall confine myself to Part 3 of the Bill and certainly shall not cover everything. ...

My Lords, in the context of a debate such as this, it is as challenging and as important as ever ...

My Lords, I was interested to hear how moved the Minister was by his visit yesterday. I now invit...

My Lords, as other noble Lords have observed, there is much to welcome in this Bill, even if it h...

My Lords, as the noble Baroness, Lady Benjamin, said, I think we are all agreed that this is a ve...

My Lords, this is a good Bill. It addresses important failings in our current child support syste...

My Lords, I declare my interests as a vice-president of the Local Government Association and as a...

My Lords, we are in the local government part of this debate, and like the noble Baroness, Lady E...

My Lords, I support the Bill and particularly the core phrase of “support and aspirations” which ...

My Lords, the purpose of the Bill is to ensure that all our children have the best possible start...

My Lords, in this Bill, which has many good things, I wish only to signal that where children wit...

My Lords, I have a grandson who has special educational needs. He is statemented by his local aut...

My Lords, the fact of life is that more than half the children born today are born to unmarried p...

My Lords, one of the joys of speaking towards the end of a long debate such as this is that most ...

My Lords, when you are the 45th speaker in a debate, there is a strong temptation to just say, “I...

My Lords, I am the very last Back-Bencher to speak today. I hope that I am not the least. I welco...

I am very grateful to the House for allowing me to speak in the gap. The noble and learned Barone...

My Lords, I am very grateful to all noble Lords who have contributed to this wide-ranging debate ...

My Lords, the debate this evening has been constructive and heartfelt, and I thank all noble Lord...