Ex-Children's Minister Tim Loughton questioned by Peers on adoption process
6 November 2012
Mr Loughton was Children’s Minister until the September re-shuffle, and initiated many of the Government’s recent reforms designed to tackle delay in adoption. He was shadow Children’s Minister from 2003-2010.
Mr Loughton will be followed at 11.15am by representatives from the British Association of Social Workers and The College of Social Work.
The College of Social Work opened its doors in January this year having been set up following the death of Baby Peter in 2007. It was established to create a centre of excellence for the profession and to provide support, guidance and training to social workers.
The witnesses are likely to face questions from the Committee on issues including:
- reducing the delays in the system for BME children caused by ethnic matching;
- removing adoption functions from underperforming local authorities;
- the training and education of social workers; and
- whether there is a danger of prioritising timeliness over quality of decision-making when focusing on reducing adoption delays.
The evidence sessions will take place on Tuesday 6 November from 10.15am in Committee Room 3A.