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Labour pledges to fight controversial child protection 'exemption clause'

1 min read Children's rights Social Care
Labour's shadow children's minister has vowed to campaign against government plans to allow councils to apply to be exempted from their statutory duties relating to children's social care.

Provisions contained in the Children and Social Work Bill, which is currently going through parliament, are intended to give councils the ability "to test different ways of working" within children's services by freeing them from "requirements imposed by children's social care legislation".

A number of organisations have already spoken out against the plans, and Labour's new shadow children's minister Emma Lewell-Buck, a former frontline child protection worker who was appointed earlier this week, has confirmed said that she will campaign against the changes.

"A lot of organisations are deeply concerned that it is going to allow some local authorities to opt out of sections of the 1989 Children Act, which is the key act that protects children," Lewell-Buck, MP for South Shields, told the Newcastle Chronicle.

"That is something I am going to campaign hard on.

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