I rise to speak to new clauses 33 and 34 in my name and that of my hon. Friend the Member for Bristol, East.

I am particularly keen to ensure that the Bill supports and protects disabled children who live away from home, many—as the hon. Gentleman said—of whom have profound communication difficulties. Those children are the least able to tell anybody how they feel—whether they are happy, settled or frustrated, or possibly scared or frightened. Those children are truly the most vulnerable of the vulnerable and that means that the state has to play a far larger role. The Bill provides us with a key opportunity to ensure that local authorities actively consider the welfare needs of disabled children when arranging long-term placements, some of which are for 52 weeks of the year. To include such a duty would represent part of the joining up of the “Every Child Matters” agenda, so that it would really work and every disabled child would truly matter, alongside their peers. There is no clear legislation that ensures that local authorities consider whether looked-after status would best protect the welfare of a child being placed away from home, in either a long-term educational setting or a health setting. Interestingly, however, when a child is placed away from home during a crisis, even if it is only for one night, that child automatically has looked-after status.

Children who will be living away from home for a large part of the year should have access to the benefits of looked-after status. It is really the gold standard, and offers almost the shopping list of benefits that the hon. Member for East Worthing and Shoreham read out; that is so important. All of those benefits are so vital to these vulnerable children: the allocated social worker; the care plan; the health plan, and the contact plan. Of course, if they do not get that looked-after status, they will only get a once-a-year review of their statement, and there is such a wide disparity there.