Interview: Jon Fayle, chair, National Association of Independent Reviewing Officers

Fears that the job could be watered down are increasing as spending cuts bite, while there have also been calls to merge the role with family court guardians.

But Jon Fayle, chair of the National Association of Independent Reviewing Officers (Nairo), warns that "whittling the role down would be a real mistake".

In 2002, a statutory duty was placed on every local authority in England to appoint an IRO to ensure high-quality care planning for each child, and crucially, that those children's views are properly taken into account.

Fayle, who is a freelance IRO and a former policy director at the Youth Justice Board, says: "The meetings we have with children are one of the most important aspects of the job, to ensure that their voices are heard. But it's more than just that. IROs tend to be quite stable people. There is a low turnover of staff so over the years it is not unusual for a child to have been allocated several social workers but have the stability of seeing the same IRO."