My Lords, I add one sentence because I clearly heard the Minister say that there would be young people who would not need personal advisers or would not wish to have this sort of help. I understand that absolutely, but all the amendments are suggesting is that we move out “on request” so that the local authority has to take responsibility to ensure that information is given so that a refusal could be made. If we do not ensure that the young people have the knowledge of what is available, they can walk into difficulties.
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I met numerous young people through the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Children, who came to talk to us about the difficulties they faced and how they
came through them. They did so because they were given information that helped them to make an appropriate choice about their future. Some of them made that choice with some difficulty, even wishing not to go down the path where they ended up getting into a variety of trouble. Yet at the end of the day, because the offer was made to them over and over again, they were able to accept the advice and move on. That does not mean that a young person who has the ability and does not want a personal adviser should not be able to say, “No, I don’t want that. I can get on perfectly well”—just as some 18 year-olds leave an ordinary home and survive in society. However, we must persist with young people who face such difficulties and give them help.