Independent Social Workers And The Protection Of Children

EDM number 558 in 2010-12, proposed by Jim Dobbin on 20/07/2010.
Categorised under the topic of Children's social services.

That this House views with concern the severe limitations which will be placed on the availability of independent expert witness evidence in complex family proceedings due to the arbitrary reduction in expert witness fees from October 2010; notes this will expose highly vulnerable children to unacceptable levels of additional risk and is not consistent with the Government's wider safeguarding agenda for children; deplores that the Ministry of Justice is proceeding without data on the impact on the outcomes for the children involved, the current annual spend on independent social work expert witnesses or the amount that will be saved; further notes that independent social work experts are excluded from the ongoing Ministry of Justice review of all other expert witness fees; and demands that they be included in the review and that any changes to the current arrangements await the findings of the Munro Child Protection and the Family Justice reviews.

This motion has been signed by a total of 22 MPs, 1 of these signatures have been withdrawn.