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Children and Young Persons Bill [HL]

My Lords, I support all these amendments. They take me back a long way, to when I was chair of a juvenile court. Even in those days, one of the Children Acts advocated that children in care, or those who had no parental involvement at all, should always have a friend at their side. Maybe one needs a little more than a friend, but an independent advocate would certainly be essential in so many of the areas where decisions are being made. It is quite clear from what the noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley, has said, and from what we have read in the briefing, that the role of the IRO is absolutely incompatible with being an independent advocate. I totally agree with all the other points made. I am afraid that, even though there is extra money involved, it is pretty essential when you are thinking about the future of children who are frankly going to cost you a lot more than that if you do not help them along the path to a rather different life in the future. I hope than when the noble Baroness, Lady Morris, looks again at the sums involved, she might persuade her colleagues that a rather more positive reaction is needed.