Part of Children and Adoption Bill [Lords] – in a Public Bill Committee at 12:00 pm on 21 March 2006.
In the present circumstances, under section 23 of the 1989 Act, social workers and others are already disregarding the primacy, for want of a better word, of family members, often for very practical reasons and with the best intentions. For instance, they do not want to upset foster carers or they have difficulty with resources and recruiting doctors. In my experience and that of many organisations in this field, they are already disregarding the importance of extended kin. That is an important point for the Minister to bear in mind when she says that the interpretation is too loose.