Children and Young Persons Bill [HL]

For all the reasons mentioned this afternoon, I support the amendment. It is staggering to think that every year 3,000 children separated from both parents arrive in the UK. Some—we do not know how many—have been trafficked, and I suggest that most, if not all, will have had traumas of many kinds. That seems to me enough to demonstrate that we urgently need some system of guardianship. Although I welcome much of the Bill because it strengthens the care and protection of children in the care of the state, it could do a lot more—and this amendment is a case in point. It gives the Government a chance to provide better care for one of the most vulnerable of all groups in our society—unaccompanied asylum-seeking children. How we treat and care for the most vulnerable people, whether they be the youngest or oldest in our society, is a real test of what kind of nation we are. How, as the noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley, said, can we expect some young and very vulnerable children to instruct their own solicitor? Surely it is right to provide the kind of statutory legal support that a guardian could give. I fear that the Minister will reply that the role of such a person as a statutory guardian is unclear or that such children are already receiving sufficient help from social workers, as well as other bodies or groups. They may or may not be, but neither of those responses would be good enough. I hope that the Minister will give us—and, much more importantly, give that vulnerable group of young people—some hope and statutory support by accepting the amendment.