Government response to Care Review House of Commons 02-02-2023
Main points from House of Commons Reform of social care debate
02 02 23 12.11pm – 12.55pm
Reform of Children’s Social Care – Hansard – UK Parliament
Helen Hayes Shadow Minister
There is no vision for the direction of children’s social care. There is no ambition for our most vulnerable children
SoS
I think I made it clear that this is the start of the journey, to lay the foundations for wider whole-system reform. Many people have had good intentions in this area. Many initiatives have been started after a review. Many things have been tried, and many things have not worked. We need this to be evidence-led. These are very complex cases and situations, and we need evidence to see what really works, not just good intentions, which everybody has in this area
Educom Robin Walker
My Select Committee will want to look into the detail of the financial arrangements announced today, so will the Secretary of State or a Minister attend the Committee in fairly short order to go into more detail on that?
Emma Lewel Buck
How utterly underwhelming this statement is. We have the usual piecemeal, short-change measures for just a few chosen areas, in the naive assumption that more carers will suddenly become available. Far, far worse than that is the total disregard for those in care aged 16 and above. They are children in care of the state. They are being placed by this Government in unregulated, unsafe hostels, bed and breakfasts, shared homes, caravan parks, tents and campsites on their own. More than 20 of these children have died. Can the Secretary of State explain why these children do not matter to her and this Government?
Timpson
We must not end up reinventing the wheel in the next few months and years in trying to understand what we perhaps already know.
Munira Wilson
(Josh MacAllister) recommended a fundamental reset, but her announcements are a piecemeal approach that barely commit one tenth of the money that he was suggesting is needed. So I am afraid that although there are good intentions behind these announcements, they barely scratch the surface