Children: Physical Punishment

Baroness Cash Excerpts

Tuesday 16th June 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab)]

We have looked, for example, at the Welsh report on the implementation of the abolition of the defence of reasonable punishment in Wales. As I said, the report is on the implementation of the law rather than the outcomes achieved by it. It highlights the importance of professional confidence, inter-agency collaboration and widely available parenting support. As I have already identified, those are all things in which we are investing considerable amounts of money in England and where we have taken action through legislation to transform the social care system so as to prioritise them.

[Baroness Cash (Con)]

My Lords, it would be wrong to speak today of physical punishment without raising the evil murder of the baby Preston Davey. As the Minister knows, we on the Conservative Benches welcome her structural reforms to social care, but there is still a gap. As the Munro inquiry and repeated case reviews have found, the assumptions, biases and culture of individual agency workers are still a major problem. These need to be addressed so that individuals will act to protect children without fear or favour. How does the Minister propose to address these issues?

[Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab)]

The noble Baroness is right to draw attention to that terrible case, and to the requirement, whenever we are faced with tragedies such as that, to learn the right lessons about how we need to reform the system. On her particular point about workers, one of the ways that we improve the way in which social workers and others, whether agency or otherwise, work is to increase their capacity, to focus them, as we are doing, on neglect and abuse, and to improve their training. We will continue to do that while, of course, learning the lessons from tragedies such as the one that she has identified today.