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Children and Young Persons Bill [HL]

My Lords, I can set this out for the noble Baroness in correspondence, but that the voice of the child is adequately supported is enshrined in a whole series of other measures, including the independent reviewing officers which I was just about to come to. Taking all of those measures together, there is sufficient support for the voice of the child without having the specific figure of the independent advocate which has been raised by the noble Baroness and others in the debate, but I am happy to set that out more fully. We would not be calling these figures independent reviewing officers if we did not expect them to operate independently. Under Clause 12, we have taken powers to establish a national service to manage the independent reviewing officers if we are not satisfied that the new responsibilities imposed on them by Clause 11 do not lead to their representing children’s views with the independence we expect. One of the independent reviewing officers’ functions under the new Section 25B in Clause 11 is to, "““ensure that any ascertained wishes and feelings of the child concerning the case are given due consideration by the local authority””." They are expected to represent not the view of the local authority, but that of the child. The noble Lord, Lord Hylton, asked when we will exercise our judgment on whether we need to proceed further in the direction of a national service which divorces the IROs and local authorities with whom we will consult. We would wish to give detailed consideration to evidence from inspections by the chief inspector and information arising from the new annual ministerial stock-take on looked-after children. In addition, the department would undertake further consultation with local government, the IROs themselves, looked-after children, their parents and carers, CAFCASS, the Children’s Commissioner, the children’s rights director and court services, all of whom can give us views on how the system is working in practice. I have many other points to reply to, and I will have to commit to doing most of that in correspondence. I acknowledge the importance of mental health and therapeutic services raised by the noble Baroness, Lady Meacher. I understand the force of the point she made on the specific issue of mental health assessments for looked-after children. However, I stress that all children who enter care must have a health assessment covering their physical, emotional and mental health. Healthcare professionals who carry out these assessments should be trained in the early identification of mental health problems and have links with CAMHS. This process should ensure that looked-after children have access to specialist assessment and mental health provision. We are alive to the concerns that the noble Baroness raised. However, we do not currently believe that a separate statutory mental health assessment would be a sensible next step.