Ivana Bacik (Independent)

It is a much more sensitive and sensible way of doing it than that proposed by section 32. Moreover, it strikes me that this provision conflicts with section 32. If the authority must have regard to ethnic, religious and cultural background while also operating within a presumption that the child is best served by being placed with someone of the same religion as his or her birth mother, it may find it hard to tally those two positions. They may not sit easily alongside each other in some cases. It strikes me that this is the better wording and it achieves the needs Members have identified.