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Children and Young Persons Bill [HL]

Before the Minister rises, perhaps I may mention that I was interested in the document presented to me, too, by Chris Waterman about social work practices, in which he mentions the role of personal mentors. I have experience as the patron of a charity involved with the personal mentoring of children in care. Providing continuity is precisely the sort of role that a personal mentor can play, in addition to the role of being an independent support. Also, that mentor, when taking on that role, should be given guidance that one of their roles is to monitor whether there is continuity in the services being provided. So, rather than there being a set of triggers, the mentor could provide the trigger for some sort of review, because their relationship gives them the insight into whether there is a need for a review of what is being done on behalf of the child. I press the point that the mentoring role could assist with this set of problems.