Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Keir Starmer and Jake Richards

Wednesday 16th October 2024 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I thank the hon. Member for raising what is obviously a very important case, and she is right to do so. I am not across the individual details of it, but it obviously does need to be looked into. So we will commit to look into it, and I will make sure that she gets a meeting with the relevant Minister to lay out such details as she has and to get some answers as to our inquiries.

[Jake Richards (Rother Valley) (Lab)]

Q14. Children’s social care in this country is now in crisis. Vulnerable children are regularly placed hundreds of miles from home, often in unregulated and unsafe accommodation. Meanwhile, private companies are making record profits on the backs of struggling and desperate local authorities. Frankly, this is an issue—a national scandal—that does not get enough attention. Today, I will be presenting my private Member’s Bill, which will offer modest reform in this area, but will the Prime Minister reassure me and thousands of families across the country that it is a priority of his Government to fix the social care crisis and our family courts?

[The Prime Minister]

I thank my hon. Friend for raising this issue and being a champion on it. He is absolutely right about the appalling inheritance: one in four children in absolute poverty—that is a terrible inheritance—and too many vulnerable children in unregulated accommodation. Through our children’s wellbeing Bill, we will put children and their wellbeing at the heart of the education and social care systems. We will also provide a home for all young care leavers to ensure that they are not homeless, and remove the barriers to opportunity so every child can thrive in safe and loving homes.