Children and Young Persons Bill [HL]

I rise to support the amendments but not at length, as my noble friend Lady Massey has set them out very clearly. I have numerous examples in this regard, but one in particular is of a woman who died, leaving her child in the care of her neighbour, who had cared for that child on and off for years. The local authority, though it came and said that it would make an assessment, thought that the child was adequately cared for, and for weeks that family looked after the child without a single penny and with minimal support, until another organisation intervened fairly seriously about the implications. Local authorities tend to think, ““This child is safe and sound. We have other priorities. Let the families get on with it””. A large number of people are prepared to do this caring. I want to talk about support for children reunited with family or friends. The point that has not yet been made in the debate—I do not have the figures, but the Minister should be able to tell me—is that a huge number of children pass through the care system in short-term placements. Because I did not know that I was going to speak on this, I do not have that number to hand. The flaw in our services is that those children, when they come out of care after a short-term placement, often do not have the continuous care that would underpin their rehabilitation, and therefore we find them back in care. It is those ““turntable children”” who often become the most disturbed. I hope that we can do something about that issue, which is well known structurally, as the noble Baroness, Lady Murphy, has said.