Children and Young Persons Bill [HL]

I believe that the figure given by the noble Baroness came from the Government. I am not sure that it is 180—it may have been 160—but the Government have certainly said that something in the region of that number of trafficked children have gone missing in the past year to 18 months. It is an extremely serious matter. I must declare an interest. I belong to the All-Party Group on the Trafficking of Women and Children, so I very much endorse what the noble Baroness has just said. Perhaps I can make a separate point about accommodation outside the area. Another group of children who are particularly difficult to place are those who have been sexually abused over a long period. Sometimes they are very young children. I have a vivid recollection of a little girl of five, whose case I dealt with. She went to see a child psychiatrist who was not an enthusiast about child sexual abuse—he was not at all sure that it really happened very much. The girl ran in and sat on his lap, although she had never met him before. She then lay down, opened her legs and said, ““Would you like to see what daddy did to me?””. He was converted in an instant. The point is that she could not go to any ordinary foster family because she would be a danger to the father and to the boys in the family. One has to bear in mind that, in exceptional circumstances, highly sexualised children must have very careful treatment, which may well have to take place outside the area.