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Children and Young Persons Bill [HL]

I want to make two points in support of both amendments. I recognise that local authorities have to produce children’s plans that will contain many of these elements. If the amendment of the noble Baroness, Lady Morris, is not to be included in the Bill, it would be valuable if it were enshrined somewhere in the form of guidance, simply because it gives a specific way of looking at standards. I am always encouraged when there is a good example of practice to give direction, and that is what she is giving. I hope that we can get something into the Bill about the voice of the child being heard. I say that because I have been somewhat disappointed, in talking with a variety of people in social work, about the continued difficulty that people have in hearing children. They may think that they are listening, but the Children’s Rights Director will tell you time and again that children say that they do not feel that they are being heard. The idea for children in care councils came out of Care Matters and, like the noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley, I expected that something would appear in the Bill. Some reference to them would be extremely helpful in order to ensure that councils have to set up such bodies and listen to children. That would mean that they had to set up mechanisms for children who are in their care and accommodated by them to be encompassed in those bodies and therefore heard.