Justin Russell, former chief inspector of probation, said Daby had been appointed as minister for children and families while speaking to children’s homes leaders at the Children’s Homes Association (CHA) conference in central London.
He told delegates that the former social worker has 15 years’ of experience on the frontline of children’s services with experience as the registered manager of an independent fostering agency.
-
Children’s charities on issues the next government must prioritise
-
The hits and misses of a ‘patchy’ parliament for children’s services
According to her LinkedIn profile, Daby also worked as a social work consultant before becoming a Labour MP for Lewisham East in 2018.
Before the general election she was shadow minister for youth justice.
During a separate event, organised by Foundations and the Commission on Young Lives, Daby said she had been handed the children and families brief which typically holds responsibility for children’s social care and support for vulnerable children.
She told attendees that “key reviews have been clear that change is needed for children in care, this is so they have better outcomes when they leave care”.
“Every single part of children’s social care needs to be looked at and reviewed. My top priority is to meet the Labour Party’s manifesto commitment to ensure every child has loving home through kinship care, foster care or adoption,” Daby added.
She also said that, in her previous role as a shadow minister, she had been working with Centre for Young Lives chair Anne Longfield on plans to reform youth justice.
“We've put some great work together on those [youth justice] projects. Some of this is cross-cutting and goes into many other departments and many other areas so I’ve already been speaking to fellow ministers about how we need really good crossover to bring the change we need,” Daby said.
DfE has yet to officially announce the briefs of ministers working under Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson.
However, it has said that responsibility for special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) will now fall under an education brief rather than that of children and families where it has sat previously.
Stephen Morgan, MP for Portsmouth South, has also been appointed to DfE and wrote on X that he was “honoured” to be joining Phillipson’s team “to deliver better childcare and early education”, suggesting at least part of his brief will be the early years.
Former shadow schools minister Catherine McKinnell has also joined the department and is expected to take on the same brief within government.
Meanwhile, Jacqui Smith, Home Secretary from 2008 to 2010, has been appointed as higher education minister in the House of Lords after receiving a peerage.
Since leaving parliament in May 2010, Smith has held several public roles including chair of Barts Health, which she has now resigned from, and has been chair of Sandwell Children’s Trust since 2017.
The government has also confirmed that Anneliese Dodds, MP for Oxford East, will be minister of state for women and equalities at the DfE. She will share the position with Phillipson.
Following yesterday’s (17 July) King’s Speech, during which King Charles III announced the creation of a Children’s Wellbeing Bill, Prime Minister Keir Starmer launched a new child poverty unit under the Cabinet Office.
The unit will be overseen by a child poverty taskforce led by Phillipson and Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall.
DfE has been contacted for further comment.
