Government plans to engage family doctors in the Children Bill's agenda through the new GP contract received a frosty reception from directors of social services.

Children's minister Margaret Hodge said she had been told that the best way to engage GPs was through their contract with primary care trusts rather than placing requirements on them in the bill.

Mike Leadbetter, interim executive director of Ealing social services in London and head of the practice learning task force, disagreed, saying there was not enough emphasis on doctors in the bill.

"There need to be very explicit requirements [on doctors in the bill]. To leave it to the PCT at best will have a variable response and at worst will have little impact," he said.

Leadbetter called for long-term, targeted, ring-fenced money for preventive services for children.

But Hodge said the government was moving away from ring-fencing in line with what it understood directors wanted. Councils that achieved "the right balance" in their children's trusts would have the flexibility to spend what they wanted on preventive services, she added.

Sure Start and the Children's Fund could be seen as preventive services, Hodge said.

However, Leadbetter said Sure Start had increased the number of referrals to social services and that the latter needed money to set out preventive packages for referred families.