Children and Young Persons Bill [HL]

As my name is attached to at least one of these amendments, I wish to say in the briefest possible way how impressed I have been by all the speeches, especially that of the noble Baroness, Lady Massey, on this subject. It occurs to me that there must be savings in the long-term for local authorities in this area, when you think of the added trauma that there could be for children who are in and out, unhappy in their placements and so on. We must do as much as we can to ensure that these kinship carers, or whatever we are going to call them, are available—friends or kin, genuine people who want these children to be part of their family. We must encourage them. It has to be in the long-term interests both of the economics of what we spend in this area and of the children concerned, as well as our long-term preventive aims.