Children and Young Persons Bill [HL]

My Lords, I have put my name to three of the amendments in this group, and shall speak particularly to Amendments Nos. 9 and 11. If I had been speaking on the Children Bill before it became the Children Act, it would not have crossed my mind that it was necessary to put in something about ““supportive parenting””. However, that was 20 years ago. We now live a world in which children are born to families with much less regard to the standards of 50, or even 20, years ago. The whole concept of parenthood seems less well known, understood and cherished than it has ever been before. We have got to a point where 40 per cent of children are born outside marriage. Children are born by IVF, which now has the need for supportive parenting, as the noble Lord, Lord Northbourne, has said. It is necessary that people should be told what supportive parenting is. It should be taught in schools and to young people. There should be something that people can grasp and say, ““This is what is meant by supportive parenting””. I do not think it was needed in the Children Act, but it is needed now, so I particularly support Amendments Nos. 9 and 11. As the noble Lord, Lord Northbourne, knows, I am not entirely happy about the proposal to amend Clause 10. The judges are against it. It may be that that would be better placed in guidance—there was excellent guidance for the Children Act—but it needs to be somewhere. For those reasons, I support Amendments Nos. 9, 11 and 39.