Children and Young Persons Bill [HL]

I warmly support the amendment. I am sure that all Members of the Committee agree that the intervention of the noble Lord, Lord Elystan-Morgan, was not only powerful but also moving. I hope that I may be allowed to digress. I am inclined to separate people into those who in any task set their minds to preventing themselves from learning any more because they think that they know it all and those who have clearly learnt from their lifetime. Not for the first time, we have had the privilege of hearing what the noble Lord has discovered and learnt in his lifetime. I try to be at least an apprentice in that school. For nine years I was national president of YMCA England. We did a lot of work with young people, many of whom were in care, detention centres or prison. I repeatedly saw—I saw it for myself; it was not just something that I was told, although I was also told it repeatedly—youngsters struggle to develop a sense of identity, a sense of being in control of their own lives and a sense of having responsibility for their own lives. There is tremendous kindness and commitment among many of those who carry professional responsibilities on our behalf. We must never drift into a situation where we implicitly seem to be lining up against them. It is totally unfair to do that, because they are often deeply committed and give their whole professional life to such work. We dabble in it a little, but they give their whole professional life to it. Of course, in any large body of people there are different levels of performance. For those who are doing the job in the spirit in which we would like to see it done, this amendment is in no way threatening, because they are already implementing its provisions. I am sure that the noble Baroness, Lady Howe of Idlicote, agrees with me that they may find it a little irritating to have to write out something yet again; they are often doing the job so well that this business of writing things out becomes a bit irksome. However, it seems to me that they have absolutely nothing to fear or to feel threatened by and no criticism whatever is implied. For those who strive a little more to achieve that qualitative level of performance, an amendment of this kind could help, but it will certainly be important for the child because, if something is written down, the child will know that it is on the record, even if it does not prevail in the final analysis. Sometimes children, like all of us, are capable of saying that they were not listened to when in fact they mean that what they wanted was not complied with totally. Nevertheless, it is important to have in place a system that demonstrates to the child the strengthened performance and which helps those carrying out the responsibility on our behalf. I congratulate the noble Baroness, Lady Howe, on having introduced the amendment and I hope that my noble friend can respond positively.