My Lords, I strongly support what has just been said. Over the years—it goes back quite a long way—there have been very serious cases of child injury and, sadly, in most of the cases, child deaths. There has been no shortage of inquiries. All sorts of very distinguished people have been asked to inquire into the situation. As the noble Baroness, Lady Meacher, said, there is always a focus on the individual social worker. Managers somehow stand a little back from the situation to let the light shine on the individual. That is a natural protection that management is apt to have and one that we must think about.
I strongly support the view that any number of lessons have been learned, in the sense that reports have told us what was wrong and what should be different. But I know of absolutely no mechanism to make sure that these recommendations are acted on and that something actually happens. We have only to look at some of the earliest reports in relation to this to see that very clear recommendations were made. The report is published, the public and the press comment on it—and then it is forgotten until the next one. Surely if we are to set up a national body of this sort, we should incorporate within it a clear mechanism for bringing the recommendations forward for implementation.
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I find it difficult to believe that it is a good arrangement for the Secretary of State to retain a power to set out these particular powers in regulation, instead of setting them out in the statutory provisions of the major Bill. It is rather sad that while there has been a good deal of increased regulation, there has been an even bigger increase in so-called statutory guidance. Who prepares those documents? The number of pages of statutory guidance since I ceased to be Lord Chancellor has increased very greatly and I do not believe that it helps people. How many social workers are completely familiar with all the guidance that their social work departments have issued? You have to have it in your head to put it into practice and it is at least possible that the people who write it are thinking mainly of ensuring that all the cases are covered. But they do not have much thought for the poor people who are trying to remember what the guidance said when it comes to facing up to a situation.
I find it very difficult to support a clause setting up a review system which has no mechanism for implementing the results of the review or for setting out its purposes or particular powers in some detail. Leaving it to regulation, and a little extra guidance as well, really is not law; it has become—what shall I say?—less than law. Some people may think that that is better but, unfortunately, that kind of thing only complicates the legal case. If people are anxious to prevent lawyers having more to do, this is not the way forward in that direction.