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The Minister has still not responded to the final points I made about the content of the evaluation. He

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pointed out that the evaluation will be rigorous, detailed and all the rest of it. But there are particular things which must be looked at, including the delivery of Every Child Matters, the role of the local authority as a corporate parent, the resources available to local authorities, the access for children in care to other local authorities and wider local authority services, the recruitment, retention, pay and conditions of social workers and the stability of the care system as a whole—the wider environment which we were looking at in the points we made.

Lord Adonis: I would expect the evaluation to cover all the points that the noble Baroness has just mentioned.

Baroness Sharp of Guildford: I am delighted to hear that, but we are currently not totally satisfied with the answers we have had on this and will probably come back to it on Report. For the moment, however, I beg leave to withdraw the amendment.

Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.

[Amendments Nos. 10 to 12 not moved.]

Clause 6 agreed to.

Baroness Crawley: This may be a convenient moment for the Committee to adjourn.

The Deputy Chairman of Committees (Baroness Gould of Potternewton): The Committee stands adjourned until Monday 14 January at 3.30 pm.

The Committee adjourned at 7.42 pm.

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