Children and Families Bill

Debate between Robert Buckland and Baroness Keeley

Tuesday 11th June 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Buckland]

I will be brief. I was accused of being a little less than brief earlier, but I mean what I say, and I think we have done an admirable job in scrutinising this Bill and that we send it to the other place in a very good state. There is still work to be done, and the Under-Secretary of State for Education, my hon. Friend the Member for Crewe and Nantwich (Mr Timpson) and I have had keen debates about the Bill over the past months. I was delighted to hear his remarks in response to my right hon. Friend the Member for Sutton and Cheam (Paul Burstow), who spoke on the young carers amendment tabled in my name together with those of other hon. Members, and to which the hon. Member for Worsley and Eccles South (Barbara Keeley) referred.

[Barbara Keeley]

The hon. Gentleman is generous in giving way as time is short. Does he agree it is important that young carers get a signal from the last few minutes of this debate that the importance of the work they do is recognised? He understands, as I do, that there was a feeling that those carers felt let down and ignored by the Bill.

[Mr Buckland]

I think the message came out loud and clear from the Under-Secretary that the needs of those people will not be forgotten or neglected, and that they will be enabled to play their part as mainstream members of society. That is what it is all about; it is not just box-ticking but about enabling those people to take their place in society and have all the advantages of their peers who do not have caring responsibilities.

I thank the Every Disabled Child Matters campaign and the Special Educational Consortium for the work done not only with Ministers but with me and other colleagues to marshal arguments in Committee and at this stage. Although those in the other place will still have work to do, there is no doubt that we have sent them a substantial body of evidence that this House of Commons is more than capable of doing justice and giving proper scrutiny to the most important Bill in a generation for those with special educational needs and young people who, through no fault of their own, face greater challenges than the rest of us in our society.