A distinguished person from the Association of Directors of Social Work had brought up this issue with Mr Peacock. An Executive spokeswoman said: 'They raised it with ministers and it's something that ministers are seriously looking at. Officials are looking at how this could be practically implemented.'
The association's child and family care committee's chairwoman, Bernadette Doherty had a meeting with Mr Peacock and she said 'I think we share concerns about what is happening to children. We know there is a rising population of children living with drug-addicted, chaotic parents and he was interested to know what we thought would help from a social work perspective.'