“I'm afraid there is not a lot (in the Conservative
Party manifesto) around children in care and/or young people more widely which
is a concern with me… It was a shame children and young people's issues didn't
play such a prominent part in the campaign.”
Not my words, but those of former Children’s
Minister and Conservative MP, Tim Loughton, speaking to Children and Young People Now last week.
Now, with a hung Parliament and an unhealthy preoccupation with Brexit, there is even
less in the Queen’s Speech, which, for those unfamiliar with the archaic ways
of the British Parliament, is the way the Government of the day announces its
forthcoming legislative programme. In fact, there is hardly anything. Certainly,
as Children and Young People Now reports,
there is nothing about improving (perhaps I should say 'saving') local child protection services and children’s
social care.
The only silver lining, perhaps, is that this
Government may not last long. We live in hope!
