Analysis Labour seems ready to show it is serious

Two years ago a government-commissioned report laid bare the crisis affecting children's social care in England and called for an urgent multibillion-pound overhaul to reform a system that it said was spiralling out of control.

- Sally Weale

The author of the report, Josh MacAlister, warned that a continued failure to tackle severe problems in children's services would lead to record numbers of youngsters entering care within a decade, at huge cost to families and the taxpayer.

"Change is now both morally urgent and financially unavoidable," MacAlister said then. "We have a stark choice: keep pouring money into a faltering system or reform and invest to improve people's lives."

Following a change of government, it seems MacAlister - now a Labour MP - may soon see many of his recommendations come to fruition as Keir Starmer's government promises the biggest overhaul in a generation to children's social care.

Much of the detail behind the reforms is yet to be fleshed out, but MacAlister is pleased by what he has seen so far and is optimistic about what lies ahead.