Children and Adoption Bill [HL]

Without necessarily expressing an opinion as to the efficacy of these amendments, it seems to me that the two contributions we have heard from the noble Earl and the noble Baroness indicate the difficulty that we face in this area. We have to remember that with skilled workers and skilled operators it is never a simple question of saying to a child, ““Do you want this parent or that parent?””. It is a question of dealing with the history of the situation, with not asking direct questions and with getting inside what is going on in the emotions and relationships in that family. Although I am the very first to admit that CAFCASS has not yet done enough work on this topic, we now have the appointment of a children’s rights director and we have carried out some very effective work with hearing children’s voices. We should concentrate on that and not on the issue of asking a child to make a decision or express an opinion. We should find ways—through training, development and through more research, as the noble Earl suggests—of enabling children to express their views without direct confrontation.