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Children and Young Persons Bill [HL]

I, too, support the amendment and, indeed, the noble Lord, Lord Rix, explained it eloquently as he always does. Many parents struggle from one end of the country to the other to visit their children in 52-week residential care. It is important to point out that the amendment does not impose some prescriptive shackle on local authorities’ provision of care, because, where a child does have that contact with their family, the local authority is under no obligation to consider the young person as looked after; but, as the noble Lord, Lord Rix, said, too many children have no visits and we must be very mindful of their welfare. So I hope that the Minister can look favourably on the amendment.