Baroness Berridge (Con)

My Lords, I am grateful to the Minister for her clear intention to continue the dialogue on this, but I believe that we all would be assisted by officials from the Department for Education who hold responsibility for the Children Act and the various experts in the UK on this very difficult area of the interconnection of the Mental Health Act and the Children Act. I have to say at this point that I believe that there still is a fundamental misunderstanding of the authority of a court order to allow a professional to go behind it and appoint someone to this role who could directly conflict with a special guardianship order. I want to make it totally clear that His Majesty’s Government are giving discretion to a group of professionals who have clearly said that they do not want this, do not have the competency to do it and would need 24/7 legal advice to attempt it. Unfortunately, because of the lack of consultation on this area, at this late stage we are at a very difficult moment for those professionals, who do not want to do the job that the Minister is giving them. In the light of her promises to meet further on this, I will not move my amendment to the Motion.