UK Borders Bill

Perhaps I may say before the noble Lord, Lord Avebury, replies that the Minister’s argument has some force. I am aware anecdotally that some children’s homes have the reputation of not doing enough to chase up children who leave their premises. The difficulty is one of balance and I encourage the Minister to look at it from a child’s point of view—to take the journey of the child that the Children’s Commissioner often speaks of. When a child is in a children’s home he may, on one hand, have a good relationship with his residential childcare worker; there may be things of interest to do there and he has food and a bed provided to him. On the other hand, there is freedom outside: he can go and stay with friends and sleep on their sofas, and there may be other incentives to disappear. One has to look at it from the child’s point of view. He does not have to stay there; the door is not locked. If there is enough incentive for him to move out, he will. My concern is that the way in which this well intentioned proposal will be applied might upset that balance and cause more children and young people to leave the security of a safe environment and risk going to stay with friends, or with people who they do not know well but who can offer them a bed for a few nights, and get drawn into the kind of life where perhaps they take a few drugs or develop a liaison with an older man who can pay them money. I ask the Minister to think very carefully about how this might work out in practice.