---

Children and Young Persons Bill [HL]

With the Minister’s indulgence, I return to Section 17 of the Children Act, which I believe is clear. The difficulty is that local authorities across the country define differently the specifics that the Minister read out. Could we look at defining ““in need”” more clearly to prevent a postcode lottery because if you travel the country you find that there is a postcode lottery with some local authorities working magnificently and bringing about change in children’s lives and developing preventive services while others still have a crisis with their care services? That might be the way forward as regards some of the issues that have been raised.