Children Bill [Lords]
9:25 am
Mrs Margaret Hodge (Minister of State (Children), Department for Education and Skills; Barking, Labour)
I beg to move
That—
(1) during proceedings on the Children Bill [Lords] the Standing Committee shall (in addition to its first meeting on Tuesday 12th October at 9.25 am) meet on—
(a) Tuesday 12th October at 2.30 pm,
(b) Thursday 14th October at 8.55 am and 2.30pm,
(c) Tuesday 19th October at 8.55 am and 2.30 pm,
(d) Thursday 21st October at 8.55 am and 2.30 pm.
(2) the proceedings shall be taken in the following Order—
Clause 1, Schedule 1, Clauses 2 to 14, Schedule 2, Clauses 15 to 34, Schedule 3, Clauses 35 to 41, Schedule 4, Clauses 42 to 56, New Clauses and new Schedules, Remaining proceedings on the Bill.
(3) the proceedings on the Bill shall (so far as not previously concluded) be brought to a conclusion at 5.00 pm on Thursday 21st October.
I am delighted, Mr. Benton, that we shall be serving under your fair, calm, sagacious and good-humoured chairmanship, and we look forward to long debates. I worked with you as a member of the Select Committee on Education and Employment, and we had some good visits—I remember our visit to Switzerland. I know you to be a fair and honest chairman, and I am sure that all of us on the Committee look forward to working with you.
Several members of the Committee have expertise in the issues before us. I am particularly delighted to see the hon. Member for East Worthing and Shoreham (Tim Loughton) opposite me; he has probably sat through more children's Bills than any other member of the Committee. He will undoubtedly bring the experience of his past deliberations to bear on the detail of the Bill. I am also delighted that the hon. Member for Mid-Dorset and North Poole (Mrs. Brooke) is speaking on behalf of the Liberal Democrats. I noticed, looking through her CV yesterday, that she and I attended the same university; I am sure that she got more out of it than I did, although I certainly had a good time there, and remember it with joy.
Many members of the Committee have extensive experience of children's issues, and spent time in their professional lives before joining the House working with children in a number of ways. I should particularly like to draw attention to my Parliamentary Private Secretary, my hon. Friend the Member for Sheffield, Heeley (Ms Munn), who has done absolutely sterling work in supporting me, and whose experience in social services I value enormously. She always brings a pragmatic and practical element to our formal discussions about difficult policy decisions. I should also like to draw attention to my hon. Friend
the Member for Lancaster and Wyre (Mr. Dawson), for whom this will be a great moment in his time as a Member of Parliament. We shall miss him when he goes. We were saying before he arrived in the Committee Room that so cleverly has he tabled his amendments that he will find himself moving the lead amendment in many of the groups, so he will have the opportunity to open and close debates on issues that are of concern to him.
The hon. Member for Caernarfon (Hywel Williams) and my hon. Friend the Member for Cardiff, North (Julie Morgan) also have experience of working in social care. The hon. Members for Isle of Wight (Mr. Turner) and for Harrogate and Knaresborough (Mr. Willis) have spent time in teaching, which is relevant to what we will be discussing.
In common with several members of the Committee, I grew impatient as this small but very important Bill wended its way through the House of Lords. It now comes to the Commons for our input, and all hon. Members look forward to making it the landmark Bill that I believe it will be. When our successors reflect on the measure, I think that they will recognise, as I have said elsewhere, that it provides the legislative spine on which we can build a complete transformation of children's services, thereby securing a step change in outcomes, not just for some children but for every child. Hon. Members are anxious to debate some vital issues, and I look forward to our discussions being constructive and good-humoured.
I am genuinely grateful for the support for the Bill from Members on both sides of the House. To date, the debate has been very constructive and extremely helpful. I hope that hon. Members will agree that many of the amendments made in the House of Lords, and others which will be debated in Committee, reflect our response to the concerns and priorities that have been expressed across the political spectrum.
The amendments that I have tabled will deliver further on the commitments that we made in the House of Lords. Hon. Members are inundated with bits of paper and I apologise to the Committee for having been unable to table the amendments before the recess. However, I hope that all Committee members received copies before the end of last week and that they have been able to reflect on them.
I look forward to a constructive debate that will lead to momentous change of which I hope we will all be proud when, in years to come, we reflect on our time in the House of Commons.