Children and Young Persons Bill [HL]

When I read the amendment, I jumped for joy. I thought that it was something I would like to see, even knowing what I do about the context. A number of different indicators and drivers will need to be looked at in the review. I have some quarrel with the noble Baroness, Lady Morris, about an internal review. The review needs to be external—hence the independent reviewing officer—because it would be very easy to say, ““Yes, but we only had this because we could not recruit enough social workers””. That could appear on a number of occasions. What is it in a local authority that triggers things such as the further involvement of the independent reviewing officer? Perhaps in the guidance we should look at those kinds of triggers. After a child has had more than three social workers in a year, perhaps someone should appoint an independent advocate for that child, to look with the child at what is happening in their life. A number of issues could be looked at around this, in recognition that it may not be the one issue. After all, the child’s real contact might be with their residential staff and their residential social worker and, if there is continuity there, they are not as fussed as when they have no continuity anywhere. We need to look at the issue holistically; we need to consider the triggers and the services that might be brought to bear when this kind of thing happens.