Children and Young Persons Bill [HL]

I reinforce my noble friend’s point. The Government have of course significantly increased resources in this area over several years, which is most welcome, but a report produced by the British Association for Adoption & Fostering and the Fostering Network in 2005, The Cost of Foster Care, identified that, to make the necessary improvement to the lives of children in care, one would need to invest an extra £500 million a year—I will check on that. The whole sum for the implementation of Care Matters is £300 million over a number of years, so resources must be significantly increased if a choice of placement for children is to be made a reality.